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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pretty Michal, 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: Pretty Michal
+
+Author: Mór Jókai
+
+Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2010 [EBook #31886]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MICHAL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+PRETTY MICHAL
+
+A FREE TRANSLATION OF MAURUS JOKAI'S ROMANCE
+"A SZEP MIKHAL"
+
+BY R. N. BAIN
+
+
+NEW YORK
+CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
+104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
+CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
+RAHWAY, N. J.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Wherein is shown how sagely the Rev. Master Frohlich
+brought up his motherless daughter, pretty Michal,         1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Wherein is shown how the evil dragon brought to
+naught all the sage devices of our reverend friend,       10
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Wherein is clearly shown that he who tends the sheep
+is much more honorable than he who slaughters them,       19
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Wherein are described all manner of robbers and
+dangers, wherefrom the righteous are wondrously
+delivered,                                                26
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Which will be a short chapter but not a very merry
+one,                                                      52
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Contains the proper explanation of things which have
+hitherto remained obscure,                                56
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Wherein are described the house and the mistress of
+the house,                                                60
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+In which are described the joys of long-parted but
+finally reunited kinsmen, and everyone learns to
+know exactly how he stands,                               66
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+In the course of which the stern father, in the
+hardness of his heart, chastizes his lost son, but
+finally grants forgiveness to the repentant
+prodigal,                                                 72
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+In which is shown how vain it is for womankind to
+murmur against the course and order of this world,        81
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Wherein is shown what terrible perils befall women
+who are not resigned to their fate, and do not obey
+their lords and masters,                                  89
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Consists of a very few words which are, however, of
+all the more consequence,                                102
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Wherein the knavish practices of the evil witch are
+only insinuated, but not yet fully divulged,             103
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Which goes to prove that the society of great folks
+is not always a thing to be desired,                     107
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Valentine really becomes one of those who work in
+blood,                                                   122
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Wherein is shown of what great use it is when a
+mother is hardhearted toward her only son. Also
+concerning divers skirmishes with the Turks, things
+not to be read of without a shudder,                     129
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+In which it is shown by an edifying example that he
+who pursues the path of evil must needs fall into
+the ditch,                                               140
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Wherein is related what very different fates befell
+the two honest comrades,                                 145
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The story now to be related very much resembles the
+story of Joseph and Potiphar, but not quite,
+inasmuch as it is not Joseph, but Potiphar, who is
+finally cast into prison,                                152
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+In which is a very circumstantial, if not very
+pleasant, description of all the conditions to be
+observed in the exchange and purchase of slaves,         165
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Is full of good tidings, inasmuch as it treats of
+the discomfiture of evil-doers,                          168
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Wherein is related what end was reserved for the
+evil-doers by way of deterrent example, which
+example, however, only distressed the soft-hearted
+without terrifying the stiff-necked,                     172
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+In which it is shown not only that Satan is the
+author of all evil, but also that the grisly
+witches, his handmaidens, are always ready with
+their malicious practices to plunge poor mortals
+into utter destruction,                                  181
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+A true relation of the thoughtlessness of youth, and
+the artifices whereby women enthrall their lovers,       194
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Man cannot fathom the wiles which witches imagine
+when they unite in wedlock lovers whom they have
+clandestinely brought together,                          200
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The mummery receives its due punishment;
+nevertheless, Mercy and Compassion come to the
+mummer's aid, and deliver her out of all her
+troubles,                                                209
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+Wherein is shown how great a force the will of a
+woman is, and how quickly it can alter the order of
+things which man devises,                                216
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Wherein occur such astounding transformations that
+people are scarcely able to recognize their very
+selves. Michal, however, is calumniated in a matter
+wherein she is absolutely innocent,                      222
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Concerning a terribly great contest, from which it
+will be seen that where his spouse's honor was
+concerned, Valentine put no bounds to his fury,          229
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Which teaches that outward beauty, be it never so
+precious a property, is often most dangerous to its
+possessor,                                               236
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+'Tis a true proverb which says that the devil sends
+an old woman when he cannot come himself; but of
+course it only applies to wicked old women, for
+there are very many gentlewomen well advanced in
+years who lead a God-fearing life and do good to
+their fellow-creatures,                                  246
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Whereby we learn that it is not good to come to
+close quarters with Satan, for if we catch him by
+the horns he butts us, if we clutch him by the
+throat he bites us, and if we hold him by the neck
+he kicks us,                                             259
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Which shows what a good thing it is when "publica
+privatis praecedunt," or, in other words, when public
+duties take precedence of private affairs,               276
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+The fulfillment of the proverb, as you make your bed
+so must you lie in it, comes to pass,                    289
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+Things in this world do not always exactly turn out
+as men devise beforehand,                                305
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Wherein carnival revels are described,                   311
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+The Lenten penance succeeds the carnival revels,         318
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+In which it is shown how ghosts haunt churchyards,       320
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+In which everyone at last gets his deserts,              325
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+All things pass away, but science remains eternal,       334
+
+
+
+
+PRETTY MICHAL.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Wherein is shown how sagely the Rev. Master Frohlich
+brought up his motherless daughter, pretty Michal.
+
+
+In the days when the Turkish Sultan ruled in Hungary as far as
+Ersekujvar and Eger, the German Kaiser from Eger to the Zips
+country, and George Rakoczy, Prince of Transylvania, from Zips to
+the Szeklerland--all three of whom were perpetually fighting among
+themselves, sometimes two against one and sometimes all together
+indiscriminately, so that the inhabitants had a very lively time of
+it--in those days (somewhere about 1650) the learned and reverend
+Master David Frohlich was the pride of the Keszmar Lyceum and
+Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy there. Master Frohlich knew
+everything which could be reasonably expected of a man. He knew how
+to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. He knew how to take the old
+town-clock to pieces when it got out of order and put it together
+again. He could fix the weather for a whole year beforehand. He
+understood the _aureus calculus_ and could cast a horoscope with any
+man living. He knew by heart which trades could be carried on best
+in each of the twelve months. He had at his fingers' ends the arcana
+and secret properties of all herbs and plants, could explain
+sympathies and antipathies, nay, he could be implicitly trusted in
+the manufacture of amulets.
+
+But his most difficult science was that of which we are now about to
+speak.
+
+He had one beautiful daughter whom he had brought up without the
+help of a mother, and that, surely, is a feat of which any man might
+be proud! His wife had died on the very day on which she had given
+birth to the child, and the widower had forthwith steadily set
+before himself the problem of educating the girl without the
+slightest female intervention.
+
+The way in which he managed by artificial contrivances to find a
+substitute for mother's milk was a miracle of itself; but even that
+was as nothing compared with the masterly system of education which
+he himself invented and applied, in order to make his daughter grow
+up a discreet and modest maiden, despite the grievous want of
+maternal supervision. For he would neither marry again, nor trust
+his daughter to female nurses and servants, nor even admit any of
+his own kinswomen into the house.
+
+He inaugurated his system at her very baptism, by giving his
+daughter the name of Michal. At first hearing, everyone, of course,
+takes this for a man's name, never suspecting that a damsel lurks
+behind it; perhaps only one among a thousand even knows that it is a
+girl's name after all. Was not one of the wives of King David called
+Michal?--she, I mean, who laughed when she saw the great King
+dancing in the street. So the reverend and learned gentleman
+christened his little daughter Michal, arguing that the Evil One
+would not so lightly venture to tackle a name with such a masculine
+ring about it.
+
+Then he personally instructed his daughter in all good things from
+her babyhood upward. She never went to school. Everything, from the
+alphabet to the catechism, she learnt at home. Later on, as the
+damsel's mind grew stronger, he taught her not only the Latin and
+Greek tongues, but all the sciences which are useful and necessary
+in life; _e. g._, the tabular calculations as to how much meat,
+butter, meal, peas, grain, salt, etc., a prudent housewife should
+dispense for two, four, eight, sixteen, etc., persons per day, week,
+or month, so that the domestics may neither suffer hunger nor yet
+overload their stomachs (N. B., salt must be particularly well
+looked after lest the mice get at it, for everyone knows that when
+mice eat salt they multiply prodigiously); item, wherewith to feed
+the livestock; how much meal and bran should be got in exchange from
+the miller for so much wheat; how to prepare yeast, knead dough,
+bake bread, not forgetting to always turn the tub toward the north.
+And bread making in the Highlands of North Hungary was a serious
+business in those days, for rye meal was often scarce, and bread had
+to be made of spelt, buckwheat, sweet peas, and other disgusting
+things. Galen especially recommends bean meal bread. Dioscorides, on
+the other hand, prefers a judicious admixture of onions. Nay, in
+hard times, when no corn is to be had, poor people must be prepared
+to make bread of dried quinces, medlars, elderberries, hips and
+haws, and fungus, while the clergy and people of quality must be
+content with honey bread, maize bread, or even oil cakes. Flesh
+bread, too, of which Pliny so much approves, may be used
+occasionally, or curd bread, which was the favorite dish of
+Zoroaster. The Rev. Master Frohlich also taught his daughter how to
+preserve fruit, and how to convert it into blue, green, red, and
+yellow jellies, without using any injurious pigments.
+
+Moreover in these sciences beer brewing was also included, for the
+ladies of Keszmar were wont to make their own ale. Every citizen
+there owed his beer to his wife and daughter. No one ever thought of
+getting it from the inn.
+
+Nor was that all. It was part of every good housewife's business in
+those days to keep in store all manner of medicines, and to know how
+to concoct health-giving cordials from hundreds of wonder-working
+herbs. To them the medical science was far from being the finger and
+thumb work which our modern doctors make it, who, after prescribing
+you a dozen doses or so of ipecacuanha against fever, hold
+themselves absolved from all further responsibility. Our
+grandmothers had efficacious cordials against every malady under the
+sun, and in cases of serious illness they dosed the patient with the
+infallible elixir known as Galen's specific, the principal
+ingredients of which were Oriental pearls, red coral, and emeralds
+powdered fine, cubeb balsam, lignum aloes, muscat blossoms,
+frankincense, musk, bezoar, manus Christi, flesh-colored rose
+leaves, oil of cinnamon, and kirmis berries. Extraordinary, indeed,
+was the amount of knowledge which the housewife of yore had to carry
+about in her noddle!
+
+And besides the generally recognized alphabets of our own days there
+were, at that time, three-and-thirty other symbols, the
+signification whereof every good cook was bound to know by heart
+before she could mix her ingredients. An oval with a stroke through
+it meant "salt"; a square with a cross beneath it, "cream of
+tartar"; a square with a horn, "oil"; a horseshoe, "spirits of
+wine"; an oblong, "soap"; one triangle, "spring water"; two
+triangles, point to point, "distilled water"; a crown with a star,
+"regulus stellatus." Without a knowledge of this science, no woman
+was regarded as perfect.
+
+And then again the various kinds of aquavitae! Nowadays most of us
+do not even know the proper meaning of the term; then, their
+manifold and salutary effects were universally recognized and
+appreciated. Everyone knew, for instance, that they kept the blood
+warm and fluid; removed all venom; dried up all sluggish humors;
+strengthened the memory, etc. Then there were various mysterious
+oils, the most costly of which was victriol (quite a different thing
+from vitriol), which our great-grandmothers called "potable gold,"
+to say nothing of a multitude of waters, vinegars, acids, antidotes,
+plasters, and pastils no reputable housewife could afford to be
+without, for was she not the natural doctor and nurse of the whole
+family?
+
+And the art of cookery was not a whit less abstruse than the art of
+pharmacy. The stomachs of our ancestors were accustomed to very
+complicated dishes. Cookery was a more difficult science than
+metaphysics.
+
+Then, too, the whole charge of the garden lay upon the housewife's
+shoulders, and gardening was by no means the simple affair it is
+nowadays. Our great-grandmothers, in their gardening capacity, knew
+a whole host of things which have long since been forgotten. To
+prevent the fruit falling from the tree before its time, they bored
+a hole in the roots and drove through it a whitethorn peg; to
+prevent the cherries from ripening too soon, they surrounded the
+roots with unslacked lime; when they wanted scarlet pippins, they
+softened the grafts in pike's blood, and when they wished to
+propagate aromatic fruit, they bored a hole in the trunk of the tree
+and filled it with fragrant oil. Our grandmothers were so clever
+that they could compel a pear tree to bring forth grapes; they
+could grow citrons as large as your head, figs with almond kernels
+inside and the letters of the alphabet outside, and even nuts
+without shells. They knew how to graft medlars on coffee trees,
+which then produced an entirely new fruit, exceedingly luscious and
+fragrant. When they wanted the bitter almond to bear sweet almonds,
+they took counsel of Theophrastus and drove iron nails into the
+roots. They knew the good and bad effects of winter upon all kinds
+of garden produce. Even the simple, unsophisticated potato, only
+just introduced from America, and called by them _adenes cardensis_,
+was powerless against their innumerable artifices. Our
+great-grandmothers knew and cultivated scores of vegetables the very
+names of which are unknown to their posterity. All their dishes were
+pungent with the most exquisite spices. They carried on a regular
+trade in all manner of wholesome herbs and pigment plants. Saffron
+alone was taken by the ton to the Zips markets, and thence exported
+to Turkey. The kitchen garden was a veritable gold mine to the
+thrifty housewife.
+
+Nor must the flower garden be forgotten. In those days a speculation
+in tulips was going on which can only be compared with the Bourse
+speculations of our own days. The horticulturist had to carry about
+in his head a whole dictionary of French botanical terms if he meant
+to make a living. A lady gardener who understood her business had to
+know what species of flowers could be planted and sown under the
+zodiacal signs [Symbol: Aries], [Symbol: Taurus], [Symbol: Gemini],
+or [Symbol: Cancer], [Symbol: Leo], [Symbol: Virgo]; to which the
+signs [Symbol: Libra], [Symbol: Scorpio], and [Symbol: Sagittarius]
+are baleful; and how seldom those flourish which are planted under
+the signs [Symbol: Capricorn], [Symbol: Aquarius], and [Symbol:
+Pisces]; in fact, she had to have her almanac at her fingers' ends.
+The floral art had its own literature and its own professors, who
+disposed of tulips and carnations to the value of millions, and
+sent whole fleets laden with bulbs and plants to China and America.
+Nay, the most distinguished writers of Europe did not deem it
+beneath their dignity to dabble in the flower trade, just as the
+writers of our own day dabble in politics.
+
+It was certainly much more beneficial for young women to read about
+such things than to fill their heads with the scandal and tomfoolery
+of these later times.
+
+If, however, they must needs know something about love and
+antipathy, they could gather from these sage botanical records that
+the fig tree and the rue love each other, for which reason it is
+advisable to plant rue close to fig trees, especially as it keeps
+away those sworn enemies of figs, the frogs; that the asparagus
+loves the reed and the rosemary the sage, for which reason whoever
+sets about planting rosemary must first of all rub his hand well
+with sage leaves, so that the young transplants may thrive; that the
+orange tree loves the cypress and the vine the cherry tree, and that
+the lily thrives beside the rose, but also beside the garlic--'tis
+only a matter of taste. On the other hand, there are plants which
+hate, which absolutely cannot endure each other. For instance, when
+one plants the noble anthora close to the wild najollus, it dries up
+and withers, despite the most constant care; the angelica and the
+hemlock infallibly throttle each other; while the antipathy of the
+vine to the colewort goes so far that when a man who has drunk a
+little too much wine eats of the colewort he instantly becomes
+sober, and if you mix a little wine in the pot where the colewort is
+boiling it will never get soft, stew it as long as you will.
+
+Now pretty Michal mastered all these sciences not only with edifying
+assiduity, but even with real enthusiasm; she found pleasure,
+employment, and profit therein. Her books, her science, and her
+flowers not only rejoiced her heart, they filled her pockets
+likewise. Her garden especially was a veritable gold mine, for while
+in those days a goose cost only a shilling and a young ox ten
+shillings, no one considered paragon tulip bulbs dear at ten pounds
+a piece. But (and this in Pastor Frohlich's opinion was the greatest
+gain of all) the flowers and the books left the damsel no time for
+idle pranks; to this end the whole pedagogical system of the
+reverend gentleman had been directed from the very first.
+
+Whenever his lectures called him away from home, the professor took
+down his grammars, lexicons, and other folios before he started, and
+gave Michal as much to learn by heart as would occupy her the whole
+time he was away at the Lyceum; then he locked the house door and
+walked off with the key in his pocket. The very first thing he did
+when he came home again was to make her repeat the set task from
+beginning to end. Such a method is infallible. A servant-maid, a
+governess, may deceive the cleverest cross-questioner, the ancient
+folios never. They tell him at once whether the damsel's eyes have
+been fixed on the book all the time, or whether they've been
+straying about elsewhere.
+
+In this way pretty Michal picked up a very considerable store of
+general information.
+
+Sundays and festivals were the only days on which she left the
+house, and then she used to walk to church by her father's side. On
+such occasions she wore a coffee-brown frock, with a collar reaching
+to the chin, and sleeves which hid the very tips of her fingers. The
+other girls prided themselves on the taste with which they adorned
+their girdles, but pretty Michal's girdle could not boast of as much
+as a silver buckle. Her _parta_, as the headdress of the Hungarian
+maidens is called, was quite black, and over it was thrown a veil
+which completely covered her face in front, and hung down so far
+over her shoulders behind that it was absolutely impossible to make
+out whether her twin long, pendent pigtails were blond or
+chestnut-brown. Her eyes, too, were not permitted to declare whether
+they were black or blue. During service they were well hidden behind
+their long lashes, for she modestly kept them fixed upon her
+prayer-book the whole time, and if she raised them during the sermon
+it was only to rivet them upon the preacher. Moreover, the very wise
+and proper regulation which not only separated the sexes, but made
+the men sit right behind the women, prevented her from ogling
+anybody even if she had a mind to. As for the students, they sat so
+high up in the choir that they could see nothing from thence but the
+notice-boards and the Decalogue.
+
+Further, the reverend gentleman never took Michal to weddings or
+other entertainments, the canonical prescriptions forbidding a
+clergyman's daughter to dance. In fact, he did not even let her make
+the acquaintance of other girls, for fear she should get a liking
+for the frivolous ways of the gossiping minxes.
+
+We must not forget to mention, too, that his house was so
+constructed as to exclude by anticipation every possible temptation.
+All the windows of pretty Michal's bedroom looked out upon the
+courtyard, which was shut in on two sides by the blank walls of the
+opposite houses, while the third side opened into the garden, which
+was cut off from the outer world by a still higher wall richly
+embroidered with iron nails and sharp spikes. Thus, pretty Michal's
+heart might be regarded as a stronghold which no foe could capture
+either by force or by fraud; and in the light of a foe was regarded
+every mortal of the masculine gender who did not happen to be a
+favorite of the reverend gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Wherein is shown how the evil dragon brought to
+naught all the sage devices of our reverend friend.
+
+
+The Rev. Professor David Frohlich had a very particular favorite,
+who can also be said to have deserved that rare distinction. The
+name of this young man was Henry Catsrider--a very curious name,
+certainly, yet the bearer thereof had very little ridicule to fear
+in consequence, for his big, strong frame inspired his
+fellow-scholars with respect. For the noble art of wrestling
+(commended of old, remember, by no less a person than Aristotle) had
+never been neglected in our schools, and in the art of wrestling no
+one could vie with Catsrider except a young Calvinist from Kassa
+called Valentine Kalondai. The latter, however, could well hold his
+own, even against Catsrider, and a very pretty sight it was to see
+them contending together on the village green, each hugging the
+other closely and planting his chin firmly on his opponent's
+shoulder. Catsrider had long, coarse, light hair, twisted up into a
+knot on both sides of his head, and a waxed and pointed mustache.
+
+Unhappily, although the Hungarian lad was quite a match for the
+Zipser in all corporeal exercises, in mental contests he was far
+inferior to him. There, indeed, Catsrider stood without a rival. He
+was always eminent-issimus in every science, while Valentine
+Kalondai was constantly at the bottom of his class.
+
+_Ex moribus_--in morals--there was also all the difference in the
+world between the two students. Valentine Kalondai was no despiser
+of wine and music. He even lived on friendly terms with folks like
+the Silesian Simplicissimus, whom everyone else looked down upon as
+a loafing vagabond, who could do absolutely nothing but blow the
+trumpet; while Catsrider was the model of a well ordered youth. It
+was now ten years since he had come, a poor boy, to Keszmar, and all
+that time he had conscientiously supported himself by the labor of
+his hands. He meant to take orders, and therefore diligently studied
+theology; but, besides that, he served in the house of the Rev.
+David Frohlich and assisted that gentleman in his Museum Physicum,
+wherefore the professor loved him dearly, and long ago destined him
+to be pretty Michal's consort in her journey through life.
+
+Valentine Kalondai, indeed, had no need to appropriate a very great
+amount of learning. He had a rich widowed mother at Kassa, from
+whom, when he came of age, he was to take over his patrimony. He had
+only been sent to the Keszmar Lyceum to pick up as much knowledge as
+might be necessary for a citizen of Kassa who hoped one day to be
+elected sheriff of his native town; he only required to learn as
+much Latin as his late father of blessed memory, who likewise had
+held that dignity, and part of whose office it had been to pronounce
+over delinquents the _capite plectetur_, or the more merciful _harum
+palczarum_, and correspond with pen as well as with cannon with the
+Imperialist generals, though it certainly must be admitted that he
+could give a better account of himself with the cannon than with the
+pen. Valentine therefore had no call to learn absolutely more than
+he chose.
+
+Henry, on the other hand, was obliged to turn night into day in
+order to cut a decent figure at the examination which preceded his
+ordination; and, to do him justice, he passed through it with the
+utmost distinction. He was immediately afterward presented to the
+living of Nagy-Leta--which fortunately happened to be vacant at that
+very time--naturally on condition that during the year of grace,
+conceded as usual to the widow of the late incumbent, he was to make
+no claim whatever upon the resources of the benefice. On that solemn
+day, the Rev. David Frohlich invited the new pastor to dinner to
+meet the superintendent and the presbyters.
+
+After the meal was over, pretty Michal was also allowed to appear at
+table, first, to be complimented by the superintendent on account of
+the banquet they had all enjoyed so much--whereupon her face, ruddy
+enough already from the kitchen fire, grew ruddier still--and
+secondly, that she might just moisten her lips with a little wine in
+honor of her father's guests.
+
+When the guests had all withdrawn, pretty Michal had the tables
+cleared away by the maids, and very carefully put all the soiled
+napkins and tablecloths into the cupboard, and all the old ancestral
+pottery and glazed earthenware upon the dresser. When all this had
+been done, the professor bade his little daughter remain in the
+room. He had something to say to her.
+
+The learned gentleman was in a very good humor, not only in
+consequence of the exhilarating drinks he had drunk, and the lively
+table-talk he had freely indulged in, but also on account of
+something else besides.
+
+He lit his pipe and began to smoke, although he was still wearing
+his _reverende_, which ought, properly speaking, never to betray the
+faintest odor of tobacco.
+
+"My daughter Michal," said he at last, with a sly assumption of
+gravity, "we did not finish our _pensum_ to-day. And the rule is:
+'Nulla dies sine linea!' What does that mean?"
+
+"One should never let a day pass without doing one's allotted task,"
+answered Michal.
+
+"Then bring hither your exercise-book."
+
+The damsel dutifully obeyed. In the kitchen all that it was
+necessary to do had already been done, so the voice of science could
+be listened to without self-reproach. She sat her down therefore and
+took up her pen, or, as our ancestors would then have said, her
+_calamus_.
+
+"It is wholesome to exercise the mind after a long meal," said the
+learned gentleman from the midst of the clouds of smoke which
+enveloped him, "but it would not be well if every day was spent in
+such junketing: 'Qui amat vitam longam, amet mensam brevem!' Write
+that down in your book and translate it."
+
+Michal wrote and translated at the same time: "Let him who would see
+many days keep a spare table!"
+
+"The Italians say: 'La cucina piccola fa la casa grande, la tavola e
+un ladrone segreto!' Write that down also and tell me what it
+means."
+
+The damsel recited as she wrote: "A small kitchen enlarges a house,
+but a liberal table is a secret thief!"
+
+"That is what Petrus Novus said to Hugotius Fagiola when the latter
+lost two cities because of a single banquet. Write: 'Plures
+interierunt vinolentia quam violenta!' How would you construe that?"
+
+"More men have perished through wine than through violence."
+
+"Very good! Nevertheless on extraordinary days extraordinary things
+must happen, and to-day has been no ordinary day, for it has seen a
+clergyman ordained and a maiden sued for."
+
+In an instant every trace of color had vanished from pretty Michal's
+face.
+
+The learned gentleman puffed away tremendously, and quoted these
+saws in the midst of volumes of smoke.
+
+"What saith Dubravius? 'Si qua voles nubere apte, nube pari!'--Wilt
+thou marry well, so marry within thy station! Again Ambrosius, in
+answering the question what one should look for in a consort, saith:
+'Ammorem, morem, rem'--Love, morals, means."
+
+A good maxim, truly, but for all that the damsel did not write it
+down in her exercise-book.
+
+"And here we have a wooer who possesses all three. He brings love
+with good morals and has somewhat besides. His station in life
+indeed is not very illustrious, for, like me, he is only a parson.
+But Macrobius saith, 'Amores sunt sicut flores'--Maidens are like
+flowers, that is to say, they soon wither; and as Drexelius
+Trismegistus hath it, 'Saepius ima petet melius qui scandere
+novit'--He often sinks into the depths who seeks the heights. Write
+that in your book, my daughter, 'tis a golden precept! Nor be
+appalled at your suitor's poverty. Cyprian saith: 'Paupertas dura
+sed secura et sine cura'--Poverty is hard, but hardy, and has naught
+to care for. Write that down also, my daughter Michal!"
+
+But pretty Michal did not record these golden maxims, either in the
+original or yet a translation. On the contrary she laid her pen
+aside and said: "I don't like him!"
+
+The reverend gentleman gave a great start of astonishment. "That is
+a paradox. To love no one--that is possible; but not to love a
+particular person--that is absurd. Have you then any idea what love
+is? 'Amantes sunt dementes'--Lovers are demented. What don't you
+like about him? His red hair, eh? 'Homo rufus rare bonus, sed si
+bonus valde bonus'--A red-haired man is rarely good, but if good
+then very good indeed. Or perhaps you don't like him because he
+belongs to another nation? Nay, but mark what the wise Queen
+Christina used to say: 'There are only two kinds of nations on the
+whole earth, the god-fearing and the godless.' If you don't like him
+now, you'll learn to like him by and by. The Italians say: 'Amore
+none senza amaro'--Love is not without bitterness. Every good girl
+has to be shoved out of doors by her parents, because she would much
+rather stay at home than go away; but later on she is very grateful
+to them for getting her off their hands."
+
+But pretty Michal, thanks to her much learning and her long domestic
+sway, had grown up with such a stout heart that in this one thing
+she even dared to gainsay her father and all his philosophic
+authorities to boot, for she said to the reverend gentleman:
+
+"Nevertheless, I can't like him who desires my hand from you because
+I don't like him, and I don't like him because I like another."
+
+On hearing these words, the scholar let his pipe fall from his
+mouth.
+
+"That is indeed an _argumentum ad hominum_," said he. "You love
+another, eh? Where on earth did you pick him up? Where did you set
+your eyes upon him? When have you spoken to him?"
+
+The maiden cast down her eyes and said nothing.
+
+This was too much. The learned professor rose from his chair
+straightway, and said in an austere, dictatorial voice: "Write in
+your book, 'Virginitas dum aspicitur, inficitur'--Where maidenhood
+is concerned mere inspection is infection. Whom have you allowed to
+look into your eyes?"
+
+"No one," answered Michal.
+
+"No one! Where then have you spoken to anyone?"
+
+"Nowhere."
+
+"But if you have spoken to no one, neither with your eyes nor yet
+with your mouth, how could you possibly have fallen in love with
+anyone? Make a clean breast of it. You know that the smallest lie is
+a greater sin than the greatest crime honestly confessed. In what
+way have you been carrying on this intrigue?"
+
+"By writing."
+
+"Has anyone written to you then?"
+
+"Yes, and I've replied."
+
+"But how is that possible? My house is barred and bolted night and
+day. You cannot even look out upon the street. You were never
+allowed to go anywhere without me. The garden is protected by a
+moat. A suspicious character could not possibly get in here unless
+he flew down from the sky."
+
+"It came down from the sky."
+
+"It! What do you mean by it?"
+
+"The dragon."
+
+At first the professor's mind wandered off to the dragon which St.
+George had scotched, but perhaps not quite killed; but he bethought
+himself and asked, "A paper dragon,[1] I suppose?"
+
+[Footnote 1: _Sarkany_, like its German equivalent _Drache_, means a
+kite as well as a dragon.]
+
+"Yes. They were flying a dragon in the market-place, and I was
+watching it for a long time. Suddenly it fell into our garden, and
+remained hanging on an apple tree. I went to take it down, and when
+I had it in my hand I saw that it was covered all over with verses
+addressed to me, and they were so lovely that I cannot find words to
+describe them."
+
+"Lovely! pshaw! profane scribble I call them. Does not Macrobius
+say: 'Ignibus iste liber quod ipse ignibus liber!'--Into the flames
+with that book if thou wouldst escape the flames thyself! And what
+makes you think that these shameless verses were addressed to you?"
+
+"They were no such thing. Had they been shameless verses I should
+have thrown them away. They were beautiful, true-hearted verses,
+with my name written over every one of them, for there is no other
+girl here called Michal. I tried to answer them."
+
+"To answer them! How?"
+
+"I fastened what I wrote to the dragon with the written side turned
+inward, then, with the help of the pack-thread which still remained
+attached thereto, I let it mount up again."
+
+"But suppose he to whom it belonged never got it?"
+
+"He most certainly got it, for the next day he sent me the answer."
+
+"Again by means of the dragon?"
+
+"No. The next day he wrote me by the balloon."
+
+The balloon in question was a large inflated box bladder, covered
+over with calf skin. The youth of the town used this balloon in
+their athletic exercises, knocking it into the air with their fists,
+and otherwise disporting themselves therewith.
+
+"I see it all now. The rascal placed his letter inside the balloon,
+and threw it into our garden. You took out your letter, stuck in
+your reply, and pitched the balloon back again."
+
+To think that neither Theophrastus nor Trismegistus should have
+foreseen such a case: an aerial correspondence, carried on without
+the intervention of the post-office!
+
+"And how far has this precious correspondence proceeded?"
+
+"We have both sworn eternal fidelity to each other."
+
+"There we have it! What is the use of bolts and bars and all human
+wisdom? So you have pledged away your hand without your father's
+consent. Don't you know that among the Protestants the consent of
+the parents is requisite to a marriage; without it, no betrothal is
+valid and no wedding can be solemnized?"
+
+"Then has he who demands my hand from you brought with him the
+written consent of his father to his marriage with me?"
+
+"He has no father; he is an orphan."
+
+"You said just now that the smallest lie was a greater sin than the
+greatest crime honestly confessed. And I say that he, my suitor, has
+lied. He has a father who is a rich man of high degree."
+
+"Who told you so?"
+
+"The dragon and the balloon. He boasted of it to a friend, and the
+heavenly posts have brought me tidings thereof."
+
+Now, indeed, the reverend gentleman was as fairly caught as ever the
+devil was by a witch's foot. To this reply there was absolutely no
+rejoinder.
+
+"I'll take him to task for it to-morrow," said he, "and meantime I
+postpone the inquiry. After it is over, however, I shall require the
+name of this rascally seducer. And now, my daughter Michal, proceed
+to your chamber and consider yourself in arrest there for the next
+four and twenty hours."
+
+And thus ended the festive day on which Henry Catsrider was ordained
+a priest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Wherein is clearly shown that he who tends the sheep
+is much more honorable than he who slaughters them.
+
+
+Next morning the reverend gentleman sent for Henry and submitted him
+to a very severe cross-examination, which lasted for more than an
+hour. When Henry at last departed, he was not only as red as a
+boiled crab, but he made his exit head foremost and somewhat
+precipitately; from which circumstance the maid-servants, who were
+listening all the time at the kitchen door, drew various
+conclusions.
+
+Immediately afterward the reverend gentleman's bell rang three
+times, which signified that Miss Michal was wanted in the library.
+
+The reverend gentleman was in full canonicals; he united in himself
+at that moment both the paternal and the maternal authority. He was
+surrounded by open books, like a general in the midst of his staff;
+other books, bound in pigskin, stood on the shelves like a phalanx
+drawn up in battle array, and on the cupboards and presses stood
+stuffed birds and the skeletons of various animals, like so many
+witnesses or accusers. The human skeleton in the corner seemed
+particularly on the alert. The electrical machine was also in
+readiness to contribute its flashes; but the only being among all
+these objects which gave any sign of life was the big clock, on the
+top of which stood a little dog, which kept time with the pendulum
+by wagging his tail and thrusting out his tongue.
+
+Michal, during the whole of the following examination, fixed her
+eyes steadily on the mechanical dog; and ever afterward, when she
+looked back upon that momentous interview, she always saw before her
+the figure of the little dog wagging his tail and thrusting out his
+tongue.
+
+"My daughter Michal," began the scholar, "I have spoken to the
+candidate of faith and love, and learnt everything from him. On my
+asking him whether he had a father, he answered yes. What is he? A
+man of position who dwells at Zeb, and is the chief judge of the
+place. I asked him why he had left his father and given himself out
+for an orphan. He said he had done so because his father was a
+Catholic, while he himself desired to become a Protestant clergyman.
+Such a desire is certainly most praiseworthy. A young man who is
+ready to eat the bread of affliction rather than be false to his
+conscience reveals a great character. Moreover this answer is the
+best defense to the charge you have brought against him, viz., that
+of daring to make a proposal of marriage without his father's
+consent. The law does not recognize the consent of a Catholic
+father, but only of a Protestant. Therefore Henry Catsrider stands
+absolved from the accusation that he knowingly perpetrated a fraud.
+Reticence after all is not falsehood. Then, too, his new confession
+of faith releases him from all parental authority, thus putting the
+father completely out of court."
+
+The big folios and the stuffed birds signified their approval by
+saying nothing, and the skeleton also was silent as to the fact that
+his own head had formerly been severed from his body because he had
+put into practice similar subtleties in his lifetime; only the
+automatical dog kept on wagging his tail, as if to say, "No, no!"
+and professing his scorn of the professor's sophisms by thrusting
+out his tongue.
+
+Michal answered not a word.
+
+"Thus all your negations are confuted, and now let us hear your
+affirmations. What is the name of the young man who has presumed to
+make you a declaration of love?"
+
+"Valentine Kalondai."
+
+The learned man no sooner heard this name than he smote violently
+with the palm of his hand on the volume of Macrobius lying open
+before him.
+
+"'Quis hominum?'--What sort of a man is he?"
+
+"An honest man!" cried Michal, with flashing eyes.
+
+"What do you know about it? You only go by his outward appearance.
+'Quanta especies sed cerebrum non habet'--a handsome face but no
+brains. 'Non bene casta caro quae bene pasta caro'--Well fed, ill
+bred. But I have had occasion to learn something about the fellow's
+inner man. 'Flocci, nihili'--A feather brain, a nonentity. 'Classis
+primae exultimis'--Always the first in his class, counting from the
+bottom. And how about his morals? He is a wine-bibber. 'Ubi vinum
+intrat, ibi ratio exit'--When the wine's in, the wit's out. He is a
+dancer and a serenader. He goes about with musicians and other lewd
+fellows. All that, indeed, might have been overlooked; but do you
+know what the trade of his parents was, ay, and still is? Did he
+confess _that_ to you in his sinful correspondence? And this trade,
+remember, he must carry on to his dying day, for he does not know
+enough--far from it--to raise him to a higher rank. Do you know
+whose wife you would be if your senseless wish were to be
+fulfilled?"
+
+The girl grew pale. There had been nothing said about this in the
+correspondence.
+
+The professor took down his note-book and read out the name and
+description of the accused:
+
+"'Parentes, Sarah, vidua macellarii'--Sarah, the butcher's widow.
+His father was a butcher, and he will be a butcher too. People who
+work in blood! What do you say to that? Can the daughter of the
+clergyman become the wife of a butcher? And when she has to choose
+between a man who tends the sheep of the Lord and a man who
+slaughters cattle, how can she possibly give her hand to the latter?
+Have I brought you up all these years only that your lot may be an
+eternal shedding of blood? To wake up with blood every day, and
+every day to lie down with blood! Every day to smell blood on the
+hand of him who embraces you! To be bound to a man whose calling in
+life it is to lay violent hands on God's creatures! Have you really
+the courage to choose such a lot?"
+
+The mechanical dog wagged his tail and put out his tongue.
+
+It seemed to Michal as if everything was turning round and round:
+the portraits of the scholars, the stuffed birds, even the skeleton
+with its clattering joints. How could she defend herself against so
+many?
+
+The scholar saw from the corpse-like pallor of his daughter's face
+the crushing impression his words had produced upon her. It was in a
+much gentler voice that he now continued:
+
+"Now go to your room, or rather to your little garden, and think
+over what I've just been saying. Write first of all in your copy
+book: 'Fathers have their children's welfare more at heart than the
+children themselves.' Yet the decision shall rest with you alone.
+Your fate is in your own hands. I'll do no violence to your
+feelings. If indeed there be really more strength in your heart
+than I ever anticipated, show it now! If you have the courage to
+knit your life to those who work in blood, give us a specimen of it
+at home here. You have two pretty doves in a cage. I bought them for
+you on your birthday. Slaughter them with your own hand and make
+some broth of them; you may prepare it any way you like. It doesn't
+matter to me now. I shall then know your decision. Go now, and think
+the matter over!"
+
+Pretty Michal went down into the garden and walked to and fro among
+the rose trees. In the middle of the path was the dovecote, and in
+it were the two fan-tailed pigeons which she had to slaughter, she
+who had never had the heart to kill so much as a kitchen fly. If she
+could have had her own way she would have liked everyone to have
+been a vegetarian. And now she was to kill her favorite doves.
+
+She had no one to whom she could turn for advice, no one to whom she
+could pour out her griefs. Here was a case in which neither the
+philosophers, nor the calf-bound polyhistors, nor yet her daily
+playfellows, the flowers, could be of the slightest assistance. She
+had no other friends than the flowers, and they could only tell her
+what they knew themselves, _e. g._, that the virginal lily loves the
+garlic, although the one exhales perfumes and the other stinks; and
+the noble anthora withers away whenever it is planted beside the
+najollus for although the latter certainly has splendid blossoms,
+(the corolla is a helmet whereon sit two doves), it nevertheless
+brings destruction upon its fair neighbor--and so on _ad nauseam_.
+
+And then she began thinking that perhaps the feeling which had been
+nourished in her breast by this exchange correspondence was not
+exactly love after all. She had only seen the young man from afar,
+only spoken to him in her dreams. She might easily renounce him. She
+had no mother to tell her difficulties to, and from her father she
+had learnt nothing but cold prudence. Mathematics is a pitiless
+science. According to mathematics, love is not a number which
+counts, but a mere cipher. Among geometrical figures you will find
+every conceivable shape but nothing in the shape of a heart. She
+could get no further information about her lover. The games of ball
+in the market-place were now forbidden, and who knew but what poor
+Valentine was locked up besides? It was so easy to find a pretext.
+Perhaps he had renounced her himself already. Perhaps he had gone
+back to his native place.
+
+Should she therefore sacrifice her favorite doves for his sake?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At noon the same day Michal brought both the doves to her father,
+not roasted or stewed on a dish, but alive in their cage, whereupon
+the professor kissed his dutiful little daughter on both cheeks.
+
+Three weeks later he united pretty Michal and Henry Catsrider in
+holy wedlock, and gave them both his parental as well as his
+sacerdotal blessing.
+
+Valentine Kalondai had had no opportunity of doing anything
+desperate in the meantime. After the assembled Consistory had
+publicly upbraided him for all the sins he had hitherto
+committed--to wit: his dancing in the woods; his keeping a big dog;
+his propensity to all kinds of idle jesting; his playing truant at
+church; his consorting with fiddlers and trumpeters; tussling with
+night watchmen; making the beadle drunk and dressing him up in
+woman's clothes; smoking in the streets, etc.--he was sent to jail
+for a week, and then solemnly expelled from the Keszmar Lyceum with
+the _consilium abeundi_, and thus prevented from doing anything
+whereby he might perhaps have prevented the consummation of his
+rival's wedding. So the ceremony was performed without let or stay,
+and pretty Michal became the wife of the man who tended the Lord's
+flock instead of the man who slaughtered the sheep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Wherein are described all manner of robbers and
+dangers, wherefrom the righteous are wondrously
+delivered.
+
+
+Henry had made up his mind to take his young wife to Zeb immediately
+after the wedding, before settling down at the parsonage of Leta. It
+was ten years since he had seen his father, who was naturally full
+of wrath and sorrow at the disappearance of his son. But a fair
+daughter-in-law would, no doubt, be the best mediator between them.
+At any rate, there was no harm in trying, for the old man was very
+rich and Henry was his only son. Many a wrinkled brow has been
+stroked smooth again ere now by the soft hand of a pretty woman.
+
+The learned Professor Frohlich himself fully approved of this plan,
+for although the books of the philosophers are full of golden maxims
+which demonstrate that all earthly treasures are but dross,
+nevertheless, in this practical world of ours, where one can get
+nothing without money, a little money is ever so much better than
+any amount of golden maxims.
+
+Besides, the old gentleman had very little of the good things of
+this world to bestow upon his daughter. Alchemy could no more make
+gold then than it can now.
+
+It was as much as he could do to dower the bride with new gowns and
+underlinen, and here, too, he looked rather to simplicity than to
+splendor. Instead of giving his daughter silk and satin robes, he
+impressed upon her the wise saw: 'Mulier superbe amicta, in facie
+picta, in sermone ficta--non uni vitio est addicta'--The woman who
+flaunts in frippery, paints her face, and talks mincingly, is the
+slave of more than one vice already. The husband must see to the
+rest, and the husband in this case was but a poor, hungry parson,
+whose benefice for a whole year to come would be but an empty title.
+During all that time he must be content with a curate's pay. After
+that, however, he would certainly do very well, especially if his
+father helped him with a little ready money to go on with.
+
+Meanwhile a journey had to be undertaken, and a journey in those
+days was no joke. The mountain roads could only be crossed on horses
+or mules, and the beasts, drivers and all, had to be hired. Then,
+for security's sake, you had to wait till a regular caravan had
+assembled, for the whole region was blackmailed in those days by
+three powerful bands of robbers, whose leaders were called Janko,
+Bajus, and Hafran. Janko was famed for his physical strength and
+agility, Bajus for his craft and cunning, but Hafran, or Raven, as
+the Slovacks called him, for his ferocity. Each of them commanded
+from fifty-five to sixty men. Sometimes they all united and fought
+regular pitched battles with the soldiers and police sent out to
+capture them. It was, therefore, not advisable for single families
+or small parties to undertake long journeys like that from Keszmar
+to Zeb. One had to make arrangements months beforehand, and wait
+till the dealers in cloth, haberdashery, and spices were ready to
+set out with their wares for Eperies; these were then usually joined
+by a dozen or so of butchers and cattle-dealers from Lower Hungary,
+as many cattle-drovers, half a dozen strolling fiddlers, sundry
+Slovack linen and oil merchants, and some thirty students traveling
+homeward in vacation and provided with stout bludgeons; thereto
+were, of course, to be added the drivers of those who had to make
+the journey by horse or mule, or pay for the transport of their
+goods, so that the whole caravan generally numbered one hundred and
+fifty strong, and the robbers would think twice before venturing to
+attack so large a party. On this occasion, moreover, Fortune added
+to their company a Polish nobleman who had been on a visit to his
+kinsmen in Hungary, and was returning home with an escort of forty
+men-at-arms. Whoever was disposed to go a two days' journey from
+Keszmar might safely commend his soul to God in such a goodly
+company.
+
+Now although the good and learned Professor David Frohlich could not
+endow his daughter with much worldly wealth, yet by way of
+compensation he gave her richly of what he himself possessed, for
+his parting present was a sack-load of wonder-working medicinal
+herbs. Among them was the "weapon balsam," which he fully directed
+her how to use in case her husband was wounded by the way. In such a
+case she was first of all to stick into the wound a piece of wood of
+the same shape as the weapon which had inflicted it, and then draw
+it out and anoint it with the balsam. The wound would then
+infallibly heal--in course of time. In case, however, of a gunshot
+wound, when the bullet remained in the body, she was to beat flat
+and bind upon the wound a leaden bullet which had previously shot a
+wild boar, for it is well known that all such bullets attract and
+draw out all other bullets. In one corner of the sack he stuck that
+valuable counselor in all the ills of life, the book "Georgica
+Curiosa," which was an inventory of all the healing herbs with which
+the sack was filled. Nay, his love for his daughter made the worthy
+man part with even his most precious talisman--the plague amulet.
+This was a little blue silk cushion filled with the leaves of herbs
+beneficial against the plague, and inscribed with the following
+charm in letters of gold: "Longe, tarde cede, recede, redi!" which
+is really a very good charm, for it means that one should hasten
+away as far and as soon as possible from the place where the plague
+prevails, and not return for a long time after it is all over. This
+amulet the learned man had worn, fastened by a silken cord round his
+neck, night and day for years. Now, however, he said good-by to it,
+and the tears came into his eyes as he tied it round his daughter's
+white neck, and whispered tenderly:
+
+"Never take it off, my dear, never take it off! It was your
+mother's."
+
+Then the great scholar, after carefully observing the aspects of the
+seven planets, was very particular to calculate beforehand a day
+which, owing to a propitious conjunction, would be a very favorable
+day for traveling, for warfare, for the donning of new clothes, for
+courtships, and for making visits and purchases.
+
+He took leave of his son-in-law and his daughter on the previous
+evening, for the caravan was to depart before sunrise, while Orion
+was in the ascendant, at which time the learned man would already
+have surrendered his limbs to repose. Now, all the world knows that
+whoever is involuntarily aroused from his slumbers at such a time
+will wake up every day at the self-same hour for a whole year
+afterward and not be able to go to sleep again: such a contingency
+therefore was to be guarded against at any cost.
+
+Pretty Michal wept long and sore when the time came to say good-by.
+She wept for her good, affectionate father, for her flowers, her
+serving-maids, her little room which looked out upon the garden,
+her kitchen, bright with burnished copper vessels; but the
+ungrateful little thing did not weep very much for the learned books
+she left behind her, though, indeed, she could never cease to think
+of those with whom she had had her daily conversation for years.
+Nay, she so managed as to leave behind her the whole sack-load of
+medicinal herbs collected with such wisdom, "Georgica Curiosa" to
+boot. Instead of that she took with her one of her fan-tailed
+pigeons, which she dexterously smuggled into her long pocket.
+
+The amulet fastened round her neck she held in high honor, not
+because it was a febrifuge, but because it was the solitary memento
+of her mother which she possessed.
+
+Her husband, also, was motherless. He, too, had never known a
+mother's love.
+
+Perhaps, too, she shed a few tears as she threw behind the fire a
+certain carefully folded up bundle of papers. They were the
+billets-doux which had reached her through the aerial post. She held
+them tightly in her hand till the mules jangling their bells stood
+before the door. Longer than that she could not hold them. She
+fancied she had destroyed them when she had burnt them, but, alas!
+the burning of those letters was only so much labor lost.
+
+But joy always follows after sorrow.
+
+Michal was going on a journey for the first time in her life. For
+the first time in her life she was to see field and forest beneath
+the open sky. Set in a frame of the most beautiful landscape, even
+her husband looked better than he had ever looked before. Never had
+she thought him so agreeable, and he cut quite a stately figure on
+horseback; indeed, she scarcely recognized him as the same being who
+used to trip so humbly after the professor with his books under his
+arm, for he could sing cheerily among the students who walked along
+by his side, and his merry laugh was heard from one end of the
+caravan to the other.
+
+The city walls of Keszmar and the well-known mountains had long ago
+been left far behind, and Michal kept thinking to herself that she
+was now her own mistress, and that she had a master who was at the
+same time her slave. The house that she would henceforth call her
+home would have a very different appearance from the one she had
+just left. There would be no one to supervise or keep her in order;
+she would have no other monitor but her own conjugal virtue. She
+would be a model of a wife, upon whom all eyes should be fixed, and
+of whom people would say: "Try and be like that God-fearing lady,
+learn from her sobriety, decency, piety, frugality, and domestic
+economy; learn from her how to speak sensibly in four languages, and
+still more sensibly to keep silence." Thus she tried to discern,
+through the enigmatical gloom of the future, the joys and delights
+that her soul longed for, so as the better to accommodate herself to
+her new position.
+
+She was the only woman in the whole company.
+
+A driver had been assigned to her, who was to lead her mule by the
+bridle whenever the path went through a brook or over a stone, and
+stimulate it whenever it had to clamber up the steep mountain-side.
+He was an enigmatical Slovack lad, with bast shoes and a hat with a
+brim drawn deep down over his eyes. "Gee!" and "Whoa!" were the only
+sounds he ever uttered, and these were naturally addressed to the
+mule.
+
+The character of the region had suddenly and completely changed.
+Mountains, pine forests, and roaring waterfalls succeeded one
+another in rapid succession.
+
+The numerous company sat them down on the fresh grass at the foot of
+a shady tree by the side of a purling brook, and everyone produced
+his knapsack, his wallet, or his flask. The wealthier of them shared
+their good fare with the students, who expressed their thankfulness
+by singing merry songs. There was one student who particularly
+distinguished himself by his facetiousness, and whom everyone called
+Simplex. He, too, introduces himself under that very name in his
+contemporary memoirs, from which we have borrowed many of the data
+of this our veracious history. He was an itinerant student, drummer,
+and trumpeter, and a wag and good fellow to boot. He soon succeeded
+in gaining Henry's goodwill, and he also favored the young bride
+with his company from time to time, taking the whip out of the hands
+of the sleepy driver and rating him soundly in Polish, which the
+other endured without a murmur.
+
+The jests of Simplex put the company in high good-humor. Even Michal
+caught the contagion of the general merriment. The spicy, fresh air
+seemed to relieve her mind of sorrow.
+
+Suddenly, on reaching the summit of a lofty mountain, another
+panorama unfolded itself before their eyes. The steep mountain wall
+was succeeded by a deep glen, and the tops of the huge pine trees
+massed together below seemed to the naked eye to be a meadow of a
+wonderful green perpetually in motion. In the distance arose lofty
+rocks, piled one above the other and split up by chasms full of ice
+and snow. The path wound steeply down into this glen, where it was
+already night, and by the side of the path ran a mountain stream,
+which, pouring forth from the crevices of the granite rocks, plunged
+downward in a hundred glistening columns like a crystal organ.
+
+But it was not this splendid sight, but another, very strange and
+very terrible, on the other side of the way, which riveted pretty
+Michal's attention.
+
+In the crevice of a projecting rock a lofty stake had been firmly
+planted; on the top of the stake was a wheel, and on the wheel lay
+something distantly resembling the shape of a man. The hands and
+feet hung loosely down; the neck and skull were thrown backward and
+reclined half over the tire of the wheel. Large black birds swept
+slowly round and round, and though startled by the approaching
+hub-bub were not scared away.
+
+It never so much as entered into pretty Michal's mind what this
+strange object could be, she had absolutely no name for it.
+
+"What's that?" cried she with a shudder, involuntarily reining up
+her mule.
+
+But Henry was not there to answer her question. He had ridden on in
+advance with the students, who had now begun to sing in order to
+cheer the caravan during its perilous descent into the glen.
+
+"That is the sign-post of the glen," said the driver; "don't look in
+that direction, my lady!"
+
+Michal turned her head toward the speaker, but she immediately felt
+that it would have been far better for her to have riveted her
+sorrowing gaze on that nameless, hideous object, than to have looked
+into the eyes of him who had just addressed her, for the sight of
+him filled her with unutterable anguish. Now for the first time she
+recognized him. The silent, ragged driver was Valentine Kalondai!
+
+"By the five wounds of Christ, it is Valentine!" murmured Michal in
+a voice stifled with emotion.
+
+"Then you have recognized me at last?"
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"To accompany you."
+
+"Wherefore?"
+
+"To serve you if you should need anything, to defend you if you
+should be in danger, and, finally, to find out whither they are
+taking you."
+
+"Valentine," said the girl, withdrawing the reins of the mule from
+the youth's hand, "it is sin to act thus. You will disgrace us both.
+I am dead to you now. If you have ever loved me, bury me! Bewail me
+as one who has died in the Lord. Make me not as one of those who
+will hereafter rise up and accuse you before God! I am now a married
+woman. I have plighted my troth to another. Not even for your sake
+will I lose my hope of salvation. I beseech you by the tender
+mercies of God not to pursue me. Remain here and forget that you
+ever saw me! Here, in this frightful glen, where I know not what
+awaits me, though I feel that it is full of horror, I cannot pray to
+God to protect me from all danger while you are by my side. I would
+not have the heart to go into those terrible depths if I felt myself
+laden with sin and perjury. If you love anything which belongs to
+me, oh, love my soul! If you would preserve me from harm, be jealous
+of my honor! Remain behind, I say, and follow me no further!"
+
+The young man opened his lips to say something in reply, but not a
+word came forth, only a long-drawn sigh; a hot breath in the cold
+autumnal air was it, or, perhaps, a part of his very soul? Then he
+pulled his hat deeper down over his eyes and remained standing in
+the way, while Michal on her mule ambled further on.
+
+"Jacky, my boy!" cried a jesting voice in the ear of the startled
+driver, and at the same time someone tapped him on the shoulder. It
+was Simplex, the merry trumpeter.
+
+"How far you have dropped behind your mistress!"
+
+"Yes, and I will drop back still further, friend Simplex. She has
+recognized me. She has driven me away. I have now but one favor to
+ask of you. If you are really my friend, prove it by doing me a
+great service. I cannot accompany her further. You do so in my
+stead. If any evil befall Michal, stand by her and save her. You
+have your wits about you and know the region thoroughly. Be near her
+as long as possible. Let me know how it befalls, be it good or evil.
+You will find me at Kassa, in my mother's house."
+
+Nowadays we should hurl back such a commission at the suggester's
+head. Nowadays everyone looks after himself, and no one is such a
+fool as to run after a woman whom a second person loves and a third
+person has married. But in former days men were different. Besides,
+they had not so much to do then as they have now, and a social law
+was then in force which has long since become obsolete, the law of
+friendship. It was not codified, yet its authority was universally
+deferred to and folios were written about it. This law of friendship
+gave a man the right to demand great things from his neighbor, and
+those who obeyed this law were bound together by stronger ties than
+any ties of kinship. We shall presently give many examples to show
+how much in those days the unwritten law of friendship was needed, a
+law passed by no parliament, sanctioned by no monarch, enforced by
+no tribunal, yet everywhere valid and effectual.
+
+The trumpeter, contemptuously dubbed Simplex, promised to do all
+that his friend required of him and gave him his hand upon it,
+whereupon he hastened to overtake the lady, who was now some
+distance ahead.
+
+But Valentine Kalondai remained standing on the hillside listening
+till the clattering of the horses' hoofs had quite died away. Then
+he turned and walked slowly off, to the great joy of the crows and
+ravens, who so long as he stood there did not venture to resume
+their banquet beneath the gallows. Meanwhile Michal was trying to
+overtake her husband, who was well on in front surrounded by the
+merry students.
+
+The road became rougher and rougher as it wound down into the
+valley. The broad, well-wooded mountain-sides confined it within a
+precipitously shelving glen. The brook zigzagged across it and tore
+out the rolling stones, so that the very mules had to pick their way
+cautiously along. At first the way wound among large blocks of
+stone, but presently it ended abruptly at a yawning chasm among the
+rocks. Here the mountain stream plunged, roaring and foaming, down
+into a dizzy depth. Beyond the bridge the path reappeared, but now
+it was confined more than ever between two steep rocky walls, down
+the smooth slaty sides of which the moisture trickled continually,
+diffusing a misty, cavernous sort of smell over the whole of the
+dark rocky defile, which was overshadowed by nodding pine trees. The
+mules no longer picked their way among rocks, but among bones. All
+around lay the skeletons of men and of horses inextricably mixed
+together.
+
+"Is this a burial-ground?" asked Michal of her Henry, not without a
+shudder.
+
+But Henry had no answer ready. He said that he had never been that
+way before; he had gone to Keszmar by another road over the mountain
+ridge, a road which you could only pass on foot. But Simplex was at
+hand and he explained the mystery of the bones strewing the way, as
+he had heard it during his wanderings in the mountains from the lips
+of his guides.
+
+Many years ago, the troops of the Prince of Transylvania, with some
+Turkish auxiliaries, had blockaded a regiment of Imperial cavalry in
+this defile, and after breaking down the bridge leading to the glen
+had massacred the whole lot without mercy. There was no place to
+bury the dead, and so they had lain there ever since. The students,
+from sheer mischief, now picked up two or three of the skulls and
+trundled them along the road. No doubt they were not the first who
+had amused themselves by playing bowls with dead men's bones.
+
+"If Hafran were to catch you here, he and his merry men would play
+at bowls with your heads also," cried Simplex, without however
+either spoiling their good-humor or putting Michal in a better
+humor.
+
+In the evening twilight they came to the kopanitscha, where it was
+advisable to stay the night. It consisted of a group of houses
+formed of the trunks of trees, surrounded by a palisade of sharp
+stakes, with loopholes at regular intervals. A low door, made of
+heavy beams, led into the palisade, where, as the neighing of horses
+promptly testified, other travelers had already arrived.
+
+The door was opened to their knocking, and the first arrivals, among
+whom were the students and the young married couple, were admitted.
+Far behind toiled the merchants and drivers with their cattle and
+heavily laden wagons, and last of all came the Polish nobleman and
+his armed retainers.
+
+There were enough barns and out-houses to accommodate them all. Hay
+for fodder and straw for bedding were also to be had in abundance.
+The host was cooking flesh in a large caldron on an open hearth.
+One wing of the house was already occupied by a company of Polish
+merchants, bringing cloth and spices to the Eperies market, and
+accompanied by an escort of twelve hired soldiers, in helmets and
+coats of mail, armed with swords and blunderbusses.
+
+The wife of the kopanitschar, or host, a good-looking young person,
+immediately took charge of the pastor's wife, whom she led into her
+own private room, that she might not have to listen to the loose
+talk which would certainly flow from the unwashen mouths of so many
+men.
+
+"For no one will close an eye here the whole night through,"
+remarked the worthy woman confidentially. "Here in the mountains
+lurk Janko, Hafran, and Bajus, all three of them!"
+
+Michal asked who these three worthies were.
+
+The hostess told her they were three robber chiefs, each more
+terrible than the other. Hafran was cruel, Bajus a crafty rogue, but
+Janko a true hero who knew not fear.
+
+How the eyes of the woman sparkled when she mentioned Janko!
+
+Michal asked her whether she was not afraid to live in so lonely a
+place with so many robbers about.
+
+"Oh! Janko will do us no harm," said the young hostess, smiling; and
+Michal was still such a child that she gave no heed to the woman's
+sparkling eyes and smiling lips.
+
+The hostess then began to tell her how powerful the robbers were.
+People were forever hanging, beheading, and breaking them on the
+wheel, and yet they never seemed to grow less. The militia of three
+counties combined with the Imperial troops were not strong enough
+to root them out of the mountains. And then she kept Michal awake
+till long after midnight by telling her of the adventures and
+exploits of the robbers, and the terrible fate which awaited them at
+the hands of the vihodar of Zeb.
+
+"Who is he?" asked Michal.
+
+What! not hear of the vihodar! He was the headsman of Zeb, a man
+famed far and wide. They call him the vihodar. Every child knows of
+him; but bandits, witches, and painted damsels know him best of all.
+Michal's idea of these last three species of mankind was very vague;
+she had never even heard tell of them before. She, too, told the
+hostess whence she came, whither she was going, and how she had only
+been married the day before, and this was the first night that she
+and her husband had ever slept under the same roof.
+
+About midnight Henry Catsrider came to his wife, and told her that
+the region was not safe. The mountain path over which they had to go
+was occupied by a band of robbers, and the number of the robbers was
+great. It is true the caravan was also numerous, but the members of
+it could not agree among themselves as to what was the best thing to
+be done. The Polish nobleman, who had many musketeers with him, said
+that he had not come all that distance to be shot down like a dog.
+He would send to Janko and offer him a ransom if he would let him
+pass through the glen unmolested. He was also willing to pay a
+ransom for all who cared to join him. But the merchants and the
+drovers would not agree to this, asserting that however willing the
+robbers might be to negotiate when they had to do with armed
+noblemen or poor ambulant students, they certainly would not allow
+wealthy merchants and fat drovers to escape scot free. Not to defend
+themselves, therefore, would be to lose everything. The fact is
+they had been over-persuaded by the Polish merchants, who had
+brought with them twelve Imperial soldiers, and were firmly
+persuaded that they could keep the robbers at bay. All they wanted
+was rainy weather.
+
+"Why do they want rainy weather?" asked Michal.
+
+"I'll tell you," whispered the kopanitschar's wife. "When it rains
+the robbers cannot fire, because their lunts won't burn and the
+powder gets moist. These twelve soldiers, however, have new-fangled
+muskets, which are fired, not with a lunt, but by a flint; the flint
+strikes upon a piece of steel, the steel gives out a spark, and the
+spark fires the powder. They say that these cunning firearms come
+from France. The soldiers would like to try them against the
+robbers, and they only want rainy weather in order that the robbers
+may not be able to fire upon them in return."
+
+"But," remarked Henry, "the question is which party we ought to
+join, the Polish nobleman's, who trusts in the clemency of the
+robbers and will pay them a ransom, or the merchants', who rely upon
+their firearms?"
+
+"Join neither," said the hostess. "An idea occurs to me. I am sorry
+for that pretty young creature. She was only married yesterday. I'll
+be bound to say she has not kissed her husband yet. You must not go
+with the merchants, for the danger will be very great. I know Janko.
+When he is attacked he is like a bear with a sore head. He cares not
+a fig for muskets, and does not value his life at a boot-lace. It
+would not be becoming for you to be mixed up in a skirmish. It is
+not a clergyman's business to fight. But neither must you join the
+Polish nobleman and trust to the clemency of the robbers. I know
+Janko. The sight of a pretty woman makes him like the very devil.
+He would rather leave a sack of gold untouched than a pretty woman.
+I should not like you to fall into his hands. But I have a third
+plan ready. It would not do at all for a large company, but two or
+three people might very well try it. My husband will lead you over
+the mountain ridge, but let the horse, the mule, the drivers, and
+the baggage go on with the Polish nobleman; and when they pass over
+the bridge where Janko bars the way, and when the blackmail has been
+levied, the drivers can halt at the Praszkinocz csarda with the
+beasts and the baggage. Meanwhile my husband will guide you so
+securely to the csarda that not a hair of your head shall be
+rumpled."
+
+Michal thought the advice good. It was the best way of escaping two
+great dangers.
+
+They put together in all secrecy what they needed most, entrusting
+the remainder of the baggage to one of the drivers (the other had
+evidently run away, for Henry could find him nowhere); the host
+brought alpenstocks, bast shoes with nails in the soles, which they
+put on forthwith, and they all set out in the gloom of twilight.
+
+Suddenly they remarked that they were four. Simplex, the trumpeter,
+was trotting on behind them. He said that as he was not inclined to
+send his flesh to market he preferred scaling the mountains with
+them to accompanying the merchants or the magnate.
+
+Michal had no objection. It was only one familiar face the more, and
+he had quite won her heart by his gayety and good-humor. Besides
+that, he could help her to talk to the guide, who was a native Pole
+and therefore unintelligible without an interpreter, for Simplex
+could patter Polish very well.
+
+The wish of the Polish merchants was gratified: it began to rain.
+Scarcely was the little group half an hour's journey from the
+kopanitscha, scarcely had it begun to ascend the footpath, when it
+was enveloped in so dense a mist that only the experience of its
+guide saved it from being lost in the wilderness.
+
+The experienced mountaineer comforted them with the assurance that
+the mist would not be long in their way, for it was nothing but a
+descending cloud. They would soon be able to look down upon it with
+a clear sky over their heads. By sunrise they would be among heights
+never visited by clouds.
+
+Simplex, on this occasion, approved himself a highly useful
+traveling companion. To prevent the young wife from growing weary on
+the slippery way, he hewed down with his hanger two young pine trees
+and made a litter out of them, on which weary Michal was made to
+sit, while he and the guide bore her between them over the most
+difficult parts of the way.
+
+The kopanitschar spoke Polish with the trumpeter in order that the
+lady might not understand what they were talking about. He said to
+him that if either of them were to slip, litter-bearers, lady, and
+all would infallibly plunge headlong into the abyss, the bottom of
+which could not be seen for the mists, though they could hear the
+murmuring of the mountain stream far below them. Or if they lost
+themselves in the thick mists and strayed into a chasm or a
+snowdrift, whence not even a chamois could force his way out again;
+or if they met the man-eating bear which haunted the forests; or if
+they fell foul of the robbers' camp, then God have mercy on their
+souls!
+
+And while the young bride was thus sitting between them on her
+litter, she took the fan-tailed pigeon from her pocket, and fed it
+out of her hand and gave it drink from her lips, unconscious of the
+thousand deadly perils which surrounded her, and whispered
+caressingly: "My dovey, my darling little dovey!"
+
+The young morning was now beginning to dawn, for the mist was
+growing lighter and snow fell instead of rain; they had already
+reached the Alpine regions.
+
+"We are on the right road," murmured the kopanitschar; "there goes
+the track of the bear through the juniper tree, and yonder is the
+place by which the hares, the wild goats, and the buffaloes go up
+every morning to drink out of the mountain tarn. We are close upon
+the Devil's Castle."
+
+But surely he must have been mistaken! How can that be the right way
+which leads to the Devil's Castle?
+
+"What is that shimmering in the bushes?" inquired Simplex anxiously.
+
+"The eyes of a lynx," growled the guide; "he is on the lookout for
+young chamois."
+
+But a lynx has two eyes, and there was only a single bright point
+shimmering there. It was the lunt of a musket, which someone was
+hiding beneath his mantle to prevent it from going out.
+
+"Halt!" cried a voice from the bushes, and at a distance of only ten
+paces a wild shape sprang up, resting its heavy firearm on an iron
+fork fastened in the ground. The robber did not aim at the two
+rustically clad shapes who were carrying the litter, but at the
+gentleman who was following a considerable distance behind.
+
+"Jesus, Maria!" cried Michal, "he is shooting at my husband!"
+
+"Don't shoot at him, Hanack!" cried Stevey to the robber, "don't you
+see that he's a clergyman?"
+
+The challenge was of use, the freebooter lowered his lunt. Possibly,
+too, he was somewhat taken back at finding himself face to face with
+three men, one of whom was armed with an ax and another with a
+hanger; besides, he was not quite certain whether his powder was wet
+or dry. He therefore used clemency and answered amicably:
+
+"Oh! 'tis you, Stevey, eh? Whom are you leading?"
+
+"A clergyman and his wife."
+
+"Then it is a Lutheran! A lucky thing for him! Had he been a Papist,
+I should have chucked him down that hole. But when you get to where
+Hamis is keeping watch, tell him that you are guiding a Romish
+priest and his sister, for he is ready to flay a Lutheran alive."
+
+"Don't be afraid," said the kopanitschar kindly to the lady, "a
+single robber will not think of attacking three men. This is the
+outermost picket, the camp is down in that deep hollow yonder."
+
+They hastened onward, and now Michal begged her husband not to lag
+so far behind her.
+
+The guide had calculated rightly that by ascending the steep upward
+path through the bear's track they would reach the mountain's summit
+before sunrise, by which time the clouds would lie below them. The
+mists over their heads now began to clear away. As the rays of the
+sun dissipated the snow clouds, it was as if millions of crystal
+needles were shimmering in the air, till a gust of wind suddenly
+swept them all away and revealed the clear blue sky. Then the sun
+came forth amidst the Alpine summits. At first, however, they did
+not see the sunrise to advantage, for their way led through a dense
+grove of young pine trees growing up among the charred stumps of a
+burnt forest. The litter was here of no use. They had to creep
+through the young undergrowth on all fours.
+
+The guide now told the travelers to remain where they were; he would
+go ahead and look about to see if it was all right. With that he
+crept cautiously forward among the thick bushes, taking great care
+not to disturb the rustling leaves in the silent woods. In a little
+time he came back very crestfallen. It was not safe. The robbers
+were encamped close by the Devil's Castle.
+
+Then Simplex also crept close to the extreme edge of the wood, and
+there saw with his own eyes, at the foot of the old tower rising
+above the steep precipices, forty men armed with muskets and axes
+lying on the grass round a fire, on which a substantial breakfast
+was broiling.
+
+There are some insanely audacious ideas which only the extremity of
+despair can suggest, and Simplex was just the sort of man to whom
+such mad ideas would naturally occur. So now, too, he hit upon an
+expedient which none but a devil-may-care ex-student with a taste
+for adventure would ever have thought of.
+
+"Listen, Stevey!" said he suddenly to the guide, "I'll scare away
+all the robbers!"
+
+"Stop!" cried the terrified guide; "are you mad?"
+
+But the deed was already done. Simplex took the trumpet from his
+shoulder and blew a mighty alarum that re-echoed far and wide
+through forest and dale, and then he cried aloud: "Run! the soldiers
+are coming!"
+
+The robbers no sooner heard it than they sprang to their feet in
+terror. Many of them even took the precaution to discharge their
+firearms in the direction of the forest, so as to give the alarm to
+their remaining companions who were encamped all about. A general
+stampede ensued. Simplex kept on blowing his trumpet with all the
+strength of his lungs; the guide threw himself with his face to the
+ground, praying three different prayers simultaneously, and tossing
+his arms and legs about like an epileptic; while Henry Catsrider,
+in his agony, hastily climbed up a tree.
+
+Now when pretty Michal saw the panic-stricken robbers scattering in
+all directions, the guide in convulsions, Simplex trumpeting with
+all his might and main, and her clerical husband hastily clambering
+up the nearest tree, she could not refrain from bursting into a
+hearty peal of laughter. If die she must, she might just as well
+have one more good laugh before she did die. It could make not the
+slightest difference.
+
+But no sooner had the threatened peril been so marvelously averted
+than the laughter of the pretty lady infected the trumpeter to such
+a degree that he let his instrument fall to the ground; then the
+kopanitschar also rose from the ground and burst into a hoarse
+guffaw, and at last Henry Catsrider himself descended from his perch
+and also burst out laughing.
+
+The young lady thought how funny it is when man and wife laugh in
+unison. It is perhaps a wife's greatest bliss to be able to laugh
+when her husband laughs, and weep when he weeps.
+
+But the kopanitschar gave the trumpeter a violent blow on the back
+and said, half in jest and half in anger: "I'll never be your guide
+again as long as I live! May the vihodar of Zeb get hold of you!"
+
+Michal thought to herself how strange it is when a husband suddenly
+breaks off in the middle of a peal of laughter as if he had had a
+cold douche. Must not a wife in such a case also cease laughing?
+
+"But now we must pack off as quietly as possible while the road is
+clear," continued the kopanitschar. "We must not stop a minute till
+we get to Praszkinocz!"
+
+So they all took to their heels and tried to reach the Devil's
+Castle as quickly as they could, where the fires were still
+burning, and hacked and bloody pieces of bone, and half-roasted
+hunks of flesh on huge wooden spits, were scattered all about. The
+spring bubbling forth from the plateau formed, deep down in the
+valley below, a small lake covered with water lilies and the broad
+red flowers of the water clover. Hither came the wild beasts of the
+forest to slake their thirst.
+
+From the foot of the ruin the valley sinks abruptly down toward the
+northwest, where it has quite a winterly aspect. The whole declivity
+is covered by a layer of snow, which the rays of the sun are never
+able to entirely melt. The sun only shows his face there for an hour
+at noon every day, and what is then melted quickly hardens into a
+coating of ice of a mirror-like smoothness. While on the
+southeastern side of the mountain snow and rain are always falling
+and clouds obscure the landscape, a bright sky smiles on the other
+side and you can see as far as Poland. In the valley beneath, at
+least two miles distant from the ruins of the Devil's Castle, lies
+the little village of Praszkinocz. A serpentine path winds down the
+slippery sides of the mountains into the village below, but few
+people ever use it, save an occasional charcoal-burner or
+wood-cutter.
+
+"Alas, Stevey!" cried Simplex, shuddering at the sight of this
+perilous descent, "we shall never get off with a whole skin that
+way. 'Tis like the glass mountain of Prince Argyrus, and he, at all
+events, had an enchanted horse to fall back upon. If we creep down
+on all fours we shan't get there in two days, and what's to become
+of this delicate creature?"
+
+"Have no fear, trumpeter," said the guide calmly, and he set to work
+felling a pine with his ax.
+
+Meanwhile Simplex explored every hole and corner of the ruins to see
+if he could discover any hidden treasure which the robbers might
+have left behind, while Michal searched in the grass, which had been
+protected from the snow by the overhanging pine branches, for
+gentian and wood angelica, and great was her joy when she discovered
+some specimens of those wonder-working herbs.
+
+But Henry stood aloof, holding his forehead with his hands as if his
+head ached.
+
+As the pine branch fell to the last stroke of the ax, the roll of
+musketry suddenly began to resound from behind the mountains. The
+sharp volleys at once put an end to the composure of the party.
+
+"Listen!" cried the guide; "the robbers have come to blows with the
+soldiers over there," and with that he dragged the fallen pine trunk
+to the edge of the declivity and poised it over the serpentine path,
+with the hewn-off end pointing downward.
+
+"And now to horse, to horse! You, trumpeter, get up behind. His
+reverence must sit in the middle with his lady behind him, who must
+clip him tightly round the waist. Each one of us must hold fast to
+the branches on both sides, and draw up his legs so as not to get
+entangled in the wayside shrubs and briars. I'll sit in front and be
+coachman and pilot."
+
+After thus assigning to everyone his place, the guide sat astraddle
+on the thick end of the trunk, and the three men jogged the
+dangerous vehicle along like a six-footed dragon till it toppled
+over the edge of the slope.
+
+"Forward, dragon! in Heaven's name, forward!"
+
+The pine trunk, once set in motion, glided down the smooth,
+mirror-like incline like a dart. The guide, spreading out his long
+legs, steered it right and left, and when it flew down a little too
+quickly, he sharply planted both his heels against the ground to
+slacken speed, and cried:
+
+"Wo-ah, dragon, wo-ah!"
+
+No gondolier, no coachman, could have steered or driven more
+skillfully. A single false shove, a single obstacle in the path, and
+all four of them would have been hurled into the abyss below and
+dashed to pieces.
+
+But no footless serpent could have writhed more deftly down than the
+pine trunk. It was a sight worth seeing, this lightning-like flight
+down a mountain of glass.
+
+"Holloah! hie! fly away, thou devil's steed!"
+
+Silly Simplex, in a transport of delight, took the trumpet from his
+shoulder, and catching the mane of the pine tree firmly by one hand,
+blew a postilion-march with all his might.
+
+"Holloah, ho! holloah, ho! This is the way the devil brings home his
+bride."
+
+Michal, too, loosed her arm from her husband's neck and began to
+clap her hands for joy. What a rapture to fly down so swiftly! She
+feared nothing, she delighted in the very danger. Her heart was
+innocent. No sin oppressed her conscience. Well for her that she had
+had sense enough to shut her ears against the tempter. If only the
+shadow of a sin had now darkened her soul she would not have been so
+blithe in the midst of danger, but would have looked down with a
+shudder at the awful abyss which seemed both Death and Hell.
+
+"Put your arms round me again or I shall fall off!" cried the man in
+front of her. His face was as pale as wax. A vertigo had seized him.
+And Michal had to hug him tightly lest he should lose his
+equilibrium, and she clasped him to her breast till they got to the
+bottom of the glen. The flight along the icy slope had lasted half
+an hour, on foot it would have taken them half a day at least to
+traverse it.
+
+So they all thanked God that they had come off with a whole skin.
+And it was not long before they had to thank God for much more than
+that. At midday they were rejoined by their fellow travelers who had
+come through the valley, and fearful tales they had to tell of the
+dangers which they had encountered.
+
+Janko, to whom a mounted messenger had been sent on beforehand to
+negotiate with the robbers, had granted the travelers a free passage
+thorough the defile, and the Polish nobleman paid for all those who
+accompanied him, students included, the ransom demanded. But in the
+meantime Hafran's robbers (it was these whom Simplex had scared away
+with his trumpet from the Devil's Castle) fell upon the Keszmar
+merchants who were marching far behind in the rear, cut down the
+drivers, tortured the merchants, and carried off the mules and
+pack-horses. But while they were thus making free with the booty,
+the twelve soldiers, armed with their new-fangled muskets which
+could be fired off even in rainy weather, fell upon the robbers, who
+could not shoot because of the wet. About forty of the freebooters
+bit the dust. Hafran, with the remainder, escaped by the skin of his
+teeth among the rocks, contriving to carry the whole of the spoil
+along with him, including the baggage of the young married people,
+who now had nothing left but what they were actually wearing. All
+the beautiful embroidery, lace, and fine linen which pretty Michal
+had worked and woven with her own hands, an inestimable treasure,
+had become the booty of these vagabonds.
+
+"May the vihodar of Zeb break every one of them on the wheel!" cried
+the kopanitschar.
+
+At these words Henry's face became fiery red.
+
+But Michal threw her arms round his neck and consoled him.
+
+"Let us thank God," said she, "for so marvelously delivering us from
+so great a peril."
+
+She knew now what a great danger she had escaped, but she had no
+idea of the still greater danger that she was about to encounter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Which will be a short chapter but not a very merry
+one.
+
+
+The young married people had now neither horse nor mule to carry
+them any further. They had to look about for some sort of vehicle to
+take them to Zeb, and the wagoner whom they hunted up at last swore
+by hook and by crook that he would go by sledge or not at all, for
+snow had fallen in Praszkinocz, and there was now a sledging track
+all the way. As they could not be choosers they of course consented.
+Simplex begged them to take his bundle with them, for he too wanted
+to get to Eperies. He had come off the luckiest of them all, for as
+he had carried his few worldly possessions slung over his shoulder,
+he had not been plundered by the robbers. The wagoner granted him
+his request, and even allowed him to run along behind the sledge and
+hang on by the trestle when he was tired.
+
+He ran as long as the sledge-track lasted, but, as might have been
+anticipated (though the driver absolutely refused to believe in the
+possibility of any such thing), when they arrived at the foot of the
+mountain they saw that there was no more snow but only mud. Simplex
+had now to shove the sledge much oftener than mount behind it,
+especially when the road lay uphill. The clergyman also had to lend
+a hand occasionally, while the countryman in front dragged the
+horses along by main force. Thus, in addition to their other
+troubles, they were saddled with a sledge on muddy roads.
+
+They had fallen far behind the caravan; even the carriers with the
+baggage were now a long way ahead of them. It was late in the
+evening before they saw in the distance the lofty church of Zeb with
+its copper roof, and the bastions of the city embowered in gardens.
+The wind wafted to their ears the sound of the evening _Ave Maria_,
+and a very comfortable sound it is to him who sits snugly by his own
+fireside. But it is far from pleasant to those who are outside the
+walls, for after the _Angelus_ all the gates are closed, the bridges
+drawn up, and not a living soul that wanders in a bodily shape upon
+the earth is admitted within the city.
+
+"We are shut out," growled the wagoner, scratching his head. "Now we
+shall have to sleep under some haystack. I only wish we had not
+taken that vagabond student's bundle into the sledge, that was what
+made us creep along so slowly."
+
+But if Simplex had not helped to shove on the sledge they would not
+have got so far as this.
+
+"Pray let us go on a little further," said the clergyman. He was
+walking along moodily by the side of the sledge. No one was inside
+it but Michal.
+
+The sun had set. Its scarlet glare still lit up the summits of the
+distant Carpathians, but the only objects which they illuminated
+here below were one or two mansions scattered among the hills, the
+gates of the city, and a large, lonely building standing outside the
+walls. The walls and roof of this building shone blood-red in the
+evening twilight, but from the huge chimney issued volumes of
+pitch-black smoke. Glowing red clouds, betokening wind, accompanied
+the setting sun, and a flock of crows which had been startled from
+their resting-place flew, loudly croaking, out of the woods toward
+the town as forerunners of the approaching storm.
+
+The flock of crows alighted on a dismal-looking scaffolding, which
+stood on a hill on this side of the red house. It consisted of
+roofless columns rising gauntly out of a square mass of masonry and
+united by four iron bars. From each of these four columns a huge
+iron hook boldly projected. The crows settled down in thick clusters
+on the iron bars. Nowhere in the whole region was a tree, a shrub,
+or any asylum for man or beast to be seen.
+
+"Whatever can that be?" thought Michal.
+
+Simplex and the wagoner dragged the horses forward. Henry walked
+beside the sledge, and held it fast with one hand to prevent it from
+toppling over.
+
+"Whither are we to go now?" growled the wagoner. "We must pass the
+night outside here, I suppose. There is no shelter anywhere, and
+during the night the witches will do us a mischief."
+
+"There are no such things as witches," remarked Henry dryly.
+
+"But I say there are. I'm sure of it. Barbara Pirka is certainly a
+witch. They assemble here at midnight."
+
+"Silence!" cried Henry sternly, and with that he seized the reins of
+the horses and began to lead them away from the road.
+
+"Sir," said the carter, hesitating, "why are you going in that
+direction? Here is no other house but that one yonder," and he
+pointed to the lonely house which stood below the town, all lurid in
+the evening twilight.
+
+"And thither we must go."
+
+"Jesus Christ preserve us!" stammered the wagoner, "that is the
+house of the vihodar."
+
+"And thither I say we must go."
+
+Then he went to his wife, and wrapped her in his mantle to protect
+her from the cold night air.
+
+"Is your father's house much further?" she asked tenderly.
+
+"There it is, straight before us," answered Henry; "my father is the
+vihodar of Zeb!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Contains the proper explanation of things which have
+hitherto remained obscure.
+
+
+So his father is the vihodar of Zeb, the headsman, the man who works
+in blood, not the blood of sheep and oxen, but the blood of men!
+
+This is his house, his territory.
+
+His house is shut out from the town, the boundary of his dominion is
+the gallows.
+
+Those stakes by the wayside with wheels fastened to them are his
+mile-posts. The robber bands are his ripe wheat, which he mows down
+with his sword and harrows with his wheel.
+
+He is the judge of final appeal before whom all criminals must
+appear--truly a great and distinguished personage. People make haste
+to get out of his way whenever he walks the streets, and salute him
+by drawing their caps over their eyes whenever he passes by. His
+sway extends from the sixteen towns of Zips as far as Kassa, and
+letters patent from the Emperor and the King of Poland give him the
+right to kill and torture.
+
+Michal spoke not a word, but closed her eyes and lay back in the
+sledge.
+
+The sledge, on quitting the boggy ground and reaching the level
+turf, again had a smooth course before it where some progress could
+be made. Here Henry again mounted. Simplex and the driver also took
+their places on the box-seat. The horses shied at the gallows, and
+galloped off with the sledge as if they had broken loose altogether.
+The driver cried piteously, as if he were being led to execution.
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, countryman," cried Simplex consolingly, "at
+home the headsman is a great personage. He regales his guests with
+good pottage, new milk, and old tokay. Dine with him but once, and
+you'll have something to talk of for the rest of your life. I know
+him. He is a good and honest man. I played to his singing once, and
+he filled my cap with thalers."
+
+"It is indeed a dreadful house," whispered Henry in Michal's ear,
+"and the master of that house is an object of terror. It is an awful
+thing to sleep in that house, and a still more awful thing it is to
+speak face to face with its grim master, although I say it who am
+his son. Listen, and do not abhor me. Horror drove me thence in my
+early boyhood; I fled; my father's business filled me with loathing.
+I wanted to live in the world, beloved and respected by my
+fellow-men. I departed into a strange land; I was determined they
+should never hear of me again at home. Begging my way along, I
+hardly earned my daily bread; I suffered cold and hunger; I went
+about in the rags which the hand of charity bestowed upon me; I
+became a scholar and a slave; I learned to practice obedience and
+humility; in all the world I found but a single benefactor, who took
+me in, instructed, educated, and ennobled me; and by subtlety I've
+robbed this single benefactor of his most precious treasure, his
+only daughter. I told him not who my father was; had I told him, he
+would not have given me his daughter. No one knows the family name
+of my father; his grandfather dwelt in this very house, he took over
+this ghastly office from his predecessor, and this predecessor was
+called the vihodar. It was a name the people gave him, and so, from
+generation to generation, the dweller in this house has been called;
+but my father has not forgotten his family name, and he knows that
+there is one other man in the world besides himself who bears that
+name. Old Catsrider is a very rich man. He has pocketed many gold
+pieces and has hoarded them up. Why, indeed, should a hangman spend
+his money, or on what? In amusements? He has no time for such
+things. In pomp or display? He cannot acquire property. But I have
+not come hither because I covet his treasures; not on that account
+have I brought you to the door of this sad house, no, but because I
+deceived your father in giving out that my own father was a
+Catholic. That is not true; he is a Protestant. Our canons are very
+stringent. A marriage solemnized without the consent of the parents
+on both sides is invalid. I dare not run the risk of one day seeing
+the hangman enter the church, tug me by my surplice and say: 'I,
+Christian Catsrider, tear you, my son, down from this holy place,
+because you are living in illicit union with a woman who is not your
+wife.'
+
+"I must obtain the consent of my father to our marriage, or else you
+and I are dishonored and our marriage is void. Do you understand
+now?"
+
+At this question the young woman sprang to her feet and for an
+instant she was seized with the desire of springing out of this
+infernal vehicle as it flew along the dry grass, and flying, flying,
+flying, till some bottomless abyss swallowed her up; but the next
+moment she submitted to her fate, bowed her head, hid her hands
+beneath her mantle, and said:
+
+"I will be obedient!"
+
+"My great love for you was the cause of my crime. Will you hate me
+for it?"
+
+It was with a very low voice that the young wife replied:
+
+"I will be gentle."
+
+"This humiliation will only last for a night," said the husband
+encouragingly. "Early to-morrow morning we will go on our way. No
+one will ever find out who was the father of the pastor of Great
+Leta. We will live in peace and honor and walk in the way of the
+Lord."
+
+"Amen!" answered the wife, but she heaved a great sigh.
+
+Meanwhile the sledge had arrived in front of the lonely house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Wherein are described the house and the mistress of
+the house.
+
+
+It was a house unlike all other houses. Banished beyond the walls of
+the city, it had to defend itself as best it could. A deep moat
+filled with stagnant water and covered with green slime completely
+surrounded it, and the drawbridge which crossed the moat led up to a
+fortified palisade which formed a second line of circumvallation.
+But the drawbridge was now drawn up and the portcullis let down. On
+the tops of the palings the hides of various kinds of animals were
+hanging out to dry.
+
+The walls of the house were made of a rude sort of rubble, odd
+bricks without a trace of mortar. The lower windows were mere
+loopholes; the upper windows were of every conceivable shape and
+size, but all, without exception, were guarded by a double iron
+trellis-work. Right opposite the drawbridge stood the door, made of
+heavy oaken beams, traversed in all directions by strong iron bands,
+and embossed with large iron-headed nails.
+
+Inside the house a pretty hubbub was going on. Even a long way off
+the howling of dogs could be heard; but close at hand it sounded
+like a perfect pandemonium; there must have been twenty dogs there
+at the very least.
+
+For the house had already been barred and bolted, and the travelers
+beyond the moat might have cried and shouted all night without
+anyone hearing them had not the trumpeter made one of the party, and
+he now blew with all his might the _reveil_, wherewith the Imperial
+heralds were wont to demand admission at the gates of a castle.
+
+At this trumpet-blast the drawbridge was slowly lowered amidst a
+great rattling and clatter of bolts and chains, but as the door
+still remained closed, Simplex went boldly up to it, and knocked
+loudly with his fists.
+
+Through the barking of dogs, which now broke forth again with
+redoubled vigor, a hoarse female voice shrieked:
+
+"Who is at the gate there?"
+
+"The pastor of Great Leta and his wife," Simplex roared back.
+
+Whereupon a furious yelling and a cracking of whips was heard, as if
+someone inside was dispersing a pack of dogs, and as they scampered
+howling back, the creaking door slowly turned upon its rusty hinges,
+allowing a glimpse into the vaulted hall which was lit by a swinging
+lamp.
+
+In the doorway appeared a woman with a large bunch of keys in her
+hand.
+
+It was a tall bony shape in a yellow frock, with its head wrapped in
+a red cloth, from beneath which coal-black, stubbly bristles peeped
+forth.
+
+There had been a time when this woman was beautiful. She had oval
+features, a dimpled chin, red cheeks, black eyebrows, sparkling
+eyes, and a lofty forehead, but her whole face was now full of
+wrinkles, and the furrows on her forehead looked like the stave
+lines in a music-book.
+
+"Jesus, Mary, and St. Anna protect me!" cried the wagoner, with
+chattering teeth. "If it is not Barbara Pirka in the flesh!"
+
+The woman laughed aloud when she perceived the sledge.
+
+"What! do even the clergy ride on besoms nowadays?" she cried, with
+rough pleasantry, while a couple of serving-men, whose shirt-sleeves
+were tucked up to their elbows, drew the bridge up again behind the
+in-gliding sledge and then shut the groaning door.
+
+"A pleasant evening, Mother Pirka," said Simplex, chucking the woman
+under the chin; "'tis a long time since we two met together. Do you
+recognize me, eh?"
+
+"Hah!" stammered the wagoner, "you'll pay for chucking her chin like
+that. The old hag will twist your neck for you this very night. Mark
+my words!"
+
+"Be off, you devil's student!" cried the woman; "why can't you get
+out of my way? Where, pray, is the pastor of Great Leta?"
+
+"He is lifting his wife out of the sledge yonder. Is the master at
+home?" The hangman was usually styled the master.
+
+"Where should he be? He's in his workshop of course. But your beard
+has grown since last I saw you."
+
+"Since Mother Pirka regaled me with cheese soup, eh? Don't you
+recollect? I then promised to marry you as soon as I had grown up.
+Come now, shall we have a marriage feast?"
+
+"If you give her too much of your jaw she'll ride you, the hag,"
+said the wagoner, tugging one of his horses by the mane; "she'll put
+a bridle in your mouth at night, and ride you to the very top of the
+Krivan!"[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: One of the highest peaks of the Karpathians.]
+
+"You shall have all you want," said Barbara to Simplex. "Let the
+others eat first, and then come into the kitchen. You shall have a
+good supper."
+
+"I'll take good care not to eat any of it," said the wagoner.
+"She'll be sure to give me something to drink which will turn me
+into a swine."
+
+"You'll then at least have a finer burial than if you had remained a
+man," jeered Simplex.
+
+Nothing could induce the wagoner to stir a step from beside his
+horses, and he was quite content to sup upon the buckwheat balls
+which he had brought with him in his knapsack. Simplex, on turning
+in himself about midnight, derisively assured his snoring companion
+that he neighed as if he were turned into a horse already.
+
+Meanwhile the woman led the priest and his wife into the palisaded
+mansion.
+
+It was a massive structure, consisting of numerous rooms united
+together by long narrow passages with heavy iron-clouted doors. She
+stopped at last in a hexagonal vaulted chamber, from the central
+arch of which hung a huge lamp. But a far brighter light came from
+the hearth, whereon enormous logs were sparkling and crackling.
+
+Nothing in this chamber called to mind the dismal business of the
+master of the house. Old-fashioned presses were ranged around the
+walls, and in the midst of the chamber stood a round table with feet
+resembling tigers' claws, and leather-covered chairs all round it.
+In a corner stood a dumb-waiter covered with glittering plate and
+pewter. Small pictures and clusters of weapons were visible on the
+walls. This chamber led into a small side-room, the door of which
+was so low that a person entering it had to duck his head.
+
+"This will be your bedroom," said the woman; "it is a nice, quiet
+place, out of hearing of the howling dogs."
+
+Barbara Pirka no longer recognized Henry, though they had often torn
+each other's hair out in the good old times.
+
+The woman remarked that Michal's clothing was wet through, and that
+her shoes had suffered from her wanderings through the mountains.
+
+"Would madam like to change her clothes?" asked the old woman
+obsequiously.
+
+"I have no change," replied Michal, "the robbers have taken the
+whole of our baggage, and we ourselves only escaped from them by the
+devious mountain paths."
+
+"D----d scoundrels! It would be as well perhaps if you were to lie
+down in a warm bed, and take a little hot wine. That would do you
+good, and you need not come to supper."
+
+"I thank you for your kindness," said Michal, who was thinking all
+the while of the object of their coming thither--viz., the
+reconciliation with Henry's father--"but I wish to eat in company
+with the master of the house."
+
+"Do you really?" remarked the woman, contracting her brows. "Are you
+not afraid of him, then? Have you so strong a heart? So much the
+better."
+
+With that she turned and left the room, and there was but time for
+the husband and wife to exchange a few words, whereby Michal learnt
+that Barbara Pirka was an old housekeeper of the Catsriders, when
+back she came again with a change of raiment on her arm.
+
+It consisted of a dress of heavy purple silk, embroidered at the
+skirts with colored garlands, a girdle of Turkish stuff, and a broad
+lace collar; the bodice was fastened in front with gold clasps.
+
+"You would do well to put on these dry clothes."
+
+Michal allowed the housekeeper to undress her, and then help her on
+first with the silk dress, which had been airing all the time over
+the fire, and then with the golden-clasped bodice, the Turkish
+girdle, and the lace collar.
+
+"Just look, now! It might have been made for her."
+
+Then she took Michal's wet shoes from her feet and gave her instead
+slippers of fine red Korduan leather, and as there was no mirror in
+the room, she herself supplied its place by turning her round and
+round and surveying her from head to foot.
+
+"Just as if it had been made to order. Don't be afraid, my dear lady
+pastor. No common wench ever wore that dress. It was a noble,
+beautiful lady who once made a brave show therein, and she only wore
+it twice. She looked like a flower, and was the fairest of the fair.
+I chopped off her head myself."
+
+Michal felt her knees totter. She was wearing on her body the
+garments of a woman who had died a felon's death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+In which are described the joys of long-parted but
+finally reunited kinsmen, and every one learns to
+know exactly how he stands.
+
+
+But even if Michal had wished to take off the clothes there was no
+time to do so, for the housekeeper now said that supper was upon the
+table, and that the master of the house awaited his guests in the
+dining-room. Michal meekly bowed her head on her husband's shoulder,
+and allowed herself to be led into the presence of the great and
+terrible man.
+
+The dining-room was in every respect like the other rooms. It had
+just as many angles and arches, and was whitewashed in precisely the
+same way. In the middle stood a table laid for three persons, each
+cover consisting of two pewter dishes, one on the top of the other.
+There were also two big-bellied, glazed jugs, with pewter lids, a
+chased silver tankard for one of the guests, a Venetian crystal
+glass for the other, and a wooden mug for the master of the house.
+
+The master of the house already stood beside the table with his
+hands resting on the back of his chair. He was a tall, commanding
+figure, with very broad shoulders. He wore a brown Polish jacket
+with long sleeves, a broad, buckled girdle, and long jack-boots. His
+features were hard and angular, his hair short and bristly; but his
+beard, already grizzled, hung down in two long flaps, the ends of
+which were stuck into his girdle. His look was grave and tranquil,
+but without the slightest trace of human feeling.
+
+Michal felt that her husband's hand was trembling as he approached
+the master of the house, though he made superhuman efforts to appear
+calm.
+
+"Peace and blessing rest upon this house!" stammered Henry,
+whereupon the old man sighed deeply but without returning the
+salutation.
+
+"Is your reverence the pastor of Great Leta?" It was the first time
+he had addressed Henry. His voice was deep and sonorous as if it
+proceeded from a bronze statue, his whole body seemed to reecho the
+sound.
+
+"I have been elected the successor of the late pastor. Forgive me,
+master, for causing you so much inconvenience!"
+
+"Your visit is nothing unusual," returned the old man, "the late
+pastor of Leta was often a guest in this sad house," and he
+thereupon beckoned to his guests to be seated.
+
+"This is my wife," stammered Henry.
+
+The old man did not even affect the bare semblance of cordiality. He
+coldly said: "Women also, nowadays, seem to love sad spectacles."
+Michal, however, before sitting down, folded her hands on the back
+of the chair, and piously inclining her head said grace.
+
+The old man wrinkled his eyebrows and turned his face away.
+
+Then they sat down to eat.
+
+Nothing but vegetables was served, and after the vegetables came
+cheese. No flesh was to be seen, not a dish was there which required
+the assistance of a knife. Of beer and wine, however, there was no
+stint. The master of the house urged no one to eat, he left that to
+the housekeeper. She poured out for Michal beer and wine. Michal
+begged for water instead, but this they would not give her. They
+told her that the water of Zeb gave skin diseases to those who
+drank of it. So she had to sip beer.
+
+During the meal no one broke silence, but after the first cup was
+drunk, the master of the house raised his voice.
+
+"Did the rascals plunder your reverence as well?"
+
+"We ourselves only escaped as by a miracle."
+
+"They will receive their reward. Your reverence will see them the
+day after to-morrow."
+
+Henry stared at him with astonishment.
+
+"Yes, the soldiers have captured six of them, and these with some
+others will be executed the day after to-morrow."
+
+Henry looked blankly at the old man, whose sharp eyes took in his
+astonishment at once.
+
+"What! has not your reverence been sent here on purpose to give the
+last consolations of religion to those of the poor sinners who are
+of the same communion as yourself?"
+
+Henry's face grew pale.
+
+The old man guessed his thoughts.
+
+"Such an office is no doubt none of the most pleasant. Not every
+clergyman likes to be at the side of the poor sinners during such a
+sad spectacle. The Franciscans of Eperies are sent to shrive the
+Catholics, the pastors of Great Leta to comfort the Protestants.
+Indeed this office is part of the cure. On every such sad occasion
+the pastor of Great Leta has to sit in the felons' car by my side
+with the delinquents opposite. He is therefore a frequent guest at
+my house."
+
+To Henry it seemed as if the house were falling about his ears. He
+had known nothing of all this till now. He began to wipe away the
+sweat from his brow.
+
+"Did not your reverence know then that the black cassock of the
+pastor of Great Leta and the red mantle of the vihodar of Zeb go
+together? Did the Consistory conceal the fact from your reverence
+when they recapitulated the emoluments of the benefice--a denarius
+for each baptism, a Mary-florin for each burial, and a Kremnitz
+ducat for the last sacraments administered to each poor felon?"
+
+"To tell you the truth," stammered Henry, "I did not go very closely
+into the question of the temporalities. I only thought about my
+spiritual duties."
+
+"Then if you have not come hither to act as chaplain at the
+execution of the law's sentence, to what other circumstances does my
+poor house owe the honor of your society?"
+
+Michal threw Henry an encouraging look, signifying that now was the
+time to confess everything.
+
+"I will tell you my story, master," began Henry. "Ten years ago I
+fled from my father's house. My father loved me. He was good to me.
+I was his only son, and I forsook him, nevertheless, because I did
+not want to follow his trade, because I strove after higher things.
+It was my wish to become a scholar and a clergyman. For the last ten
+years I have not let my father know where I was. During that time I
+have endured much misery; but I have also been compensated for it. I
+have made progress in the path of learning. I was the first among my
+fellow-scholars. The high-born sons of great statesmen and churchmen
+sat on the same bench with me, with me the poor mendicant student;
+but no one has ever sat before me. I outstripped them all. I was the
+favorite of the professor and the presbyters. When I mounted the
+pulpit to preach, the people strained their ears so as not to lose a
+single word, and no one ever went to sleep when I was speaking. When
+scarcely four-and-twenty years of age I was elected a regular
+minister, and the superintendent confirmed the choice. I was not
+even obliged to officiate beforehand as chaplain in the usual way.
+'Twas the greatest distinction which could have befallen a
+theologian. In the examination which preceded my consecration, my
+replies were such that the whole Consistory cried unanimously,
+'Eminentissime!' And my benefactor, my protector, the famous, most
+learned Dr. David Frohlich, crowned the efforts of my laborious life
+by giving me his only daughter to wife. I then resolved to seek out
+in his solitude my long-deserted father, who thought me dead, and
+was passing his declining years in dreary abandonment. I said to my
+beloved wife, 'Let us go and seek out my poor old father, let us
+present ourselves as traveling strangers and take him by surprise.
+We owe our first visit to him.' My beloved agreed to my wishes. On
+the day after the wedding we set out to visit my father, but robbers
+waylaid our caravan and took from us our horse and mule. We
+ourselves, guided by good men, escaped by making a long detour over
+the mountains, after which we continued our journey by sledge in
+wretched plight. Night overtook us. We found the gates of the city
+closed. We were too much afraid of robbers to pass the night
+outside. We perceived a house in front of the town. We begged for
+admittance and it was granted, and now we beg pardon for the trouble
+we have caused."
+
+The master of the house kept his eyes fixed on the lips of the
+speaker till he had quite finished.
+
+"Then a mere chance has brought your reverence hither?"
+
+Henry's lips refused to say yes, he merely nodded with his head, as
+if, forsooth, it were not as great a sin to lie with the whole head
+as with the mouth alone!
+
+"Then until your reverence has received your father's blessing, you
+cannot, I presume, taste of the earthly joys of wedded life?"
+inquired the master of the house, thereby betraying not only his
+acquaintance with ecclesiastical ordinances but the possession of
+the art of expressing himself politely.
+
+"True, but such consent I hope to obtain this very day, for I am now
+in my father's house. My name is Henry Catsrider," and with that the
+young man rose from his seat.
+
+But the lady, in a transport of conjugal loyalty and devotion, threw
+herself at the father's feet, seized his hand and kissed it.
+
+She actually kissed the hand of the vihodar, the headsman. With
+glowing, cleaving lips she kissed the hand which had never been
+kissed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+In the course of which the stern father, in the
+hardness of his heart, chastizes his lost son, but
+finally grants forgiveness to the repentant
+prodigal.
+
+
+When Christian Catsrider felt the kiss of the young bride on his
+hand, he hissed three times like one who has been seared with a
+red-hot iron.
+
+But when Henry also would have approached him, the old man stretched
+out his long arm, and laying his hand on his son's shoulder forced
+him back into his seat with as much force as if he had used a heavy
+iron lever for the purpose.
+
+It was only to Michal that the old man spoke.
+
+"So this tender creature has not come hither to see the horrors of
+an execution after all? I am glad of it. On such occasions there are
+generally more women present than men, ay, and young women too!
+What's her name? Michal--and this fellow--Henry! Ah!"
+
+With that he rose from the table.
+
+But Michal still held his iron hand in her hands, and clasping it
+tightly with her fingers softly whispered grace, the old man turning
+his head aside all the time. Then he drew his hand out of Michal's
+hands, but as she still kept kneeling at his feet as if expecting
+something more, the old man let his long sleeve fall right over his
+hands till the very tips of his fingers were covered, and then he
+laid them gently on Michal's head so that that innocent head might
+not be polluted by the touch of his bare hand.
+
+Then Michal arose from her knees.
+
+But the master did not extend his hand to his son. On the contrary,
+when the housekeeper entered to clear the table, he told her to
+leave it alone for the present, and first of all conduct the gentle
+lady to her room, make her a comfortable bed, lay her down in it and
+lull her gently to sleep. "The reverend gentleman," he added, "will
+remain behind with me, for I've a couple of words to say to him."
+
+Michal thanked him for his courtesy, and holding out her hand to her
+husband, asked him shyly:
+
+"I suppose you will come soon?"
+
+"As soon as I have received my father's blessing," replied Henry,
+unctuously, from which Barbara Pirka gathered that the clergyman was
+the master's son.
+
+The heavy doors had no sooner closed behind the two women than
+Christian Catsrider said to his son:
+
+"Follow me!"
+
+With that he took out of his side pocket a key with a double ward,
+and unlocked therewith a secret door, discovering a spiral staircase
+which led up to a tower.
+
+Henry knew from experience that the old man kept his treasures in
+this tower. That his father should lead him thither seemed therefore
+an omen of good.
+
+"Take the lamp and go on before."
+
+Henry took the lamp and led the way up the staircase whilst the old
+man closed the iron door behind them.
+
+After ascending twelve steps, they came to a large round room.
+Heaped up all round lay, not the treasures of the master, but all
+the instruments of his trade which were employed in the torturings
+and executions of those times, with a description of which we will
+not harrow the readers of this sufficiently sad story. Nowadays
+these instruments are only to be found in museums; men have
+discovered other ways of ameliorating their fellow-creatures.
+
+Henry looked around him with horror at this frightful arsenal. He
+could not imagine what the old man had to say to him in such a
+place.
+
+The master did not leave him very long in doubt. On the wall hung an
+enormous two-edged sword in a sheath of black leather. This sword
+the old man took down, and drew from its red velvet-lined sheath the
+broad blade, which was concave at both edges from much grinding, and
+of a mirror-like brightness; then, seizing the weapon with both
+hands, he said to his son in a cold, calm voice:
+
+"Kneel down, my lad. You must die!"
+
+"Oh! my father!" cried Henry.
+
+"No, not your father. Your judge and executioner."
+
+"Why do you want to kill me?"
+
+"I have been headsman of Zeb for forty years. During that time I
+have dispatched many malefactors to the other world; but such a
+precious scoundrel as you are it has never yet been my misfortune to
+meet."
+
+"What offense have I committed?" asked the horror-stricken Henry.
+
+"You have run through a whole catalogue of crimes, each one of which
+is sufficient to bring a man to the scaffold. You are a thief! You
+have robbed the benefactor who received you into his house. You are
+a liar! You have denied your own father. You are a blasphemer! You
+have stretched out your hand toward the sacrament of the altar,
+knowing all the time that you were profaning that holy rite. You are
+a murderer--a parricide! For never was a man's affection so cruelly
+murdered as mine has been by you, to say nothing of the honor of
+this innocent woman and her father. Enough; you must die!"
+
+"But if I have committed such crimes, why not bring me before the
+judges? I ought to be judged according to law and equity."
+
+"Hold your tongue. You are beyond the pale of the law. There is a
+statute in force against abductors. That statute says that whosoever
+is caught in the act of abducting a youth or a maiden need not be
+brought before the tribunals, but may be sent direct to the headsman
+who is to judge and sentence him forthwith. Now you are such a
+robber. You have abducted a girl. You are caught in the act. And I
+will be a merciful judge to you, for I'll condemn you simply to be
+beheaded. Undress and kneel down!"
+
+Henry rallied all his courage. He began to smile. Perhaps the old
+man was jesting with him. Perhaps he wanted to try his courage.
+
+"'Tis well, my father. You've scared me enough now. A truce to
+jesting. I've neither murdered nor robbed. I am certainly anything
+but a parricide. If I did not honor my father, I should not be here
+now. Pray give me your blessing, therefore, and let me go to my
+wife. Michal followed me of her own free will, and she is waiting
+for me now."
+
+"The virgin you have brought with you is not your wife, and she
+awaits you in vain. At dawn I will send her back to her father under
+a strong escort together with the news of your death."
+
+At these words the son was seized with a paroxysm of rage. Trusting
+in the great strength by which he had so often distinguished himself
+among his fellow-scholars, he fell fiercely upon his father. He
+fancied he would be able to wrest the sword from him, break loose
+from this ambuscade, and venture another leap through the dormer
+window and over the palisades, as he had done ten years before. But
+he reckoned without his host. The old man had only to stretch out
+his left hand, seize him by the chest and hurl him like a young
+kitten to the other side of the room, where he bounded head foremost
+against the wall, and fell all of a heap.
+
+"It only needed that," murmured the old man. "Now that you have
+raised your hand against your master and judge, against your own
+father, you've not another crime to commit. This is the first case
+among the thousands of which I have had experience in which the
+condemned has presumed to wrestle with the headsman. Curer of souls
+indeed! In what Bible did you learn that, I should like to know."
+
+The humiliated wretch, after this overthrow, lost his strength of
+mind altogether. The hero who had thus found his master in a
+physical encounter no longer felt equal to an intellectual contest;
+he writhed to his father on his knees, and cried, sobbing loudly all
+the time:
+
+"Mercy, my father! I am your only son!"
+
+"A precious only son, truly, who has outraged his own father. You
+fled from me. You said to yourself: 'My father pursues a
+dishonorable trade. I will not share his fate!' Alas! that it should
+be so. I cleanse the human race of its filth. My hand cannot be as
+white as a lily. They send for me to wipe away all their dirt, all
+that is vile and disgusting. A terrible fate! But someone, if it be
+only one in a hundred thousand, must submit to it. Evil-doers thrive
+like a brood of serpents. You have seen them yourself. You have been
+surrounded by them. You have felt how powerful they are even where
+the sword has been whetted to destroy them. I have already peopled
+many a room in hell with these damned spirits, and yet they spring
+up again like so many poisonous funguses. But for the gallows the
+dominion of Satan in these parts would gain the upper hand. I too
+live in a state of horror night and day. When I am alone I loathe
+myself. When I lay me down to sleep, someone must stand by my
+bedside to wake me when I dream, for the dreams I dream are ghastly.
+Once I even resigned my office. The King's grace releases the
+headsman after a thirty years' service, and a Royal decree ennobles
+him after a thirty years' obloquy. But I had not laid the sword
+aside for more than six months when traveling in the district became
+impossible. In the town, women were robbed in the broad daylight,
+and malefactors danced in the churches, which they had broken open
+and plundered. I again began to work in blood. A ghastly work! Men
+hide themselves, dogs howl, grazing flocks disperse when they scent
+me from afar. There is no seat for me in the church, and every door
+in the town is closed against me. The good abhor me even more than
+the evil. But for all that I care nothing. What does grieve me is
+that my son should loathe me. The thousands of terrifying shapes
+which are waiting for me in the next world to stone me with their
+decapitated heads do not frighten me. My own son, who smites me in
+the face, he it is who really hurls me into hell."
+
+"No, my father," interrupted Henry, "I adjure you by the living God
+not to say so. I do not abhor you. You, too, serve humanity. I
+condemn you not. But Heaven has not given me so strong a heart as
+yours. I have chosen the mission of reconciliation, of amelioration.
+I, too, would destroy the evil which you destroy, if not with the
+sword at least by the Word of God."
+
+"Then you think it belongs to the eternal fitness of things that
+your father should be a headsman, while you are a curer of souls;
+that when you are dispensing the Lord's Supper, all the people
+should look with fear and loathing at your hand to see whether you
+have not inherited some blood-mark from your father; that the
+children in your parish should come into the world with red blotches
+instead of moles; that the rabble, when we sit side by side in the
+felons' car, should cry out: 'There go the headsman and his son, the
+parson; the old 'un flays the sinners, and the youngster patches 'em
+up again!' Perhaps, however, you think nothing of the sort. Perhaps
+you will prefer to go on denying your father. Perhaps you will
+prefer to live a lie six days in the week, and then ascend the
+pulpit to preach eternal truth on the seventh day. But then would
+not the words 'Our Father' stick in your throat? Would you not hear
+the devil whispering in your ear every time you repeated the fifth
+commandment? But enough of this. Keep steady! Stretch out your head,
+and let us make an end of it!"
+
+The young man was almost in a state of collapse. He tried to raise
+himself from the floor with one hand, and, as if even the cold
+stones had pity upon him, there suddenly resounded from the room
+below a soft chant, a lowly prayer sung by a woman's gentle voice:
+
+    Glory be to God the Lord,
+    My refuge and my great reward.
+    To Him my prayer shall ever be
+    Who holp me in extremity.
+
+The young man began to sob. The father leaned with both hands upon
+his sword. For a long time he was silent. He would not speak so long
+as that evening prayer lasted.
+
+His son threw himself sobbing on the ground, and moistened the
+flagstones with his tears.
+
+"Do you wish to live?" asked the father in a low voice.
+
+Henry rose from the ground with overflowing joy. He was certain from
+this sudden softness of tone that the mortal rage of his father had
+given way to a milder frame of mind.
+
+"Are you not sorry for that poor creature?" inquired his father.
+
+"I love her as I love my own soul."
+
+"I didn't ask you that, I asked you whether you feel compassion for
+her; you need say no more."
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Do you feel compassion for your father?"
+
+"I love and honor you."
+
+"Don't talk so much, but answer my question!"
+
+"God knows that I feel compassion for you."
+
+"You take the name of the Lord into your mouth much too often. If
+you want to live, if you have any pity for me and for that poor
+creature, rise up! Don't blubber! It's not pretty and does not
+become you. You are a man, remember! Take off that garment! Here's
+another! Put it on and follow me!"
+
+Henry took off his black cassock and put on the linen jacket which
+the old man had taken out of a cupboard for him. It was a plain
+jacket, without either buttons or buckles, and fastened round the
+waist by a leather girdle. It did not escape Henry that the old man
+carefully counted out two hundred gold pieces, which he took from
+the same cupboard and put into the girdle. "'Tis yours," said he, as
+he buckled the girdle round his son's body. Then he beckoned to him
+to take the lamp and again go on in front, only this time they
+descended the staircase. The old man took the sword with him.
+
+Henry was thinking to himself that if he could only escape from his
+father with a whole skin he would never venture within those walls
+again so long as the old man was alive.
+
+But the old man also knew very well what his son's thoughts were,
+and he himself was thinking of how he could best prevent him from
+doing anything of the sort again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+In which is shown how vain it is for womankind to
+murmur against the course and order of this world.
+
+
+Pretty Michal was trembling in all her limbs when the housekeeper
+undressed and put her to bed.
+
+Barbara Pirka went out of her way to be agreeable and obliging. She
+wanted to make Michal a hot salt and bran poultice and prepare her a
+posset of centaury, but these and sundry other good offices Michal
+absolutely declined, declaring that she had no fear of catching
+cold.
+
+After putting the young woman to bed, she sat down beside her, and
+rubbed Michal's tiny white feet between her hands. She said it was
+good remedy against sleeplessness and anxiety.
+
+"My hand has power," explained Pirka; "I am a seventh child and a
+witch to boot."
+
+An ill-bred person would have burst out laughing; but Michal looked
+at Pirka with an astonishment which had more of reverence in it than
+of fear. She had never seen a witch before.
+
+It pleased Pirka to see how Michal folded her hands together as if
+in prayer.
+
+"Yes. Now I'm a witch and can make and mar as I please. But even
+those whom I benefit must suffer for it. I was once the wife of a
+headsman myself. The business pleased me. The only thing that
+surprises me is how a judge can leave to another the torturing and
+execution of those he has condemned to death instead of doing it
+himself. If I were the Emperor I would make a decree that every
+judge should be his own executioner. I was always at my husband's
+side when he was at work. I would not have stayed away at any price.
+When the felon was a woman I used to clip off her hair with a pair
+of shears. What a lot of lovely hair I've cut off in my time! After
+my husband's death (a mad dog bit him and he died from the effects
+of it), I continued the business with an assistant. My assistant was
+a lanky, awkward fellow. Once he put me to shame on the scaffold by
+breaking down altogether at his task, so I snatched the sword out of
+his hand and finished the job myself. Then they took the business
+away from me and kicked me out: they said that it was not meet that
+a woman should wield the headsman's sword. So I came hither and
+entered the service of this vihodar. He could get no other servant,
+and no other master would look at me. But you are shivering, my
+dovey! Shall I tell you some pretty tale, my pet?"
+
+At the word "dovey" Michal suddenly recollected her favorite fantail
+pigeon, which she had put into her pocket, and she begged Barbara to
+take out the poor creature and give it meat and drink. She had
+brought some grain with her.
+
+"All right, my darling! But the dove cannot remain in this house.
+There are so many owls and hawks here that the timid creature would
+die of fright at the very sight of these savage birds of prey; and
+besides, don't you know that if your little hen pigeon were to live
+here and lay eggs without pairing, and hatch them, the brood would
+be goblins instead of chickens?"
+
+Superstition is contagious. Michal already began to believe that her
+dove would hatch a brood of gnomes.
+
+She began to be tormented with a desire to know exactly how she
+stood, and what was going on about her. Pirka was a queer creature,
+certainly; but she was the only woman in the house, and women always
+hold together, especially in such a house as this. She was not
+afraid of speaking out before Pirka.
+
+Pirka fed the dove and gave it water, and then stuck it into
+Michal's pocket again.
+
+"There now!" she said. "She feels all the better for that, I know."
+
+Then she covered up the pretty lady with a warm counterpane and a
+bearskin, and while doing so caught sight of the small silk sachet
+which was fastened round her neck. Pirka's eyes began to sparkle
+savagely. She thought it was an amulet against witchcraft; but
+Michal told her that it was only a talisman against the plague,
+nothing more. Then Pirka laughed.
+
+"You don't need that here. The plague never penetrates into this
+house. At the time of the great Egyptian sickness the headsmen were
+the gravediggers. Not one of them died."
+
+"How was that?"
+
+"Why, don't you know? They've made a compact with Death."
+
+Of course no one need take this literally, but it is certain that
+men with such blunted nerves as headsmen are not so liable to
+contagion as other people.
+
+"It is a memento of my poor mother," said Michal, pressing the
+silken sachet to her lips.
+
+"Don't do that," said Pirka, in a warning voice. "As often as one
+kisses such mementos the dead person turns round in his grave."
+
+At this Michal could not restrain her tears.
+
+"Come, come, my pretty darling, don't weep! Shall I tell you a
+pretty tale? What shall it be about?"
+
+Michal ceased to sob. She begged Pirka to tell her the story of the
+lady whose dress she had worn that day.
+
+"Alas, alas, my darling! that is a very sad story; you'll not be
+able to sleep if you hear that."
+
+But she told her about it all the same.
+
+"There was once a wondrously beautiful lady, the only daughter of a
+noble house. They married her to a Polish lord whom she did not
+love. She loved another, a beautiful, brown Hungarian lad, and what
+is more she took care never to be very far away from him. One day
+the Polish nobleman observed that his wife had on a beautiful dress
+of cornflower-blue silk. He asked her: 'Where did you get that
+beautiful silk dress from?' She replied: 'My mother sent it to me
+from Szeszko as a birthday gift.' The husband did not shirk the
+trouble of riding all the way to Szeszko and asking his
+mother-in-law whether she had sent her daughter the beautiful blue
+dress. Back he came to his wife. 'Wife, your mother has told me that
+she sent you that blue dress. You have lied and your mother has lied
+also. Confess now from whom you got that beautiful dress.' Then his
+wife told him she had bought it at the Lemberg fair with her own
+money from an Armenian of Ungvar. The husband did not shirk the
+trouble of riding all the way to Ungvar. There he sought out the
+Armenian and asked if his wife had purchased from him the
+cornflower-blue dress. Then he came back and sent for his wife.
+'Wife, wife, you have not spoken the truth, and the Armenian has
+lied as well as you, for he said you _did_ buy the cornflower dress
+from him.' Then, at last, the woman confessed that she got the
+cornflower-blue dress from her lover. It was the death of her. She
+was condemned to be beheaded. She was obliged to mount the scaffold
+in her beautiful dress, and there take it off and put on
+sack-cloth. Never had so handsome a face, so majestic a figure and
+such a soft, swan-like neck been seen there before. It was then I
+met with the mishap I've already told you of. When my chief
+assistant seized the sword and saw such a beautiful creature before
+him, he grew green in the face, his eyes became fixed and glazed,
+his knees tottered, and at last, as if seized by an epileptic fit,
+he fell down and tumbled backward off the scaffold. Then I gave the
+sword to my younger assistant. He, however, sank down on his knees
+before the kneeling lady, held the handle of his sword in front of
+him like a crucifix, and began to chant an _Ave Maria_. The sheriff
+was filled with dismay, the Polish nobleman, who stood close by,
+began to curse, called all who dwelt in Hungary cowardly milksops,
+and spat on the scaffold. Filled with fury thereat, I seized the
+sword and with a single blow cut off the woman's head. Then I took
+up the head by its long tresses and dashed it in the nobleman's
+face. 'You Polack,' I cried, 'take home what is yours!' That was why
+they drove me away."
+
+A cold shudder ran through Michal's limbs despite all her warm
+wrappings.
+
+"How long Henry remains away," she whispered softly.
+
+"I'll go out, my pretty lambkin, and listen at the door to hear what
+he is saying to the old master."
+
+So Pirka went through the dining-room and stopped to listen at the
+iron door and find out what was going on in the tower; and Michal,
+meanwhile, sang that evening hymn which had reached the ears of the
+headsman and his son.
+
+Soon afterward Barbara Pirka returned, and with a sly grin whispered
+in Michal's ear:
+
+"Don't fret, darling, the old man has made it all up, and now they
+are hugging and kissing each other."
+
+But still Henry did not come back to his wife.
+
+The howling of many dogs resounded through the courtyard below. The
+hideous din penetrated the thick vaults and double corridors and
+reached the very room where Michal lay.
+
+"They will soon be quiet," said the housekeeper grimly.
+
+Michal, in order to change the subject to something more agreeable,
+asked Pirka whether there was any garden to the house.
+
+"You can't keep one," answered Pirka. "Here neither tree nor flower
+will flourish. The master's wife found that out long ago, when she
+tried to garden. The first summer after she came here, all the
+branches of the trees curved inwardly as if they would have crept
+under the ground, and the roots were devoured by worms. Nothing
+prospers but the black elder-tree, and even that produces red
+berries."
+
+Meanwhile, the howling of the dogs grew fainter, as if the number of
+them was gradually growing smaller.
+
+"What a long time Henry remains away," sighed the young wife.
+
+"He'll very soon be here now, my pretty sweetheart!"
+
+By this time only two dogs were howling in the courtyard below.
+
+Pirka smiled, and began to arch her eyebrows.
+
+"His reverence will be here almost immediately," said she.
+
+And now only a single dog was howling through the night.
+
+The storm, too, furiously shook the window-casements.
+
+Suddenly the last dog ceased barking.
+
+Pirka blinked, and said:
+
+"The master will soon be here now."
+
+During these odd scenes, Michal consoled herself with the reflection
+that the whole thing would be over in a day. Even the last day and
+the last night of a condemned felon must come to an end. Let them
+once get over this unpleasant day and they would go right away. They
+would have a home of their own, a quiet, peaceful parsonage all to
+themselves, with a large flower garden and a dove-cot.
+
+Barbara Pirka had prophesied rightly. Soon after the last dog had
+quite ceased howling a man's step was heard approaching the door of
+the bedroom. Pirka murmured an incantation in the gipsy tongue over
+Michal, which might have been a blessing for all that Michal knew to
+the contrary. Then the old woman withdrew.
+
+Immediately afterward Henry came in. The first thing he did was to
+extinguish the lamp, so that his wife might not see his face. Then
+he undressed and lay down beside her, for they both shared the same
+couch. Henry threw the bearskin coverlet off the bed; he was bathed
+in sweat.
+
+The young wife was shivering, and her teeth chattered. She drew
+herself up like a hedgehog, and dared not close her eyes. To prevent
+herself from falling asleep she kept on repeating all the quotations
+which she knew by heart one after the other.
+
+But Henry was in a raging fever. He kept tossing about on his couch,
+and murmured repeatedly, "Jesus, Maria, and St. Joseph!" and
+whenever sleep was about to overcome him he would almost throttle
+himself, and plunge with his feet till he almost kicked out the
+footboard.
+
+The wife trembled, the husband groaned, the tempest outside shook
+the window-panes, the weathercocks creaked on the roof, the owls
+hooted in the lofts, and so the night wore on.
+
+It was only toward morning that sleep sank down upon the young
+wife's weary eyelids. She had already kept vigil for two nights
+running, and now her slumber was tormented by frightful dreams till,
+when the morning was far advanced, Barbara Pirka came and woke her.
+
+The housekeeper brought the sleeper a steaming wine-posset in a
+porcelain bowl.
+
+Michal was not in the least refreshed by her repose. She felt weaker
+than ever. A parching thirst tormented her. All her bones ached. She
+was glad that Pirka had brought her drink. She cared little whether
+the woman was a witch or not, and she felt that it would not much
+matter if the hag's potion were to enchant her and change her into
+some bestial shape.
+
+She eagerly took the bowl and drained it to the very dregs.
+
+Then she called Barbara Pirka, and said:
+
+"Where is my husband?"
+
+Pirka replied:
+
+"He has gone to town with his father."
+
+"And what is my husband doing in town?" asked pretty Michal once
+more.
+
+"He is helping his father to catch dogs."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Wherein is shown what terrible perils befall women
+who are not resigned to their fate, and do not obey
+their lords and masters.
+
+
+Pretty Michal did not immediately expire on receiving this answer.
+For a moment, indeed, she really believed her heart would have
+ceased to beat there and then. Everything around her seemed to be
+turning pitch-black, and the horror which froze her breast made
+itself felt even to the tips of her fingers. Then she held her
+breath and fancied that her last hour had come.
+
+But she very soon found that death is not to be had for the mere
+asking.
+
+And surely the old witch must have put something in her drink, some
+magic charm capable of producing a complete moral transformation;
+for how else account for the evil thoughts which now suddenly
+occurred to her as she sat there on the edge of the bed, thoughts
+which, so far from keeping to herself, she uttered quite loud? Was
+she speaking to the old hag at her side or to some invisible being?
+Heaven only knows, but there she sat gazing steadily before her,
+with her fingers on her lips and her elbows on her knees.
+
+"What then, after all, is the use of all the wisdom of the learned,
+of all the precepts of the saints? Why cast horoscopes, why consult
+the stars, if it is all to end like this? And they had said: 'How
+can you, a clergyman's daughter, give your hand to a man who works
+in blood, for he'll be bound to follow his father's trade? Will you
+allow your whole life to be a ceaseless bloodshedding? What! every
+day to rise and shed blood, and every night to lie down with blood!
+Every day to trace blood on the hands of him who embraces you! To be
+bound for life to a man whose very calling it is to lay violent
+hands on God's innocent creatures!' Alas! alas! Then it was only the
+blood of sheep and oxen that was in question. And now! What avails
+it, then, all the wisdom of the wise, when such things are possible?
+What if the little automatic dog had wagged his tail and stuck out
+his tongue by way of warning? And to think that a living wise man
+should have had no idea of the impending ruin of a human soul, and
+that soul his very daughter! What, then, is the use of amulets and
+talismanic necklaces? What is the good of the angelic choirs in
+heaven when they cannot protect the faithful from such calamities?"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Barbara Pirka, "there are very many more men
+in this world, my jewel, than there are angels in heaven. It is not
+everyone that has a guardian angel to look after him, but there
+isn't a man in this world who hasn't seven devils all to himself. I,
+too, was carried off from my father's house by my husband. He told
+me he was a tanner, and I, silly fool! did not inquire what sort of
+hides he tanned. But I made him pay one hundred-fold for that one
+deceit, I warrant you."
+
+Michal stared blankly at her. She did not understand a word of what
+Pirka was talking about.
+
+Pirka shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"My ruby! won't we put on our clothes?"
+
+"No!" cried Michal, defiantly, and throwing herself back in the bed.
+"Where are the clothes in which I came hither?"
+
+"They are still very wet and hanging up to dry. They are tattered
+and torn, too, and want a lot of mending."
+
+"I'll wait here till I get them."
+
+So she stayed in bed. She would have nothing to do with the terrible
+finery which had belonged to the unhappy Polish lady.
+
+And all day long nobody troubled her. Everyone in the house had
+something to do in town.
+
+Barbara Pirka brought her her dinner; but the hag had no sooner
+taken it in than she had to take it out again. Michal would not
+touch a morsel.
+
+Late in the afternoon the men came home. Michal again heard a
+horrible howling and yelping, brawling voices and heavy footsteps.
+It was only when they passed her door that they trod softly. Someone
+standing outside whispered to them:
+
+"Pst! be quiet! The lady keeps her bed!"
+
+"If she keeps her bed, she must be ill!" so thought they all.
+
+When it was dark, Barbara Pirka came down again and lit the lamp in
+Michal's room.
+
+How happy the evening hours had been to Michal at home, when she
+could go to her book-shelves and take down her learned folios. Then
+she had never felt alone.
+
+But here there were not even books!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night was far advanced. Every living thing had long ago gone to
+sleep. Cautious footsteps approached the chamber where Michal lay.
+
+The door opened and Henry entered.
+
+He wore a gold-embroidered doublet buckled round with a stately
+girdle; his sleeves were trimmed with gold lace right up to the
+elbows. His large, tight-fitting jack-boots were of yellow buckskin,
+and they too were richly embroidered with lace. No bride could have
+wished for a more handsomely equipped bridegroom. But he had no
+sooner entered the room than Michal sprang from her bed, and
+wrapping herself in the bearskin, shrieked in a voice hoarse with
+rage:
+
+"How dare you come in hither? This is the bedroom of my husband, the
+pastor of Great Leta! None else has any business here at all!"
+
+The witch's potion must certainly have changed Michal's very nature,
+for language such as this was the last thing to be expected from so
+meek and gentle a creature in the hour of her terrible dereliction.
+
+And some mighty spell really was at work, for that big, strong man,
+who could have brought the weak creature before him to her knees in
+the twinkling of an eye, was so frightened by Michal's repellent
+gesture, so timidly apprehensive of her furiously flashing eyes,
+that he could not utter a word, but slunk out of the chamber like a
+whipped cur.
+
+Some person who had been eavesdropping outside all the time giggled
+aloud, and then was heard the voice of a man blaspheming the name of
+God, and gnashing his teeth with rage.
+
+Surely that was not the parson of Great Leta?
+
+Certainly not. But what has become of him? Well, after the work of
+yesterday night and to-day, the doors of every church are shut
+against Henry Catsrider, and the steps leading to every pulpit are
+broken down as far as he is concerned.
+
+The old vihodar had taken very good care that his son should never
+be a clergyman again.
+
+And Michal remained alone with her phantoms.
+
+She thought upon the vanished days of her maidenhood; of the
+innocent joys amidst which her days had glided so sweetly away; of
+the studies, which had always been a source of delight to her.
+
+Whither had vanished all those joys and all those studies? What
+availed her now the books of all those learned men? What to her now
+was moral philosophy, horticulture, or domestic economy? Here there
+was no morality, no garden, no home! Her life at home had been a
+monastic life, but it was a veritable heaven compared with this
+hell.
+
+But when she fell a-thinking how happy she might have been if she
+had given her hand to him whom her heart had chosen--who was not
+perhaps very learned, but certainly upright, honest, good-hearted,
+and over head and ears in love--then indeed evil thoughts began to
+arise within her.
+
+When the moon shone through the iron bars of her window she could
+not help thinking what a nice time the witches must have of it; they
+had only to bestride their broomsticks and scud through the air,
+even narrow iron bars could not stop them.
+
+What if her forsaken sweetheart were thinking of her now? Would he
+ever learn into what depths of misery the mistress of his heart had
+fallen?
+
+While she was thinking of these things, and drying her streaming
+eyes, she suddenly heard in the court below the tune of one of her
+favorite songs, which ran thus:
+
+    The cloud wherein the crow doth stay,
+    The dark black cloud will pass away!
+
+Someone was playing this air on a Hungarian field-trumpet.
+
+This instrument is called the farogato, and very few know how to
+play it. It is certainly a difficult instrument. Let anyone but a
+connoisseur attempt to blow it, and he will bring forth a sound not
+at all unlike the howl of a dog on whose tail someone has trodden.
+But he who really knows the secret of the field-trumpet can play
+thereon every imaginable air, in tones which will go to one's very
+heart. You'll find yourself weeping without exactly knowing why. The
+good old songs, as they come forth from the instrument, recall to
+you the lullaby which your mother used to sing at your cradle, and
+the hymn which was sung at your father's burial. It does you good
+and makes you sad at the same time. But when a real connoisseur
+takes up the farogato and blows into it with all his might, then
+indeed he brings forth notes which excite the martial sentiments of
+every hearer, notes which can be heard for two miles round. It
+sounds just as if a host were marching forth to battle and to
+victory.
+
+It was this instrument which, thirty years later, inspired the rebel
+troops of Rakoczy in the campaigns. After the insurrection was over,
+therefore, the peace-abiding government collected together all the
+farogatos in the land and destroyed them, just as if they had been
+so many double-mortars. Only a single specimen still remains, which
+is exhibited as a great curiosity in the Royal Museum at Buda-Pest,
+and only a single man in the whole land knows how to play it.
+
+We have said this much about the farogato in order to give some idea
+of the great joy which arose in Michal's heart, when she suddenly
+heard it playing her favorite song.
+
+Her father had often spoken to her about an out-at-elbow vagrant
+student, whom the scholars derisively nicknamed Simplex, and who had
+wrought much mischief there with his music by enticing the sons of
+the Muses away from their studies thereby. Kalondai, in particular,
+had to thank this fellow for the corruption of his morals, in fact
+they were hand and glove. Besides that, Simplex was a low fellow,
+who had not been ashamed to serve a twelve months' apprenticeship
+with the civic trumpeter of Zeb, and since then had spent all his
+time in gadding about the country as an itinerant musician, earning
+a penny here and a penny there at wedding feasts and such like
+riotous entertainments. All this the learned professor had told his
+daughter in high dudgeon; but what a comfort it was to her that she
+knew it now. From the fact that she heard all her favorite songs
+played one after the other in the courtyard below, she drew the
+following conclusion: If Simplex has come hither, it is only because
+Kalondai sent him. If he is staying here, it is certainly only
+because he wants to find out something about me. When he discovers
+what my position is, he will return to his bosom friend and tell him
+everything.
+
+And the thought consoled her.
+
+For hours and hours she listened in the beautiful moonlight to the
+well-known melancholy strains, which her serving-maids used to sing
+when they heard the field-trumpet's blare outside. She, too, had now
+and again hummed "The Hunter's Song," or "The Polish Lay of the
+Three Hundred Widows," with its ghostly finale supposed to represent
+the Dance of Death.
+
+Simplex played these airs very prettily. Michal could have listened
+to him all night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in the morning Pirka appeared, and brought her the wine posset
+spiced with cloves, cinnamon, and muscat-nut.
+
+While she was sipping it, Michal angrily asked: "Who is that
+tiresome man who keeps on blowing his trumpet all night in the
+courtyard below?"
+
+She was already learning to be sly. It is ever so with women. Treat
+them with tenderness and affection, and they are as gentle as doves
+and speak straight out what they think. But just bully, offend, or
+persecute them, and they become as crafty as serpents. No one
+teaches them deceit, and yet they are masters in it. Then they think
+before they speak, and their tongues say one thing and their hearts
+another.
+
+So that was why Michal complained so angrily about that tiresome
+man. She knew by instinct that the best way to keep him in the house
+was to complain of him.
+
+"Oh, my darling!" said Barbara Pirka, "don't say that! He is my
+trumpeter, quite a superior young man, I assure you."
+
+"And pray when will he take himself off and let people sleep o'
+nights?" she asked with dissembled bitterness.
+
+"He is not so easily got rid of, darling! If you were to chuck him
+out of doors with a pitchfork he would come in again through the
+window. He enjoys himself amazingly with the lads! Would you believe
+it, they got up a fine dance last night! There was no lack of
+partners either, for each of the lads brought in a large watch-dog,
+made it stand on its hind-legs, and danced with it that way. If you
+had been there you'd have split your sides for laughing. Last of
+all, everyone made his partner kiss the musician. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"The beast!" cried Michal, wiping her mouth in disgust. "And why
+then does he not run away from a place where they treat him so
+vilely?"
+
+"I'll tell you, my dear little squirrel! 'tis because he is
+desperately in love with me."
+
+Then Michal thought how great must be the friendship of these two
+men, when one of them is willing to live as a guest in the
+headsman's house, make sport for the headsman's henchmen, endure
+their brutal jests, nay, even make love to this domestic witch,
+simply to bring his friend tidings of the woman who has been the
+cause of all his misery!
+
+All that day Barbara Pirka did not bring Michal the clothes in which
+she had come, nor did Michal again put on the fine dress which had
+been given to her. She preferred to feign illness and lie in bed.
+
+But Henry dared not show his face to her all that day.
+
+Neither on that nor yet on the following day did he appear before
+her. He was waiting till Michal got up.
+
+She, however, would take nothing but broth, so that she might say
+she was ill and not be obliged to get up.
+
+And night after night she listened at the window to the farogato,
+and it sometimes seemed to her as if someone was urging the musician
+to play with all his might.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile Henry steadily plied his trade. The better to inure him to
+it, he was never allowed to be sober for a moment. They gave him
+heavy beer to drink which muddled his head. They gave him garlic to
+eat, and the very consciousness that he has eaten garlic is
+sufficient to make a man regard himself as the enemy of all
+refinement. The coarse jests which he heard from his father's
+henchmen, familiarity with dirt and filth, the drunken orgies into
+which he was plunged, so brutalized him that at last he absolutely
+did not know how to approach such a tenderly nurtured creature as
+Michal in a propitiatory manner. So he learnt to sing filthy songs
+instead, and vied with the headsman's lads themselves in cursing and
+swearing.
+
+If the reverend professor could have seen his son-in-law now he
+would have fancied that this was an homunculus whom some alchemist
+had inflated with another and an inferior soul.
+
+That his wife had driven him out of her bedchamber was not regarded
+as anything extraordinary. In these days the women of Zeb were so
+shamefaced and coy that it was considered by no means proper for
+young married people to begin billing and cooing while the honeymoon
+was yet young. Nay, it was even requisite that the husband when he
+stole the first kiss from his bride should bear away the marks of
+her ten nails in his face, just as if he had been engaged in taming
+a wild panther; while a woman who at the beginning of the honeymoon
+was able to pitch her husband twice out of the bridal-chamber could
+reckon upon reaping a whole harvest of praise.
+
+It was consequently nothing unusual if a modest young spouse, with a
+good opinion of herself, abstained from eating during the first few
+days of her honeymoon, or even made as though she had been struck
+dumb. It showed that she had been piously brought up, that was all.
+It was only when this self-imposed abstinence lasted long enough to
+endanger the lady's life that third parties stepped in and put a
+stop to it.
+
+So Michal had her own way entirely, neither getting up, nor
+dressing, nor speaking, nor taking any nourishment to speak of.
+
+But on Friday, when Pirka came in to see her, Michal sneezed
+violently. Now when anybody sneezes on Friday it signifies that his
+enemies will triumph over him. So, at least, Pirka interpreted it.
+
+Then she observed that the iron window shutters had been left open
+all night, and she scolded Michal for it.
+
+"It is not good," she said, "to sleep in moonlight, for it draws all
+the strength out of one's heart." Then she whispered to Michal that
+to-day the young master was going to accomplish his masterpiece.
+What that masterpiece was, Michal had little difficulty in guessing.
+
+On such occasions, to each of the headsman's assistants is given a
+flask of brandy wherewith to strengthen his heart. The master
+himself partakes of brandy mingled with hartshorn and sunflower dew,
+which (we have it on the authority of Arnoldus de Villanova) is such
+an efficacious cordial that so long as a man drinks thereof he will
+probably never die.
+
+It chanced, moreover, that on this very day Henry was bitten by a
+strange dog, and as there was no knowing whether the beast might not
+be mad they made young Catsrider swallow a large pill of very
+pungent spices as an antidote; and no doubt this too had an
+inflammatory effect upon his blood.
+
+Add to this that the old master on this particular evening gave a
+great feast to all his apprentices, at which they first drank heavy
+old beer and then strong red wine. The apprentices on this occasion
+mocked Henry unmercifully, and called him a milksop, fit only to be
+stuck up in a corner and beaten with a spindle by his wife. The wine
+mounted to his head, and the blood and the gibes did the rest. The
+feast was no sooner over than Henry went straight to the door of
+Michal's chamber, set his shoulders against it, and tore it off its
+hinges.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning, pretty Michal had a blue mark under one eye and a
+wheal on her forehead, and the precious amulet, the amulet she had
+received from her father as a bridal gift, was no longer round her
+neck.
+
+"What's the good of you," cried she, addressing the amulet, "if you
+cannot defend me? How can you save me from the Black Death when you
+cannot save me from the hand of man?"
+
+Then she took the dove which she had brought with her from home, and
+said to it:
+
+"It is all your fault! Why was my heart so soft on your account, why
+had I not the courage to kill you there and then? If I had wrung
+your neck, plucked your feathers, stuck you on a spit and carved
+you, I should not be here now! Fly home! Take back the amulet! I'll
+tie it round your neck. Take it to my father! May the amulet defend
+you on the way from vultures and hawks, may it preserve my father
+from ever feeling such heavy woe as I am feeling here."
+
+With that, she took the amulet and fastened it beneath the dove's
+wings with the ribbon, in such a way as to show that it had not been
+unloosed but torn from her neck. Then she opened the window and let
+the dove go.
+
+The dove cooed, flew into the air, and Michal saw it no more.
+
+And pray what became of the dove? Only this. On the same day it came
+home to Keszmar and tapped at the window, while the great scholar
+sat poring over his folios. The learned Professor Frohlich, much
+amazed, admitted the winged messenger through the casement, and
+still greater grew his astonishment when he perceived beneath her
+wings the precious amulet, tied by a ribbon which had evidently been
+violently torn. Being a very great and learned mathematician, he
+naturally concluded therefrom that some great evil must have
+befallen his daughter; whereupon, without thinking of consulting the
+heavenly bodies as to whether this was a lucky day for traveling,
+without waiting for a caravan to pass by that way and pick him up,
+he took his hat and stick and went off at once and alone to seek his
+daughter.
+
+He made straight for Great Leta, now going on foot, now sitting on a
+wagon, now riding on an ass, according as opportunity offered. The
+young married couple must certainly be at Great Leta, thought he.
+
+But at Great Leta the late pastor's widow received him with great
+lamentations. She had not set eyes on the young people. It was
+wrong, very wrong of them not to come, for all the new-born children
+in the place were being taken to the next parish to be christened;
+and still more scandalous, during the Leutschau fair last week,
+Protestant malefactors had to be accompanied to the scaffold by a
+Papist priest. Such things were no less than flagrant infringements
+of the Council of Linz, and had lost the parish four Kremnitz
+ducats.
+
+Thence the learned gentleman proceeded to Zeb, where he inquired
+after Henry's father, old Catsrider.
+
+No one had ever heard such a name at Zeb. The father and grandfather
+of Henry had always been called the vihodar, and that was all. Not
+even in the civic accounts was the name of Catsrider to be found. So
+they laughed the old man out of countenance with his Catsriders.
+They told him that people were making an April fool of him. But for
+all that he would not budge, but actually made a house to house
+visitation through the town of Zeb, to find out what had become of
+his son-in-law and his daughter.
+
+Yet for all his learning and wisdom it never once occurred to him to
+visit the solitary house which stood without the city walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Consists of a very few words which are, however, of
+all the more consequence.
+
+
+When Barbara Pirka visited the young woman next morning, she was
+greatly astonished to find her quite dressed. Michal had on the
+beautiful cornflower-blue silk dress of the beheaded Polish
+countess.
+
+She drove out the housekeeper with her morning broth.
+
+"Bring me broiled flesh and red wine," she cried, imperiously.
+
+So she could speak and eat again at last!
+
+When Barbara Pirka returned with the cold meat, flavored with
+garlic, and a flask of wine, Michal sat down at the table and took a
+long draught, and then she ate, and then she drank again.
+
+"Fill up!" she cried to the housekeeper.
+
+After she had eaten and drank her fill, she turned to Barbara Pirka
+and said:
+
+"What ought a wife to do who hates her husband?"
+
+"Leave that to me, I understand a little about it."
+
+Then Michal asked a second question:
+
+"What ought a wife to do who loves another?"
+
+"Leave that to me also, I understand a good deal about it."
+
+"And what ought a woman to do who no longer believes in Heaven?"
+asked Michal for the third time.
+
+"I'll tell you, my little squirrel, for no one knows more about that
+than I do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Wherein the knavish practices of the evil witch are
+only insinuated, but not yet fully divulged.
+
+
+First of all, Barbara Pirka brought on a platter a specific whereby
+the blue marks caused by blows can be made to vanish in no time. It
+consists of the piece of cornflower roots plucked on the morning of
+Corpus Christi Day by a left-handed person with his back to the sun,
+and the juice of the cardamom plucked on Maundy Thursday, and mixed
+with the honey of the queen bee. With this balsam she rubbed
+Michal's bruises, who felt all the better for it. Then Barbara
+praised Michal greatly, and said that Master Henry would also make a
+fine show with the scratches he had received from her.
+
+And now she proceeded to answer Michal's first question.
+
+"So you want to know, my little poppet, what a wife should do who
+does not love her husband? She ought to pretend she loves him very
+much; for jealousy is like a savage dog--when he's hungry he's
+wakeful, but when he has his bellyful he goes to sleep. A wife who
+does not love her husband ought always to take care that he neither
+hears nor sees anything. And there grows no wonder-working herb in
+all the mountains around which can make a man half so blind or deaf
+as when his wife kisses him on the eyes, and whispers in his ear,
+'My darling!' A scold is always carrying her husband about on her
+back, but a good-humored wife is always sitting on her husband's
+jacket, and he must carry her about wherever she likes. A pretty
+woman needs no bridle to make a horse of a bearded man like we
+witches do. She needs only a silken thread, the silken thread of her
+wheedling voice. The hand with which a pretty woman strokes her
+husband's cheek is a real gold mine, far more productive than the
+gold mines of Kremnitz. But a woman who wants an answer to the
+second question must have money. Yes; and I can give an answer to
+the third question also. So sure as I'm Barbara Pirka and the leader
+of the witches, I'll bring your sweetheart to you, my pretty little
+violet! I'll not so much as ask you his name nor where he dwells,
+whether it be far or near. All I've got to do is to send my little
+buck-goat in quest of him, and my little buck-goat will carry him
+whithersoever you like, if only you'll follow my advice in all
+things."
+
+The witch's influence over the poor weak girl was already so strong
+that she followed her advice implicitly. When she met her husband at
+supper time, she was not ashamed to embrace and caress him, although
+others were looking on; nay, she even allowed him to take her on his
+lap and tenderly kiss the blue marks on her face, which blows not
+given in wrath had left behind them. It is true there was nothing
+blameworthy in all this fondling. Were they not man and wife? But we
+know that it was all deceit on the wife's part, for she loathed from
+the bottom of her heart the man who, under the lying pretense of
+making her a parson's wife, had torn her away from the darling of
+her heart, tied her to a common hangman, buried her alive, and made
+it impossible for her ever to show her face in respectable society
+again. But she followed the evil counsel of Barbara Pirka so well
+that she flattered and fondled her husband to the top of his bent,
+although he no longer wore the splendid scarlet doublet of
+yesterday, but only a day-laborer's common linen blouse. In his joy
+he unfastened his leather girdle and shook out the two hundred gold
+pieces into her lap.
+
+"That is your nuptial gift," said he.
+
+Let no one maintain after this that a hangman can't behave
+handsomely!
+
+Next morning Michal requested Barbara Pirka to give her an answer to
+her second question, viz., What a woman must do who loves another
+than her husband?
+
+"Alas, pet! that is not a very easy question to answer. The loves
+must first be looked up. Only my little buck-goat can find him, and
+he cannot set out until he has been shod with golden shoes."
+
+Michal put her hand into her pocket, and took out four gold pieces.
+These she handed to the witch, at the same time jingling her pockets
+to show that there were many more gold pieces where those came from.
+
+The witch laughed.
+
+"What, my little gold cockchafer! don't you know then that goats
+have divided hoofs? My little buck-goat, therefore, requires not
+four but eight little shoes for his feet."
+
+Michal immediately gave her four more gold pieces.
+
+"And now, my dear little froggy! you will see that the black
+buck-goat will bring you your sweetheart, only we must wait till the
+old and the young master are well out of the way, which will
+certainly happen when the Eperies annual fair begins."
+
+Michal believed everything the witch told her.
+
+What else could she have done? All her former faith had been
+destroyed. She believed in nothing more. The wisdom of her father,
+the amulet of her mother, had become utterly worthless in her eyes.
+She had been deceived, humbled, imprisoned, mocked, tormented, she
+who had never hurt a living thing, she who had always been so good!
+
+"Well," thought she, "now I'll be wicked, perhaps that will bear
+better fruit."
+
+But Barbara Pirka immediately gave Simplex four of the eight gold
+pieces, the rest she kept for herself, and from that day forth
+Michal no longer heard the songs of the field-trumpet sounding in
+the courtyard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Which goes to prove that the society of great folks
+is not always a thing to be desired.
+
+
+The reason why pretty, unhappy Michal no longer heard the
+field-trumpet in the courtyard was because Pirka had already sent
+off Simplex to seek the beloved of Michal's heart; for the old witch
+had already discovered that this beloved was Simplex's bosom
+friend--but that was all. For the trumpeter, like the prudent German
+he was (an Hungarian, who always carries his heart on his sleeve,
+would have blabbed out everything straight off), did indeed let her
+know that Michal had been married against her will; but he shrewdly
+mentioned no names, and put her off with a few lines when she
+pressed him too closely. Let her find out the truth for herself!
+What else was she a witch for?
+
+But wicked Pirka knew quite enough already to ruin the poor innocent
+creature altogether. For 'tis not so much because they themselves
+are already sold to Beelzebub that such hags lay traps for young
+ladies, but because they well know that they may fleece to their
+heart's content, all whom they have once got into their clutches.
+
+So she gave four of her eight ducats to Simplex to buy him food on
+his journey, and told him which was the best way to take, for the
+trumpeter had told her this much, that Michal's sweetheart lived in
+Transylvania.
+
+Simplex was a good, honest fellow, and he had frequented the schools
+long enough to know that the Consistory would probably quash a union
+which had been fraudulently contracted; and in the present case the
+fraud was patent to everyone, for the wooer who had introduced
+himself as a clergyman turned out to be a common hangman. Simplex
+meant to inform his bosom friend at once, when Valentine might, if
+he liked, take steps to annul the marriage and make the lady his own
+lawful wife in the proper way.
+
+And no doubt it was just because Simplex was thus following the path
+of truth and justice that he was so wondrously delivered from the
+extraordinary dangers which befell him on the way--dangers from
+which, perhaps, he would never have escaped at all if he had simply
+set out with the evil intention of discovering Michal's sweetheart,
+as the witch had supposed when she sent him off.
+
+So he shouldered his trumpet, and had scarcely proceeded more than
+an hour's journey through a deep valley, known as the Wolf's Dale,
+which lies between rocks so steep and narrow that it is as much as
+two mules can do to pass each other therein, when two wild shapes
+suddenly pounced out upon him from an ambush, and whirling their
+axes over their heads, dictatorially cried:
+
+"Halt!"
+
+The honest trumpeter could not possibly be expected to know who
+these people were, for at that time the militia used to dress
+exactly like robbers so as to be better able to capture those
+gentry. They wore sheepskin caps on their heads; their shirts, which
+had first been soaked through with grease and then smoked dry in a
+chimney, were as black as ink; belts bristling with knives girded
+their loins; they were shod with bast shoes, and in their hands they
+carried muskets and long-handled axes.
+
+The waylayers told the trumpeter to wait till their comrades came
+up and decided what was to be done with him; if he uttered a
+syllable in the meantime, he would immediately be cut to pieces.
+Then they whistled, and down from the rocks sprang four similar wild
+figures, who took the trumpeter into custody and haled him along
+with them.
+
+They forced him to crawl up the steep sides of the narrow rocky
+gorge, by means of holes hewn therein at regular intervals, and
+serving as footholds and resting-places to venturesome climbers. It
+was just like mounting a chimney. Here and there still larger holes
+gaped forth from the rocky walls, from the depths of which a
+frightful growling resounded. But Simplex's companions bade him fear
+nothing. These were only bears' dens, they said. Mother Bruin was
+too much engaged at this season in suckling her young to bestow much
+attention on those who did not wantonly attack her. Yet Simplex, for
+all that, had not the slightest wish to make the acquaintance of a
+monster which is, perhaps, a still more dreadful enemy than even a
+robber. He knew the habits of the terrible beast, which, when it
+meets a man on a narrow path, rises on its hind legs and crushes him
+to death in its embrace.
+
+On reaching the top of this perilous ladder, Simplex saw before him
+a spacious plateau surrounded by steep rocks. This was the robbers'
+lair.
+
+Huge pine-trees stretched down their branches from the rocks, thus
+forming a sort of natural canopy over the valley. Out of the cleft
+of a granite rock gurgled a merry little brook, half dammed up by
+two huge jagged stones. The object of this dam Simplex learned later
+on.
+
+The first glance at the spectacle now before him made his eyes
+twinkle. This natural chamber was occupied by more than a hundred
+robbers. Most of them were sitting round a caldron, which hung
+simmering over a large fire, on a iron tripod. One of the robbers
+served as cook, another as scullion. The former was cutting up a
+sheep, with which he filled the caldron, while the latter stirred
+the mess round and round, adding milk instead of water and frequent
+handfuls of saffron, cinnamon, and cloves. Truly a bandits' banquet!
+Others were squatting on barrels and playing dice. All of them spoke
+very low. No one attempted to attack the caldron beforehand, or
+stave in one of the many casks of wine, beer, and brandy lying about
+the place. The discipline among them was perfect.
+
+In the midst of the rocky place, bales of goods were piled one on
+top of the other, just as they are exhibited for sale at fairs and
+in market-places. Aloft on this costly throne sat the three robber
+chieftains.
+
+They were dressed precisely like their comrades, yet each had his
+distinguishing marks, so that Simplex, who had often heard them
+described by the country people, was able to identify them at a
+glance.
+
+The first of the robber chieftains was Hafran, whose love of pomp
+was notorious. His girdle had a fringe of gold ducats, and from the
+corners of his hat hung strings of rose nobles, the largest coin
+then in vogue. His fingers were covered with gold rings, and the
+sheath and handle of his sword sparkled with precious stones. His
+gigantic stature was an additional and unmistakable distinction.
+
+The second chieftain was Bajus. He prided himself on a huge
+mustache, each end of which terminated in a rose noble. Whenever he
+wanted to drink or speak, he had first to stroke back both ends of
+his mustache behind his ears.
+
+The third chieftain was Janko. His body was small and thin; no one
+would have taken him for a man of monstrous strength. Yet he could
+leap from a sitting posture on to the shoulders of the tallest man,
+and had even been known to mount a galloping horse, or a wagon going
+at full speed, at a single bound. In wrestling, he could have given
+odds to Samson himself.
+
+Him, too, Simplex recognized by the hellebore he was munching. For
+Janko, like the son of Cambyses, had made a practice of chewing
+hellebore from his youth upward, thus securing himself against the
+chance of being poisoned; though his own mouth thereby became so
+poisonous that all the women whom he kissed fainted instantly, and
+all the men whom he bit died. Even now the leaves of a large bunch
+of hellebore were sticking out of his mouth all the time he talked
+to Simplex, to whom he put these questions:
+
+"Who are you? What's your name? Whence do you come? Whither are you
+going? Whom do you serve?"
+
+Simplex put on as nonchalant an air as he was capable of, for fear
+is a grievous fault in the eyes of such bandits, but they are always
+indulgently disposed toward a man of pluck.
+
+"I am an orphan from Silesia," said he. "I've never had either
+father or mother. I don't even know what name I received at my
+baptism, but my comrades call me Simplex because they say I am so
+very simple. I come from Keszmar, where Master Matthias, the town
+crier, has been teaching me the trumpet, and I am on my way to
+Saros, where I hope to enter the service of some great lord who
+loves music."
+
+The robber chieftain fixed a piercing look on the speaker and never
+once left off chewing his hellebore.
+
+"If you come from Keszmar you must have passed the kopanitscha of
+Hamar on your way. Did you see the wife of the kopanitschar?"
+
+"Yes, and a wondrously lovely little creature she is."
+
+At these words the eyes of the robber sparkled.
+
+"That woman is my sweetheart! Did you see her husband?"
+
+"Yes, and a very polite old man he is."
+
+"Well, if you know them, go back to them once more. I'll pay your
+traveling expenses"--here he proudly jingled the ducats in his
+girdle. "Tell them that they are both on my bad books; the woman
+because she a little time ago drank mead and danced till morning
+with the headman of Leta at the church consecration there; the man
+because he lately guided the son of the vihodar of Zeb and his wife
+over the mountains, and thus helped them to escape us. Tell them
+that I mean to pay them a visit shortly. The woman must then put on
+her best humor, and the man must not show his face at all. For if I
+once kiss the woman's lips and bite the man's cheek, the pair of
+them will have had enough of me for some time to come." At these
+words the robber spat out the hellebore, and Simplex perceived that
+his mouth and teeth were perfectly yellow. "That is the message you
+must deliver to them, trumpeter. For the present, however, you will
+remain with us; eat and drink as much as your stomach can hold, and
+then show us what you can do with the trumpet. We'll pay for it, of
+course."
+
+Poor Simplex rejoiced exceedingly at escaping so well, and having
+the prospect of turning an honest penny besides, he loudly and
+solemnly protested that he would faithfully deliver the robber's
+message.
+
+Meanwhile the sheep's flesh in the great caldron was quite done, and
+the robbers sat down to eat. The caldron was lowered on to the
+outspread skins, which served as tablecloth and napkin, and the
+robbers carved for themselves with their huge clasp-knives. But if
+their meat was coarse and their table rude, their drinking vessels
+were magnificent. They consisted of gold and silver chalices and
+pocals, the spoil of many a church and castle, and as often as a
+robber took a draught he drank to the memory of some comrade or
+other who had ended a glorious career on the wheel, gallows, or
+stake, winding up with a full recital of the deceased's
+exploits--_e. g._, how many men he had killed, how many robberies he
+had achieved, what lady of quality had been his doxy, and how at the
+last he had manfully endured all manner of torments rather than
+betray his comrades.
+
+And after each toast Simplex had to blow a long flourish.
+
+And as the feast proceeded, the robbers became more and more
+communicative. They began to boast loudly of their own heroic deeds;
+how, for instance, they had plundered great caravans, attacked
+noblemen's castles, and extirpated everyone therein in a different
+sort of way; how they had filled a Jew's mouth with molten lead, and
+nearly died with laughter at the queer faces he pulled; how they had
+forced a rich miser by torture to discover his hidden treasure; how
+they had tied the captured militiamen to the branches of trees and
+then torn them limb from limb; and how they had set fire to a church
+in which a lot of peasants had taken refuge and burnt them all
+alive. Everyone vied with his neighbor in boasting, and tried to
+make himself out more ferocious than the rest. And Simplex blew
+incessantly with his trumpet, so as to hear as little as possible of
+their ghastly stories.
+
+The robbers forced him also to eat and drink with them, and well for
+him it was that he had learnt in his student days to hold a full
+skin. For he was well aware that so long as he could keep on
+trumpeting he was safe. It fared with him as with the piper in the
+story, who piped to the wolf to save himself from being eaten up.
+
+Meanwhile night had set in; the rocky chamber was lit only by the
+heaps of smoldering logs; the robbers began to dance a wild dance,
+and Simplex was forced to mount upon a barrel and play for them with
+all his might. They stamped with their feet, roared, howled, fired
+off their guns, and so deftly hurled their axes at the barrel on
+which Simplex was standing that they all stuck fast in it without
+hurting a hair of his head.
+
+He, poor wretch! dared not spring off for the life of him. It was a
+perfect pandemonium.
+
+At last Hafran commanded Simplex to sound an alarm.
+
+Simplex blew him an alarm accordingly.
+
+"You rascal!" cried the robber captain, "it was with just such an
+alarm as that that they startled us at the Devil's Castle; were you
+the devil's trumpeter on that occasion?"
+
+Perhaps the drink which Simplex had already taken had flown to his
+head, perhaps he thought it might go worse with him if he did not
+make a clean breast of it, at any rate he replied:
+
+"Yes, 'twas I!"
+
+"The devil it was!" cried Hafran furiously. "I'll cut you in two
+this very instant. Don't you know that you drove us into the very
+jaws of the devil with your d----d trumpet, and that forty of our
+comrades went straight to hell in consequence! Stay where you are on
+that barrel, that I may cut you in two at a blow!"
+
+With that he drew his broad palash from its sheath, and grasped it
+with both hands.
+
+But this time Simplex did not take the matter as a joke, but sprang
+down from the barrel and fled to his protector, Janko, who,
+laughing with hideous glee, warded off with his sword the strokes
+which Hafran aimed at poor Simplex, all the while opening wide his
+yellow-stained jaws, which with their yellow fangs looked like the
+jaws of a lion.
+
+"Serve you all right!" cried he as he warded off Hafran's blows.
+"What! fifty of you to be scared by a single trumpeter! Let him be
+in peace! He has to carry a message to my sweetheart. Whoever
+touches him is a dead man!"
+
+At this the wrath of Hafran against Simplex subsided, but he
+insisted on his leaping over his bare palash, and little as Simplex
+felt inclined to jump into the air just then, he had to do it; and
+the jest so took the fancy of the robbers that they one and all made
+the trumpeter jump over their swords likewise, till at last he
+became so tired that he threw himself prone on the ground and
+allowed himself to be beaten with the flats of their swords rather
+than jump over them any more.
+
+Meanwhile Janko had gone to sleep. It was his custom to slumber in a
+sitting position, but he slept so deeply that not even a roaring
+lion could have awakened him.
+
+Gradually also the remaining robbers fell down one by one heavy with
+drink.
+
+Only Bajus remained sober.
+
+It was a wise provision of the robbers that one of their leaders
+should always remain sober; he drank nothing but mead mixed with
+water, and mounted guard over the whole band when they had drunk
+their fill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was already midnight; the moon came forth from behind the rocks
+and shone among the dark pine branches.
+
+"Up, you rogues!" cried Bajus, "the banquet is over. Make ready to
+depart elsewhere, that we may all be on the right spot at the right
+moment in the morning."
+
+At this command all the fires were extinguished one after the other.
+When it was quite dark they began to deliberate in whispers which of
+their plans should be carried out first.
+
+One plan was to attack the Iglo annual fair in the broad daylight,
+set the town on fire, plunder the merchants, and sack the town-hall.
+
+Their second plan was to steal their way into the lair of the
+vihodar of Zeb through a secret subterranean passage, capture him
+and his son alive, and make them suffer all the tortures which they
+had inflicted on their comrades; as for the young woman, they would
+cast lots for her.
+
+For a long time they could not come to any agreement.
+
+At last they resolved to attack the Iglo fair; the vihodar they
+would leave to some subsequent occasion, especially as they would
+first of all have to gain over Barbara Pirka, for otherwise that
+evil witch was quite capable of throttling all the assailants one
+after the other single-handed.
+
+Simplex listened, and his teeth chattered with fear. What he heard
+filled him with joy and terror at the same time--joy because he had
+now an additional argument for moving his bosom friend to rescue
+Michal from her frightful position; terror lest the robbers might
+suddenly remember that they were betraying their horrible secrets to
+one who was not of their band. And if they should remember, what
+would become of him?
+
+He would have given anything to have been able to creep inside the
+crevices of the rocks near which he was cowering, so that the
+robbers might not perceive him.
+
+All at once the moon, which had now risen, shone full on the spot
+where Simplex stood, and Hafran perceived him.
+
+"What shall we do to prevent this fellow from betraying us?" cried
+he, and with that he took him by the collar and dragged him into the
+midst of them.
+
+"Strike him dead!" cried Bajus.
+
+Poor Simplex was greatly terrified; he began to piteously implore
+them not to do him any harm.
+
+"Silence, fellow!" cried Hafran; "a stout-hearted lad must not
+blubber. He must stand firm even when the skin is being flayed from
+his body. Whine, and you are a dead man! We'll have no cowards here!
+Tremble if you dare!"
+
+"Strike him dead!" repeated Bajus, who was quite sober.
+
+"That'll never do," said Hafran. "We promised Janko that we would
+not kill the trumpeter. Besides, the fellow has played well and
+entertained us finely. He has made good again all the harm he did
+with his cursed trumpet at the Devil's Castle. At the same time we
+must not let him go away before us, or he will betray us to the
+county train-bands. Let us take him a little way down the road and
+smash one of his legs, so that he may not be able to go any further.
+In the morning some wayfarer or other will be sure to find him and
+take care of him. What do you say?"
+
+But this proposition was anything but satisfactory to Simplex; not
+at any price would he hear of having his leg broken.
+
+"Come, come, lad!" cried Hafran, soothingly. "Don't be scared at
+such a trifle! A small fracture is an everyday occurrence. The
+shepherdess in the hut by the roadside will put it in splints for
+you, mutter a charm over it, and you'll be able to dance a jig with
+it in no time. Here are twelve dollars to pay your expenses in the
+meantime; you wouldn't get as much as that from the county if you
+went to law about it."
+
+And they seized poor Simplex by both arms to drag him to the place
+where his leg was to be shattered. Then despair suggested the saving
+thought of begging the robbers to allow him to blow his own funeral
+march, and holding the funnel of his trumpet to the ear of the
+sleeping Janko he blew with such force that the robber chieftain
+started up from his sleep and leapt his own height in the air.
+
+"Janko! they want to kill me! Don't allow it, Janko!" cried the
+agonized wretch.
+
+Janko yawned and stretched himself. Then he roughly repulsed the mob
+which surrounded him, and wrapped Simplex in his mantle.
+
+"Fear nothing, my lad! I'll not let them hurt you!"
+
+But the rest became more and more importunate.
+
+"Are you mad, Janko? Will you let him saddle us with the gendarmes
+while we are all drunk? They will fall upon us while we are sound
+asleep, and then where shall we be? We must either kill him or break
+his leg."
+
+"We'll do neither the one nor the other," said Janko; "we'll buy him
+off. D--n it! let's be gentlemen! What are you most in need of, my
+lad? I see your clothes are in rags. You'd better have it out in
+good stout cloth."
+
+With that he lifted up one of the bales of goods and opened it. It
+contained scarlet cloth.
+
+He began to measure it with his arm.
+
+"There you have five ells of cloth for your coat and vest. Hafran,
+you measure him as much from your share for his hose, and you,
+Bajus, give him of yours for a mantle."
+
+They fell to cursing, and curses fell as thick as hailstones; but
+Janko left them no peace till Hafran had clipped him off five ells
+of green Turkish cloth for his hose, and Bajus had contributed just
+as much blue English cloth for his mantle.
+
+"But now he must give back the twelve dollars," remarked Bajus; "if
+his leg is not to be broken, he won't require money for mending it."
+
+"Not so," said Janko; "when a gentlemen has given a musician money
+he does not ask it back again."
+
+"Well, all right; but at any rate you must also give him six dollars
+as we have done."
+
+But Janko could not be made to see this at all.
+
+"Why should I give him money when you've given him some already?
+
+"Then I'll smash one of his legs, for I mean to have value for my
+money."
+
+The poor trumpeter tried to put an end to the dispute by instantly
+volunteering to return the twelve dollars; but it had like to have
+gone ill with him in consequence, for he thereby so deeply wounded
+Hafran's pride that the robber chief at once fired his gun at him.
+Fortunately Simplex ducked so nimbly that only his cap was grazed.
+
+"What do you take us for, you bumpkin? A gentleman does not ask his
+money back again from a musician. Either Janko must give you as much
+as I have given you, or I will strike you dead."
+
+So this struggle between ferocity and magnanimity plunged the poor
+trumpeter into a dilemma from which there seemed absolutely no
+escape. The robbers whirled their axes over his head.
+
+"Listen to me," cried Janko suddenly, "I'll tell you what we'll do.
+We'll dig a deep ditch, and make the trumpeter get into it. Then
+we'll clap an empty barrel over him and peg it down fast, so that he
+won't be able to see in what direction we have gone. He must sleep
+in the ditch to-day, but to-morrow he may free himself with his ax
+and go his way."
+
+This wise accommodation pleased all parties. The robbers forthwith
+dug a deep hole in the earth, put Simplex inside it, clapped over
+him a cask, the bottom of which had previously been knocked out, and
+charged him as he valued his life not to stir from the spot till
+dawn of day.
+
+He did exactly as he was bid, and that was very wise of him, for
+when everything was perfectly still, and he might well have fancied
+the robbers were miles away, a shot suddenly cracked quite close to
+him and the bullet perforated the cask. It was a warning that he was
+being watched. So there he sat, and there is no knowing how long he
+might have remained without budging had not a fresh danger
+supervened; the hole in which he sat suddenly began to fill with
+water. Higher and higher rose the tide till it reached his very
+mouth, and he was forced to pull himself up to the top of the cask
+to escape drowning. At last he plucked up courage to look through
+the hole which the bullet had made, and he then saw that the whole
+of the rocky chamber had been converted into a watershed, and not a
+living soul was anywhere visible.
+
+Then he smashed in the side of the cask with his ax, scrambled out
+of the hole, which was now completely filled with water, and
+immediately grasped the meaning of the robbers' stratagem.
+
+With the above-mentioned improvised weir they had dammed up the
+mountain stream, and used its bed as a short cut into the next
+valley, for it was passable so long as the water was confined within
+the rocky chasm; when the water had risen high enough to overflow
+into its bed again, it would of course blot out all traces of their
+passage.
+
+But Simplex, without bestowing much thought upon this feat, thanked
+the Almighty for so miraculously delivering him from so great a
+danger; which deliverance, moreover, strengthened him in the belief
+that the errand on which he was bound was a righteous one.
+
+Thereupon, with much fear and trembling, he clambered down the
+rock-hewn way by which he had ascended, not forgetting to shout a
+good-morning into the hole of the mother bear as he passed.
+
+He naturally omitted to return to the kopanitscha and deliver
+Janko's message to the pretty hostess; but he did tell an
+oil-merchant, whom he met on the way, the frightful things which had
+happened to him and bade him deliver the message at the kopanitscha,
+as it was all on his way. The oil-merchant, on the other hand, gave
+him a piece of good advice; to wit, that when he came to the town of
+Saros he should hand over the bundle which he was carrying on his
+back to the mayor, for the plundered merchants had advertised their
+wares broadcast, and if people saw and recognized their stolen cloth
+on his person they would measure him a jacket which he would not get
+rid of his whole life long.
+
+And worthy Simplex followed the advice which was given him. No
+sooner had he arrived at Saros than he handed over the costly cloth
+stuffs to the town authorities, and the merchants rewarded him with
+a ducat and let him go on his way unmolested, as he himself in his
+extant memoirs modestly informs us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Valentine really becomes one of those who work in
+blood.
+
+
+Valentine's mother had become a widow in her first youth. Her
+husband, an eminent citizen of Kassa and sheriff there, had been
+detained as a hostage by the Turks at Buda, whither he had gone on a
+diplomatic mission, and, succumbing to an attack of the Oriental
+plague, died in captivity, leaving behind him a widow and a little
+orphan son. He could only make his will orally, in the presence of
+two other hostages as witnesses, but it was on that very account all
+the more religiously adhered to. It prescribed that his widow should
+retain possession of the whole of his property so long as it pleased
+God to preserve her in the flesh, so that she might bring up her
+little son in the fear of the Lord, in all pious ways, in the true
+Christian Calvinistic faith, and, "quantum potest," in all knowledge
+and learning.
+
+These testamentary dispositions were most rigorously observed. Dame
+Kalondai herself carried on the business of her late husband, who
+had been butcher and ham-curer as well as sheriff, and she never
+gave her son a stepfather, though in her day she must have been a
+very pretty woman. Even now she was so buxom and blooming that she
+looked like a gigantic edition of a swaddling babe. She had taken
+particular care that Valentine should be properly educated. He
+always had nice clothes and well-bound books, and when the proper
+time came she sent him to Keszmar, though it was with a very heavy
+heart that she consented to part from her little son for so long a
+time.
+
+So worthy Dame Sarah did not see her little son again for three full
+years, and when at last he did appear before her she could scarcely
+recognize him.
+
+She could not get it into her head that the man with the big
+mustache was really her own little son. His father at his age had
+had no sign of one.
+
+Then she tried to persuade him that he had grown thin. The
+melancholy which Valentine could not hide from her she ascribed to
+some illness or other. The bad mountain-water was certainly to blame
+for it.
+
+And she had good remedies against such complaints. They were not,
+indeed, of the drastic sort of which the professor at Keszmar had so
+large a store; her remedies were simply good and tasty dishes which
+she prepared for her little son with her own hands. She invented a
+savory dish against every ill of life, and you had only to taste of
+it to be instantly cured. And when the evil was caused by bad water,
+with what could you more certainly cure it than with good wine?
+
+But Valentine's sadness would yield neither to the most delicate
+cookery nor to the most savory meats; he allowed the daintiest
+tit-bits to remain on his plate untouched, as if he meant to save
+them for someone else, and he drank the good wine mixed with water.
+
+Worthy Dame Sarah vainly bothered her little son to tell her what
+was the matter with him. On all such occasions he would only smile,
+kiss his mother on the cheek, and tell her that there was absolutely
+nothing the matter with him, his disposition had only changed a
+little lately, he said. He naturally did not tell Dame Sarah
+anything of what had happened to him at school.
+
+Now if anyone ever wants to know what is really going on at his own
+house, let him just go to his neighbor's and there he'll find out
+all about it.
+
+One Sunday evening Dame Sarah came home from her neighbors', the
+Furmenders.
+
+"Why, Valentine!" she cried, "what is this I hear of you? Young
+Furmender says that you were expelled from the school at Keszmar!"
+
+"If he says so he speaks the truth."
+
+Oh how delighted was Mistress Sarah when she heard these words!
+
+"If it's only that which grieves you, my dear, good child!" said
+she, soothingly, "don't think anything more about it. Your father
+was expelled from three schools, but that did not prevent him from
+getting a wife and becoming sheriff. You, too, will pick up a nice
+girl, and may become sheriff as well, one day. Don't fret yourself
+about it. I never meant you to be a parson."
+
+With that she kissed and embraced him, and he really did seem a
+little more cheerful after all these tokens of motherly love.
+
+Very soon, however, his face was as long as ever.
+
+Dame Sarah's remedies were inexhaustible. The best thing for such
+moping, woebegone fellows, is certainly wedlock. An unmarried man is
+like a widower and a widower has cause to be miserable.
+
+She choose for him a virtuous, discreet damsel, the sister of the
+above-mentioned young Furmender, Catherine by name, who was by no
+means indisposed toward the stately Valentine Kalondai. Beautiful,
+indeed, you could scarcely call her; but her mother had not been a
+whit prettier, and yet she had managed to do very well.
+
+Then she took her son Valentine to the social gatherings, where the
+young lads and lasses, beneath the eyes of their parents, made
+merry with one another in all meekness and sobriety.
+
+But Valentine led neither blonde nor brunette out to dance. There he
+stood leaning against the wall as if he had been put there for the
+express purpose of propping it up, and kept as still as if he was
+afraid of missing a single word of the conversation that was going
+on around him.
+
+And when the bolster dance followed, during which it is the amiable
+custom for the lads and lasses to alternately carry round a silken
+bolster, deposit it in front of the person whom he or she likes
+best, kneel down upon it, and so remain till the favored one
+tenderly raises the suppliant and dances with her, whereupon it is
+his turn to carry the bolster round--then, I say, Valentine behaved
+very badly. For when Kitty Furmender brought the bolster to him, and
+sank down on her knees before him, Valentine would not dance with
+her, and did not even raise her up, but rudely told her that he had
+made a vow never to dance again. Then Kitty naturally burst out
+crying, for how could an honest girl be insulted more grossly?
+
+When they got home Dame Sarah said to her son:
+
+"I say, Valentine, young Furmender says you are possessed by evil
+spirits."
+
+"I don't much care if I am."
+
+"And for that reason you don't trust yourself to talk with the
+girls. He also says you will have nothing to do with your father's
+business because you have a horror of blood."
+
+"He says that, does he? Well, I'll just show you to-morrow that I've
+no fear of blood, and am well able to carry on my father's trade."
+
+Dame Sarah rejoiced greatly at these words, for nothing would have
+pleased her better than to have seen her son relieve her of the
+cares of the business; and no sooner had Valentine declared his
+intention of approving himself a master in his craft than she handed
+over to him the keys of the chamber in which were preserved the
+tools and weapons of his father, the butcher's ax, the knives,
+muskets, and swords, which no man's hand had been allowed to touch
+since his death. It is not surprising, therefore, if all these
+implements were somewhat rust-eaten, and it was only natural that
+Valentine should spend the whole of the forenoon in furbishing them
+up with polishing powder, tow, and chalk, till they shone as bright
+as mirrors. He was evidently determined that his father's tools
+should gleam quite splendidly when he wrought his promised
+masterpiece.
+
+At midday Dame Sarah served up all Valentine's favorite dishes, and
+after she had feasted her little son right royally, she told him
+that she had given due notice to the guild-master that her boy was
+about to qualify himself for his profession, and also that she had
+already paid for the license. All ready in the stall stood the fat
+ox whereon he was to display his dexterity on this occasion. In the
+cellar a cask of wine had been broached, and on the counter she had
+deposited four or five gold pieces, as it was quite possible that
+the 'prentice hand of the young master might have lost its cunning,
+so that he would not be able to fell the ox at a single blow, in
+which case he would have to pay to the butcher's guild a gold piece
+for every extra blow till the ox fell.
+
+"Alas, dear mother," cried Valentine, "my guild-master is not where
+you seek him. Captain Count Hommonai will be my guild-master. It is
+not in the slaughter-house, but on the battlefield that I mean to
+achieve my masterpiece. I will not strike oxen, which are unable to
+defend themselves, but Turks, who can give back blow for blow. War
+shall be my trade."
+
+At first Dame Sarah would not believe him, she thought it was only
+the wine which was speaking out of him; but when Valentine fetched
+down his father's arms, the old sword, the musket, the long
+three-edged dagger, all most splendidly burnished, the good woman
+burst into tears, fell upon his neck, begged him to stay at home,
+and adjured him not to commit such an act of folly. He was still too
+weak a lad for that sort of thing, she said. What! had she brought
+him up so nicely, and even got a learned professor to teach him
+Latin, only that he might now go away and be cut down by the first
+wild Turk he met, or get one of his legs torn off by a chain-shot,
+and leave his widowed mother comfortless? But all this had not the
+slightest effect upon Valentine. He replied that his father had gone
+to the wars before him, and he meant to do what his father had done.
+
+Now when Dame Sarah saw that all her maternal begging and praying
+and all her fine words were quite thrown away upon her son, she
+suddenly turned round and overwhelmed him with the bitterest curses.
+
+"Very well, then, you wicked, obstinate son, if you _will_ bring
+trouble and sorrow down upon your mother's head, go, and be hanged
+to you. I know all about it. Young Furmender has told me that you
+have chummed up with a vagabond sort of fellow, one Simplex, who
+serves as field-trumpeter with Count Hommonai, and is your dearest
+bosom friend. He it is who leads you astray into all kinds of
+wickedness. He it is who has persuaded you to be a soldier. Very
+well, if your comrade is dearer to you than your own mother, be off
+with you. You may go and die far away where I can't get you buried,
+for all that I care. If one of your hands is cut off I'll disown
+you, for my son had both his hands. You may go and beg your bread,
+but don't look to me for help. From me you don't get a red farthing.
+Your father left all his property to me, remember."
+
+"Except his weapons," said Valentine. He asked for nothing more, but
+went straight off to Captain Hommonai and enlisted under his banner.
+They gave him a horse, a wolf skin, and three Polish guldens by way
+of enlistment-money, and kept fast hold of him, for the troops were
+to set out for the camp at Onod at a moment's notice.
+
+And Mistress Sarah hardened her heart to such a degree, that as the
+banderium marched out of the town the same night amidst the blare of
+clarions, she did not even stand in the doorway to greet her son for
+the last time; but she hid herself behind the flower-pots in the
+window, and while she peered yearningly after him, she poured out
+all the fury of her heart upon the trumpeter by wishing that he
+might break his neck on the way. And this curse was within an ace of
+being fulfilled upon worthy Simplex.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Wherein is shown of what great use it is when a
+mother is hardhearted toward her only son. Also
+concerning divers skirmishes with the Turks, things
+not to be read of without a shudder.
+
+
+Rumor said that the Turks had invaded the Tokay district and ravaged
+Hegylaja, and this, too, just at vintage time when the whole rural
+population was living in the vineyards.
+
+Now an Hungarian does not lightly surrender to the foe the chiefest
+of the three mountains in his coat of arms, to wit, the Tokay
+mountain. Orders, therefore, were given by the Palatine of Hungary
+on the one side and by the Prince of Transylvania on the other for
+the banderia of Zemplin and Alany to turn out immediately, unite
+with the Zipsers at Onod, and fall upon the Turks whenever and
+wherever they might meet them.
+
+It was at the very time when he was celebrating the feast in honor
+of his wedding with the lovely Isabella Peruyi, that the local
+commander, Count John Hommonai, received the order to depart.
+
+They were just at the last dance, the torch-dance, during which the
+guests and the bridesmaids dance before the bride to the
+bridegroom's house, when the herald summoned the bridegroom from the
+midst of the dancers, whereupon the gentlemen threw away their
+torches and mounted their horses, while the count himself had only
+time to impress a kiss on the lips of his beloved bride and
+recommend her to God's protection on the very threshold of the
+bridal mansion.
+
+The departure of the troops took place in the dead of night.
+Valentine rode beside his faithful Simplex, who not only had to blow
+the field-trumpet but also to beat the kettle-drums, which hung down
+on both sides of his saddle. His horse was naturally the sorriest of
+hacks, for all the others were much too spirited to patiently endure
+the roll of kettle-drums close behind their ears.
+
+"Look ye, comrade Simplex," said Valentine, "our present campaign
+will be my ordeal. You have told me that my poor Michal is unhappy
+and wants to see me; that she has never reached Great Leta, that she
+has been shamefully deceived by her husband; that she suffers much,
+and is exposed to indescribably great dangers. More than that you
+will not tell me, nor have I asked to know more, but I have been
+thinking ever since such thoughts as these: Shall I not be
+committing a grievous sin if I go seek her? Shall I not be d----d
+for it along with her? It does not matter very much, perhaps, if I'm
+d----d, although I, too, should like to see my dear old father in
+Paradise, and the sight of my good mother among the blessed would
+rejoice me greatly; but the thought that I might drag this unhappy
+creature down to hell with me, fills me with horror. Her place is in
+heaven among the angels. But you've such an enticing way of putting
+matters, that I'm no longer able to decide whether what I am about
+to do is good or bad. Now I mean to leave it to the decision of the
+Lord of Hosts. When we stand on the battlefield, he who tries the
+hearts and reins will read in my breast that I still love my Michal,
+though she has bound herself by an oath to another, and if this
+feeling be a sin, the guards of the Lord, the angels of Death are
+there, and he can charge them to call me away so as to prevent me
+from committing evil. If, however, I return in safety, if sword and
+bullet (and I certainly shall not keep out of their way) leave me
+unhurt, that will be a sign that the heavenly Omnipotence is ready
+to perform a miracle for my sake, whereby I shall win back again her
+whom I had given up for lost. If I return safe and sound, if no evil
+befall me, I'll go and seek my Michal."
+
+"But in that case you must take care that I come back too, for
+without me you will not find your Michal, even if you were to set
+out to seek her with Christopher Columbus himself for your guide."
+
+"Have no fear, comrade, we will live and die together."
+
+But Valentine lagged behind the troop. A load lay upon his breast.
+From his earliest childhood he had been wont every night, as it grew
+dark, to say this prayer: "Be with me, O Lord my God! and let my
+poor, good mother awake safe and sound. Amen." His tutor had taught
+him a much finer prayer in Latin; but this prayer he never could
+recollect. He could never reconcile himself to the secula seculorum;
+why should he ask good things for himself for a thousand years to
+come? He was content to pray for what he wanted day by day. That
+would be quite enough if it were granted him. He made as if he were
+only dismounting to tighten his loosened saddle-girth, and when he
+was out of hearing of his comrades' curses, he covered his face in
+his furred horse-cloth and muttered his short prayer, whereupon he
+swung himself into his saddle with a lightened heart and galloped
+after his comrades.
+
+By morning they stood before Nemeti, which is half an hour's journey
+from Goncz, and there the captain, officers, and gentry swear the
+banner oath under the open sky. Then they halted, and after a short
+rest proceeded on further.
+
+Just as they were about to cross the Hernad at Nemeti, whom do you
+think they found on the banks? Why, Dame Sarah with a huge Kassa
+wagon drawn by three stout horses. The wagon was well laden. It
+contained a Gonczer cask full of wine, a keg of plum brandy, fresh
+white bread, cakes, sheep cheeses in small trusses, and in the midst
+of this ambulant storehouse beamed the radiant countenance of the
+buxom citizeness of Kassa, with both her round white arms bare to
+the elbow.
+
+"My dear, good mother! What do you want here?" cried Valentine,
+rushing to the wagon.
+
+"Oh, you wicked son! if you are bent on following this trade, I, at
+any rate, won't let you die of hunger. Come, eat and drink! Call
+hither, too, the gentleman officers and your good companions. There
+is enough here for everyone."
+
+They did not wait to be asked twice, but crowded round the wagon
+straightway, and Dame Sarah helped them to everything with both
+hands. When she perceived the trumpeter she singled him out from the
+rest.
+
+"Hi! come here, trumpeter! May the thunderbolt strike the ground
+within three yards of you! You've seduced my son, have you? Then
+come hither and sit down by me, and if you don't eat your fill it
+will be the worse for you."
+
+Good Simplex did what he could. He sat down in the wagon at Dame
+Sarah's side, and ate and drank his fill; but soon his appetite
+began to flag, and at last he protested he could go on no longer.
+
+"Fellow! you must eat or I'll stuff it down your throat."
+
+And with that she seized Simplex by both arms, shook him like a sack
+which must be made to hold still more, and compelled him to begin
+his meal over again.
+
+But worthy Valentine was more delighted at the sight of his
+mother's strong, stout arms, than at all the good things she
+distributed, and he covered the good creature with kisses.
+
+"And now, dear mother, turn back, there can be enough of a good
+thing," said he, perceiving that the main body of the hussars had
+reached the ford on the opposite side, and only the rear guard still
+remained behind. The officers also urged her to turn back.
+
+"Turn back, eh? Do you really think I have come all this way, with a
+heavy-laden wagon, only to turn back? I will follow my son to the
+very end of the world. I'll not leave him just when things are going
+badly with him. Why should I be afraid when others are not?"
+
+In vain they represented that it was not the proper thing for a
+woman to roam about in regions haunted by fighting Turks. There was
+no reasoning with her, they were obliged to take her along with the
+baggage wagons.
+
+Meanwhile the scouts brought tidings that the Turkish predatory
+bands were assembling on the other side of the Theiss at Plakamocz.
+It was a good thing that all the ferry-boats at Tokay had been drawn
+up on to the shore, thus preventing the enemy from crossing over
+without great difficulty.
+
+Count Hommonai therefore resolved to seek the Turks beyond the
+Theiss, and led his troops toward Tokay.
+
+When they had crossed to the other side of the river, they could
+nowhere find a trace of the enemy, who evidently intended to entice
+the Hungarians further inland, and then drive them back upon the
+Theiss.
+
+Dame Sarah would have followed them to the other side also, but this
+they would on no account allow her to do. The baggage wagons had to
+be left behind on the opposite bank. She then begged that, at least,
+they would let her drive up to the highest hill thereabouts, from
+whence she might watch her little son scuffling with the Turks.
+
+"Take care, good mother, that a cannon ball does not hurt you."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! You call yourself a student, and don't even know that
+a cannon ball cannot fly across a river because the water draws it
+down," cried Dame Sarah, triumphantly, and with that she drove to
+the top of the hill, where she stood up on the wagon and thence
+surveyed the course of the skirmish, while her great lout of a
+coachman, in his fear and anguish, crawled under a wagon, and viewed
+the fight with his back. And yet the fellow called himself a man!
+
+First of all, five Turkish horsemen appeared on the top of a hill.
+How many more lay behind the hill, nobody of course could tell.
+
+To the left stretched a large morass covered with rushes, on the
+right lay an oak forest. The presumption was that the whole thicket
+was swarming with hidden foes.
+
+So out against the five Turkish horsemen rode just as many and no
+more, from the Hungarian side, whereupon the five Turks turned tail
+and galloped off, the Hungarians also instantly returning to their
+ranks.
+
+Then seven or eight Turkish horsemen reappeared, and began insulting
+the Hungarians, not with words indeed, which would have been quite
+thrown away at so great a distance, but with all sorts of outrageous
+gestures; while the Hungarians, not to be outdone, retaliated in
+kind with great spirit and originality. Tiring at last, however, of
+this pantomimic war, eight of the Hungarian horsemen dashed against
+the Turks with couched lances. In the ensuing melee all sixteen
+lances were splintered to atoms, whereupon the horsemen on both
+sides returned to their respective places.
+
+At last the Hungarian commander grew weary of these tantalizing
+tactics, divided his troops into four battalions, and sent one of
+them off to encompass the forest. On this division coming close up
+to the outskirts of the wood, a swarm of Turkish horsemen rushed out
+upon them with loud cries; whereupon the Hungarians feigned flight
+till they had drawn the pursuers within reach of the second line of
+battle, when they suddenly turned and drove the Turks, who were now
+completely surrounded, toward the morass. Here, however, they
+themselves fell into an ambush of janizaries, who picked them off
+from among the bushes, and at the same moment from behind the sedges
+there poured forth a whole stream of horsemen of all sorts,
+Albanians, _Spahis_, and Moors, who attacked them on all sides like
+a swarm of hornets.
+
+The Hungarian captain now set his third division in motion, in which
+were also Valentine and his comrade Simplex.
+
+Dame Sarah, from the opposite shore, saw how they charged the foe.
+
+"Why, the plucky lad sits on horseback as if he had never learnt
+anything else all his life! If only his poor father could see him!"
+
+Valentine had never learnt the trade of a soldier, but he did what
+he thought was the right thing, grasping his father's broad crooked
+sword in his right hand, and his long three-edged dagger in his
+left, at the same time throwing his horse's reins over its neck.
+Simplex, likewise, drew his broadsword and wrapped his wolfskin
+round his left arm by way of a buckler.
+
+Two horsemen were coming straight at them; one of them was an
+Albanian in a coat of mail, the other a distinguished _Spahi_, an
+Aga at the very least.
+
+The Albanian horseman was covered from head to foot with a coat of
+scale armor; his horse's head and neck were protected in the same
+way, and it also bore a huge spike on its forehead, so that the pair
+looked for all the world like a crocodile mounted on a unicorn, and
+worthy Simplex was so astonished at this strange sight that he
+forgot he had a sword in his hand. Besides, thought he, what weapon
+can cut down a man who is cased in steel? So in his terror he merely
+held his wolfskin buckler in front of his head, and the Albanian
+aimed a mighty blow at him with his sword, which was like to have
+felled him to the ground.
+
+Fortunately Valentine observed the danger of his comrade, and while
+throwing him a word of encouragement, smote the Albanian so
+violently on the head with the dagger in his left hand, that the
+scaly monster immediately plunged headlong from his horse; but at
+the same time the _Spahi_ aimed a terrific blow at Valentine's neck.
+
+"Don't you touch my son, you heathen you!" cried Dame Sarah from the
+wagon on the opposite shore; and whether it was the effect of her
+voice or of Valentine's rapid hand it is difficult to say, but at
+any rate the youth parried the blow of the Turk so well that he
+struck the sword out of his hand, and at the same time sliced off a
+piece of his thumb. Then he seized the _Spahi_ by the collar and led
+him away captive, the Turk all the time begging for mercy, and
+promising him a ransom of two hundred gold guldens if he spared his
+life.
+
+Valentine brought his captive safely to the rear, where the captain
+praised him for his valor, but said that they had now had quite
+enough fighting for one day. The skirmish was over. On both sides
+there were just enough of killed and wounded to satisfy honor,
+neither more nor less, so that both generals could tell their hosts
+that they had conquered. Those of the enemy who had not taken flight
+were cut down, and those who could not work their way out of the
+morass were drowned. As for the leaders, neither of them had lost a
+hair, and if either of them cared to fire a haystack on his retreat
+and claim to have burnt a fortress, no one would be a whit the wiser
+and his reputation would be made.
+
+But all this time Simplex was nowhere to be found, which greatly
+embarrassed the whole company, for he had with him the field-trumpet
+and the kettle-drum of the banderium, and without them they could of
+course neither beat a recall nor sound a reveille.
+
+But Valentine was more embarrassed than them all, for if Simplex
+were lost, who was to lead him to his Michal? All that he knew of
+her at present was that her husband had not taken her to Great Leta
+as he had promised, but to some other place.
+
+Valentine, therefore, begged the captain to allow him to return to
+the battlefield with two companions, to search for Simplex on the
+margin of the morass where they had last fought side by side. The
+undertaking was not without danger, for bands of marauders were wont
+to prowl about the battlefield to plunder the fallen and make
+captive the survivors; so the captain, Count Hommonai, gave
+Valentine not two, but six horsemen, who were to help seek the
+field-trumpeter by the borders of the morass.
+
+But Simplex had not been cut down by the Turks after all. Such a
+glorious death was by no means his ideal. When the battle was raging
+its fiercest, when the opposing warriors fell upon each other tooth
+and nail, and there was such a whirring and clashing of lances and
+battle-axes that it was as much as a man could do to avoid having an
+eye knocked out--then, I say, Simplex, without thinking twice about
+it, sprang nimbly from his nag, unbuckled both his kettle-drums,
+left his steed to its own devices, hid the trumpet in the bushes,
+and crept himself into a place where the reeds and sedges were
+thickest. Then when the din of battle was over and everything was
+quite still again, he crept out of his hiding-place and looked about
+him.
+
+Here and there a few couples were still fighting in the distance,
+but all around lay only the bodies of those who had already had
+their fill of fighting in this life. Close to the swamp, too, he
+espied the charger of the Albanian horseman. It was quietly grazing,
+but the Albanian, whose head Valentine had split open, lay on the
+ground still holding fast the reins in his convulsively clenched
+fist, so that the horse dragged him along whenever it changed its
+place. The trumpeter immediately appropriated this beautiful beast.
+First he loaded him with the kettle-drums, then he took off all the
+Albanian's finery, hung it on the end of his lance, and so rode
+toward the camp. Valentine and his comrades met him when he was
+already half-way there.
+
+Simplex made the most of his victory. He demonstrated how he had
+first cloven the Albanian horseman to the very saddle-bow, and then
+torn his horse away from under him by main force. Valentine listened
+to him in silence, for in those days it was an understood thing that
+when one friend had achieved an heroic deed which sufficed for two,
+he was to relinquish half the glory of it to his less fortunate
+comrade; and further, that one friend should never put another to
+shame by publicly contradicting him when he drew the long-bow too
+strongly.
+
+Simplex was highly commended by the captain, who made him a present
+of the Albanian's horse (his former sorry nag had returned of its
+own accord to the camp), so that he was richly recompensed. Then he
+gave the signal for the scattered horsemen to reassemble, and in the
+evening the Hungarians retreated in perfect order to the other side
+of the Thiros, almost everyone of them taking back with him a
+captive Turk.
+
+Valentine brought his prisoner to his mother, who was as much
+delighted as any child to whom his father brings home from the chase
+a live wild cat. The good woman would not hear of the Turk being
+bound to the wagon, and compelled to run after it on foot all the
+way to Kassa; but assigned him a place near the coachman, merely
+taking the precaution to bind one of his feet to the trestle with a
+leather strap, so that it might not occur to him to spring down and
+run away. After that she tied up the poor fellow's maimed thumb.
+
+With what pride would she not exhibit this real live Turk at home!
+
+Young Furmender would no longer be able to say that Valentine was
+possessed by evil spirits, and that he was afraid of blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+In which it is shown by an edifying example that he
+who pursues the path of evil must needs fall into
+the ditch.
+
+
+They all arrived safely at Kassa. Dame Sarah with the captive Turk
+had got home even sooner than her son.
+
+"Do you know, Valentine," said she, "this Turk is a very good, pious
+fellow! He is as gentle as a lamb, and can speak Hungarian like a
+native. He learnt it at Grosswardein. All the way home I was holding
+up to him the glory of the Christian religion, and he listened to me
+with the greatest attention. How nice it would be if only I could
+convert him to the true faith!"
+
+"Anything but that, dear mother!" cried Valentine, in consternation.
+"Pray don't get it into your head to convert this Turk, or he'll
+remain where he is, and I shall lose his ransom, and be two hundred
+ducats out of pocket in consequence."
+
+His impious speech scandalized worthy Dame Sarah greatly.
+
+"But, but, my son, are these two hundred ducats more to you than the
+soul of a converted heathen? How can you speak so impiously? Suppose
+the Apostles had thought as you do! And why lay such stress upon
+these two hundred ducats? If you want money, here hang the keys at
+my girdle. I'll give them to you. Thrust your arm into the great
+money chest, take the whole treasure away with you if you will, for
+we have an honest trade which brings us in as much gold and silver
+as we want. But if you must earn money, at all events don't earn it
+by offering men's flesh for sale. Say! Will you have the keys?"
+
+"God bless you, my dear mother! I don't want your gold. I'll spend
+no money but what I've earned, piece by piece, by the sweat of my
+brow."
+
+"Eh, eh, young fellow! I see what it is. You have something on your
+mind which you don't want your old mother to know. Come, sir,
+confess that you're in love! Out with it, don't be shamefaced! Your
+father was just such another mealy-mouth. For two whole years he was
+dangling after me without the pluck to open his mouth, till at last
+I was forced to take pity on him. Come, now, speak the truth! You
+are in love?"
+
+"Perhaps I am."
+
+"Who's the lady?"
+
+"That's more than I can tell you."
+
+"Some poor lass, I suppose of lowly birth perhaps? Perhaps a
+peasant's daughter, or maybe, even a serving-maid? I don't care. Let
+her family be what it may, if only she herself is a virtuous virgin,
+you may bring her to my house without fear. If she is clumsy, I'll
+gladly shut one eye and only see that she loves you. If she knows
+absolutely nothing at all, I'll be her teacher, and she shall learn
+from me everything which a right-minded housewife ought to know.
+Come, now! Who is it?"
+
+"I cannot say, my good mother!"
+
+"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Dame Sarah, threatening her son with
+the large carving-knife which she always kept hanging by her side.
+"You are after no good thing. You love a woman who has already got a
+husband. Don't deny it! I see by your sudden change of color that
+I've hit the mark. Valentine, you are walking in evil ways! Bethink
+you what is in store for you--here on earth the sword of the
+headsman, and in the next world the fires of hell! You know that in
+matters of morality our laws don't jest! I have seen with my own
+eyes many a head, quite as comely as yours, roll in the sand--the
+sole offense of these poor sinners was presuming to cast sheep's
+eyes at women who had no business to have lovers at all. But I pray
+God that he'll place an obstacle in your path at the very outset,
+which will make it impossible for you to go any further on the way
+where shame, death, and damnation await you. God will hear me!"
+
+But Valentine reflected that he too had recommended his affairs to
+God. Had he not said that if he returned safe and sound from the
+battle, it should be a sign that his intention of seeking out his
+beloved in her misery was right and pious? And, lo! the blessing of
+God had followed hard upon his footsteps; he had not only returned
+home safe and sound, but had brought back with him a captive whose
+ransom would enable him to face all manner of unknown perils with
+far more courage than if he only had an empty purse. Therefore he
+impatiently waited for the kinsfolk of his prisoner Achmed to send
+him the ransom from Grosswardein. But it was just at this time that
+Dame Sarah was moving heaven and earth to convert the Turk. Every
+day she read to him extracts from the Gospels, and taught him to
+sing hymns. He had even got so far as to renounce those articles of
+his creed which prohibited the drinking of wine and the eating of
+ham, when he one day put to Dame Sarah the ticklish question,
+whether a converted Turk might not keep all four of his wives? The
+worthy dame smote her hands together in horror.
+
+"What! you have four wives, you d----d Turk? Well, then, you may
+remain in your heathenish faith for all I care. Go with your four
+wives to your Turkish hell, but don't contaminate ours." And with
+that she washed her hands of him altogether.
+
+A few days later the Turk's ransom reached the hands of Captain
+Hommonai, who paid over the money to Valentine, and Achmed was sent
+off to Grosswardein.
+
+So Valentine had at last enough money to carry out what he had so
+long been brooding over.
+
+His first step was to beg Captain Hommonai for a short furlough for
+himself and his comrade Simplex, which furlough he very easily
+obtained, inasmuch as my lord count was just then in the middle of
+his honeymoon, and therefore ill disposed to engage in martial feats
+for some time to come. The Turks also were keeping very quiet in
+that part of the country.
+
+The two hundred ducats Valentine already had in his pocket. All that
+he now required for his journey was a good cloth mantle, a stout ax,
+a flask, and a knapsack.
+
+It was also of no small assistance to our two honest comrades that
+the general ordered the squadron of cavalry to which they belonged
+to proceed to Onod (which was half-way to Zeb), for Valentine was
+thereby able to conceal from his mother the fact that he had
+obtained leave of absence. So they reached Onod safely, and thence
+made their way across country to seek Michal.
+
+Yet the prayers of Dame Sarah were more efficacious than the
+resolutions of the two friends, for as they were passing through the
+Onod forest, out of the bushes sprang twelve of those miscreants who
+then pursued the accursed trade of kidnaping Christian men and women
+in order to sell them to the Turks. Valentine indeed made a good
+fight for it, and broke no end of jaws and noses; but at last he was
+overpowered by numbers. Then the robbers gagged him, and tied him
+with his comrade to a tree, and naturally left him very little of
+the two hundred ducats which they found upon his person. Then they
+separated to seek fresh booty. In the evening they returned with a
+woman and a young girl, and at dusk they tied the captives to their
+saddles and haled them away.
+
+Thus Dame Sarah's pious wish that her son Valentine might light upon
+an obstacle which should hinder him at the very outset from pursuing
+his evil way, was exactly fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Wherein is related what very different fates befell
+the two honest comrades.
+
+
+The wicked kidnapers took off all their captives' upper garments,
+leaving them nothing but their shirts and hose to cover their limbs
+with, and drove them in this guise through all the villages they
+came to.
+
+The captive girl had bruised her feet on the stony ways so that it
+was as much as she could do to limp painfully along. Valentine could
+not bear to see the robbers goading the poor child on with their
+whips, as if she were a brute beast, so, as if he had not enough
+wretchedness of his own to carry, he must needs take her on to his
+shoulders and trudge along with her to Eger, where they happened to
+arrive on market day. The slaves were driven straight to the market
+place, where a brisk traffic in oxen, sheep, and buffaloes was going
+on, and one of the accursed robbers blew a hoarse, squeaking fife,
+to advertise his slaves, and after attracting a crowd around them,
+began to praise their good points with a glib tongue. He called
+attention to Valentine's mighty arms as he stood there defiantly
+protruding his broad chest; but as for Simplex, he pulled such
+wretched faces and was so doubled up by his misery, that the robber
+felt bound to flip him now and then with his whip just to put a
+little life into him. The female slaves were treated with even less
+ceremony, for the robber tore the very smocks from their shoulders
+to show the purchasers how smooth their skins were.
+
+First of all the woman and her little daughter were sold. A Mudir
+required them both, so at all events they had the consolation of
+each other's society.
+
+Then there came an under-sized Turkish butcher who dealt in sheep
+flesh, and rejoiced greatly when he learnt from Valentine that he
+was a butcher's assistant. He did not chaffer very long about him,
+but paid the thousand ducats which the robber demanded for
+Valentine, put him in chains, and drove him off, at the same time
+bidding him be of good cheer, as he would be very well treated, have
+enough to eat, and when the vintage time came, might work in the
+vineyards in the open air, and have plenty of sour wine to comfort
+his heart with.
+
+But for Simplex no purchaser could be found. They all looked at his
+hands, which were quite smooth and soft, for how could trumpet
+blowing make them hard? Nobody would have him. In vain did the
+robber make him dance at the end of a rope like a bear, and cry
+continually:
+
+"Buy! buy! Who'll buy this _giaour_?"
+
+At last, finding that no one would buy him, he led him to the
+fortress to the pasha. There the Muteshin came to meet him, and the
+robber said that he had brought him a captive soldier, for all
+captive soldiers had to be handed over to the pasha, who made an
+immense profit out of them by buying them dirt-cheap and then
+reselling them to their friends at fancy prices. The Muteshin,
+therefore, paid the robber forty ducats down for Simplex, one of
+which the godless wretch gave to the poor captive as a sort of
+parting gift.
+
+Simplex was then sent straight to the smithy, and there such heavy
+fetters were fastened to his legs that he could scarcely drag them
+along. After that they stuck him in a subterranean dungeon, already
+occupied by some fifty other persons, who said very little to each
+other, but squatted on the floor, as near as they could get to the
+narrow, single window, and carved pipes, plaited scourges, or wove
+Turkish girdles in order to earn a few aspers. Many of them,
+however, lay against the wall as if they were sick, and these had
+their feet tied up. A barber came down to them in the morning and
+evening to change their bandages, and rub their wounded soles with
+soothing salves.
+
+Simplex asked them what long journeys they had been taking to make
+the soles of their feet so sore. One of them answered:
+
+"Just wait a bit. It will be your turn soon to take the same journey
+and find out where Bambooland lies."
+
+And, indeed, before the week was out, Simplex's curiosity was
+satisfied, and he had no need to bother his head about the matter
+any more.
+
+When his turn came he was led to the Kaimakan.
+
+The Kaimakan was a fat-faced, big-bellied man who loved his joke. He
+was smoking a pipe with a very long stem, and sat with crossed legs
+on a bright carpet.
+
+He addressed Simplex most affably, called him "my dear son!" and
+asked whence he was, who his relations were, how much property he
+had, and where his estate lay.
+
+Simplex gave him the same answer which he had given to the robber
+captain, Janko. He said that he was a poor orphan.
+
+At this the Kaimakan fairly screamed with laughter.
+
+"Ha! ha! Of course! of course! Just as if you had got it all up. All
+the lot of you answer like that when the question is first put to
+you. I know! I know! You have neither father nor mother, don't even
+know where you were born, are as poor as a church mouse, carry your
+house on your shoulders, your bread in your breast, and begging is
+your trade. 'Tis the usual answer to the first question, but we'll
+now see what you've got to say to the second question."
+
+He gave a nod, and four soldiers instantly threw Simplex to the
+ground. Two of them tied his feet together and hoisted them up with
+a cord till the soles pointed heavenwards, whereupon the other two
+so belabored them with bamboo sticks, that Simplex, in reply to the
+continually reiterated questions, confessed that he was a prince,
+that his father was the Doge of Venice, and his godfather the King
+of Poland, and that they would certainly send, on application, his
+weight in gold by way of ransom.
+
+At this the soles of his feet were belabored still more--poor
+Simplex really thought his last hour had come.
+
+Then followed the third examination. The Kaimakan ordered poor
+Simplex's swollen and lacerated soles to be well rubbed with
+soothing balsam, told the soldiers to give him a cooling drink, and
+then began to address him still more amicably.
+
+"Look now, my dear son! Why talk such nonsense? Why say at one
+moment that you are a poor orphan, and the next that you are a
+prince? Surely there must be someone in the wide world who would
+give something to save your skin, some good friend or other who
+would pay your ransom for you? Just reflect a moment! Surely we
+don't ask so very much?"
+
+Then it occurred to Simplex that he had one good friend, only
+unfortunately this friend had also fallen into captivity at Eger,
+where a butcher had purchased him; if he were in a position to buy
+his friend off he would certainly do so.
+
+"Oh, come, now! there's sense in that. And what kind of
+master-butcher is it, then, who purchased your friend?"
+
+"He has a blistered face."
+
+Now as there was no less than thirty and three butchers in Eger
+whose faces had all been blistered by the fly bites which are part
+and parcel of their trade, the Kaimakan summoned them all to the
+fortress, so that Simplex might pick out the right one.
+
+He selected Valentine's master, Ibrahim.
+
+The Kaimakan ordered Ibrahim to bring his slave thither forthwith.
+
+Worthy Valentine was horrified when he saw his poor Simplex in such
+a condition.
+
+"Poor Simplex! in what misfortune have you not been plunged on my
+account! I am much better off, for I have a mild sort of master who
+lets no one beat me but himself, and uses not a stick but a thong of
+hippopotamus leather."
+
+"But why do you endure it? Why don't you write to your mother to
+ransom you?"
+
+"I have written to her and prayed her to send the ransom for us
+both, nor had I long to wait for an answer. She says she is quite
+ready to pay down the ransom, but only on condition that I
+henceforth become her slave, do everything she commands, go
+nowhither without her knowledge and consent, never consort with you
+again, and utterly forget her whom I love most of all in the world,
+otherwise she'll leave me in the hands of the Turks."
+
+"And what answer did you make?"
+
+"I wrote to her: 'God bless you, my dear mother, but I prefer to
+remain where I am, for I'll never forget my beloved, even in death,
+nor deny my faithful comrade, whom I have sworn to stand by as long
+as I live.'"
+
+"Bravo, Valentine!" cried Simplex; then snapping his fingers at the
+Kaimakan, "your servant, Pasha! Now I'll go back to prison again.
+When the soles of my feet are healed, you can begin the examination
+over again, if you like!"
+
+So Simplex was carried back to his dungeon, and there he had leisure
+to learn to make Turkish lace at an asper an ell, and reflect what
+an absurd sort of destiny it is when a man is beaten on the soles of
+his feet because his friend is enamored of a woman who can never be
+his.
+
+Meanwhile the wounds on the soles of his feet began to heal, but
+that was no consolation to him, for he had been told beforehand that
+as soon as he was able to stand upright he would again be
+cross-examined. There were many among the prisoners who had been
+tortured in this way three or four times. The Turks called it
+"negotiating." He who offered little, got much.
+
+At last the day arrived when he had again to go before the Kaimakan.
+He knew it twenty-four hours in advance, for the prisoners who were
+to be examined got nothing to eat the day before. Bamboo is less
+injurious when taken on an empty stomach.
+
+Simplex was all of a tremble when he entered the antechamber. The
+Kaimakan was sitting on his carpet, and on a low table before him
+steamed a dish of pilaf, that is, sheep's flesh mixed with rice;
+beside him lay two bamboo canes.
+
+"Ah! Come hither, my son, and choose," said the Kaimakan to the
+trembling wretch, "which you will have: this dish of pilaf or a
+hundred strokes on the soles of your feet with these two bamboos?
+Don't tremble, but choose whichever you like. Here are paper, ink,
+and pens, write me out a receipt. If you want pilaf, write that you
+have received pilaf; but if you choose stripes, acknowledge that
+you've had stripes."
+
+Simplex did not understand it at all. He could not see the point of
+the Kaimakan's joke. But he did not want the bastinado again, and
+the pilaf pleasantly tickled his nostrils. So he did not take long
+to make up his mind, but sat down and consumed the pilaf to the very
+last morsel. It pleases the Turks when one does not despise their
+favorite dishes. Simplex knew that.
+
+"Now, my son," said the Kaimakan, when Simplex had finished, "now
+write that I have this day regaled you with pilaf instead of bamboo,
+and address your letter to your dear comrade, the honorable, noble,
+and valiant Valentine Kalondai, that accursed, unbelieving dog who
+has not only freed himself from captivity without a ransom, but has
+taken his master, the sheep butcher, along with him to Onod, and now
+he offers him in exchange for you, and threatens to requite his
+prisoner good or evil, according as you are treated here."
+
+So Simplex had to testify in writing that the Turks had shown him
+all possible kindness. Then the fetter was taken off one foot and
+fastened to his girdle as a sign that he was half free; but he had
+to go about with the chain on the other foot till his good friend
+came to take it off.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The story now to be related very much resembles the
+story of Joseph and Potiphar, but not quite,
+inasmuch as it is not Joseph, but Potiphar, who is
+finally cast into prison.
+
+
+It will be worth the trouble to listen how Valentine escaped from
+captivity. It is a wondrous story, though perfectly true, for
+Simplex records it in his memoirs.
+
+Valentine's master, the mutton salesman, had a beautiful vineyard,
+and in the vineyard a pretty wooden hut which, being a Turk, he
+called his kiosk.
+
+As the vintage time drew near, the Turk went every day into his
+vineyard, and made his slave accompany him.
+
+The rain had very much damaged the garden paths, and he was anxious
+to have them put right again. He dare not trust the work to an
+ordinary day laborer, as such people generally require to be paid
+and eat the grapes as well; but his slave he could command to work
+for nothing, and let him touch a single berry if he dared! And at
+the end of every day's work he said to him: "Show me your tongue!"
+for the Eger grapes are so black that they dye the tongues of those
+who eat of them. Poor Valentine was often sick with longing, as he
+stood breaking stones in the melting heat with thousands of lovely
+grapes smiling on every side of him, and he was unable to pluck one
+of them!
+
+Meanwhile his master would be sitting in the kiosk, and as the Turks
+are forbidden by their religion to drink wine publicly, he only
+drank on the sly, with not a human soul to keep him company.
+
+Now the Turk had a very beautiful slave, or wife, which with the
+Moslems is pretty much the same thing. She was called Jigerdilla,
+which signifies "the piercer of hearts." She was a Circassian. He
+had purchased her at Buda from a slave-dealer who had brought a
+whole shipload of female slaves from Stamboul. The only difference
+between a wife and a slave is that the slave works, the wife
+doesn't; Jigerdilla did not work.
+
+The Turkish damsel had, from the very first, taken a fancy to the
+handsome, stately Hungarian whom her husband had brought into the
+house as a slave; but it was impossible to begin to intrigue with
+him there, because too many eyes were on the watch. But whenever she
+followed her husband into the vineyard, she could speak more freely
+with Valentine, especially when the meat seller had so well applied
+himself to the good red wine that they had to prop him up between
+them all the way.
+
+Kermes Ibrahim--the butcher was called Kermes from his red
+beard--used sometimes bid his slave sing while he worked, not only
+because singing makes a man work lustily, but also, and especially,
+because he would thereby be preserved from the temptation of
+plucking the grapes. No man can sing and eat at the same time.
+
+Sometimes, when Ibrahim was overpowered by sleep and lay stretched
+out full length on his carpet, Jigerdilla would join in Valentine's
+songs, and it is no small encouragement on a lady's part when she
+accompanies a gentleman's song with her own voice.
+
+But as soon as Jigerdilla began to accompany his songs, Valentine
+stopped short.
+
+"Why do you leave off?" she asked him.
+
+"Because you've begun, and I'm afraid you'll awaken Ibrahim, and
+he'll beat me for it."
+
+"Fear nothing! Ibrahim sleeps soundly. I have mixed opium with his
+tobacco. If you fired off cannons close to his ear he would not
+awake. We might kiss each other over his body, and still he would
+not awake."
+
+Valentine made as though he did not understand.
+
+Then Jigerdilla began to sing a popular ballad all about love. Even
+in those times such ditties used to be sung, but on the sly, in the
+woods or the meadows; for within the walled cities the clergy
+forbade them, preached whole series of sermons against them, called
+them "flower songs," said that they only served to corrupt good
+manners.
+
+And it certainly is very strange what liberties are taken in
+singing. If a gentleman said to a pretty woman in simple prose, "My
+dear, prithee give me a couple of kisses!" she would, there and
+then, give him an answer with her hand which would make his eyes
+flash fire; but if he sang the self-same sentence in an elegant
+manner, the lady would forthwith sit her down at the piano and play
+the accompaniment. And, again, if a pretty woman were to say to a
+gentleman, in the presence of her husband, "Taste and see how sweet
+my kiss is!" the husband would instantly cry vengeance, and send for
+sword and pistols; but when madame sings the same words in a fine
+soprano voice before a whole roomful of people, the husband himself
+is the first to applaud and cry, "Da capo!"
+
+And Jigerdilla could sing those enticing songs so seductively that
+it was impossible to listen to her and remain cold.
+
+But Valentine manfully hardened his heart, and would not accompany
+her.
+
+"Can't you sing these songs, then?" asked Jigerdilla derisively.
+
+"I know one or two of them, and have sung them quite often enough.
+It was for nothing but that that I was expelled from college. But I
+have vowed that not a single flower song shall cross my lips so long
+as I am in captivity."
+
+The Turk had in his garden a fine and costly plum tree, and in those
+days plum trees were accounted curiosities. The fruit upon it was
+round and red as a rose. Gardeners call them bonameras.
+
+Ibrahim was proud of this tree. He had told Valentine beforehand,
+that if he dared to pluck a single plum, he would break every bone
+in his body. He had destined all the fruit for the table of the
+pasha.
+
+One afternoon, Jigerdilla again accompanied her lord into the
+garden. She again mingled opium with his tobacco so as to make him
+dead-drunk, and then, as Valentine still refused to sing a flower
+song with her, she threw herself on the grass in a pet, and
+pretended to fall asleep.
+
+The sun was shining fiercely, and so great was Valentine's thirst
+that his tongue cleaved to the very roof of his mouth. The grapes he
+dare not touch, for their juice left a black stain behind it, but
+the rosy red plums smiled at him so enticingly. They, at any rate,
+were not numbered. So fancying that no one saw him, he ventured to
+steal up to the tree, drew down a branch, and ate of the plums that
+were reserved for the pasha's table.
+
+"The pasha would get the fever if he ate so many. Why should he have
+them all?"
+
+Suddenly he heard behind him a mocking peal of laughter--Jigerdilla
+had been on the watch all the time--and in his terror he started
+back so violently, that he snapped off the branch of the plum tree
+which he had pulled down toward him.
+
+"Ha, ha, Valentine! Now you can look forward to something pleasant."
+
+Back he went to his work very much ashamed, and he now worked with
+such zeal that he finished in one hour what it usually took him two
+to do. But Jigerdilla gave him no peace. She made ribald songs upon
+him, pelted him with green nuts, and mocked him in all sorts of
+ways.
+
+And Valentine felt just like a child who has been naughty and
+expects to be beaten for it. The Turk had often said that he would
+not give a branch of this tree for a hundred denarii. How many blows
+with a whip would he reckon to a denarius?
+
+When it was evening the butcher awoke. He fell to drinking again,
+and he drank so much that his wife and his slave had to prop him up
+on his way back to the house.
+
+As he passed by the bonamera tree, he perceived that a branch had
+been broken off.
+
+At this sight he immediately became quite sober.
+
+"Who did that?" he roared, tearing his whip from his girdle, while
+his eyes rolled about as if he were the brother of the hippopotamus
+whose hide had supplied the lashes of his whip.
+
+But before Valentine could say a word, Jigerdilla had already
+exclaimed:
+
+"I did it. What does it matter if there be one paltry branch more or
+less?"
+
+The only misfortune which happened in consequence was this: Ibrahim
+raised his whip without more ado, and belabored the back of his dear
+wife with the full force of his fury, and perhaps he would have
+flayed her from her head to her heels had he not accidently stumbled
+and fallen on his nose, when the blood spurted out so violently that
+he had enough to do to stop it till he got home.
+
+But in the meantime, Jigerdilla had endured sufficient stripes to
+convince Valentine that hot indeed must be the passion felt for him
+by this woman, who was ready to take a slave's fault on her own
+shoulders, and suffer the punishment which ought to have been his.
+
+At noon, next day, all three went into the vineyard together.
+
+When Ibrahim had gone to sleep as usual, Jigerdilla called Valentine
+to her.
+
+"I still feel sore from yesterday's stripes," she said. Then she
+gave him a silver box of ointment.
+
+"I can't reach the wounds on my shoulder. Rub them for me with this
+balsam."
+
+With that she let her dress glide down over her shoulders so that
+Valentine could see her naked, snow-white neck and back; but he also
+saw great red wheals, as thick as his finger, stretching right
+across the velvety skin.
+
+Valentine rubbed them well with the fragrant balsam, and then asked
+Jigerdilla if her wounds felt a little easier.
+
+"I should get well much more quickly if only you would kiss them!"
+
+Valentine recoiled at these words.
+
+"How should I kiss the shoulders of a strange woman who is also my
+master's wife?"
+
+"Your master is sleeping, he sees nothing."
+
+"But God sees."
+
+The Turkish lady looked around in astonishment.
+
+"I see no one!"
+
+"God is present everywhere, though invisible."
+
+"If He is invisible, His whip must also be invisible, and He
+therefore cannot beat me with it."
+
+"Nay, but His invisible whip can beat right sorely. Look at me! I
+have not done but only thought of doing something which God
+forbids, and for that one sin I now bear these fetters."
+
+"I would take off your chains every night. I know where Ibrahim
+keeps the keys of them--in his girdle. You shall only be a slave by
+day. At night you shall be free, and the ransom would not be dear,
+we could easily agree about it; you could pay it off in kisses."
+
+"But that would be a sin before God!"
+
+"How can it offend God if a man kisses a woman?"
+
+"Because that would be breaking His commandment, which forbids a man
+to lust after that which belongs to another."
+
+"Come now, tell me!" cried Jigerdilla, suddenly giving another turn
+to the conversation, "how could you quietly look on yesterday, while
+Ibrahim whipped me instead of you? Why did you not seize his arm and
+confess that it was you who did the mischief?"
+
+"I'll tell you why. I did not keep silence for fear of the blows,
+but because I was afraid that Ibrahim would have killed you if I had
+told the truth."
+
+"And what made you fear that Ibrahim would have killed me?"
+
+"Because you took my fault on your shoulders."
+
+"And what conclusion could Ibrahim draw from that?"
+
+But this Valentine would not tell her.
+
+Jigerdilla, however, helped him out.
+
+"He might have thought," continued she, "that I belong more to you
+than to him. And why, indeed, might I not belong wholly to you?"
+
+"Because you are his."
+
+"It is true. He bought me for five hundred ducats; but if you gave
+him one thousand ducats for me he would hand me over to you, for he
+is greedy, and fond of money."
+
+Valentine laughed heartily at these words.
+
+"Whence would a poor devil like me get one thousand ducats?"
+
+"Wait a bit, and I'll tell you something which I've never told to
+anybody else. Sit down by me! Nay! sit so that you can look into my
+eyes. When Ibrahim bought this vineyard, the kiosk already stood
+there, and in the kiosk was an oven. During vintage time, Ibrahim
+often took it into his head to sleep in the open air, and I had to
+bake bread for him. Once, as I was taking the loaves out of the
+oven, I found a ducat sticking to one of them. I said nothing about
+it, but waited till it was night, when I took up a knife and ripped
+up the floor of the oven. The whole of the underlying mortar was
+full of ducats. I suppose that when the town was taken by the Turks,
+some rich proprietor or other hid them there, and afterward perished
+in the war. I did not take away the treasure, but left it there,
+spread fresh mortar over it, and made a fire upon it to burn the
+mortar hard. The treasure is there now. I said nothing to Ibrahim
+about it, for if he got the money he would only drink the more and
+beat me oftener; nay, he would bring fresh wives into the house, and
+I should have trouble and strife enough. So I'll give the whole
+treasure to you. You can then ransom yourself and purchase me, and
+you'll have enough left for both of us to live comfortably
+together."
+
+Valentine was in a sad difficulty. What was he to do? Fate gave him
+the chance of securing a pretty woman and a lot of money besides. At
+last he summoned his religion to his assistance.
+
+"It is impossible, my good lady," said he apologetically; "the men
+of my faith do not buy women with money. No, our women, following
+the bent of their hearts, freely give their hands to the men of
+their own choice. And the men who marry them pay them for their
+devotion, not with gifts and gold, but with equal devotion and
+sympathy."
+
+At these words Jigerdilla smote her hands together.
+
+"Then your religion will suit me very well. If in your country such
+things are not matters of cash and barter, but free-will offerings,
+that is just what I should like. I'll follow you of my own free
+will. I'll fly with you, learn to know your God, go to your church,
+and take in baptism whatever name you like to give me."
+
+Valentine ought to have found the offer very tempting. Had Dame
+Sarah been at his side she would certainly have said:
+
+"Look, my son, now you've got fortune by the forelock, hold on fast
+with both hands and never let go again. You'll get a wondrously
+beautiful young woman, with large black eyes and a small red mouth,
+and a whole oven full of ducats besides; and (which is the main
+thing after all) you'll be saving an erring, unbelieving soul for an
+eternal salvation, and will thus obtain for yourself a claim upon
+Paradise." And it would have been the most natural thing in the
+world to have thought so.
+
+But Valentine was very far indeed from thinking so. So long as the
+image of Michal lived in his heart, he saw in every other woman,
+however beautiful, only an evil spirit of temptation to which one
+has only to say, "Depart hence!" and it will instantly vanish into
+the air.
+
+He loved another.
+
+But he did not tell Jigerdilla so.
+
+Instead of that he pulled a very wry face, bowed himself humbly, and
+said:
+
+"How could I be such a villain as to seduce my master's wife?"
+
+At this, Jigerdilla, fairly beside herself with rage, tore off her
+slipper, struck Valentine in the face, and cried:
+
+"Be off, slave! Take your spade and set about your work!"
+
+Then she covered herself once more with her veil that the bumpkin
+might not see her face again, and her contempt for him was so great
+that she did not even think it worth while to fear that the craven
+would abuse the secret that he had learnt. "He who dare not touch
+his master's wife will certainly never dare to lay a hand on his
+master's treasure."
+
+Then, with a good deal of unnecessary bustle, she bounced out of the
+vineyard, first stopping to bestow on the slumbering Ibrahim a kick
+sufficiently vicious to awaken him.
+
+The Turk, thus roughly aroused from his narcotic sleep, began first
+of all to throw his arms and legs about; then he revolved five or
+six times on his axis, and finally rolled over a little hillock into
+the garden below. There he lay for some time, dreaming on with
+wide-open eyes and addressing the paradisaical shapes which the
+opium had conjured up before him. Then he stared blankly into the
+world around him; began blinking with his eyes and plunging with his
+knees, and at last raised himself on his elbows and bellowed for his
+slave.
+
+Valentine hastened up to him.
+
+"Where is my wife?"
+
+"Am I your wife's keeper? Perhaps she has gone home."
+
+"I dreamt that she had been nibbling again at my plums. These women
+are so greedy. But I know that you, Valentine, have not eaten of my
+plums. Nor shall you do so, you dog! These plums are like the fruit
+of the tuba tree which stands in Paradise, and which you can never
+taste, you _giaour_, you swine, you! What have you done with my
+wife? It would be as well if I plucked all these plums and sent them
+to the pasha. What do you think he'll give me for them? Do you think
+that I can climb up that tree? What! I tell you I can fly up it like
+a squirrel."
+
+Opium smokers in their drunken reveries always fancy themselves
+strong and agile. Yet the worthy man could not stand, much less fly.
+
+So Valentine helped Ibrahim to climb the plum tree. The Turk was
+determined to pluck every one of the plums himself; the hand of a
+slave should never profane the dessert of the pasha.
+
+And the poor slave was all the time thinking to himself that when he
+got home with his lord, Jigerdilla would treat him exactly as
+Potiphar's wife treated Joseph. A woman has no need to betake
+herself to the Old Testament to learn how to avenge herself on the
+man who has slighted her advances.
+
+She will certainly get him beaten to death by her husband.
+
+And to make the resemblance between the two cases more complete,
+there was a vision to be interpreted.
+
+"What is the meaning of the dreams I've just been dreaming?" growled
+Ibrahim, in the tree. "I dreamt that a hen pounced down upon an
+eagle and flew away with him--not the eagle with the hen, but the
+hen with the eagle."
+
+"Just you come down from that tree and I'll let you know all about
+it," thought Valentine to himself, and while Ibrahim was plucking
+the plums, he took out of his master's discarded girdle the key of
+his own fetters and quickly freed his feet. Then he planted himself
+close beside the tree.
+
+Ibrahim was so busily engaged in plucking his fruit, and so lost in
+admiration at his beautiful bonameras, that it quite escaped him
+that the sun was going down, and that they had begun to sound the
+retreat in the fortress. Now this signified that everyone was to
+leave off laboring in his field or vineyard, for at the third signal
+the gates were closed, and whoever then remained outside had to stay
+there all night. Only at the third signal did Kermes reflect that it
+was growing late, and begin to climb down from the plum tree. First
+he handed to Valentine the basket-load of bonameras, and then he
+slowly began to let himself down, and begged his slave to help him.
+
+And Valentine did help him, for just when Ibrahim was hanging with
+both hands to a branch between heaven and earth, Valentine threw the
+basket at him, plums and all, tore him to the ground, bound his
+hands to his back, and kicked him into the kiosk. The neighbors
+observed nothing of all this, for they were much too intent upon
+getting to the town themselves before the gates were closed, to
+notice what others were doing.
+
+Valentine next locked the door of the kiosk and set about tearing up
+the mortar flooring.
+
+Jigerdilla had spoken truly; there was no lack of ducats. Valentine
+did not let the opportunity escape him, but swept all the gold
+pieces together and put them into Ibrahim's knapsack. Then he donned
+the Turk's kaftan, turban, and girdle, compelling him to put on his
+own slave's clothes; and when it grew dusk, he threw a rope round
+his neck, and said to him:
+
+"Now we are going to Onod, and if you dare to utter a word by the
+way, I'll break your own ax to pieces over your bald pate!" And as
+Ibrahim Kermes was very anxious about his beautiful ax, and still
+more so about his skull, he allowed himself, with true Mohammedan
+resignation, to be driven through the alley between the vineyards
+into the wood and from thence into the next village. There Valentine
+hired from the Christian magistrate a four-horse wagon, and drove
+with his captive master to Onod, where he arrived early next morning
+safe and sound.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+In which is a very circumstantial, if not very
+pleasant, description of all the conditions to be
+observed in the exchange and purchase of slaves.
+
+
+On arriving at the fortress of Onod, Valentine at once handed over
+his prisoner and the money he had brought with him (of course
+deducting the two hundred ducats which the robbers had taken away
+from him) to the Commandant of the fortress, that he might ransom
+therewith the persons who were languishing in the dungeons of Eger,
+and especially the woman and child who had been abducted with him
+and sold at the Eger cattle market. As for the imprisoned butcher,
+he proposed to exchange him for the field-trumpeter, Simplex.
+
+By this noble deed Valentine so completely won the hearts of the
+brave warriors of Onod, that they made him a corporal on the spot.
+Moreover, the liberated lady also visited him with her daughter,
+expressed her thanks by kissing his hands and embracing his feet,
+informed him that she was a rich proprietress, and insisted upon
+giving him her daughter to wife as soon as she had reached maturity,
+the young lady at present being only twelve years of age.
+
+Valentine thanked her for her offer, but begged her to bring up her
+daughter for some other more fortunate mortal. Who could tell where
+his bones might be bleaching in five or six years' time?
+
+It was only pretty Michal that he had always in his thoughts.
+
+He could scarcely wait for Simplex to appear, so impatient was he to
+set out with him to discover Michal.
+
+But the ransom of the prisoners did not go off so smoothly after
+all. The Kaimakan of Eger wrote to the Commandant of Onod that he
+did not consider the Eger butcher worth four hundred gulden, the
+amount of the trumpeter's ransom. There were still two and thirty
+butchers at Eger, and therefore he would not give more than two
+hundred gulden for this particular butcher. If the other two hundred
+gulden were not paid in cash, the whole of the Christian prisoners
+at Eger should suffer for it on the soles of their feet. Annexed to
+the Kaimakan's letter was a heart-rending petition from the
+Christian prisoners, in which they implored the Commandant to
+fulfill the desire of the Kaimakan for their sakes.
+
+The Commandant of Onod thereupon fetched out of prison the six and
+twenty Turks who were in captivity there, and made them address a
+solemn memorial to the Kaimakan of Eger, whom they piteously
+besought not to bastinado the Christian captives, as in such a case
+they, the Turkish captives, would be visited with still more
+grievous torments.
+
+The principal sufferers, however, were the two prisoners who were to
+be exchanged, and from whom both sides tried to extort as much as
+possible, so that in their mutual distress they grew quite fond of
+each other.
+
+At last Valentine sent the extra two hundred gulden, and both
+Simplex and the Turkish butcher were escorted to Eger with fetters
+on only one leg. There the Kaimakan received his gold and the
+butcher his wife. Ibrahim Kermes celebrated his liberation with a
+banquet, to which Simplex was also invited, and regaled with mutton
+in twelve different editions. Finally, Ibrahim presented him with a
+pair of red morocco slippers, while Jigerdilla sent Valentine a
+couple of superfine laced pocket-handkerchiefs, with initials
+embroidered in the four corners in Turkish letters, and wet with the
+tears from her lovely eyes at the recollection of him.
+
+But Ibrahim Kermes swore by the beard of the Prophet that he would
+never again buy a Calvinist _giaour_ as a slave, even if he could
+get him for a single denarius.
+
+And now, after all this, it is high time that Valentine set out to
+seek his unhappy Michal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Is full of good tidings, inasmuch as it treats of
+the discomfiture of evil-doers.
+
+
+Simplex had quite won Valentine's heart by warning him of the
+dangers threatening his sweetheart which he had overheard in the
+robber's camp. It is true he did not tell him the whole truth for
+fear of frightening him too much, or even making him lose courage
+altogether. But so much he did tell him: that Catsrider, instead of
+taking his Michal to the parsonage which, as a curer of souls, he
+ought to have occupied, had remained in his father's house, where
+they had treated Michal very cruelly. But he added that, sooner or
+later, the robbers would destroy the house, and then Michal had a
+most terrible fate to expect.
+
+"What shall I do? Merciful Heaven, what shall I do?" groaned poor
+Valentine.
+
+"My dear fellow," said Simplex, "what you have to do is perfectly
+plain. You must carry off your beloved from the place at once."
+
+"But that would be a sin against God."
+
+"Yet you'll do it all same. Just you come along with me. One word
+with her, one look at her, and I'm sure you'll do what I've said."
+
+"God preserve me from so great a sin."
+
+"Now just listen to me. I'm a Lutheran. I don't believe in
+predestination. But you are a Calvinist. You are bound to believe in
+it. You know for certain that everything which happens, or may
+happen to you, is already recorded in a great book which has been
+written before the beginning of the world. Your will can alter
+nothing therein, and if it is recorded of you that you must die on
+the top of a mountain, and you don't go up the mountain, the summit
+will come down to you and place itself beneath your feet. I say you
+have only got to take the first step, and all the other steps will
+follow as a matter of course. If you resolve to see your beloved,
+you will never leave her again, but will bring her back with you,
+though you walked in the shadow of the gallows all the way along. If
+all this had not been preordained, you would have remained at home
+and married Kitty Furmender."
+
+They were discoursing thus as they proceeded along the highway,
+provided this time with such good weapons that not every kidnaper of
+slaves would have cared to attack them. But as far as these
+waylayers were concerned, they felt themselves pretty safe, for they
+had chosen not the Kassa road but the Gauz road, and such abductors
+very seldom ventured on the left bank of the Hernad, because the
+river is liable to overflow, and thus often prevents them from
+escaping when hard pressed by pursuers.
+
+What our wanderers really had to fear were the ordinary robber bands
+who terrorized those regions, and whose exact whereabouts could only
+be learnt by experience; for these bandits were here, there, and
+everywhere, and very often broke into Poland, where they were
+naturally as welcome guests as here in Transylvania.
+
+Simplex undertook to find out all about the robbers from the
+frequenters of the fairs, who were generally best informed on the
+subject. His friend he left at an inn in the meantime.
+
+When he returned, his face was beaming with joy.
+
+"Didn't I say that we were Fortune's own children? Didn't you come
+into the world in a caul, Valentine? The town is full of joy. All
+three robber bands have been captured. They fell into an ambuscade
+while on their way to plunder the Iglo fair. Three counties and the
+Imperial soldiers were banded together for the occasion. They drove
+them out of their rocky lairs, occupied every point of exit, and at
+last the robbers ran short of powder, and all who had not already
+fallen surrendered. The haughty Hafran and the cruel Bajus were
+taken alive. Their comrades, to obtain a pardon, delivered them up
+bound hand and foot. But most wonderful of all is Janko's story. It
+was I who contributed to his overthrow. The pursuers were unable to
+lay hands upon him, for when he saw himself abandoned by his own
+people and surrounded on every side, he cut down a pine tree and
+glided with it over a rocky precipice; then he climbed up another
+steep rock like a wild cat, so that no one could come up with him.
+Yet he was taken after all, and he has a woman to thank for it. He
+had sent a message through me to the wife of the kopanitschar of
+Hamar (and I passed it on to an oil merchant) that she should treat
+him friendly when he next came to her, but that her husband should
+not show his face at all. Now, when he saw himself so hotly pursued,
+Janko fled straight to the kopanitschar's wife, who is his
+sweetheart. The woman received him with open arms, made him a great
+feast, and they were right merry together. Wine flowed all night,
+and a couple of bagpipers played the music by turns. They soon got
+tired of playing, but Janko never tired of dancing. He drank on to
+midday, and was in such high good-humor that he did not know what to
+do with himself. At last he scattered handfuls of gold among the
+gaping peasantry, and while they were fighting for it among
+themselves, he went out into the fields, declaring that whosoever
+dared to follow him would be a dead man. And, indeed, no one had the
+courage to follow him but one man, and that man was the
+kopanitschar.
+
+"Janko had looked for him all night long in order to kill him, but
+he had remained concealed in a hayrick till midday. At midday, he
+crept out of his hiding-place and went to look for Janko. He had no
+other weapon but a long, two-pronged wooden fork, which they use in
+those parts to toss hay.
+
+"And he found Janko stretched out at full length in the meadow, and
+fast asleep. The kopanitschar caught him round the neck between the
+prongs of the fork, and pinned him fast to the ground. The terrible
+robber was caught and quite harmless. In vain he roared and cursed;
+the kopanitschar's iron fist and wooden fork held him down till the
+rest mustered up sufficient courage to hasten up and secure him.
+
+"To-morrow the whole three of them will be executed at Eperies, and
+we will be there to see it all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Wherein is related what end was reserved for the
+evil-doers by way of deterrent example, which
+example, however, only distressed the soft-hearted
+without terrifying the stiff-necked.
+
+
+"I won't be there to see it," said Valentine to Simplex. "A shudder
+runs through my whole body when I think of a man torturing another.
+If a man were to beat, tweak, or flay me, I should only laugh at it;
+but when I see one man tormenting another, it makes my blood boil. I
+feel no dizziness when I stand on the edge of the loftiest
+precipice, but when I see another hovering over the abyss, I am
+beside myself with terror. I am amazed that there should be people
+who delight in watching the bloody scenes on the scaffold. The
+battlefield is quite another thing. There you fight man to man;
+there you do not hear the cries of the dying. The death I deal to
+one man, another man may at any moment deal to me. But I won't see
+men who are bound hand and foot tortured to death; I won't hear them
+shriek with anguish beneath the hand of the headsman."
+
+"You'll go, notwithstanding," returned Simplex. "As I've already
+said, if you are a true Calvinist, you'll resign yourself to
+predestination, and must not say: 'I'll go hither, or, I'll go
+thither!' You will do what it was preordained you should do at the
+beginning of the world, and the place you are now going to is the
+town of Eperies, and the market place in that town."
+
+And it all happened exactly as Simplex said. For they had no sooner
+stepped out of the tavern than they were stopped by a patrol of
+drabants, who learning that they were soldiers, showed them the
+mandate of the Commandant of Eperies, whereby all the soldiers on
+leave in the district were ordered to Eperies, to remain in the
+market place during the day, so that the people might not disturb
+the execution of the law's sentence, or the comrades of the robbers
+release them by a sudden and audacious onslaught.
+
+So Valentine had to march to Eperies, with the other men-at-arms,
+whether he liked it or not.
+
+Crowds of people were pouring into the town that day, from all
+quarters, as if a great banquet were to be given, or a lord
+lieutenant installed--gentlemen in coaches or on horseback, peasants
+sitting ten in a wagon, students, apprentices, peddlers,
+sacred-image sellers, and deceivers of all sorts.
+
+Simplex and Valentine were sent on by wagon the same night to
+Eperies, where they arrived at dawn next morning.
+
+At that time, Eperies no longer presented the smiling aspect of half
+a century before. The internecine disorders, the religious
+discussions, the ravages of robbers, had laid bare the whole region.
+The stumps of trees and wildering weeds were all that remained of
+the orchards which had once encircled the city walls, and whole rows
+of ruined pleasure houses were left to tell what a merry life had
+once been there.
+
+Instead of the fine old plum and lordly apple trees quite another
+sort of grove had grown up around the bastions--a ghastly grove of
+gaunt, withered trees, laden with sad fruits, a wood of gallowses,
+wheels, and spikes, on which the bones of criminals were rotting.
+The three captured robber bands had largely contributed to this
+gruesome grove. The lesser fry, the receivers of stolen goods, and
+the women who had brought the robbers' powder from the town, had
+been executed outside the trenches, three days before; only for the
+three robber chieftains was reserved the supreme distinction of
+being done to death _within_ the walls. One could not make too sure
+of them.
+
+In the great square, where the townhall and the large covered market
+stand opposite to each other, that terrible edifice, generally
+called the scaffold, had been raised. It towered high up and could
+only be ascended by ladders, which the headsman's apprentices, when
+they went to work, drew up after them so that none might follow. In
+the middle of the scaffold stood a broad block against which heavy
+wheels were leaning. On each side of the block two thick stakes were
+fastened with heavy dependent chains, the links of which could be
+locked and unlocked. From the top of each of these stakes projected
+huge forks with bars across them and hooks hanging down from the
+bars.
+
+In front of the townhall a dais had been erected for the convenience
+of the sheriffs, mayor, and town councilors. A guard of honor stood
+in front of the dais, and the scaffold was environed by soldiers
+three deep. Valentine tried to get into the hindermost row. He
+wanted to see as little as possible of the terrible spectacle.
+Simplex stood by his side, so as to be at hand in case his friend
+was taken ill. The great square was filled with a gaping crowd. At
+the windows stood or sat gayly dressed women, just as if a Corpus
+Christi procession were about to pass. The very roofs of the houses
+were covered with human heads. Booths had been erected in the market
+place, where cakes and mead were offered for sale, steaks basted,
+and pancakes tossed in large pans. The biographies of the robbers,
+printed on coarse paper with red frontispieces, were also hawked
+about.
+
+Conspicuous among the itinerant gypsies and peddlers was a woman who
+offered for sale long thongs fastened to the end of a stick, and was
+particularly importunate with Simplex.
+
+"Come Mr. Trumpeter, won't you buy a thong made out of the skin
+flayed from the robbers' backs?"
+
+Simplex at once recognized the voice; it was Pirka the witch. So
+under the pretext of chaffing with her, he at once entered into a
+conversation.
+
+"What are these thongs of human skin good for?"
+
+"They are good against the plague and falling sickness. They also
+keep wild beasts away, and compel the most stubborn of sweethearts
+to surrender."
+
+"And how much are they apiece?"
+
+"Four thalers."
+
+But Valentine could stand it no longer.
+
+"Don't be a fool," said he to Simplex, "she's cheating you. Those
+thongs of fool leather, you'll get them from the farriers for a
+penny apiece."
+
+"That's all you know about it, Mr. Corporal," cried the witch,
+gnashing her teeth; "my husband is not a knacker who flays horses,
+but a headsman who flays men."
+
+Valentine shuddered, and spat on the ground.
+
+"Then if your wares be really genuine, they are doubly loathsome. Be
+off with you!"
+
+Simplex gave Pirka a nudge with his elbow and pointed at Valentine
+with a wink, whereupon Pirka looked slyly askance at him, and
+arching her elbows and screwing up her mouth, said to Valentine:
+
+"Well, well, Mr. Corporal, for all your fine airs you'll be glad
+enough before long to take something from me which comes through the
+headsman's hands."
+
+Simplex trod on her foot to make her hold her tongue, and then they
+began talking together in a low voice, as if they were only haggling
+about the thongs.
+
+The next moment Pirka had as completely vanished as if the earth had
+swallowed her up.
+
+When the clock in the townhall tower struck eight, the bells of the
+Franciscan convent close by began to ring, the roll of drums was
+heard proceeding from the courtyard, and the sad procession appeared
+in the market place.
+
+First came the magistrates, who ascended the cloth-laid steps of the
+dais, on the top of which the town-clerk recited the sentence aloud.
+Then came the guards, sword in hand, and between them the three
+delinquents, each of whom had a cord round his neck, the end of
+which was held by one of the headsman's apprentices. Last of all
+came the headsman, the old vihodar himself, on a white horse,
+dressed in a long red mantle half covering his steed; a black
+biretta with a red plume covered his head, and he held a naked sword
+in his right hand. Two of his henchmen led the horse. Behind him
+marched eight apprentices, who brought with them a whole arsenal of
+instruments of torture.
+
+Valentine turned his head aside in order to see nothing of all this.
+Had he but looked, he would certainly have recognized _one_ of the
+headsman's assistants.
+
+The mob saluted the robbers with a fearful howl, which they answered
+with hideous curses. But their filthiest imprecations were hurled at
+the women among the spectators, who were ready to sink into the
+ground for shame.
+
+All three delinquents bore traces of torture on their bodies. They
+were covered with burns and sores. Yet they showed no signs of
+weakness. On the contrary, they greeted the old vihodar with wild
+laughter, and scornfully challenged him to show them of his skill.
+
+He coolly tossed the scarlet mantle from his shoulders, and in a low
+voice distributed his commands to the apprentices, who were already
+assembled on the scaffold.
+
+The mob set up a frightful yell at the sight of the grim, stalwart
+graybeard, to which he responded with a mock bow like a stage hero.
+
+He opened the proceedings with Bajus.
+
+Valentine had no need to stop his ears, for Bajus never uttered a
+sound. Not a sigh escaped him. The people all round whispered to one
+another in shuddering awe. The robber's cold contempt of death, and
+the calmness with which he endured all manner of tortures, raised
+him in their eyes to the rank of a hero.
+
+In the deep stillness which prevailed, nothing was to be heard but
+the droning of the heavy wheel.
+
+It was all over with Bajus.
+
+The next in order was the haughty Hafran.
+
+With him the bloody drama took quite another turn.
+
+The vihodar's assistants had sufficed for the first robber. He
+himself had only given his directions in a low voice. But honor
+constrained him to cope personally with the second robber.
+
+Hafran was a frantic devil. He howled curses at the vihodar and
+overwhelmed him with insults. He told him to his face that he was a
+clumsy bungler.
+
+Then the old vihodar took his biretta from his head, doffed his
+coat, and set about accomplishing his masterpiece.
+
+The spectators had reason to be satisfied with both performers. The
+old vihodar exhausted all his skill upon the robber, and the robber
+never ceased hurling defiance at the vihodar. They cursed and
+reviled each other like devils. The robber laughed at all the
+torments, and infuriated the vihodar by asking him derisively when
+he was going to begin. The vihodar was quite beside himself for
+rage, and excelled himself in the invention of fresh torments. Every
+time he produced a fresh instrument of torture, he asked the robber
+how the entertainment pleased him.
+
+The Franciscan monk who was on the scaffold to afford the
+delinquents the last consolations of religion, tried to pacify them
+both, and begged them for Heaven's sake to leave off cursing; but
+neither paid the slightest attention to him. The robber had the last
+word. Even when he was so mangled and mutilated that he no longer
+resembled anything human, even then he howled words of scorn in the
+face of his tormentor. At last they plunged a hook into his side and
+hoisted him aloft, and even then he showered down insults upon all
+the women present at the bloody spectacle, till at last he gave up
+his unconquerable spirit, which had surely made some mistake in
+choosing a simple human body for its earthly dwelling-place.
+
+The old vihodar was ashamed. He felt that this heroic resistance had
+very considerably impaired his prestige in the opinion of the
+people. This blot upon his escutcheon must be wiped off.
+
+The third robber chieftain, Janko, still remained. He should serve
+to restore the honor of the vihodar.
+
+The old vihodar proposed to do great things with him. He had the
+fetters removed from the feet of the delinquent, and would not even
+allow him to be bound to the stake.
+
+"We will have a dance together!" said he to Janko.
+
+That word was the death of him.
+
+The next moment, such a yell of horror burst forth from the crowd
+that even Valentine's curiosity was aroused. He looked toward the
+scaffold, and what he saw there really was astounding.
+
+Janko, the mighty leaper, the instant his chains were taken from his
+feet, had sprung upon the vihodar, pressed down his chest with his
+knees, and bit him in the neck exactly on the spot where the great
+jugular artery is. This he bit clean through, and--as if to justify
+the fable, that whomsoever Janko bit with his envenomed fangs was a
+child of death--the old vihodar fell to the ground like a log of
+wood, and when the apprentices sprang forward to tear the delinquent
+away from him, the headsman was already dead.
+
+This incident so revolted Valentine that he reeled, and clinging
+tightly to Simplex, stammered: "I really believe I am going to
+faint."
+
+"Hold up a little bit longer!" whispered Simplex in his ear.
+
+As soon as the people learnt that Janko had killed the vihodar with
+a single bite, a fearful tumult arose.
+
+Everyone began to applaud the delinquent and cry: "Vivat Janko,"
+while they pelted the headsman's assistants with stinking eggs and
+rotten apples.
+
+At last the blare of trumpets and the roll of kettle-drums drowned
+the voice of the mob, and the sheriff arose on the dais and declared
+that despite the unhappy accident which had befallen the old
+vihodar, the execution of the law's sentence must proceed
+notwithstanding. The young master, the son of the vihodar, was
+there, and he was to do his duty, and that at once.
+
+The uproar ceased and the crowd in intense expectation looked toward
+the scaffold for the new performer to appear. It was plain, from the
+deep silence that now ensued, that the newcomer had something to
+say.
+
+Valentine kept his eyes closed. He was deeply agitated. Had he not
+been in the ranks he would have run away.
+
+And now, in the midst of the general silence, he heard the young
+master addressing the people:
+
+"This evil-doer who has killed my father is not worthy to be put out
+of the world by a human hand in a human way."
+
+Valentine listened in amazement. That voice was familiar to his ear.
+It seemed to him as if he had once heard it from the pulpit.
+
+But the other proceeded:
+
+"There is a mode of execution used in distant Abyssinia, where the
+black skins of evil-doers are insensible to ordinary torture. They
+are sewn alive in fresh buffalo hides and hung in the sun. So soon
+as the hide begins to dry and shrink, the evil-doers learn to sing a
+veritable song of hell. That is the way in which I mean to execute
+this delinquent."
+
+"What's that?" cried Valentine, "whose voice is that? Who but one
+that has attended the lectures of the learned Professor David
+Frohlich could have heard of this Abyssinian tale? Who is it?"
+
+He looked up and recognized the man in scarlet on the scaffold.
+
+"That is Henry Catsrider, the husband of your Michal!" cried
+Simplex, looking him full in the face.
+
+To Valentine Kalondai it seemed as if everything was turning round
+and round. He staggered, and would have fallen if Simplex had not
+seized him by the arm and led him away. Nobody heeded them. During
+this horrible scene many others, even among the soldiers, had fallen
+senseless to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+In which it is shown not only that Satan is the
+author of all evil, but also that the grisly
+witches, his handmaidens, are always ready with
+their malicious practices to plunge poor mortals
+into utter destruction.
+
+
+Barbara Pirka had run straight home to the lonely house that stood
+outside the walls of Zeb. She knew all the short cuts across the
+mountains, so that she could have given a horseman an hour's start
+and yet have beaten him easily. Night made no difference to her. She
+never lost herself, and wandered fearlessly through the wilderness
+in company with the will-o'-the-wisps and other evil spirits, with
+whom she manifestly stood on the most friendly terms.
+
+The morning light found her at the Girjo kopanitscha. Here the wife
+of the kopanitschar of Hamar kept house alone. Her husband, after
+capturing Janko, had turned her out of doors, and then enlisted in
+the county militia. What else, then, could his wife do but turn
+witch? She had already began her novitiate in the school of Barbara
+Pirka.
+
+"Well, Annie!" cried Barbara on entering, "what do you think?
+To-day, to-morrow, and the day after to-morrow, three livelong days,
+is Janko to be tormented. To-night, however, I bring you guests.
+Make ready a good supper. We shall have music, too, and will hold a
+wake in Janko's honor."
+
+With that she gave the kopanitschar's wife a ducat to provide
+supper, and then taught her the diabolical art of tying knots in
+the entrails of absent foes, so that they may pine away and perish
+miserably. That very night, all the headsman's apprentices were
+seized with cramps in the stomach, and if this was not caused by the
+quantities of sour wine which they had been drinking all day it was
+certainly due to the malpractices of the two hags.
+
+All this time the young wife was sitting in the upper story of the
+headsman's house, absolutely alone. Only two of the apprentices were
+left behind to look after the premises, and they took it in turns to
+keep watch in the tower and guard the drawbridge.
+
+The lonely house was well protected against every attack. Pointed
+stakes, planted at the bottom of the moat encircling the walls, made
+it impossible for anyone to swim over. The narrow windows of the
+massive walls were guarded by strong iron palings and iron
+casements, and two gigantic dogs, which would have tackled the most
+strongly armed intruder, ran loose in the courtyard. Both
+apprentices were armed with muskets, the barrels of which were so
+large that one could have fired whole handfuls of lead out of them
+if necessary.
+
+The young wife was left at home when everyone went to the bloody
+procedure at Eperies. She, indeed, had not the slightest wish to go
+with them. Her soul died away within her at the very thought of the
+frightful things which had such a horrible attraction for other
+women. But her husband, too, had no wish to take her. He was far too
+jealous of her, and however kindly the young woman might treat him,
+he felt that it was deception, every bit of it, and did not trust
+her. Besides, he feared that Valentine Kalondai might be among the
+crowds which flocked from every quarter toward Eperies.
+
+Barbara Pirka was charged to remain at home, and on no account quit
+the house till they all returned. The doorkeepers, too, were to let
+no one in or out, not even Pirka.
+
+As if it were possible to keep a witch under lock and key! She was
+at Eperies before the vihodar and his company, although she did not
+set out till an hour later.
+
+Michal had told Pirka that she should not require her during her
+husband's absence, and might therefore leave her to herself. She
+could cook what she wanted; she had learnt to do so at home. In the
+kitchen was a well from which she could draw water by means of a
+windlass, an iron chain, and two buckets, so she had no occasion to
+go down into the courtyard for water. She could therefore lock all
+the doors behind her (the trellised door leading to the staircase as
+well as the door closing the corridor), and when at night she had
+also barred and bolted the heavy oaken door of the kitchen, she felt
+herself quite secure against all human violence.
+
+All the more defenseless was she against those things which cannot
+be kept out by bolts and bars.
+
+When the ordinary sounds of day had died away in the house, when the
+heavy tread of jack-boots, the rough voices, the filthy jests, the
+hoarse curses of the drunken roysterers, had grown dumb, then the
+intervening silence brought with it those invisible beings who
+announce their presence in whispers, sighs, and groans. In every
+corner she fancied she saw a victim whose blood had grown dry on the
+hands of the inhabitants of that house. She fancied they came forth
+to demand back from her their dissevered lives, to claim for their
+freezing limbs the clothes which the hangman had inherited from
+them. Every shadow appeared to beckon to her. Lifeless objects
+became animated and spoke to her. Behind her back she heard a
+perpetual whimpering and sobbing, and when she stirred the fire the
+moist logs spat and spluttered. There was a buzzing all around her
+like the whirring of cockchafers. When the wind arose, there was a
+howling and groaning all through the house as if whole hosts of
+spirits were haunting it, and they entered visibly into the dreams
+of the poor agonized lady, and drove her toward dizzy abysses with
+their grotesquely hideous faces and mutilated figures.
+
+When, however, she had scared away these imaginary specters, the
+cold and dreary horror of reality swept before her mind in a still
+more terrible shape.
+
+What sort of a life was she leading? She was chained to a man whom
+she loved not when she first married him, but whose very presence
+filled her now with fear and loathing. She had been deceived, most
+cruelly deceived. She had been shut out of the world forever, and
+chained alive to the open gate of hell, where all who entered in
+mocked and gibbered at her with their decapitated heads. She was
+without hope, without the prospect of ever escaping from her prison,
+of ever seeing her fate take a favorable turn, of ever having her
+woes alleviated. She was tortured by the thought that her father had
+forgotten her; but what agonized her still more was the reflection
+that her lover was thinking of her even now, knowing nothing of her
+misery, fancying her happy, and cursing and adoring her at the same
+time.
+
+Then there came to her those evil thoughts which are far more
+terrible than all the pale specters of the tomb and the
+scaffold--doubt in a heavenly Providence, rebellion against human
+morality and human justice. The custom which gave a father a right
+to dispose of the destiny of his child revolted her. She cursed the
+altar before which a man and a woman are bound together with
+inseparable chains. She hated human society, which stifles the
+longings of the heart in the name of respectability. She grew dimly
+conscious that despair might make her wicked, very wicked.
+
+She began to be afraid of herself.
+
+At night she dared not, and indeed had no desire to sleep in her
+bedroom. She loathed the marriage bed, and made for herself a sort
+of couch in the kitchen. The kitchen was her most secure asylum. All
+night long she kept a roaring fire (she could not bear to remain in
+the dark) and on the fire she placed pots of water which she kept
+continually boiling. She had no weapons, and even if she had had
+them what use would they have been in her weak hands? But she
+thought herself quite capable of drenching with boiling water any
+man who dared to approach her.
+
+She had now been shut up alone for five days, and the frightful
+solitude had made her very nervous. Solitary confinement is the
+worst of all torments, it is worse than hunger. She would have felt
+much more comfortable if Pirka had been with her. Even the witch's
+words, with all their devilish insinuations, were better than the
+eternal, ghostly gibbering of the crackling logs, this piping and
+squeaking through doors and window crevices, and this howling in the
+chimney when the wind blew.
+
+On the fifth morning, as she was turning the windlass in order to
+draw water from the kitchen well, the words escaped her:
+
+"Oh, that the devil would bring Pirka hither!"
+
+Scarcely had she said it, when she perceived that the windlass began
+to turn round of its own accord, and from out of the ascending
+bucket rose the bristly, angular form of Barbara Pirka.
+
+Michal cried:
+
+"Jesus, Maria!" and shrieked aloud for terror.
+
+But Pirka laughed, and said to her:
+
+"Ha, ha! my pretty little lady! You can't lock out a witch you see.
+A witch can find her way in through any loophole."
+
+Michal really believed that Pirka had come straight out of the
+water, although her clothes and boots were quite dry.
+
+"Eh, what great supper are we getting ready yonder!" cried Pirka,
+catching sight of the army of pots on the hearth. Then she looked
+into them all, one after the other. "Water, water, nothing but
+boiling water. Well, well! let us put something into one of them
+that we may have a little good broth."
+
+With that she took out of her knapsack a handful of scraps of paper,
+and threw them into the boiling water.
+
+"These are names clipped out of the perpetual almanac," whispered
+she to Michal, with a grin. "The first that comes to the surface
+will be the name of our beloved."
+
+Then she took a ladle, and fished out the first piece of paper which
+appeared on the surface of the boiling water. Michal, she said, was
+to see what was written on it.
+
+Michal took the scrap, and read aloud the name:
+
+"Valentine!"
+
+In her terror she threw it back into the flames.
+
+But the flames, so far from consuming the wet scrap of paper, tossed
+it up into the air, and the name of the beloved one flew up the
+chimney with the smoke.
+
+"It won't burn, ladykin!" laughed Pirka. "Hocus-pocus! there it is
+again!"
+
+And now she had another scrap of paper in her hand, on which was
+also written the word, Valentine!
+
+"Well, and how has my little lady been amusing herself all this
+time?" asked Pirka, stroking pretty Michal's hands. "Has she not
+been wishing that her Pirka was with her again?"
+
+Michal could not deny that she had.
+
+"But those who believe in what the cards say," pursued Pirka,
+somewhat irrelevantly, "must pay for it, and those who do not
+believe must also pay, ay, and much more dearly too."
+
+"Let us see!"
+
+Michal crouched down beside Pirka on the mat, where the witch had
+spread the cards.
+
+"Oh, oh! Great things are in store for us," began Pirka, pointing to
+the cards. "This here is the old vihodar, and that yonder is his
+son. Look, there's a coffin. Death threatens the old vihodar. The
+robbers will kill him."
+
+"What nonsense," interrupted Michal.
+
+"I don't say it. The cards say it. Victory and might await the young
+master. He kills the robber, and will be promoted to his father's
+place."
+
+Michal laughed.
+
+"That is certainly not true. Henry would quit the headsman's trade
+if his father died. He would go to Germany where nobody knows him,
+and try to get a professorship. He has promised me it a hundred
+times."
+
+"Well, well, I know nothing. I only say what the cards say. Look
+now! There is the heart lady! Oh, what a joy awaits her. Her beloved
+is close at hand. That rose means burning love. That dog is
+fidelity. This dove-cot is felicity. This very day she will meet
+him."
+
+"Go along with you, Pirka! It is all nonsense."
+
+"Well, well, my little lady, we shall see. The cards never lie. This
+very night she will see him."
+
+"He is far away; who knows how far?" sighed Michal.
+
+"Yes, but I've a little buck-goat, and when I send him away and say
+to him, 'Go, bring me the pretty youth hither whom my lady dotes
+upon; so true as I came out of that well, my little buck-goat will
+bring the young man hither though he were even on the Turkish
+borders."
+
+Michal began to grow frightened.
+
+"Hither he shall not bring him," cried she.
+
+"No, not into this hideous hole, perhaps, not into the house of the
+vihodar, but into a quiet little cot where the doves bill and coo on
+the gables."
+
+"But how am I to get there? I should not care about sitting on the
+buck-goat."
+
+"Nor need you. Barbara Pirka can take her pretty little lady
+wherever she can go herself, and will lead her through beautiful
+flowery meadows to the house of bliss by a path on which not even
+the feet of a butterfly could get wet with dew. The fair lady will
+then disguise herself as a peasant girl, so that none who meet her
+on the road may recognize her; but she will also take nice clothes
+with her, so as to meet her beloved in gorgeous apparel. She must
+dress herself in his presence three times running, the first time in
+scarlet, the second time in corn-flower blue, and the third time in
+purple; she must also put on gold earrings and a goodly chain, and
+on her head she must wear a coif of pearls. She must pack up all
+these splendid things. The headsman has bought them for his wife,
+and she has not worn them once yet. Eh! how beautiful we shall
+look!"
+
+"Tempt me not, Satan!"
+
+"The cards have said it and Pirka will do it. The pretty lady may
+like or lump it, that is her lookout. In any case she will pay the
+price for it."
+
+Michal believed and disbelieved at the same time.
+
+She put together the three dresses--the delicate rose-colored dress,
+the corn-flower blue, and the purple one; then she hung them all up
+before her one after the other, examined them all, and considered
+which would suit her best. Then she let Pirka disguise her as a
+peasant girl, and put on her a short frock and high red shoes. (In
+the vihodar's house there was a whole collection of costumes, Heaven
+only knows whence he got them.) She turned herself round and round,
+and was quite glad that she looked so pretty, but when Pirka said to
+her:
+
+"Come, now let us go!" she shrank back, and answered that to do so
+would be to sin against God.
+
+At that moment a flourish of trumpets was heard before the gates. It
+was the signal by which Henry usually announced his arrival. The
+drawbridge now rattled down, and the friendly barking of the watch
+dogs showed that the newcomer was an old friend.
+
+The blood flew to Michal's face.
+
+"My husband has come. Now you see how the cards have lied!"
+
+She had barely time to roll up the three beautiful dresses into a
+bundle and pitch them into a dark corner. The peasant costume she
+was obliged to keep on. However, she could tell her husband that it
+was her kitchen dress.
+
+The keys of the corridor and the trapdoor Michal handed to Pirka,
+that she might admit the knocker below.
+
+And now, as she pretended to be busy about the hearth, she awaited
+the appearance of that face which always made her sick at heart, but
+which had nevertheless on this occasion, so she thought, come
+between her and a great temptation, a grievous sin. Yet it was not
+her husband after all, but a still more detestable shape. It was
+the second apprentice, who used to lend the vihodar a helping hand
+in all his great achievements. The first apprentice already worked
+on his own account.
+
+The intruder did not bestow upon her so much as the shadow of a
+salutation, but slouched down upon the kitchen bench, threw his
+heavy hat on the hearth, and blandly said to the lady:
+
+"Give me to drink, my pretty mistress! I'm perishing with thirst."
+
+Then he emptied a bumper of beer to the very dregs, and after that
+set about delivering his message.
+
+"I bring you good news, my pretty young mistress! The devil has
+carried off the old vihodar. The accursed Janko has bitten him in
+the neck with his poisonous teeth and the old 'un croaked straight
+off."
+
+Michal thought, with a shudder, that the cards had said as much.
+
+"Now your husband will be master in his own house. All the treasures
+belong to him. And the honor, too. The Count of Zips and the Lord
+Lieutenant of Saros have already, under their hand and seal,
+appointed him public executioner in his father's stead, with
+jurisdiction over the whole hill country, and he has just been
+accomplishing his masterpiece on Janko, who is still roaring for
+pain and will roar two days and two nights longer, so that all
+Eperies will hear him. The woman who does not faint, the child who
+does not get the falling sickness, and the dog who does not go mad
+through hearing this howling, will be fit to join the witches'
+sabbath on the Peak of Lomnitz."
+
+Michal shivered as if in an ague. So Henry had voluntarily taken
+over his father's office; nay! at once accomplished his hellish
+masterpiece? He had not thought of flying, though no one could have
+compelled him to remain. He actually takes delight in cruelty!
+What! the ex-clergyman, the meek curer of souls, could within so
+short a time become a bloody headsman, and thus close against Michal
+every way of escaping from this hell! And all this had been
+prophesied by the cards of the wise woman!
+
+And as if to raise her horror, disgust, and loathing to the highest
+pitch, the fellow stepped up to her and said, with a hideous leer:
+
+"My pretty young mistress! you must give the bearer of so many good
+tidings a couple of busses."
+
+The fellow may have been drunk (he had looked in at every tavern on
+his way home) but his demand was certainly based on a very ancient
+custom.
+
+"It is a law with us," said he to the terrified, recoiling woman,
+"that whoever first brings the news to the headsman's wife that her
+husband has been installed as master shall receive a couple of good,
+smacking busses from the young mistress."
+
+And with that he stroked out his stubbly mustaches with both hands
+and stretched out his arms to clasp pretty Michal round the waist.
+
+This shameless impudence put the tender lady into such a violent
+rage that she now did what she had all along been meditating; she
+snatched from the hearth a pot full of boiling water, and soused the
+importunate loafer from head to foot, scalding him so severely that
+for one moment he was quite dazed. And during that one moment,
+Michal rushed upon him, hurled him back with all her might, Pirka
+assisting her, and their united efforts succeeded in pitching the
+big strong man headlong out of the kitchen. Then they quickly
+slammed to the heavy oaken door.
+
+But the parboiled wretch, speedily recovering himself and now madder
+than ever, fell to cursing and swearing, threatened to do Michal a
+mischief, and called loudly to his fellow-apprentices to help him;
+whereupon they hastened up with iron clubs (which also played a part
+at executions in those days), and began hammering at the oaken door
+with all their might.
+
+Michal gave herself up for lost. She would rather have sprung down
+the well than have stopped till the murderers had battered in the
+door.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my pretty ladykin," said the witch, taking her by
+the hand. "The cards have twice spoken the truth, haven't they? And
+depend upon it they will speak the truth the third time also. Will
+you trust me now?"
+
+"Take me, body and soul!" cried the unhappy woman, throwing herself
+into the witch's arms.
+
+"Well! let the pretty lady first take this burning fagot in her hand
+and step into the bucket. I'll turn the wheel and let her down, not
+into the water, but only as far as the middle of the shaft. There
+she will find a narrow platform by an opening, where she must wait
+till I have let myself down, too."
+
+Michal, in the extremity of her bitterness and despair, was capable
+of anything, so she allowed Pirka to let her down into the well. By
+the light of the burning fagots, she found the described opening and
+stepped into it. The bucket again ascended, and in a short time
+Pirka also came down, holding fast in her hands the other end of the
+chain and gradually letting the bucket down ring by ring. On
+arriving opposite to the opening, she, too, sprang out of the bucket
+and unloosed it from the chain, whereupon the other bucket loosing
+its equilibrium, fell down into the water, and the chain ran
+rattling up to the wheel.
+
+"Well, my pretty little lady! I think we may now go on a little
+further," said Pirka, who carried on her back the bundle in which
+were all Michal's fine clothes.
+
+At the end of the narrow passage was an open iron door, which led
+into a low vaulted cellar, full of large barrels containing pitch,
+tar, sulphur, and tow, in fact all the raw materials of the
+headsman's trade, besides sundry tanned hides, the exuviae of his
+triumphs. This cellar terminated in a long corridor, and at the end
+of the corridor was another iron door.
+
+Pirka had a key which opened this door, so she was able to go in and
+out of the house unseen whenever she liked.
+
+The object of this subterraneous way was to enable the headsman to
+escape, in case robber bands besieged his house and drove him to
+extremities. The little iron door led into a wood.
+
+In the cellar was a flight of wooden steps leading up to a trapdoor.
+
+Before quitting this corridor, Pirka wove out of the tow a huge
+skein, which reached from one end of the corridor to the other, and
+as she opened the door for Michal to go out, she hurled the burning
+fagot into the tow.
+
+"Why do you throw the fagot into the tow?" asked Michal.
+
+"Because it would only betray us outside here; nor do we want it,
+for the moon is still high."
+
+"But the cellar might catch fire?"
+
+"All the better for us, for then they will not be able to pursue us
+that way if they find out how we have escaped."
+
+"But if the cellar burn, the house may burn too."
+
+"And what then? Is there anything burning there which my pretty
+mistress or myself would greatly miss?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+A true relation of the thoughtlessness of youth, and
+the artifices whereby women enthrall their lovers.
+
+
+"I am afraid!" said Michal, when she found herself in the middle of
+the dark forest.
+
+"What's there to be afraid of?" cried Pirka. "The wild beasts, the
+bears, and the wolves, have been scared away into other regions by
+the shooting match between the county militia and the robbers, so
+that they won't come back again in a hurry. The robber bands, too,
+have been rooted out. At this moment they are dancing in the air
+round the bastions of Eperies. We shall have peace and quiet now for
+at least a year to come. Not that the people have been terrified by
+the fate of the executed robbers; not a bit of it. On the contrary,
+many a man will be thereby stimulated to live and die as bravely as
+they have done. But it will be a year at least before the new robber
+bands seek (and perhaps find) the treasures hidden by the older
+ones. No amount of torture could force from the prisoners the secret
+of their hidden treasures. They endured everything rather than give
+up their gold and silver. Till there is another outbreak of
+highwaymen, therefore, every traveler may go singing through the
+woods without the slightest fear. From robbers and wild beasts you
+are now quite secure."
+
+"It is God that I am afraid of," said Michal.
+
+The witch pressed the wrists of the young woman together till they
+cracked again.
+
+"If ever you dare to repeat that word again," said she, "I'll leave
+you in the midst of this dark wood, and then you may either fly or
+seek Him whom you fear so much; I'll wash my hands of you."
+
+Then Michal said not another word, but followed the witch, who led
+her so surely through the sylvan labyrinth that she actually stopped
+at a place in the midst of the thickest thicket, drew a knife from
+out of the trunk of a tree, and showed it to Michal.
+
+"Look! This knife I stuck into that tree in the broad daylight, as I
+passed by this way, and now I have found it again in darkest night."
+
+Not an hour had passed, and the moon still stood in the sky, when
+they arrived at the kopanitscha of Gorgo.
+
+"Here we stop," cried Pirka. "This is the house where the doves bill
+one another on the gables."
+
+Just then, however, all the doves were asleep; but in the courtyard
+a woman was wandering about, who raised her hands toward the moon,
+and made all sorts of frantic gestures.
+
+Pirka greeted her with strangely sounding words, not one of which
+Michal understood, and the kopanitschar's wife answered in the same
+fashion.
+
+"Have you offered up a witch's prayer, and if so, for what have you
+prayed?"
+
+"I have prayed that the devil may take the old vihodar."
+
+"He has got him already. Janko bit him in the neck, and immediately
+he was a dead man."
+
+"Beelzebub be praised!" cried the kopanitschar's wife, and she
+frisked about for joy.
+
+"Cook us some supper, sisterkin," said Pirka to Annie.
+
+"What sort of a guest have you brought me?" asked the latter.
+
+"You know well enough without being told."
+
+Then Annie recognized Michal, and laughed with all her might.
+Witches always rejoice when they see an innocent soul rushing to
+perdition.
+
+With that the pair of them led her into the kitchen, and made a
+great fire, on which they put sundry pots. But Pirka filled a
+smaller pan with water, and after performing all sorts of mystic
+hocus-pocus over it, put it also on the fire, first of all throwing
+into it a scrap of paper, on which the word Valentine was written.
+
+"What does that pot do on the fire?" asked Annie.
+
+"As soon as all the water in it has boiled away, so that nothing
+remains in it but the scrap of paper, my buck-goat will bring this
+pretty little lady her stately lover. Make ready the supper, I say,
+there will be five of us."
+
+"I don't like odd numbers," said Annie; but she forthwith fell to
+killing and plucking fowls, and baking little cakes.
+
+Michal sat at the window and shivered.
+
+During the cooking, Annie sang obscene flower songs, and Pirka kept
+on drawing her pan away from the fire and putting it on again.
+
+Annie asked her why she did that.
+
+"When the water boils fiercely, my buck with the stately lover is
+running so fast that the poor young man can hardly draw his breath;
+but when I remove the pan from the fire, he goes along more quietly,
+and the poor fellow can take breath again."
+
+In ordinary circumstances Michal would have laughed aloud at such
+superstition. But to-day she had gone through so many dreadful
+things, and she was so staggered by the actual fulfillment of two of
+the events predicted by Pirka's cards, that she dared not deny the
+possibility of a third. Half of the witch's prophecy had already
+come to pass. She had escaped from her husband's house, and was now
+awaiting her lover in a strange place. Everything was possible after
+that.
+
+"He is coming now. He is quite near!" cried Pirka, looking into the
+pan. "I already hear the galloping of my buck-goat, I already hear
+his four feet on the roofs of the houses. Now he is springing over
+the Krivan, now he is running along the Polish Saddle.[3] Hi! Hi!
+How he is galloping! Quick, my little buck, quick! quick!"
+
+[Footnote 3: Two of the Karpathian Alps.]
+
+Michal's common sense was quite dazed by all these insane
+proceedings. She was no longer mistress of herself.
+
+"And now it's time to dress," continued Pirka, and with that she
+took off Michal's peasant garb, and arrayed her in a rosy colored
+robe. She laced tightly her bodice to show off her waist, and combed
+out and plaited her long tresses to make them crisp and wavy. Her
+sweetheart was coming, so she must look nice to please him. The
+young lady was quite bewildered. She let them do what they liked
+with her.
+
+Outside the moon had gone down. It had grown quite dark. A silent,
+starless night, dank with heavy falling dew.
+
+"Now he'll be here almost directly," cried the witch, as the water
+bubbled away at the bottom of the pan.
+
+And now the blare of a farogato began to resound through the silent
+night. Nearer and nearer came the music. Michal's heart beat
+quickly. She recognized her favorite song. She scarcely knew whether
+she was awake or dreaming, whether she was in the world or out of
+it. There was a buzzing in her ears. The air around her was full of
+dancing specters. Her body seemed too narrow for her soul. Nearer
+and nearer came the song. At the bottom of the pan, the last drop
+of water had long since evaporated.
+
+"My buck-goat has arrived," cried the witch, in triumph.
+
+At that moment, Valentine Kalondai entered and advanced toward
+Michal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was no longer joy, it was frenzy which took possession of the
+young woman. Up she sprang with a shriek, and then threw herself on
+her beloved's breast, wound her arms round his neck, pressed her
+lips to his mouth as if she would have inhaled his very soul, and
+wetted his cheeks with her tears.
+
+How long did they hold each other thus embraced? An eternity
+perhaps, like that which Mirza Shah experienced when, at the Persian
+Magian's command, he crept under a tub, and dreamed away a whole
+lifetime in a single moment. At least, Michal fancied that it must
+have been a very long time, for on coming to herself again she said,
+with a sigh: "What a pity that the morning is breaking! Look! there
+is the dawn already?"
+
+A great light had suddenly sprung up in the sky.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Barbara Pirka, "that certainly would be a
+crazy sun which rose in the west! What you see there is the morning
+sheen of hell. The house of the headsman is burning. A pretty dawn
+that certainly!"
+
+The fire threw a frightful blood-red glare over mountain and forest,
+and gilded the white rocks in the distance as if they too were
+flaming. The stars twinkled faintly through the ruddy glow.
+
+"Now you may sleep in peace, my children," said Barbara Pirka. "By
+the time the young vihodar returns, he will find only the ruins of
+his house, and will fancy that his wife has been burnt likewise. He
+will seek her no more on this earth."
+
+"And even if he should seek her," cried Valentine defiantly, "I
+would not give her up to him though heaven and earth commanded it. I
+would rather get together a band of robbers and wage war against all
+humanity, than allow my beloved to be ever torn from me again.
+Whoever would take my Michal away from me must tear her from my arms
+on the very scaffold."
+
+And he smote the butt-end of his musket so violently on the ground,
+that both the witches leaped up to the very ceiling for joy.
+
+But Michal fell upon Valentine's neck and stammered:
+
+"With thee by my side, I'll go forth into the wild forest and face
+cold and tempest. With thee I'll brave death, yea, damnation itself.
+I crave no other death than the death by which thou diest. I desire
+no other eternity, be it bliss or woe, than the eternity which
+unites our soul in one, my angel, my king, my sun!"
+
+And Simplex thrust his trumpet through the window and sounded a
+wedding march, which awoke the echoes in the neighboring hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Man cannot fathom the wiles which witches imagine
+when they unite in wedlock lovers whom they have
+clandestinely brought together.
+
+
+The kopanitschar's wife now brought in the supper, and all five of
+them straightway sat down and made merry in honor of the festive
+occasion. This done, the witches began to feel frisky, and called to
+Simplex to bring out his trumpet into the courtyard and play them a
+jig. He very complaisantly complied with this request, sat him down
+on the edge of the well and made music for the ladies, while they,
+taking each other by the hand, danced a dance which looked for all
+the world as if they were possessed. Their wooden shoes rattled and
+clattered, their disheveled tresses floated in the wind, and the
+terrified bats flitted over their heads. The flames of the
+headsman's house lit up this dance of witches, and the wild figures,
+leaping in the blood-red glare, cast long, spasmodic shadows on the
+whitewashed walls of the inn, just as if Beelzebub himself were
+leading the frolic.
+
+"Blow, blow, trumpeter!" they cried, and Simplex blew and blew till
+his breast was nigh to bursting, and yet he was so bewitched that he
+could not take the trumpet from his mouth, nay! he even felt
+constrained to drum all the time with both his heels on the sides of
+the well. If a good, honest Christian had come upon this spectacle
+unawares, he would have been rooted to the ground with terror.
+
+Meanwhile the lovers were left to themselves. They had quite enough
+to tell each other. First, Valentine made Michal tell him of all the
+horrors she had gone through, and what desperate suffering she had
+endured, and then he related to her the many contrarieties which had
+befallen himself. Of course, too, they did not forget to richly
+indemnify each other for their past woes by a liberal exchange of
+caresses. In particular, when Valentine recounted the history of
+Jigerdilla, Michal did not grudge him an ample compensation for the
+kisses which, for her sake, he had refused the Turkish lady. At the
+same time Valentine treated his beloved as his bride indeed, but not
+as his affianced wife.
+
+At the first cockcrow the witches ceased to dance. Simplex they sent
+into the loft to sleep of his fatigue. The kopanitschar's wife set
+about preparing breakfast; but Pirka went into the room of the
+lovers to ask them what they had been dreaming about. Then she sent
+Valentine out, but whispered in his ear as she passed, that he might
+peep through the window if he liked, and then she helped Michal on
+with the cornflower-blue dress. After that she called the young man
+in again.
+
+Valentine was enchanted at the sight of the beautiful lady, and
+protested that if she had looked in the first dress like a bride,
+she looked in the second one like a saint on an altar screen. Pirka
+thereupon pulled a very wry face, for she did not like to hear tell
+of saints and altars. So she drove Valentine out again, and bade him
+go wake his friend who had been dozing all night, and yet was as
+heavy as ever. While Valentine was wrangling in the loft with
+Simplex, who swore by hook and by crook that he had been trumpeting
+all night long for the benefit of the witches, and had scarcely had
+more than forty winks, Pirka took off Michal's blue dress which made
+her look like a saint, and arrayed her in the purple one. When
+Valentine saw her in this he declared that she now looked just like
+a queen.
+
+But the witches tried to persuade Simplex that he had only dreamt
+that he had been playing all night, and that it was not from
+overmuch blowing of trumpets but from excessive mastication at
+supper the night before, that his jaws were so sore.
+
+The lovers, too, protested that they had heard nothing of the whole
+entertainment. They had been so much occupied with each other that
+they had been unconscious of all else. They had not only not heard
+the trumpet of Simplex, they had not even heard the clarion of the
+Archangel Uriel who (according to the ancient formula: "Michal on my
+right, Gabriel on my left, Raphael behind me, Israel before me,
+Uriel above my head") flies above the head of each one of us, and
+blows his clarion whenever we are about to plunge into some dreadful
+danger. Well for us if we heed the warning!
+
+But the lovers had heard nothing.
+
+When Annie served the breakfast (goat's milk, cheese, and brandy
+mixed with honey and sugar), Valentine's spirits rose so high that
+he vowed over again what he had already vowed the night before,
+viz.: that if anyone tore away his Michal from him, he would turn
+highwayman and gather a robber band around him.
+
+But women have, generally speaking, more common sense in the broad
+light of day than they have at dead of night; so Michal now said
+that it need not come to that. Valentine must take her back to her
+father's house. There she would bring a divorce suit against her
+husband on the plea that he had married her in a wrong name and
+under false pretenses, and that his marriage with her was
+consequently invalid. As soon then as the marriage was dissolved,
+Valentine must come forward and woo her, when she certainly would
+not send him away with a flea in his ear.
+
+At this Barbara Pirka burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Trust to parsons, and you'll soon see what a pretty dance they'll
+lead you! The parsons have many creases in their surplices, and they
+shake a fresh ordinance out of every crease. Do what you say, by all
+means! Bring your action against Henry Vihodar, formerly clerk in
+holy orders, and now headsman, and you'll find that justice is on
+the side of the longest purse. It is true that the vihodar's house
+is merrily burning, but his treasures in the basement of the tower
+cannot be burnt, and he will be a very rich man. He'll confront you
+with a dozen witnesses who will testify that the Keszmar professor
+knew very well what his son-in-law's trade was. He will manufacture
+forged letters with false seals, and what will be the end of it all?
+Why, Squire Valentine will be found guilty of abduction and put out
+of the way. No, no! don't go to law. You'll get no good by it.
+Besides, I've a much better plan."
+
+"Let's hear it then. But mind! I mean to be my Valentine's wife, not
+his mistress," said Michal.
+
+"Yes, the pretty lady shall become her Valentine's wife, but she
+must listen to me. She knows now that my cards always speak the
+truth. So hearken to me, my children! You go out, Annie! We don't
+want you prying here. You, Simplex, can stay where you are, for you
+know how to hold your tongue."
+
+So Annie went away, and as soon as she was out of hearing, Pirka, in
+a low whisper, began to expound her crafty scheme.
+
+"Listen now! Not far from here is a town called Bartfa. Every town,
+as you know, has its peculiar laws and customs. At Kassa, for
+instance, clandestine lovers caught together are beheaded. At
+Bartfa they are much more cruel. There, if a lass accosts a lad in
+the streets after vespers, or if a lad is caught talking with a
+lassie in a gateway, the watchman lays hands on the pair and claps
+them into jail. Next morning, without any of the usual preliminary
+fiddle-faddle, without even asking for their baptismal certificate
+or requiring the consent of their parents, or obtaining a special
+license or dispensation, the magistrates send for a parson and
+splice them straight off. Only as man and wife are they permitted to
+pass through the city gates. Hence the proverb:
+
+    If thou comest from Bartfa without a wife,
+    Good luck will befriend thee the rest of thy life.
+
+And a marriage contracted at Bartfa is valid everywhere."
+
+"But," sagely objected Michal, "supposing one of the parties be
+already married?"
+
+"Then both parties are publicly scourged to death. But I've taken
+precautions against that also. My late pretty mistress, the young
+vihodar's wife, is no more. Her father fancies that he has married
+her to the pastor of Great Leta; but his reverence also is no longer
+to be found on the face of the earth. The people of Great Leta have
+already provided themselves with another curer of souls, and his
+wife is an old woman with a hunch on her back. Henry Vihodar firmly
+believes that his wife has perished in his burning house, from
+which, indeed, no living soul could possibly have escaped when once
+the sulphur and the tar caught fire. Besides, the young headsman
+will soon marry again. So you two must come along with me to Bartfa,
+where I'll pretend that the pretty lady is my daughter, and will put
+her out to service. You, squire, must seek a farm laborer's place in
+the same town. The rest depends entirely on yourselves. If once you
+are caught together, you'll not be allowed to depart thence except
+as man and wife, and then you can go to---- Where did you say you
+lived?"
+
+It was just on the tip of Valentine's tongue to say Kassa, when
+Simplex anticipated him and said Klausenburg, which is in the
+opposite direction. For it is also the duty of a true friend when he
+sees that his comrade cannot lie, to lie for him. And here it was
+very necessary not to let the witch know where Valentine lived, lest
+she might take it into her head, at some future day, to pay him and
+his wife a visit when they least desired it.
+
+"Very well," pursued the witch, "then you can go to Klausenburg and
+take your marriage certificate with you. No one will think of asking
+any further questions. People will say, they've been married at
+Bartfa, and no more will be said about it. Are you pleased with my
+plan?"
+
+They were so pleased with it that they fell to kissing each other
+over and over again, and in their joy had almost wasted a kiss or
+two on Pirka herself, which would have been a useless piece of
+extravagance.
+
+"But we cannot take service with all our silk clothes and gewgaws,"
+said Pirka. "We must put on the rustic dress in which we came
+hither."
+
+Michal readily consented to this change of raiment, and going into
+the adjoining room, she took off her dress, her earrings, and her
+necklace. Her three dresses and all her jewels she gave to Pirka,
+who had calculated on obtaining these perquisites all along.
+
+"Do you think Valentine will like me in this dress?" asked the
+pretty young lady, as she put on her sober weeds again.
+
+"It won't quite do yet," said Pirka. "Even through this rustic garb
+people might easily spy out the fine lady. We cannot take service
+with this rose and milk complexion, for everyone would immediately
+ask us out of what castle we had escaped. We must find a remedy
+against that also. We must make freckles on our cheeks and
+foreheads, so that we may not look so pretty."
+
+"But will Valentine love me if I am ugly?"
+
+"Sweetheart! he would love you even if you were as hideous as I am."
+
+With that, the witch took freshly plucked wolf's milk flowers, the
+juice of which rubbed into the skin leaves behind spots resembling
+freckles which cannot be washed away by water, and only very
+gradually fade away. Pirka well rubbed Michal's face with the juice
+of the wolf's milk flowers till she was as speckled and as spotted
+as a pea hen. It was as well that there was no mirror at hand to
+tell pretty Michal what a fright she had become.
+
+This done, Pirka led her back to Valentine, and said to him: "Well!
+how does my serving wench please you?" But he, without troubling
+himself in the least about the freckles, embraced his beloved as
+fervently as before.
+
+When, however, the kopanitschar's wife came in again and saw the
+ugly serving maid, she asked what had become of the wondrously
+beautiful lady who had lately been there.
+
+Pirka replied that she had bestraddled a broomstick, flown out of
+the window, and left this wench behind in her stead.
+
+Annie believed Pirka, and bawled to Michal to take herself off and
+feed the swine.
+
+So little did she recognize Michal.
+
+Then Pirka took her bundle on her back and went off with Michal and
+Valentine to show them the way to Bartfa, while Simplex stayed
+behind with the kopanitschar's wife, so that in case the headsman's
+assistants should stop there for a drink on their way back from
+Eperies, he might give them an earful of lies. And that is really
+what he did do. Simplex actually saw and spoke to Henry himself, and
+made him believe that he, Simplex, had stood close to the burning
+house, and seen and heard the two women shrieking for help behind a
+window; but no one could get at them, and the whole tower in which
+they were had been burnt to the ground. Henry Catsrider, therefore,
+might be quite sure that he had become an orphan and a widower on
+the same day.
+
+At Bartfa, meanwhile, Pirka got Michal a place in a respectable
+shopkeeper's family, where they willingly took her in because she
+was so very plain. It was a sort of guarantee that no one would
+attempt to court her, and thereby deprive them of a useful servant.
+
+Yet even this maid only kept her place for three days, for on the
+evening of the fourth day, they caught her talking in a gateway with
+a farm laborer from over the way, who had only come to Bartfa a few
+days before. The guilty pair were immediately seized; for the people
+of Bartfa, who took good care never to fall into their own mouse
+traps, were immensely delighted whenever they could catch strangers
+in them. So both man and maid were committed to jail, and taken next
+day before the clergyman, when they were married in due form and
+then discharged. In the marriage certificate handed to them on their
+departure, Valentine Kalondai's name stood there right enough, but
+Michal was therein described as Milly Barbara.
+
+Neither of them reflected, at the time, that this was a false
+certificate; all that they then thought about was that they at last
+belonged to each other.
+
+Barbara Pirka had kept very quiet till after the wedding was over,
+and then Valentine gave her all the money he had about him (some
+hundred and fifty ducats or so), only keeping enough to buy victuals
+for his wife and himself on their way home. Then he said to Pirka:
+
+"Now we are going to Transylvania, but you had better go to Poland,
+for here you might be called to account for the valuables in your
+possession."
+
+Pirka laughed.
+
+"I am going, I am going, and I will not stop till I get to Poland. I
+know that you are very fond of me, children; yet for all that you
+would like to see two foreign lands lying between me and you."
+
+And at that time two foreign lands really did lie between
+Transylvania and Poland. The chroniclers called them Hungary and
+Turkey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The mummery receives its due punishment;
+nevertheless, Mercy and Compassion come to the
+mummer's aid, and deliver her out of all her
+troubles.
+
+
+When Valentine got home to Kassa, he introduced his beloved Milly to
+his mother with these words:
+
+"My dear lady mother! you used to say that if she whom I love were
+even a poor serving maid, you would not consider her origin too
+curiously, but if only she had a good heart, would accept her as
+your daughter-in-law. Well! See now, I've brought you my beloved
+wife, and here she is!"
+
+Milly's face, we may add, was still terribly disfigured by the
+freckles which the wolf's milk flower juice had eaten into her skin.
+
+Good Dame Sarah smote her hands together.
+
+"Well, my dear son! I'll only say that if this was the young person
+for whose sake you could desert your mother, and rather endure the
+Turkish slavery than renounce her and play her false--then, I say
+you are as immovable as Mount Sion itself; and if you can really
+love this young person so very much she must have within her
+hundreds of good qualities."
+
+"And so indeed she has," returned Valentine, and he there and then
+kissed Milly's freckled face. What cared he though the whole world
+thought his wife ugly, so long as he knew that she was beautiful?
+
+In the very first week of their acquaintance, Dame Sarah severely
+tested her daughter-in-law in every possible way, and discovered
+that she was an angel from the crown of her head to the soles of her
+feet. She was dutiful, obedient, not fastidious in her work, brisk,
+cleanly, early to rise and late to bed, sweet-tempered, a great
+stopper-at-home, modest, and shamefaced. And Dame Sarah had made up
+her mind to be very strict with her; to find fault with everything
+she did; and scold and chide her on every possible occasion. But
+this scolding and chiding was heavenly music to poor Milly's ears,
+compared with what she had been obliged to endure at that other
+house, so that the only effect of Dame Sarah's fiercest anger on
+Milly was to make her kiss her mother-in-law's hands and thank her
+for the scolding with tears of gratitude. It was equally true,
+indeed, that it was extremely difficult for Dame Sarah to be really
+angry. Her face was so round that no wrinkling of her forehead could
+make it look angular, and her voice was so soft that even her
+chiding seemed like friendly coaxing. Milly had never known a
+mother. It had always been the wish of her heart to find a mother in
+her husband's house. And now she had found what she had wished for;
+and her soul was satisfied.
+
+When Valentine brought Milly home, she possessed nothing in the
+world but the clothes on her back. Dame Sarah chided her
+daughter-in-law again and again because of her bad and scanty
+attire. Then she bought her woolen stuff for a suit of clothes, cut
+out the pattern herself, and threw it to Milly, that she might make
+herself a dress by next Sunday, with which to go to church and show
+herself among respectable people.
+
+And Michal had to pretend that she did not understand a word of what
+her mother-in-law explained to her. She who had manufactured the
+most recondite tarts and cakes at home, and had been far famed as a
+model housewife, now listened in silence while her mother-in-law
+told her how a simple soup was made! She dared not even betray her
+knowledge of needlework and millinery. She dared not say that she
+could stitch beautifully, and even weave lace. She who was so clever
+with her fingers now stitched so clumsily that Dame Sarah had to
+take half her work to pieces again. She held her needle so
+awkwardly, and her stitches were so irregular, and full of knots and
+crinkles, that when she tried on her Sunday dress, which had cost
+her so much trouble, it was found to be a perfectly absurd misfit.
+In front it was too long, and behind it was too short; where it
+ought to have fitted tightly it bulged out, and _vice versa_.
+
+And yet this dress pleased her.
+
+And, stranger still, her husband liked her in it too.
+
+The town of Kassa had a lot to say about the lady whom Valentine had
+brought home as his wife.
+
+"Ah, well! such a treasure was quite worth the trouble which Squire
+Valentine took to discover it!"
+
+"But, at least, she is of very distinguished parentage: her father
+was lord-lieutenant of the sheep!"
+
+"Such a beauty has not been seen in Kassa for many a long day!"
+
+"And all that is as nothing compared with her riches. Why, when she
+climbs up a nut tree to hang out the clothes, she leaves nothing
+behind her that she can call her own!"
+
+Everyone looked forward to the day when Dame Sarah would present her
+daughter-in-law to her acquaintances, the notabilities of Kassa.
+
+And what would they have said if they only could have seen her in a
+dress of her own making!
+
+The anxiously awaited Sunday dawned at last. In the early morning,
+however, a sergeant came and tapped at Valentine's window, awoke
+him from his slumbers, and told him that his captain, Count
+Hommonai, commanded him to mount his horse at once, and ride into
+the market place fully armed.
+
+Valentine was still a soldier, a corporal in fact. Obey he must. He
+therefore took leave of his mother and his wife, armed himself, and
+was at his post at the appointed time. Thence, without showing the
+slightest regard for the sacredness of the Sabbath, the captain
+marched off his troops straightway, for tidings had come that a host
+of Turks had penetrated as far as Naggy Ida, burning all the hamlets
+in their way. Count Hommonai, therefore, did not take very long to
+reflect, but quickly collected two hundred horsemen, and set out
+from Kassa to chastise the Turkish marauders.
+
+Thus it was that Milly or Michal was left entirely in charge of Dame
+Sarah.
+
+Early in the morning the young lady put on the new dress that was so
+admirably adapted to spoil her pretty figure altogether. Then she
+prepared to go to church.
+
+When she was quite ready, Dame Sarah said to her: "Take off that
+dress, you shall not go to church in that, but in another."
+
+And with that she opened her lofty wardrobe and took out her own
+beautiful silk dress which she had worn in her younger days, her
+bodice embroidered with gold flowers, her apron fringed with broad
+lace, her costly cambric pocket-handkerchief, and gave them all to
+her daughter-in-law, and while she laced the bodice on to Michal's
+slim waist, she said, with great self-complacency: "I was just as
+slim myself, dear, in the first years of my marriage. In those days
+this was my gala costume, I've never worn it since."
+
+Then she put her beautiful gold-laced coif on Michal's head, and
+praised at the same time her daughter-in-law's lovely hair. That, at
+any rate, was a thing of beauty, let her face be never so ugly.
+
+Then she took her gorgeously attired daughter-in-law along with her,
+first of all thrusting into her right hand the best bound prayer
+book with a posy in it. How Michal's silk dress rustled as she
+walked along the streets!
+
+The young wife was perfectly happy, not so much because she actually
+wore the silk dress, as because Valentine's mother thought her
+worthy to wear it.
+
+Yet her happiness was only to last till she got to church.
+
+The old cathedral of Kassa had again fallen into the hands of the
+Protestants, and they now held divine service in it. The first row
+of pews was assigned to the wives of eminent burgesses who had held
+office in the town. Among them sat Dame Sarah, for her late husband
+had been sheriff, and she herself was a rich woman.
+
+In the corner pew sat the wife of old Furmender. With her pointed
+nose and large gray coif, she resembled a guinea fowl, and when she
+spoke the resemblance was more striking than ever. Beside her sat
+her maiden daughter, and next to her there was room for a dozen more
+at the very least.
+
+When Dame Sarah and pretty Michal came to the pew Dame Furmender
+rose from her place and let Dame Sarah pass in, but when Michal
+tried to follow her, Dame Furmender sat back in her place again,
+thrust her elbows on to the desk in front, and would not let Michal
+pass.
+
+"Servants must sit in the back seats," said she.
+
+"That is the wife of my son Valentine," cried Dame Sarah, much hurt.
+
+"He too is nothing but an expelled student and a common soldier,"
+replied Dame Furmender, who excelled at repartee.
+
+At this Michal burst into tears.
+
+She was not distressed on her own account, but she could not bear to
+hear her husband run down.
+
+And now all the women crowded together at the corner of the pew, and
+turned their backs upon her just to let her know that there was no
+room for her anywhere.
+
+Poor Michal could have sunk into the ground for shame, when all at
+once a wondrously beautiful, handsomely dressed lady stepped out of
+a richly carved pew covered with heraldic emblazonments which stood
+close to the central column, hastened toward Michal, and said to
+her: "What! is there no room for the young lady? Pray come into my
+pew, there is room enough there." And with that she took pilloried
+Michal by the hand, led her to her own pew, made her sit down beside
+her, and pushed toward her her beautiful gold-clasped prayer book,
+so that they might both sing out of it together.
+
+Now this lady was the Countess Isabella Hommonai the wife of the
+Captain-General and Commander of Kassa, whom the latter, as we have
+already mentioned, had married a short time before.
+
+The whole sisterhood of backbiters was most cruelly checkmated,
+their vexation nearly choked them.
+
+But Michal, with streaming eyes, prayed the Almighty to protect her
+beloved Valentine in his present great peril, save him from wounds
+and captivity, and bring him back safe and sound. She had nothing
+else to pray for.
+
+And when divine service was over, the countess did not consider it
+beneath her dignity to accompany Michal out of church, waited in
+the porch for Dame Sarah, and then said to Michal, who gratefully
+kissed her hand, that she must make haste and come and pay her a
+visit at the castle.
+
+All the other women heard it and were ready to burst for envy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+Wherein is shown how great a force the will of a
+woman is, and how quickly it can alter the order of
+things which man devises.
+
+
+Three days later, Count Hommonai brought back his forces, after
+successfully driving the Turkish freebooters into the neighboring
+county; it was for the neighboring county to drive them on still
+further.
+
+Valentine came riding safe and sound into his own courtyard, and
+great was Michal's joy when she saw him return in such a merry mood.
+Nevertheless, she surrendered the first kisses to her mother-in-law.
+
+"Well, have you cut down many Turks?" inquired Dame Sarah.
+
+"I've felled a few, but I did not count how many."
+
+"I'm only glad they've done you no harm," said Michal joyfully.
+
+"You've been praying for me, darling, have you not? Were you not in
+church, did you sit by my mother?"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried Dame Sarah, eager to tell everything. "That wicked
+old Furmender woman would not let her come into the pew. She said to
+her: 'Servant maids must sit behind.' And do you know who it was
+that found her a seat after all? Why the good Countess Hommonai!
+Yes, the countess herself actually made Michal come and sit down
+beside her in her own beautiful pew."
+
+Valentine snatched his cap from his head as if the countess stood
+before him in person.
+
+"God bless her for it! You thanked her for her graciousness, I
+hope?"
+
+"At the time we hardly knew what to say, we were so confused; but
+her ladyship has invited Michal to the castle."
+
+"And have you been?"
+
+"Not yet, I waited for you. We must go together."
+
+Valentine scratched his head.
+
+"With Count Hommonai I should think nothing of going against a whole
+host of dog-headed Tartars, but how can I approach the countess? She
+is such a fine lady, and I am such a stupid blockhead."
+
+But he had to go all the same, and that at once, for scarcely had he
+had time to change his clothes when the captain's carriage drove up
+to the door, and a heyduke brought the message that the count and
+countess wished to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Kalondai.
+
+"Well, I don't know what will be the end of it," stammered
+Valentine. He was so nervous that he could not even tie his
+neckerchief properly, and kept on buttoning his coat at one moment a
+button too high, and at another a button too low, so that he had to
+begin it all over again.
+
+But he had to go, for the carriage was waiting outside.
+
+Dame Sarah now gave her daughter-in-law another dress to wear, a
+trifle simpler than the former one, and hung a handsome mantle round
+her shoulders.
+
+The Countess Hommonai come forward to meet her guests to the very
+door of the room, and received Michal with great cordiality.
+
+"And to think, my dear!" said she, "that while I was delivering you
+out of the hands of the Philistines last Sunday, your husband should
+be rescuing mine from the hands of the Turks! But you have heard
+all about it already, I dare say?"
+
+"I have heard nothing. My husband never boasts of his exploits."
+
+"He never boasts, eh? Then he's all the more a man."
+
+Valentine grew fiery red.
+
+They had got thus far, when the count himself entered the countess's
+chamber. And he was as handsome a man as she was a woman. He had
+long, chestnut-brown hair rolling down his shoulders, red cheeks, an
+open forehead, a well-twisted mustache, and a stately figure.
+
+And the count also was very kind to them both, and ignoring
+altogether the fact that he was a magnate and a captain, while
+Valentine was only a simple gentleman and a corporal, he held out
+his hand and shook Valentine's so vigorously that Valentine grew
+visibly.
+
+But the countess made Michal sit down beside her on the sofa, which
+was covered with a beautiful gobelin.
+
+Valentine thought that Michal, now that she was in polite society,
+would put on the fine manners she had learnt at home and thus betray
+herself. All the more pleasantly surprised was he, therefore, when
+he saw that Milly could clean forget Michal, so well did she know
+how to fall into the ways of the rustics. First of all, she shyly
+hesitated to sit down at all. Then she dusted the corner of the sofa
+a little with her skirt before sitting down on the edge of it, just
+as the country people are wont to do, at which the countess secretly
+smiled.
+
+"Yes, my husband would certainly at this moment be a prisoner among
+the Turks," said the countess to Milly, "if your husband had not
+saved him. Mine had ventured forward a little too far. When the
+Turks had been put to flight, and the hussars were busy tying the
+prisoners together in couples, my lord captain took it into his
+head to capture the pasha single-handed. The pasha, however, had
+already taken to his heels, and nobody had a horse swift enough to
+catch him but my husband, who accordingly overtook and captured him.
+But while he was securing him, up came the pasha's attendants, who
+threw a hair lasso round my husband's neck and pulled him from his
+horse. Then they began to hale him away, when Kalondai perceived the
+danger of his captain, and dashed forward at the head of two of his
+men. The Turks, overtaken, and thus prevented from dragging away my
+husband alive, at once resolved to kill him, and one of them drew a
+saber to cut off his head. But Kalondai was quicker than the Turk,
+and cut him down with a single blow. Thus he saved my husband's life
+and liberty. The mark of the cord is still visible on my husband's
+neck, and the cord itself (which he has brought home with him) I
+shall always preserve among my curiosities. So now you see how well
+we did in praying together out of the same prayer book. You have a
+brave husband!"
+
+Valentine's heart swelled with pride at this great praise.
+
+"And he shall be rewarded for his valor," put in the count. "I'll
+give him the pick of the prisoners and of the captured horses, and I
+make him my lieutenant besides."
+
+"I thank my gracious lord for his goodness," replied Valentine (he
+was never at a loss when he had men to deal with, it was only with
+women that he felt shy); "if I may choose, I'll pick out from among
+the captives a good-natured fellow of humble rank who may help my
+mother in her household duties. A horse I don't want. I am content
+with that I have. But if my lord captain will do me a favor, I beg
+of him a better horse for my comrade Simplex, the field-trumpeter,
+for his present nag is lame. As to my promotion to the rank of
+lieutenant, I thank my lord captain for it, but I must decline it.
+That is no post for one like me who has never learnt the art of war.
+I should like, however, to make another request of my gracious lord.
+It is the inmost wish of my poor mother that I should relieve her of
+the cares of the business, which is a heavy burden to her. I
+therefore beg permission to leave the service that I may carry on
+the trade of a butcher."
+
+The count laughed.
+
+"But you have clean forgotten one of your best arguments: 'As I have
+only just been married, I would much rather remain at home with my
+wife than scamper after the foe!' You are right. I would say the
+same if I only could. I'll release you at once from your military
+service."
+
+"But not that you may become a butcher," said the countess. "A man
+like you deserves a better place. The post of castellan has become
+vacant, and my husband has the gift of it. My dear, you must make
+Mr. Kalondai our castellan."
+
+"It shall be done," declared the count.
+
+"Alas, your ladyship!" cried Milly, when she saw that her husband
+could not immediately find an answer, "I fear me greatly that my
+husband will never do for such a post as that. He is, like me, very
+ignorant. He did not learn very much at school and they kicked him
+out at last. Now, a castellan has to speak with many great lords,
+and read many letters which are written in Latin and German, and
+even French perhaps. How could my poor dear husband read and answer
+all these letters? A mischief would surely come of it."
+
+"I tell you what," said the countess; "I know Latin, German, and
+French. Come to me at the castle twice a day, and I'll instruct you
+in all those languages. Nay, you must. I have nothing else to do,
+and what you learn from me you must teach your husband at home, and
+thus he will very soon know everything required of him in his new
+office."
+
+"That will do very well," said the count.
+
+Now it would have been downright rudeness to have rejected such a
+generous offer. A greater reward and distinction they could not have
+desired. Nevertheless, they resolved to keep the matter secret and
+not even tell it to Dame Sarah, who would certainly have boasted of
+it all over the town. All they let her know was that the countess
+had permitted Milly to come to the castle daily to learn cookery
+from her cook and stitching from her housekeeper. Now _we_ know that
+Milly could do all these things ever so long ago; but the
+astonishment of Dame Sarah was great indeed when her
+daughter-in-law, every time she returned from the castle, proceeded
+to manufacture some new cake or pastry, while she soon hemmed
+handkerchiefs so beautifully that it was a marvel how she did it.
+
+It was also a great surprise for Dame Sarah when Valentine chose for
+her from among the imprisoned Turks a good-humored fellow who had
+been a butcher's apprentice in his native place. To him the shop
+could safely be intrusted, for a Turk, when properly treated, is an
+upright, diligent, and sober servant, and devoted to his master.
+Dame Sarah treated him like her own son, and would not allow him to
+be branded, as was usually done in those days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Wherein occur such astounding transformations that
+people are scarcely able to recognize their very
+selves. Michal, however, is calumniated in a matter
+wherein she is absolutely innocent.
+
+
+However great was the astonishment of Dame Sarah at Milly's rapid
+proficiency in the culinary and other female sciences, it was as
+nothing compared with the astonishment of the Countess Hommonai at
+the swift apprehension of her pupil. You had only to read a passage
+over to her once, and she immediately knew it by heart, and what is
+more, never again forgot it. She could repeat one hundred foreign
+words after hearing them pronounced for the first time. "This young
+woman is a genius," said the countess to her husband. She had no
+idea that her pupil had learnt long ago what she was now teaching
+her.
+
+Moreover, the countess gradually weaned her from all her boorish
+habits, and accustomed her to polite manners, which Milly
+appropriated all the more readily as they were what she had always
+been used to, whereas her rusticity was a mere disguise and
+pretense.
+
+Wonderful, too, was the scientific progress which Milly brought
+about in worthy Valentine, her husband.
+
+For Valentine had taken her at her word, and made it the goal of his
+ambition to obtain the post of castellan, so that his wife might
+enjoy the title of chatelaine. And wondrous indeed were his advances
+on the path of learning. Perhaps, too, Valentine might have proved
+an apter scholar in his younger days if grammar and syntax had only
+been recited to him by such sweet lips, and if the _hic_, _haec_,
+_hoc_ had been impressed upon him with sweet kisses instead of with
+_ferula_ and _signum_. Perhaps, too, the stronger will that goes
+hand in hand with mental maturity helped him more quickly onward.
+
+After some months he had got on so well that he could not only
+clearly expound the Latin and German letters which the count laid
+before him, but could even reply to them; nay, even in French he got
+so far that no one could have cheated him in a bargain conducted in
+that language.
+
+So Milly was instructed by the countess, and Valentine was
+instructed by Milly, and all three took delight in the progress that
+was being made.
+
+"What a pity it is," said the countess to her husband on one
+occasion, "that such a clever, highly endowed young woman, who has
+such a fine figure, such good features, and such a pleasant manner,
+should be disfigured by so many hideous freckles. If only we could
+remedy this evil! I have a wash, the famous Aqua Regina, which dates
+from the days of Elizabeth, the mother of our king, Louis the Great;
+my face is quite smooth and soft from using it--let us try it on
+her, perhaps it will do something to remove these hideous freckles."
+
+Milly dared not assent at once, but said she must first ask her
+husband if he wished her face to be free from freckles, as it was
+with her freckled face that he had fallen in love originally. She
+must also communicate beforehand with her mother-in-law, as that
+lady might possibly regard her daughter-in-law's endeavor to
+beautify her face as a species of coquetry.
+
+But both Valentine and his mother acquiesced in the experiment. They
+said that a medicament which the countess used herself could not
+possibly do Milly any harm.
+
+The disfiguring freckles which had been produced by the juice of the
+euphorbia naturally vanished from Michal's face after she had washed
+herself twice or thrice with the Aqua Regina. In a few days she had
+quite a different appearance. She got a white and red complexion,
+and a skin as pure as dew. The countess was triumphant with joy that
+her wash should have produced such a marvelous effect, and Dame
+Sarah also was beside herself with astonishment when she saw her
+daughter-in-law growing daily in grace and beauty; but the happiest
+of all was Valentine, as he gradually won back his adored Michal,
+whom he regarded as the fairest, best, and wisest woman in the whole
+world.
+
+The ladies of Kassa, however, were by no means disposed to regard
+this wondrous transformation with favorable eyes. At that time (now,
+of course, it is quite different) the complexions of the fair Kassa
+burgesses, owing to the bad spring water, the close air, the sour
+wine, but also and especially to the plague which broke out there on
+the average every seven years--the complexions of the fair Kassa
+burgesses, I say, were then of that peculiar yellowish tinge which
+in the faces of the Venetian ladies is called _morbidezza_, but
+which in Hungary usually went by the name of the Kassa color. Lest,
+however, we should be saddled with the charge of calumny, we hasten,
+in our justification, to cite the following words from one of the
+original sources of our present history: "The people, more
+particularly the women folk, are of a pale and yellow color, which
+in Hungary is called the Kassa color." (_Vide_ Johan Christopher
+Wagner's "Town and History Mirror," 1687.)
+
+That, however, was two hundred years ago. Nowadays, the complexion
+of the ladies of Kassa, like the complexions of their fair sisters
+elsewhere, consists of roses and lilies; and it is also no longer
+true what the same author says of the wine of Kassa, to wit, that it
+gives foreigners the gout.
+
+Now when the women at morning service in church on Christmas Day
+perceived Milly sitting demurely in the countess's pew, they were
+scandalized beyond expression at her red and white cheeks, on which
+not the smallest freckle was to be seen.
+
+They could not of course insult her to her face, because her
+distinguished patroness was present; but they put their heads
+together in the vestry, and quitted it with the steadfast
+determination to submit the case to the consideration of the dean.
+
+Dame Furmender took it upon herself to be the mouthpiece of the
+pious sisterhood. She informed the dean that a young woman had come
+to church that very morning with her cheeks painted white and red,
+which lewd and unchristian conduct had sorely troubled the whole of
+the pious congregation.
+
+There was service again in the afternoon, when the very reverend
+gentleman was wont to catechize. For in those days it was the custom
+for young persons, both bachelors and spinsters, and especially
+young married people from foreign parts, to be called forth into the
+midst of the congregation and be catechized by the very reverend
+gentleman in front of the Lord's Table; so that it might be made
+manifest whether they were well grounded in the principles of the
+creed and the confession, and also that they might confess publicly,
+before the whole church, that they belonged to the true evangelical
+Christian faith; lest at the distribution of the Lord's Supper, on
+the following day, the bread and wine might be given to such as did
+not even know why the sacred elements were so given, or lest those
+should communicate who were morally unworthy so to do.
+
+The first person whom the very reverend gentleman called up that
+afternoon was the young wife of Valentine Kalondai.
+
+Milly rose from her place and stepped modestly but fearlessly
+forward. She felt quite secure, for she knew her whole catechism by
+heart. It came as easy to her as the Paternoster.
+
+But great was her astonishment when the very reverend gentleman,
+instead of questioning her on the mystery of the Trinity or as to
+the necessity of communicating in both kinds, roughly addressed her
+as follows:
+
+"Dost thou know, pious Christian lady! the commandment of God which
+forbids all the faithful daughters of his Church to make of the face
+which he of his grace has given to each one of them, another face
+after the manner of the heathen, by anointing it with all kinds of
+false and meretricious salves as the daughters of Midian were wont
+to do?"
+
+Milly answered with a perfectly clear conscience:
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Then, if thou knowest it, wherefore doest thou the contrary?"
+
+"My countenance is just as God has made it," replied Milly, with a
+tranquil heart.
+
+"If what thou hast said be true, come wash thyself herein!"
+
+The very reverend gentleman beckoned, and the sacristan placed on
+the marble font a large silver basin full of crystal clear water.
+
+Milly most willingly washed her face in the basin, and after she had
+done so, the water was as pure as it had been before.
+
+"And now wipe thy face with this!"
+
+With that he handed the young woman a towel, with which she rubbed
+her face all over with all her might, yet not the smallest trace of
+anything red or white was to be seen upon the snowy napkin, while
+her face had only become rosier than ever from the scrubbing.
+
+The dean was astonished.
+
+"How comes it," cried he, "that thy face, which was once so full of
+freckles, is now without a single speck upon it?"
+
+"Freckles always disappear in winter," answered Milly.
+
+And that was no more than the truth. From many faces freckles
+disappear in winter, and it was just then the very depth of winter.
+
+At this, the very reverend gentleman grew very wroth. He struck the
+table violently with his book, and stretching forth his hand,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Then thou hast been foully calumniated by thine accuser, Dame
+Furmender, the wife of Augustus Zwirina, who, by way of punishment
+for such a calumny, is excluded from to-morrow's communion."
+
+Dame Furmender, who was sitting in the corner of the front pew,
+where everyone could see it, got up, courtesied, and went straight
+out of the church.
+
+But the dean kept Michal back in order to catechize her, and began
+to put various questions to her, which she answered so promptly and
+so correctly that he was perfectly delighted. He absolutely could
+not leave off catechizing her.
+
+He went out of his way to find harder and ever harder questions, to
+every one of which the lady nevertheless found an appropriate
+answer, so that at last the audience began to whisper to each other
+that the maids of Bartfa must be as learned as chaplains. Finally
+the dean sent her back to her place with a warm eulogy and his
+benediction.
+
+Thus the day on which Michal was to have been put to shame ended
+with her exaltation and the utter discomfiture of her calumniators.
+Dame Sarah was naturally triumphant, but she was not more delighted
+than the good Countess Hommonai, who justly imagined that Michal had
+her to thank for all her knowledge.
+
+And the countess was quite right in thinking so, for though it is
+true that Milly had originally received her beauty and her wisdom
+from God, nevertheless, both her bodily and her spiritual
+excellences had been so completely killed and buried by the
+contrarieties of fate that their resurrection might well be regarded
+as the work of the countess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Concerning a terribly great contest, from which it
+will be seen that where his spouse's honor was
+concerned, Valentine put no bounds to his fury.
+
+
+But all this was not enough for Valentine. Henceforward he went
+about like a raging lion, and whenever he talked with anyone in the
+street, his gestures were those of a man who is about to pull up his
+shirt sleeves for a fight.
+
+At last he fell in with Simplex.
+
+"I must trounce someone to-day, or else I shall certainly get the
+fever or the jaundice. Friend Simplex, if ever you were my good
+comrade, if the health of your friend is at all dear to you, find me
+someone on whom I can vent my wrath."
+
+"Most willingly, my dear good comrade, I'll find you someone."
+
+"Anyone will do. I don't care who it is, a sword-eater, a
+stone-breaker, a giant! I'll fight him. A woman has insulted me, but
+I cannot take revenge upon a woman. Procure me, from somewhere or
+other, a man whom I can trample underfoot. Bring me a Turkish pasha,
+or a robber chieftain, or a dog-headed Tartar, that I may devour
+him."
+
+"I need not look so far as that. I'll find you an antagonist much
+nearer home. If you want such a one, know that you have no greater
+enemy than young Ignatius Furmender, or Zwirina. You have been
+insulted by his mother; the son must now pay for the mother's
+rudeness."
+
+"You've hit it," cried Valentine, giving Simplex a mighty blow on
+the back from sheer friendship. "Not in vain do they call you
+knowing. He never once occurred to me. To think that I should be
+looking everywhere for a foe, when he is under my nose all the time.
+It is just like the man who went in search of the horse on which he
+was actually riding. Here! take my glove and this gulden, and notify
+to the sheriff that I challenge Ignatius Zwirina to break a lance
+with me."
+
+Simplex accepted the commission, went straight to the sheriff, and
+informed him that Valentine Kalondai desired to challenge Ignatius
+Zwirina to fight him with lances, according to ancient law and
+custom. The sheriff made a note thereof, and took the deposited
+gulden, at the same time calling Simplex's attention to the fact
+that as the city found the lances, each of the combatants would have
+to pay a Hungarian gulden extra for every lance that broke in his
+hand. Thereupon he handed him a written permission, duly sealed with
+the seal of the city of Kassa, for Valentine Kalondai to challenge
+Ignatius Zwirina to fight him with lances, according to ancient law
+and custom, as prescribed by the statutes of the city of Kassa.
+
+Thus provided with the official authorization, Simplex, accompanied
+by the town trumpeter, next proceeded to the house of the Zwirina
+family, and finding the door closed, bade the trumpeter blow a
+flourish three times, and then proclaimed the challenge before the
+crowd, which had in the meantime assembled in the streets:
+
+"Ignatius Zwirina! With the permission and consent of the sheriff of
+Kassa, I hereby challenge you in the name of the good and valiant
+Valentine Kalondai, to break with him, according to ancient law and
+custom, one, two, or three lances, as the case may be. Take this
+glove, and on the first day of carnival appear on the ropewalk
+behind the townhall, duly armed and mounted, to answer the challenge
+in your own person, if you would be regarded as a stout-hearted
+fellow and not as an errand-boy of your lady-mother."
+
+Then the trumpeter sounded three more flourishes, and Simplex nailed
+Valentine's glove to the Zwirinas' door.
+
+There the glove remained till Twelfthnight. Nobody took it down. For
+according to the statute all such duels had to be fought out between
+Twelfthnight and Shrovetide, whereby all and sundry were given to
+understand that the town council regarded such combats as mere
+carnival frolics. This wise ordinance assumed that the hot-blooded
+youth of the parish had their fling during Shrovetide. If anyone
+felt as if he did not know what to do with himself, it was open to
+him to fight to his heart's content during the prescribed season and
+have done with it, for, Shrovetide over, it was strictly forbidden
+to break the peace, or in any way disturb or harass one's neighbors.
+It was also generally found that after all such combats the young
+fellows, even when they had belabored each other most soundly,
+became the best friends in the world, and it was considered the most
+shameful cowardice to bewail the bumps and bruises dealt out on such
+occasions, be they what they might.
+
+It was also considered equally disgraceful when the person so
+challenged did not appear on the field of battle at the appointed
+day and hour. Now this was the case with Ignatius Zwirina, who had
+no very fervent desire to make the acquaintance of Valentine
+Kalondai's cudgel.
+
+Epiphany arrived, and the whole youth of the parish, as well as the
+officials appointed to watch the proceedings and keep order, waited
+in vain from dawn till eve for the appearance of the challenged. The
+challenger rode idle and alone up and down the ropewalk.
+
+When evening came, and it was no longer to be expected that the
+defaulter would either appear in person or send people to excuse his
+absence, Valentine was authorized to take his lance in his hand,
+having at the end of it a lantern made of a bladder with a lighted
+candle inside it, and a pair of ragged old drawers hanging over it,
+and then to ride through the town and proclaim at the corner of
+every street:
+
+"Noble gentlemen, burgesses, and honest inhabitants of this town!
+which of you has seen, which of you knows that cowardly knave
+Ignatius Zwirina? Who can tell me into which hole he has crawled? Is
+he in the oven, under the bed, or beneath his mother's skirts?
+Whoever finds him, tell him not to be afraid but show himself, for I
+won't eat him. Here I have a pair of ragged hose. Let him come out
+and patch them for me, and I'll pay him for the job."
+
+This was the formula of degradation which was the meed of those who
+failed to appear on such occasions.
+
+Moreover, the whole youth of the town used to take up the heckling
+with such spirit that further existence in the town of Kassa became
+an absolute impossibility for the person so distinguished. Ignatius
+Zwirina, however, was already deputy syndic of his native place. He
+therefore could not afford to fly, and his good friends persuaded
+him so long that at last he resolved to answer Valentine's
+challenge, and break a pair of lances with him on the following day.
+Then, of course, the public mockery ceased.
+
+On the following day a still greater crowd of spectators appeared on
+the ropewalk, fifty drabants had also been sent by the corporation
+to keep order, and Count Hommonai had come on horseback to see the
+fight.
+
+At the appointed hour both horsemen appeared, accompanied by their
+friends. Valentine wore a breastplate, a helmet, and greaves, but
+Ignatius was clad in mail from top to toe, both in front and behind;
+he was plainly of opinion that the back is also vulnerable.
+
+They took the places assigned to them on the opposite sides of the
+lists, and the umpire then produced two long wooden lances without
+iron points, and two stout oaken cudgels exactly alike. The
+challenged had the first choice of weapons, and what he left were
+handed to the challenger.
+
+They rode bareback, guiding their horses by their knees, to which
+their reins were fastened, for in their right hands they held their
+lances and in their left their cudgels.
+
+The moment the trumpet sounded, both horsemen couched their lances
+and rushed upon each other with a fearful crash.
+
+Ignatius Zwirina was a big lout of a fellow. Placed on the scales he
+would certainly have weighed much more than Valentine. He aimed
+viciously at Valentine with his lance; but Valentine struck the
+shaft of it so sharply with his cudgel that it broke off in the
+middle, and at the same time with his own lance he struck his
+antagonist full in the breast, so that Ignatius flew backward into
+the air off his steed and fell flat on the ground.
+
+Valentine immediately sprang from his horse and punched and pommeled
+the back and shoulders of the prostrate champion, as prescribed by
+the rules of the contest, till his cudgel broke; but all this
+belaboring did very little damage to the defeated combatant, for,
+besides the coat of mail he wore behind, his mother had well
+stuffed his clothes with horsehair. Yet, for all that, he did get
+one or two knocks which he did not forget in a hurry, and that was
+no more than his due, for he had often vexed Valentine with his evil
+tongue.
+
+And there the matter would have ended had not old Furmender thought
+fit to reopen it all again.
+
+For when, after the contest was over, the defeated youth was carried
+home in a basket, according to ancient practice, the old man took it
+so to heart that he immediately buckled on his saber, took down the
+statutes, ran with them to the captain, and called his attention to
+the paragraph which strictly forbade persons serving in the army to
+challenge young civilians. He therefore demanded that Valentine
+should be punished for his challenge as being a gross breach of the
+law.
+
+But the good captain diligently searched through his diary and
+showed the conscientious complainant that Valentine Kalondai on such
+and such a day, viz., on the Wednesday before the last Sunday in
+Advent of the past year, had been relieved of his military duties,
+and therefore no longer fell within the category incriminated by the
+statute. All that could be done therefore, suggested the captain,
+was for old Mr. Furmender to well rub the blue and red bruises of
+his Nassy with butter, which he would find a sovereign specific.
+
+And that not a shadow of a doubt as to Valentine's true position
+might remain, the count that very day publicly advertised Valentine
+Kalondai's appointment as castellan. Now, no doubt this post is
+essentially a civic office, but inasmuch as the castellan is
+practically the commandant's lieutenant, it had for a long time
+always been given to a soldier, especially since the days when one
+of the civic magistrates had been discovered in collusion with the
+castellan to betray the town into the enemy's hands. In memory of
+this event, the Hamor gate, through which the enemy had been
+admitted, was walled up in perpetuity.
+
+Thus Kalondai's enemies were completely put to shame, and Dame Sarah
+experienced the joy of seeing her son's wife, the damsel from
+Bartfa, sitting in the first place of the front pew of the
+cathedral; which pew Dame Furmender Zwirina had refused to occupy
+any longer, having given notice to the dean that she would
+henceforth take sittings in the suburb church instead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Which teaches that outward beauty, be it never so
+precious a property, is often most dangerous to its
+possessor.
+
+
+From this time forth, Valentine, by virtue of his new office, daily
+visited the commandant's house, where he was always a welcome guest.
+In the townhall also, he was held in high honor.
+
+The land, just then, was in very difficult circumstances. A town
+like Kassa, shut in between three distinct masters and anxious to
+please all three, without giving such a preference to any one of
+them as might offend the other two, had a very hard time of it. By
+virtue of the pacification putting an end to the late religious
+wars, Kassa fell within the jurisdiction of George Rakoczy, Prince
+of Transylvania, whose Suzerain was the Turkish Sultan. But the
+pashas of Eger and Grosswardein often took it into their heads to
+make predatory raids on their own account as far as Kassa and Tokay,
+and then the good people of Kassa could not wait, as it is the
+fashion nowadays, till the English had held indignation meetings to
+protest against the Turkish atrocities; but they forthwith mounted
+their steeds, seized their weapons, and smote the troops of their
+own Prince's Suzerain; and this they often did, moreover, in concert
+with their adversaries the Hungarians of that portion of the kingdom
+of Hungary which belonged to the Kaiser. In those days, therefore,
+it required no small discrimination to judge accurately which of the
+many strangers passing to and fro were to be reckoned with as
+friends, and which as foes; which could be put off with promises,
+and which had really to be sent away with presents; which might
+merely be threatened with stripes, and which ought really to get
+them.
+
+Now at this very time, there came from that part of the land which
+both Hungary and Transylvania claimed as their own, a person of
+great distinction, Belisarius Zurdoki by name. One of his ancestors
+had returned to Hungary from Wallachia with great treasures, and
+this his descendant had also the reputation of being a very rich
+man.
+
+Zurdoki made a great display at Kassa. He said he had come to visit
+Count Hommonai, with whom he was distantly connected on his mother's
+side. He brought quite a court with him, equerries, pages, a
+secretary, a chaplain, a huntsman, a master of the hounds, a jester,
+gypsy musicians, a falconer, heydukes, couriers, domestics, lackeys,
+coachmen--in fact, there was no counting the multitude he brought in
+his train. He took up so much space in Count Hommonai's castle that
+there was no room left for its lawful owners.
+
+And all the time he resided at Kassa, he did nothing but give
+splendid entertainments. There was absolutely no end to them.
+
+Belisarius Zurdoki was already over sixty, but though his age was
+venerable, he had no very extraordinary reputation for morality. He
+had had so many wives, morganatic and otherwise, to say nothing of
+those from whom he had been separated, that he himself no longer
+recollected their proper sequence. He had little respect for the
+sex, and held that there was not a woman in the world who could not
+be bought with gifts, only some were more highly priced than others.
+
+He himself, however, had not been in the way when beauty was being
+served out. He had a broad, satyr face, with a red nose sinking
+right down upon his mustache; his head, after the prevailing Turkish
+fashion, was clean shaved, with the exception of a single gray lock
+over his brows which bobbed up and down whenever he wagged his head.
+His mustache hung down limp on both sides in the Turkish style, and
+his stomach was not unlike a large beer barrel.
+
+And yet he tried to make the world believe that he was such an
+amiable man that the woman was yet to be born who could resist him,
+be she never so young, beautiful, and accomplished.
+
+That he was also smelling and purring around the Countess Isabella
+Hommonai was patent to everyone, but the count would not for the
+world have taken any notice of it. Yet he heartily laughed over it
+all in secret with the countess, who made sport of the old rake, and
+told her husband everything he said.
+
+One day Zurdoki gave a great banquet at the castle, on which
+occasion he brought out all his silver plate to make a goodly show,
+and invited the whole of the civic notabilities. Pretty Michal was
+there too, the prettiest of the whole company, and as she was
+dressed very simply her beauty was, of course, all the more
+striking. She was even lovelier than the countess herself. Her
+natural refinement and smiling coyness could not be imitated by
+those who did not possess those graces. With proud humility, she
+wore over her wondrously beautiful tresses the matron's coif, which
+showed that all this loveliness already had a master.
+
+How the old voluptuary feasted his eyes upon this beautiful
+apparition! He was all fire and flame instantly, like an old
+worm-eaten tree stump, which blazes up whenever the young herdsmen
+smoke the wasps out of its hollow trunk.
+
+He had no longer a single look for the countess, but followed close
+upon the heels of the beautiful chatelaine, though Valentine
+occasionally, as if by accident, gave him a violent nudge in the
+ribs with his elbow, or trod sharply on his foot with his spurred
+boots.
+
+At table, the enamored Zurdoki distinguished pretty Michal so very
+markedly that all the women present whispered spiteful things to
+each other about it. The countess was naturally an exception. She
+only laughed at the coxcombry of the old inamorato, and was quite
+persuaded beforehand that such a sage damsel as pretty Michal would
+be more than a match for him.
+
+After dinner, the martial and amatory airs which had been played
+during the banquet were succeeded by dance music, and the guests
+flocked into the dancing-room.
+
+The Hungarian dances of those days were very different from the
+dances we dance now. What are now called csardaszes and friszes were
+then only danced at rustic weddings. At polite entertainments, the
+dance consisted of slow and stately figures, accompanied by the
+clash of colliding spurs, of rhythmical involutions, and evolutions,
+with much extending of hands and kneeling on cushions, or, at most,
+of a defiant manly stamping with the feet and majestic movements of
+the body; not like our present system of dancing, when everyone
+seems bent on jostling his neighbor into a corner, and makes a
+whirligig of his partner. The earlier dances did very well for a
+time, whose motto was, _Festina lente!_
+
+The ball began with the minuet-like dance known as the palotas. It
+was Zurdoki's duty as host to open the ball, and he lost no time in
+doing so. With grandiose _aplomb_, he sauntered up to the fairest of
+the fair, and held toward her a silken handkerchief as a sign that
+he had chosen her for his partner. This was, indeed, a notable
+distinction for Michal, especially as the countess was also present
+in the saloon.
+
+But pretty Michel did not accept the extended handkerchief, the
+other corner of which she ought to have held so as to begin the
+palotas, but bowed modestly, and said so that everyone could hear
+it: "Your pardon, gracious sir! but I've only been a poor serving
+maid and have never learnt dancing!"
+
+And this was no more than the simple truth, for she certainly had
+been a serving maid and never learnt dancing.
+
+At this unexpected rebuff, Zurdoki became as red as a turkey cock,
+and in his fury sought out the most hideous woman in the room. This
+was old Dame Furmender, and with her he opened the ball.
+
+And during the whole of the dance he was cudgeling his brains as to
+the meaning of pretty Michal's words. "She had not learnt to dance
+because she was only a serving maid! Now serving maids can dance,
+and dance very well too! Yet surely she must have spoken the truth,
+for otherwise she would never have dared to publicly put to shame
+her host when he invited her to dance. Who are the women who really
+do not dance? Why, who but the daughters of Protestant pastors?"
+
+Thus pretty Michal, when she said she could not dance, had already
+betrayed a part of her secret. When once an old bloodhound has got a
+scent, he will surely run down his prey!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As already mentioned, in consequence of an unfortunate episode in
+the history of the city of Kassa, when a sheriff had attempted to
+betray the city into the hands of the enemy, extra precautions had
+been taken to prevent similar conspiracies in the future. One of
+these precautions was that all letters brought by couriers from
+abroad, to whomsoever they might be directed, should be first opened
+by the magistrates, and only then handed over to their respective
+owners. And to take away all appearance of espionage from this
+precautionary measure, such letters were opened under the pretext of
+fumigating them to avoid the infection of the plague. And fumigated
+they certainly were, but the castellan used first to copy them and
+communicate their contents to the commandant, who could thus keep a
+watch upon the citizens, and prevent them from plotting behind his
+back.
+
+Zurdoki, too, during his residence at Kassa, received a foreign
+letter which was delivered to him open and fumigated.
+
+"You may try and spell out this letter as much as you like," laughed
+the great man. "I warrant you won't be able to make much of it!"
+
+And, indeed, it was a very curious epistle. In the first place the
+letters were all so much mixed up together that you could see at a
+glance that it was cipher writing.
+
+Valentine recollected that the learned Professor David Frohlich
+possessed, among other sciences, the key of cipher writing. Perhaps
+he had communicated this also to his daughter.
+
+So he showed the letter to Michal.
+
+Michal had indeed been initiated into the mystery of such writings,
+and as at that time there were very few variations in cipher
+writing, a person who held the key of one of them might very easily
+decipher all the others; and in fact, Valentine succeeded, with the
+aid of the key supplied to him by Michal, in deciphering the whole
+letter.
+
+But now a second difficulty arose. This letter was written in a
+language which he had never seen before. It was like German, and yet
+it was not German. He had again to apply to Michal, and asked her if
+she understood this strange tongue.
+
+"Yes! it is Swedish."
+
+"What! you know Swedish too?"
+
+"My father taught it me. He corresponded a good deal with the king
+of Sweden, who supported our schools."
+
+"Then translate me this letter."
+
+Michal did as she was told, and Valentine then hastened with the
+solved enigma to the commandant, Count Hommonai.
+
+The letter contained very remarkable things. Count Hommonai had no
+sooner taken note of its contents than he sent for Zurdoki.
+
+"Sir!" he at once began, without so much as asking Zurdoki to take a
+seat, "you are here with no good intention."
+
+"How?" replied Zurdoki, attempting to give a jocose turn to the
+matter. "Do you mean that I am perhaps a little too attentive to
+some of your pretty little ladies here?"
+
+"It is not a question of women, now, cousin! I allude to your
+correspondence with the Swedish Minister."
+
+"Well! let us hear what you make of it."
+
+"I can tell you if you choose to listen. Your master is George
+Rakoczy, prince of Transylvania."
+
+"He is your master, also," retorted Zurdoki.
+
+"Yes, to-day, perhaps, but he may not be so to-morrow. George
+Rakoczy, not content with the good fortune of being lord of
+Transylvania and of fifteen adjacent Hungarian counties, strives
+after higher fame. Although on his accession he swore to the Estates
+never to commence a war without their consent, he has nevertheless
+interfered in the present dispute between Sweden and Poland, first
+offering to assist Poland against Sweden in consideration of
+receiving the thirteen towns of Zips; and now, when the Swedes have
+entangled him in their net, he turns round and negotiates with them
+through you, demanding no less a reward for his services than the
+whole kingdom of Poland; and in order to gain the consent of the
+German Emperor thereto, he now offers him the five Hungarian
+counties on the other side of the Theiss."
+
+"I deny the truth of that," blustered Zurdoki. "All that is mere
+sophistical gabble."
+
+"Here you have the contents of the letter which the Swedish Minister
+writes to you. Read it!" said Hommonai, handing him the copied
+letter.
+
+Zurdoki was dumfounded.
+
+"Whence did you get this? Who is there in Kassa that can read
+cipher? Who understands Swedish here, I should like to know?"
+
+"Why, my castellan, of course."
+
+"What! that butcher boy! that expelled student?"
+
+But for all that he could no longer deny the contents of the letter.
+
+And now Count Hommonai spoke very sharply to Mr. Zurdoki. He told
+him it would be a piece of folly on the part of the Prince of
+Transylvania to attack Poland with the Cossacks, on whose friendship
+no one could depend, whereas the Poles had always been good
+neighbors. Transylvania and Hungary had quite enough to do at home.
+They should sweep the dust off their own thresholds, and not meddle
+with the affairs of other lands. We should only be too glad to be
+able to defend ourselves against the foes we actually have, and not
+try and saddle ourselves with fresh ones. Besides, an enterprise so
+foolishly begun could not possibly have any good issue. The German
+Emperor would not approve of it because the Pole was his ally. The
+Sultan, too, would refuse his consent, and the end of it would be
+that George Rakoczy would lose the five counties without receiving
+anything in return. Nay, he might at last even lose his
+Transylvanian throne also.
+
+Like every ill-bred fellow when he is driven into a corner, Zurdoki
+now took refuge in low abuse. He insisted that he was right. He
+raised his voice. He asked how they dared to break open his private
+letters, and what business the Commandant of Kassa had to criticise
+the plans of the Prince of Transylvania. Let the commandant look to
+his patrolling and leave politics to his superiors.
+
+"And I mean to show you," retorted Hommonai, "that the city of Kassa
+also has to do with politics. If George Rakoczy thinks fit to
+exchange Hungarian counties for a kingdom, the city of Kassa will
+also think fit to shut its gates against all suspected persons who
+cannot give a good account of themselves. As for you, sir, you are
+my kinsman, and I have hitherto willingly seen you in my house. But
+I now beg to inform you that your carriage is waiting, and nothing
+prevents you from taking your departure immediately."
+
+That was indeed a snub! What! to refuse hospitality to a guest!
+Zurdoki could not swallow that calmly. He stuck out his chest and
+said haughtily to Hommonai:
+
+"Look ye, my lord Count! You know as well as I do the real reason
+why you drive me out of your house. It is because you fear I might
+be dangerous to your dear wife!"
+
+Hommonai was a finished gentleman. Even in his insults he was
+exquisite.
+
+"I have a book which I will send you at once," said he to Zurdoki;
+"if you look into it attentively, you will find that it is really
+quite impossible for me to be jealous of you."
+
+Zurdoki was very curious to see this odd book. He could scarcely
+wait patiently for the heyduke to bring it to him. It was bound in
+heavy morocco covers, and when Zurdoki opened them he found nothing
+inside but a mirror. In that he read that Hommonai could not be
+jealous of so ugly a face as his.
+
+He dashed the mirror to the ground and rode away from Kassa that
+very day. The goal of his journey was his castle at Saros.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+'Tis a true proverb which says that the devil sends
+an old woman when he cannot come himself; but of
+course it only applies to wicked old women, for
+there are very many gentlewomen well advanced in
+years who lead a God-fearing life and do good to
+their fellow-creatures.
+
+
+Mr. Zurdoki left Kassa in rage and fury, and there were very many
+reasons why he should so leave it. In the first place the object of
+his scheming had been frustrated by his enforced departure from the
+city. He was to have spurred on to action there the party which
+leaned to Vienna, and thus facilitated George Rakoczy's plan of
+handing over to Ferdinand of Austria the trans-Theissian counties.
+At Kassa, Mr. Zwirina was his willing ally, but now all
+communication between them was cut off. He was also well aware that
+the citizens of Kassa are very stiff-necked people. Whenever they
+say "no," the Sultan, the Kaiser, and the Prince of Transylvania may
+say "yes," in vain. For when the potentates lay their heads
+together, and lay out the land in a way the people of Kassa don't
+like, the sheriff of Kassa simply wets his fingers and rubs out the
+proposed line of demarcation. Nor do they much mind being besieged
+for a couple of years or so; they have often enough experienced
+that. And when the Imperial general sends his shots into the city,
+they shoot them back again into his camp, and at last undermine the
+very ground beneath his feet. You had to be very clever indeed to
+get the better of the citizens of Kassa.
+
+The threads of Zurdoki's crafty policy had been woven together in
+the letter deciphered by Valentine Kalondai, and Zurdoki was one of
+those who were perpetually urging the ambitious George Rakoczy to
+conquer Poland. The governorship of Cracow was the prize reserved
+for himself, and the prospect of the loss of that lucrative post
+piqued him exceedingly.
+
+The second cause of his rage was his unsatisfied personal grudge
+against those who had forestalled him, viz., Count Hommonai and
+Valentine Kalondai.
+
+In the third place he was in love with the wives of the count and
+the castellan, and the old miscreant had got the idea into his
+shaven head of corrupting them both, and to this idea he stuck
+through thick and thin.
+
+On arriving at Saros, he gave up all the time that was not devoted
+to political intrigues to elaborating this evil design.
+
+That Dame Kalondai had been married to her husband at Bartfa he had
+already learnt from old Dame Zwirina, who had told him so
+immediately after that memorable dance. He also knew from the same
+person that Michal's face, during her earlier residence at Kassa,
+had been disfigured by great brown patches, which had subsequently
+vanished in a most marvelous manner. She had said then that they
+were freckles, which always go away in winter; yet since then
+another summer had come and gone, and yet not a single freckle had
+reappeared.
+
+From this Zurdoki's crafty intellect concluded that if the roses and
+lilies on Dame Kalondai's face were not of artificial growth, the
+disfiguring freckles must have been painted on designedly, and there
+must be some reason for it.
+
+He took the trouble to go all the way to Bartfa, searched on the
+spot the records which testify to the marriage of Valentine
+Kalondai, and learnt therefrom with whom pretty--nay, ugly Michal,
+had been in service.
+
+There they recollected the freckle-faced girl very well, and they
+also told him what sort of a person it was who had brought the
+damsel thither.
+
+But to find this woman now was not very easy.
+
+Red Barbara had certainly gone to Poland, where she had no reason to
+fear that she would fall into the hands of Henry Catsrider, who, if
+he came across her, would guess at once that she had set his house
+on fire, and that the two charred skulls which had been found under
+the debris were the remains, not of Barbara and Michal, but of the
+two lads. And thus he could ferret out many other things, especially
+if he took the trouble to investigate how the splendid garments and
+jewels which he himself had bought to rejoice pretty Michal's heart
+had found their way to the Cracow rag market.
+
+Nevertheless Mr. Zurdoki persistently followed up his clew.
+
+The witch, he argued, must have had associates in the country.
+Witches form a sort of guild, and are closely united to one another.
+So he searched and searched till at last he found the wife of the
+Kopanitschar of Zeb. There he gave a great banquet, danced all night
+with the Kopanitschar's wife, and after exhausting all his
+flatteries upon her, well plying her with wine and loading her with
+gifts, he learnt from her that she had indeed been acquainted with a
+woman who had sprung up from the bowels of the earth one night with
+a freckle-faced girl, and had then flown away through the air with
+her. The Kopanitschar's wife also knew where Red Barbara was now to
+be found.
+
+In those days the more the witches were persecuted, the more they
+multiplied. Many lonely old women, and even younger ones who were
+separated from their husbands, not to mention a few young widows,
+got it into their heads that they were witches. They took great
+pride in the idea that men were afraid of them, and regarded them as
+supernatural beings, and for the sake of this senseless reputation
+did not even flinch from the horrors of a lingering death. There
+were quack anointers among them, too, who distributed to the others
+a salve made of stupefying, poisonous herbs, which, when well rubbed
+into their bodies, took away their senses, gave them delirious
+visions, and made their excited fancy believe that they were at
+witches' sabbaths in the society of the devil; or gave them morbidly
+voluptuous dreams such as haunt opium eaters, so that on awakening
+they firmly believed that their dreams were solid facts, and thus
+they openly confessed to deeds which they had only dreamt of doing.
+To such magic ointment-makers the rank and file of the witches
+looked up as their natural chiefs, went enormous distances to
+consult them, and in fact never lost sight of them.
+
+Thus Annie knew very well where Red Barbara was to be found,
+although the latter had not considered it expedient to return to
+Hungary.
+
+With Barbara's money it had been lightly come, lightly go! She had
+gone with her hoard of ducats and her costly dresses to Sandomir,
+where she gave herself out for a great lady, lived riotously with
+the professional thieves of the place, and after spending all her
+ready cash, sold her jewels likewise. Then the pretty dresses went
+too, till at last she found herself once more the same old tattered
+hag she had been before, and began again to haunt young women to
+tell them lies about their future, and give them bad advice in
+return for clandestine ducats.
+
+This was just the sort of woman Zurdoki wanted.
+
+He commissioned Annie to seek out Barbara, and gave the latter money
+for her journey, besides a letter certifying that she belonged to
+his household. This certificate she was to show to all and sundry
+who might stop her on the way. He was now quite certain of success.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, great changes were taking place at Kassa.
+
+The day for the election of the sheriff had arrived, for according
+to ancient custom a new sheriff had to be elected every year.
+
+Valentine Kalondai, with God's help, had already advanced very far.
+He had administered the office of castellan so excellently well that
+everyone was persuaded that the Keszmar professors had acted very
+unjustly in expelling him from college. But since discovering
+Zurdoki's intrigues, he had risen so high in the opinion of his
+fellow-citizens that, when the time for the election of the sheriff
+came round, no one would hear of anybody else for that office but
+him. Besides, said they, did not his father sacrifice himself for
+the benefit of the town when he was sheriff, and Valentine was much
+more fitted for the post than ever his father had been.
+
+That the commandant, Count Hommonai, was a great patron of his, and
+warmly recommended him everywhere, naturally did him no harm either.
+
+Nevertheless, to appease the opposite faction and prevent the
+citizens from quarreling among themselves, it was arranged that Mr.
+Zwirina, senior, who had hitherto been curator, should be made
+burgomaster, while Ignatius his son should become curator in his
+stead. In this way all parties were satisfied.
+
+All three elections took place in the most orderly way. First, on
+Epiphany, the burgomaster--or, as he was then called, the
+superrector--was appointed, and then the curator, who had a weighty
+office to perform. He had to choose from among the most respectable
+citizens a hundred persons, who were to duly elect the sheriff.
+Fifty of these electors had to be Hungarians, and the remaining
+fifty Germans and Slovacks in equal numbers. As to confessions of
+faith, four-and-thirty of the hundred had to be Calvinists,
+three-and-thirty Lutherans, and just as many Papists.
+
+It was no light manner to get together one hundred electors who
+should satisfy all these requirements.
+
+At last, however, the hundred electors were all found, and then all
+the gates were closed, and no one was allowed to enter the city.
+
+The hundred electors assembled in the townhall, and agreed among
+themselves as to the sheriff-elect.
+
+Then they proceeded in perfect silence to the market-place, where a
+car drawn by six horses, and covered by a black cloth baldeluir,
+which made it look just like a hearse, awaited them. The retiring
+sheriff had to sit down in this car, and the hundred electors walked
+alongside it on foot, as if they were accompanying a corpse on its
+last journey to the churchyard. And it was indeed, to the churchyard
+that the procession went, and all the streets were thickly strewn
+with straw, so that the rattling of the car might not be heard.
+
+In front of the churchyard the representatives of the guilds, with
+the symbols of their trade on long poles, were drawn up in two
+lines: the butcher held his hatchet, the cobbler his last, the
+tailor his shears, the mason his trowel, the metal-smelter his
+mortar, the carpenter his ax, the joiner his plane. But the guild of
+the organ-builders was represented by the image of its patron St.
+Cecilia, fastened in a banner.
+
+And all this time the town was as silent as the grave. No music, no
+noise of any kind was allowed.
+
+The electors and the guildsmen marched into the very center of the
+churchyard, which was likewise covered with straw, and all stood
+around the chapel in a half-circle. Then the retiring sheriff arose
+in the car, which was laden with eighteen long, smoothly planed
+boards of the hardest wood, and said to the burgesses:
+
+"Gentlemen and judges, let thy servant depart!" whereupon the
+curator answered in the name of the rest:
+
+"Thou hast served us faithfully, depart in peace!"
+
+Then the sheriff came down from the car.
+
+"To whom am I to give these eighteen boards?" he asked.
+
+"To the noble, valiant, worshipful burgher, Valentine Kalondai,"
+replied the curator, in the name of the electors.
+
+Then the car was turned round, and went back into the town as
+silently as it came, and this time, not only the hundred electors,
+but the representatives of the guilds also escorted it.
+
+The car stood still before Kalondai's house, the doors and windows
+of which were shut, as indeed were the windows and doors of all the
+houses, and closed they must remain till the pealings of the
+church-bells gave them the signal to reopen.
+
+At the knocking of the curator, Valentine Kalondai appeared on the
+balcony.
+
+"What do the citizens require of me?"
+
+"Admittance with our car and our tools," answered the curator.
+
+"And what am I to do with your car and your tools?"
+
+"Valentine Kalondai, the citizens of the town of Kassa have this
+day, of their own free will, chosen you their sheriff. These tools
+which we have brought with us are the symbols of our prosperity,
+which we now intrust to your safe keeping. For a whole year to come
+the care of our peace and our prosperity lies in your hands. But on
+this car, according to ancient law and custom, we have brought you
+eighteen boards: six for your coffin, in case you die in the service
+of our city, but twelve for the fagots round your stake in case you
+betray the town wherein you were born. Will you admit us within your
+gates?"
+
+"Come in, and welcome, in God's name!" said Valentine, and thereupon
+he opened the gate of his courtyard, and the heavy car lumbered
+rattling in.
+
+Dame Sarah had overheard the conversation in the next room, and,
+through the closed window, said to pretty Michal:
+
+"I know not how it is, but I am so delighted that my teeth chatter,
+and an ague shakes me."
+
+"'Tis just the same with me," whispered pretty Michal.
+
+But Valentine went down into the courtyard to the electors, and took
+the eighteen boards, six of which were for a coffin for the
+faithful, and twelve for fagots for the faithless sheriff.
+
+Then they escorted the sheriff-elect to the townhall. There the two
+eldest town-councilors led him by the hand to the council-chamber,
+and bade him take his place in the sheriff's chair, at the upper end
+of the table, which was covered with a green cloth. Then the four
+youngest town-councilors seized the four legs of the chair and
+raised it, Valentine and all, on to their shoulders, and carried him
+out on the balcony of the townhall, while the hundred electors in
+the council-chamber shouted aloud, "_Vivat!_"
+
+At the third _vivat_ all the mortars in the market-place were fired
+off, and immediately afterward all the bells in the church towers
+rang out, the town band blew with the trumpets, the town drummer
+beat the big drum in the square, in front of the cathedral, and the
+civic watch fired three salvos out of their heavy muskets, while all
+the people filled the air with their loud rejoicings. The straw was
+swept away from all the streets, and fresh green grass, specially
+mowed for the occasion, laid down instead. Then the procession set
+out again from the townhall, the guilds going before with their
+banners and the militia with their weapons, with the sheriff in the
+midst under a canopy--and thus the guard of honor proceeded to the
+churches of all denominations, as a sign that the new head of the
+town would honor the creeds of all confessions according to law and
+custom. There they prayed in the Hungarian, German, and Slovack
+languages, and after making the circuit of the town, set the sheriff
+on horseback, and placed the civic sword in his hand to signify
+that, in case of war, he was ready, if necessary, to defend the city
+by force of arms; whereupon they accompanied him back to his house,
+while the trumpets blew and the bells pealed continuously. And by
+this time all the doors and windows were opened, and thronged with
+spectators.
+
+Among the many trumpeters who strode along before the sheriff's
+horse was worthy Simplex, who looked up from time to time at his old
+friend, as if he thought that a part of all this pomp and splendor
+belonged to him. And Valentine Kalondai looked down from his high
+horse upon his old bosom friend, and beckoned kindly to him with his
+naked sword; nay, when they came to his own gate, he stuck his
+middle finger into his open mouth and pointed up at the house, which
+means in all the languages of the world, "Mind you also come up to
+the banquet!"
+
+For the good old custom then prevailed that the elected sheriff,
+when the solemn function was over, should entertain the whole of the
+magistrates, not forgetting their lowliest servant, so that no one
+took it ill of him in the least for inviting the civic trumpeter to
+table also.
+
+And now the women had all their work cut out for them, and indeed on
+all such festive occasions they have by far the hardest part to
+play. The men can very soon get through their hocus-pocus, and it
+does not very much matter whether they gabble off their set speeches
+like parrots, or stick fast in the middle of them like asses; but
+what with cooking and baking and roasting, the poor women have no
+rest or repose for a whole week beforehand, for the comfort and
+convenience of the guests depend entirely upon them, and they must
+see to it that no one has the slightest cause to grumble. For the
+last three nights they had scarcely closed an eye.
+
+A good old sumptuary ordinance provided that the lesser burgesses
+should be first provided for in roomy tents erected in the
+courtyard, while the notables, among whom the commandant and his
+lovely wife took precedence, were regaled in the family mansion
+itself.
+
+Besides these two groups of guests, there was yet another sort,
+consisting of the beggars of the town.
+
+These ragged ones limped in a long row through the streets, and
+stopped in turn at the bottom of the flight of steps which led up to
+the door of the pantry. On the lowest of these steps stood pretty
+Michal, and gave them a huge loaf apiece, while Ali, the Turk,
+filled each one's jug with as much beer as it would hold.
+
+After the male came the female beggars. The Calvinists saluted
+pretty Michal with "God give you blessing and peace!" the Papists
+with "Praised be Jesus Christ!" and pretty Michal returned each
+salutation most sweetly. Whenever she saw a beggar-woman with a
+child in her arms, she gave her two loaves instead of one, and
+although herself a Protestant, she nevertheless always answered the
+"Praised be Jesus Christ!" with a devout "For ever and ever, Amen."
+And the beggars said to one another as they went away, "Oh! what a
+beautiful, good, blessed creature! May God preserve her for a
+hundred years to come!"
+
+All at once there came hobbling along among the beggars, a woman
+whose head was swathed in a red cloth, who held one hand to her
+mouth, and looked at the young woman with her large piercing black
+eyes, as if she would have devoured her.
+
+When this strange shape reached pretty Michal, she whispered in her
+ear, with a mocking, singing drawl, not the usual salutation, but
+the words, "Praised be--the pretty lady!" And then, for a single
+instant, she showed her face, which was distorted by a devilish
+grin.
+
+Pretty Michal collapsed utterly. Had not the faithful Ali caught her
+in his arms, she would have dashed her head against the stones.
+
+The beggar with the red cloth had disappeared in the crowd. Most
+likely no one had observed her, but, at any rate, no one troubled
+himself about her.
+
+On hearing that pretty Michal had fainted, all the women came
+running together, and carried her into the house. Then, with many
+winks and smiles, they whispered to each other over her body. When a
+young wife faints there is no reason to be alarmed. The
+indisposition goes away of its own accord. The more initiated
+playfully take the husband to task for it, and he generally blushes
+and looks stupid enough. When a young wife swoons away, she is not
+so very desperately ill after all. The women soothed and calmed
+pretty Michal, and told her not to exert herself and not to sit at
+table. They could drink to her health, or rather to her speedy
+recovery, without her assistance.
+
+So the banquet went on right merrily without her, especially after
+Dame Sarah had received the reassuring intelligence that there was
+really nothing the matter, the young wife only required a little
+rest. They drank to the prosperity of the land, the town, and all
+the distinguished guests present, without exception. The new sheriff
+had to clink glasses and drink bumpers with so many people that his
+happiness was almost too much for him. Even the two Zwirinas made
+Latin verses in his honor, so that his triumph that day was
+complete. At last Count Hommonai himself raised his beaker, and
+looking at Valentine, cried: "God preserve the man whom I love most
+of all my fellow-men, and with whom I am ready to share all my
+riches and all my honor!"
+
+Then Valentine raised his tankard and proposed this toast:
+
+"God preserve the friend who has shared with me all the
+contrarieties of life, my good comrade Simplex!"
+
+And the commandant drank with the sheriff to the health of the
+trumpeter, although one or two fastidious gentlemen turned up their
+noses in consequence. But the majority liked Valentine all the
+better for not forgetting his lowly comrade in the hour of his
+greatest elevation.
+
+Very late at night the merry company dispersed, and Greek fire
+flamed on all the bastions in honor of the happy day.
+
+Valentine hastened to his Michal. His brain was reeling. He was
+brimful of the splendor of that day's triumph. In such a condition,
+a man deems it impossible that his own spouse, the second half of
+his soul, can perhaps be just as full of grief and despair as he of
+joy.
+
+Beaming with pride, he advanced toward the bed on which pretty
+Michal lay. But she, with a horrified face, fell upon his neck, drew
+his head down toward her and whispered in his ear what she could
+have screamed aloud for terror:
+
+"Let us fly. Red Barbara is here!"
+
+At these words, Valentine's face grew pale, and the pride of his
+heart was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Whereby we learn that it is not good to come to
+close quarters with Satan, for if we catch him by
+the horns he butts us, if we clutch him by the
+throat he bites us, and if we hold him by the neck
+he kicks us.
+
+
+"Perhaps it was not she after all?"
+
+"It was. She looked at me, spoke to me, mocked me, and threatened
+me. Oh! all my limbs are still trembling!"
+
+"Don't tremble, darling! Lay your hand on my breast and warm it.
+Have I not the power to defend you?"
+
+"No! Though you had the power to defend me against all the world,
+you would be powerless against this woman, and you know it."
+
+"Don't be afraid of her! She was in rags, you say? I'll pay her off,
+and she'll hold her tongue and go her way. Even if it will cost me
+my whole fortune, I'll buy her off and give you peace. Don't be
+afraid of her! She will certainly come again to see what she can
+get. Here is the key of my strong-box. Give her money. Manage so
+that mother knows nothing about it. As soon as you have satisfied
+her, I'll have all the foreign itinerant beggars, quacks, and
+fortune-tellers drummed out of the town within twenty-four hours,
+and then she also will vanish."
+
+Valentine's soothing words had very little effect upon pretty
+Michal. All night long she was plagued by horrible dreams, and
+frequently sprang out of bed as if Death himself was after her.
+
+Next day, while Valentine was at the townhall, Michal listened
+anxiously whenever a door creaked or a dog barked, and often peeped
+into the street through the closed window; but no one disturbed her
+all that day. The terrific form did not appear.
+
+The third day passed, and the fourth, and yet the dreaded specter
+did not appear. Michal began to believe that the terrible
+beggar-woman had after all only been a phantom, the mere creature of
+her own imagination.
+
+And so Friday arrived, when the beggars of the town visit every
+house in turn, and every door must be opened to them.
+
+Pretty Michal used personally to distribute the Friday's alms, a
+piece of bread and a penny, at the kitchen door.
+
+At last the shape swathed in the red cloth, the shape so long
+expected in fear and trembling, came to the half-open door, and
+began the usual beggar's whine, "Praised be the--"
+
+Michal did not let her finish the blasphemous salutation, but seized
+her by the hand and drew her rapidly into a side chamber. Here the
+beggar-woman took the cloth from her head, and laughed in Michal's
+face.
+
+"Well! Here I am again! Eh? Have you thought about me much? Have you
+often mentioned me to your husband? Have you ever said: 'I wonder
+where poor Barbara is? If only we could see her once more?' Do you
+still recognize me? I haven't grown much younger since then, have
+I?"
+
+"Barbara!" said Michal, rallying all her courage, "we must not
+converse very long together or else my mother will hear it."
+
+"Ah, ha! So you have another mother besides me?"
+
+"I know what you want--money. I'll give you all I can, and then, in
+God's name, go!"
+
+"I don't want money--there now! I have enough of that and to spare.
+Look!" and with that she showed her a netted purse in which were at
+least two hundred ducats. "I want something else. I won't go from
+hence in anyone's holy name, for I've not come hither to be sent
+away, but to talk to you. Yes, to talk to you, in all secrecy, yet
+without fear. I already know all the habits of this household. At
+two o'clock in the afternoon your husband goes to the townhall to
+attend to his business. At the selfsame hour, the old lady has her
+afternoon nap. She has need of it, poor thing. In the afternoon the
+shop is closed, and not opened again till six in the evening; for no
+one sends for meat in the afternoon, and meanwhile the apprentices
+are busy at the drawbridge. But behind the gate is a side door,
+through which the meat is carried up into the shop, to be cured and
+salted; through that door I can creep in unobserved. Even the dogs
+don't bark at me. Be there in the afternoon when it strikes two!
+Then I'll tell you something."
+
+With that she quickly whipped the cloth round her head again, and
+whisked out of the room, shuffling and scraping all the way down the
+long corridor as beggar-women do.
+
+Michal remained behind, tormented by agonizing doubts. What did this
+woman, who had so much power over her, mean to do with her? If she
+will not let her silence be bought with gold, what price will she
+demand for it?
+
+She said nothing to anyone, not even to her husband, about the
+rendezvous; but it seemed an age to her before Valentine went off to
+the townhall, and her mother-in-law began dozing in her armchair.
+At the stroke of two, she was already in the shop below, the
+trellis-door of which, leading to the street, was closed, while the
+side door near the gateway stood ajar.
+
+Red Barbara appeared punctually. She looked cautiously round for
+fear of an ambush, and then slowly closed the door behind her that
+it might not creak. Then she stroked pretty Michal's face with her
+rough red hand, and said with cunning flattery:
+
+"Eh! my little sweetheart, how lovely you have grown since last I
+saw you!"
+
+Her touch, her words, made Michal shudder.
+
+"I don't wonder at all at the enamoured Zurdoki going quite off his
+head about you."
+
+"Zurdoki?"
+
+"Yes, my dear little cockchafer! You may be quite sure that I have
+not come all the way to your dismal town of Kassa for my own
+amusement, but because I have been sent thither. The fine stout
+gentleman, the gracious, rich, and kind old gentleman, said to me:
+'Go, dear gossip Barbara, go to the town of Kassa, seek there my
+wondrous little flower, the pretty wife of Valentine Kalondai, your
+own dear daughter, whom you got married to her husband at Bartfa,
+and take her this costly girdle. She must wear it for my sake, and
+it will make her more beautiful than ever!'"
+
+The girdle was inlaid with turquoises and Orient pearls, a gift meet
+for a princess.
+
+Michal dashed it angrily to the ground.
+
+"Shameless wretch!"
+
+"Whom do you call shameless? Me?"
+
+"No, the sender."
+
+"Oh, my treasure! I don't say that's all. He will give you very much
+more than that. He will load you with precious things, so that your
+beauty will shine forth still more resplendently."
+
+"I won't have his presents!"
+
+"Who dares to talk of presents here? It is not presents that a
+pretty woman receives. Oh, no! When any one brings a costly offering
+to a saint, he does it to open the way to heaven in the next world;
+and when anyone sends costly offerings to a pretty woman, _he_ does
+it to obtain heaven here below. That is no present, but a
+well-earned reward."
+
+"Reward! For what?"
+
+"For what? How simple we are! Why, for admitting someone into your
+heaven, of course."
+
+"What! The horrible old devil really believes that of me?"
+
+"Come, come! A man is never horrible, and the devil is never old. If
+you think him ugly I'll give you a magic potion, and with that in
+your body you'll think him a prince."
+
+"Go to hell with him! ugly or handsome. I'll none of him! I have a
+husband whom I love."
+
+"You have two husbands, and one of them you do not love. Your first
+and lawful husband, whom you have forsaken for the more comely one,
+lives the life of a lonely, dismal bachelor at Zeb. You are on a
+crooked path. Do you fancy you can keep straight? No! you must go on
+as you have begun. Do you think that I only took you away from the
+house of the headsman of Zeb, in order that one stout butcher's wife
+the more might in course of time sit in the front pew of the
+Cathedral of Kassa?"
+
+"You frightful woman! What do you mean to do with me?"
+
+"What do I mean to do with you? Why, you little fool! I want to
+give you the whole world. I want you to find out what sort of fruit
+grew on the tree of which our mother Eve plucked one. Why, when she
+was about it, did she not pick ten or twenty? If I had wished you to
+join the ranks of the saints as a martyr, I should have left you in
+the house of the headsman of Zeb, shouldn't I? Do you suppose that I
+do not know how to value your beautiful white velvety skin, your
+large sparkling eyes, your round cheeks, your inviting lips, your
+fine figure? All the noble opals in the mines of Dubink are not half
+as numerous as the precious stones which will be laid at your feet
+whenever you like. Your fingers will turn whatever they touch to
+gold. If you only do what I tell you, you'll be richer than King
+Darius. And it won't cost you the least trouble. It will seem as if
+you only dreamt it all. Who can call you to account for what you
+dream? Do you go to confession merely for dreaming that you are
+another man's wife. Fear nothing! If only you will put yourself in
+my hands, you will tread on no one's corns. But if you try to get
+away from me, it will only be so much labor lost. I have only to
+send a letter, a word, to Henry Catsrider, and you and your
+Valentine are lost. We shall see pretty Michal publicly scourged
+with rods and branded with red-hot irons in the market-place, and
+they will strike off the head of the sheriff of Kassa; for your
+lawfully wedded husband still lives, and you were not separated from
+him when you married the second."
+
+Michal shuddered. She felt herself in the grip of a vise. She could
+only tear herself away by force. Feminine cunning suggested an idea,
+and rage and pride matured it into a regular plan. She would pretend
+to lend an ear to the evil counsels of her seducer. She would
+ostensibly consent to the disgraceful offer, lure Zurdoki to her,
+and when quite sure of him, would tell her husband everything.
+
+A man like Valentine would most certainly kill both the seducer and
+his go-between, and such a homicide is justified by the laws and
+customs of every nation.
+
+Then she meditated killing by the hand of her husband the one being
+in the world who was in possession of her secret. She had reason
+enough for hating with a deadly hatred the witch who came to her
+with such a dastardly proposal, and whose devilish intention it was
+to hand her innocent soul over to perdition; but at the bottom of
+this murderous idea was the constant thought that, when once Barbara
+was out of the way, her secret would be secure. So she whispered
+gently to Barbara:
+
+"I'm only afraid someone will find me out."
+
+Barbara's eyes flashed and sparkled like those of a wolf pouncing on
+his prey. She fancied the little bird was caught already.
+
+"Leave it all to me," she replied, also in a whisper, "no true woman
+ever lets herself be caught. One who really knows what's what can
+even manage to be in two places at the same time. You know how to
+treat your husband so that he sees least when he's most on the
+alert. Only rely upon me. Has anyone ever suspected our former
+secret? Very well, then! It will be the same with this one also. No
+headsman can tear from me with red-hot pincers what I know about
+you, and no stately youth can wheedle it out of me with fond
+caresses; but a single shifty look from you may make me blab."
+
+And Michal so far overcame her heartfelt horror of the evil witch as
+to press her hand and promise that they two would hold together as
+heretofore. Then she told her to be at the same place on the morrow,
+at the same time.
+
+"And when the proper time comes," she added, confidentially, "you
+must once more practice enchantments with the pan of water on the
+fire, and the buck-goat will bring me the enamored swain."
+
+Michal was well aware that it was no buck-goat, but his own legs,
+that had brought Valentine to her on that occasion; but she wanted
+to flatter the witch, who was much gratified by the allusion. She
+winked roguishly, patted Michal's cheeks once more, and after
+promising to come on the morrow, whisked out of the door as
+stealthily as she had come.
+
+But Michal went up into her own room, threw herself on the bed, and
+wept bitterly. And when, a little time afterward, Dame Sarah asked
+her how it was that her eyes were so red, she pretended she had been
+working too long at a piece of fine white embroidery. Dame Sarah
+thereupon locked up every piece of white embroidery in her wardrobe,
+so that Michal might not ruin her eyes. When, however, her husband
+came home and asked whether Barbara had been there yet, she
+pretended that the woman had not appeared that day also.
+
+Next day the witch came again after it had struck two o'clock,
+locked herself up with Michal in the butcher's shop, and had a whole
+hour's conversation with her.
+
+And when Red Barbara had gone away, pretty Michal again went up into
+her bedroom, and wept till her mother-in-law awoke from her
+afternoon nap. And when Dame Sarah again asked her why her eyes were
+so red, she pretended that the scent of the sweet basil plant in her
+room was too strong, and had given her a headache.
+
+Dame Sarah immediately had all the flowers which stood in glazed
+jars on Michal's window-sill removed elsewhere.
+
+And this evening also pretty Michal deceived her husband by
+assuring him that Red Barbara had never been there.
+
+The following day was Sunday. Pretty Michal declared she did not
+feel well and could not go to church. This time Dame Sarah and
+Valentine went to the house of God without her. During their absence
+Red Barbara again visited Michal, and the young woman dismissed the
+witch with the assurance that she was quite ready to receive the
+gracious gentleman if he would only come, whereupon Red Barbara
+promised to hasten on her hobby-horse (a broomstick, no doubt!) to
+Saros, and Michal might expect her return any day.
+
+When Michal heard that the witch was about to depart, she felt much
+relieved. That day she told her husband that Red Barbara had been
+there, and had departed satisfied. The same afternoon Valentine had
+it publicly proclaimed, that all foreign vagrants must quit the town
+by the following morning, or in default thereof be whipped with
+rods.
+
+And now nothing was heard of the evil witch for some time to come.
+
+But the roses did not come back to pretty Michal's cheeks, nor did
+the wrinkles vanish from Valentine's brow. Dame Sarah observed them
+both with anxious curiosity. Something dreadful was going on, of
+that she felt quite certain, especially as pretty Michal had now
+altogether left off going to church.
+
+This much indeed Dame Sarah knew for certain. On the day of the
+election of the sheriff, just before her daughter-in-law had swooned
+away, a strange beggar-woman with a red cloth round her head had
+been seen to approach her, and now sundry friends and acquaintances
+told her that at the very time when she was wont to enjoy her
+afternoon nap, this same beggar-woman had been seen to step into
+the shop, and not come out again for some considerable time.
+
+"My daughter-in-law is bewitched," said she to herself, "and no
+other than that evil witch has done it."
+
+And pretty Michal pined and fell off from day to day, and no one
+knew what was the matter with her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile political events were ripening toward a catastrophe.
+Neither the remonstrances of his own subjects nor the prohibition of
+the Sultan could deter George Rakoczy. He collected a host and,
+uniting with the Cossacks and the Wallacks, went out against Poland.
+To win over the Emperor Ferdinand, however, he transferred to him
+the whole of that part of the land which lay along the banks of the
+Theiss; though, to be sure, this liberality was not of the slightest
+use to him. The Kaiser took, indeed, the counties offered to him,
+but declared at the same time that he did not approve of Rakoczy's
+attack on Poland, and, if necessary, would drive him out from thence
+by force of arms.
+
+In consequence of these events, the town of Kassa had to send a
+deputation to Pressburg to negotiate with the delegates of the
+Emperor and the Palatine as to the maintenance of the privileges of
+the town and the confirmation of its religious liberties, and the
+sheriff, Valentine Kalondai, was chosen the spokesman of this
+deputation.
+
+This mission took him away from home for some time, and there was
+very much weeping and sobbing on pretty Michal's part when he
+departed. Valentine would have liked to have taken her with him to
+Pressburg, but it was scarcely prudent to venture upon so long a
+journey at winter-time with such an invalid. On his departure,
+however, he was very urgent with his mother to guard his beloved
+Michal as the very apple of her eye; but, indeed, all such
+exhortations were quite superfluous, for good Dame Sarah dearly
+loved her daughter-in-law, and was constantly racking her brains as
+to what had made her so very sad all at once. Immediately after
+Valentine's departure there was a great fall of snow, and Dame Sarah
+persuaded her daughter-in-law to take a sledge drive into the town
+to see the carnival revels. The fresh air might do her good, and the
+bracing cold would perhaps bring back the roses to her cheeks.
+
+Michal herself was very fond of sledging. She therefore let them
+bring her her furred pelisse, and harness the horses to the jingling
+sledge. Behind her on the box-seat sat the faithful Ali, loudly
+cracking his long whip.
+
+Just as they were turning round the corner of the church into the
+public square, a swarm of frisky masqueraders began to pelt the
+sledge with snow. One of the snowballs fell right into Michal's lap,
+and as she shook it off her pelisse, there fell at her feet from the
+crumbling snow, a little crumpled piece of paper.
+
+She picked it up and saw that something was written on it.
+
+"At two o'clock this afternoon I shall be there!"
+
+So she has come back. She has dared to creep back into the town,
+despite the prohibition. She has been watching for the time when the
+husband would not be at home!
+
+When pretty Michal got home again her face was paler than ever. All
+her limbs were as cold as ice. Perhaps she would even have been
+taken ill had not Dame Sarah, there and then, insisted upon her
+swallowing a hot wine-and-nutmeg posset. She rallied all her
+strength, however, so as to be able to go and meet the evil witch
+when she came. She was in her power, she must obey her in all
+things, she must go wherever she bade her.
+
+Even her indignation was paralyzed by the circumstance that
+Valentine was now far away from her. The trap had been laid, the
+sword sharpened; but who was to kill the evil being that had fallen
+into the snare?
+
+As soon as dinner was over and Dame Sarah asleep, she slipped
+unobserved down into the usual trysting-place. The shop had a double
+door in the gateway. When Michal had opened the outer door, she
+thought to herself how strange it would be if the witch were already
+standing between the two doors.
+
+And there, indeed, the witch really was, so that Michal did not even
+scream out when she saw her.
+
+Witches can get into any room through a keyhole--especially if they
+have the assistance of a skeleton key.
+
+"Alas, alas! my little poppet, how pale you have grown," whimpered
+Barbara, when she saw Michal. "You must get back your rosy color
+somehow, or else there's an end to all your glory. In this moldy
+city even you are catching the Kassa color, and it is, therefore,
+high time that you left it."
+
+"But how dare you come into the town again?" said Michal, "when you
+know very well how strictly it is forbidden for all such--such----"
+
+"Don't pick your words, sweetheart! Call a spade a spade! You mean
+to say, such a vagabond brood of witches, who are beaten with rods
+whenever they are caught. I know it. But the devil does not forsake
+his daughters. The witch has sense enough, when she enters Kassa by
+the Eperies gate, to come, not with her crutch in her hand and her
+bundle on her back, but in a jingling sledge, drawn by three horses;
+and when I throw aside this ragged mantle, I also am a person of
+honor."
+
+Red Barbara let the mantle fall from her shoulder, and took the red
+cloth from her head, and Michal fancied she saw upon the witch the
+same purple mantle which had once belonged to her, and of which
+Valentine had said that it made her look like a queen. But the satin
+robe was somewhat stained and shabby, and Red Barbara looked more
+like a witch in it than ever. Nothing is so disgusting as when such
+shameless old women trick themselves out in gay apparel.
+
+"Have no concern on my account! I also have come hither in a sledge.
+I have left it standing at the corner, and have thrown these rags
+over me. There is a thick mist. No one has seen me."
+
+"What do you want of me?" asked Michal trembling.
+
+"First of all that you will sit down on this little chair."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I cannot bear to see you so pale."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"I have a nice remedy against all such pale faces. If I rub your
+cheeks a little with it, they will bloom like roses."
+
+"What? You would rouge my face," cried Michal, with a shudder,
+retreating into the furthest corner of the shop, and holding her
+hands before her face.
+
+"Don't be so scared! This remedy only lends a red color to a pale
+cheek. Who's the worse for that? Come here, I say, when I call you!
+Have I not anointed your face once before. Then, indeed, I covered
+you with ugly freckles. That pleased the lover you had then. The
+lover you have now likes it otherwise."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Oh, oh! You want to know everything beforehand, do you? Won't you
+trust me till I have told you everything from beginning to end? Very
+well, then, I'll tell you. The fool who adores you, the great, rich
+lord, awaits you near to the town, in the Eperies tavern. He has
+harnessed five fleet horses to his sledge. My sledge will carry you
+to him."
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Don't be afraid. You won't catch cold. I've brought a fur mantle
+with me."
+
+"I am to fly from here!"
+
+"You can do it now. Your husband is not at home."
+
+"By the mercy of God, I implore you to depart from me."
+
+"Name not that potentate, for by so doing, you only offend the
+devil, whose friendship we have now much need of. We have not much
+time to lose. The great lord must travel to Poland the day after
+to-morrow to the Prince; he will take you with him wherever he goes,
+to Cracow, to Warsaw. He will make a noble lady of you, and when you
+have had enough of him you can come back to your present husband.
+You can make him believe that you went away to see your father the
+Keszmar professor."
+
+"Depart from me, Satan!" cried Michal, violently removing the
+witch's arms from her body.
+
+"That's right! cry aloud! Make a noise that the servants and
+neighbors may come running up. Let them lock me up and make me
+confess all about our acquaintance. That will be very pleasant for
+both of us, won't it?"
+
+"Have mercy upon me and depart!"
+
+"I'm not such a fool as that. You are the little goose that lays me
+the golden eggs."
+
+"I'll give you all my money, all my jewels, only do not ruin me."
+
+"Don't talk to me of compassion and mercy! I hate you. In the first
+place, I can't endure that a person I can make just like myself
+should be a pious, church-going, happy woman. In the second place,
+I've given my word to bring you with me. My reputation as a witch is
+at stake. And, finally, I'm furious with you because you tried to
+deceive me. You lied to me. You told me you lived in one place, when
+you lived in another, so that I might not find you. Instead of
+honoring and supporting me as your adopted mother, you paid me off
+once for all with a beggarly pittance that only made my mouth water
+for more. Now I don't mean to let you escape from my clutches again.
+When once you have given yourself up to me, you are mine forever,
+and if you are mine you are the devil's. Come along with me!"
+
+A mist swam before Michal's eyes, her feet tottered, her whole body
+was palsied. She could not speak, she only staggered, and sought
+with her hands for a support to keep her from falling.
+
+"If you faint," whispered Barbara, "it will be all the worse for
+you, for then I shall take you in my arms and carry you off. The
+sledge is close at hand, the mist is thick, and the snow is falling.
+No one will ever find out whither you have vanished."
+
+Michal shuddered all over, and fell her full length upon the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Good Dame Sarah did not take her usual afternoon nap that day. On
+the contrary, she took out her Bible and read therefrom in a loud
+voice to keep herself awake.
+
+All at once it occurred to her to see what Michal was about. She
+went up to her room, but she was not there.
+
+A side door which led from Michal's door to the basement stood open.
+The young woman must consequently have gone out through this door.
+
+The wind had blown the freshly fallen snow into the corridor, and in
+this snow Dame Sarah recognized the impressions of Michal's small,
+narrow boots. These footprints led her right down to the gate, and
+thence, guided by the patches of snow which Michal had shaken from
+her feet, she arrived at the door of the butcher's shop.
+
+She crept toward it and began to listen. Then she suddenly tore open
+the door and rushed in.
+
+Red Barbara was stooping over the form of the senseless woman, and
+grasping her round the body in order to raise her up and carry her
+away.
+
+"So I've caught you at last, eh! you horrible, godless witch!"
+
+The hag, taken quite by surprise, uttered a hoarse shriek, like a
+vulture startled from her prey and, springing up from Michal's side,
+extended her crooked fingers like the talons of a bird of prey, and
+raised them aloft to strike. But her claws would have been of little
+use to her, even if she had borrowed them from her patron Beelzebub
+himself, against the attack which Dame Sarah in her rage and fury
+now made upon her.
+
+That lady's iron hand seized the witch with irresistible might. In
+vain she twisted and wriggled. Dame Sarah bent the witch's body back
+over the chopping-board.
+
+"Let me go, woman!" yelled Barbara, with bloody, foaming lips.
+"Don't hold me like that or you'll rue it! I can bite, and my bite
+is worse than that of a mad dog. I'll drag you down to hell with me
+if you don't let me go."
+
+"You'd bite me, you b----, would you?" cried Dame Sarah, with grim
+fury; "then bite yourself!" and with that, thrusting one of
+Barbara's arms against Barbara's own mouth, she forced the witch's
+clenched fist in between her wide open jaws. "Bite away, and choke!"
+
+The face of the witch was already livid, her eyes were starting out
+of their sockets, she was very near being choked with her own fist.
+And Dame Sarah would certainly have bestowed a great benefit upon
+her own family, and all the powers in heaven and earth would
+certainly have forgiven her, if she had not loosed her hold upon the
+evil creature till its pestilential soul had gone to hell.
+
+But it was otherwise decreed in the great book of predestination.
+
+The uproar made by the two struggling women drew the whole household
+to the spot. The servants hastened promptly to the assistance of
+their mistress, and after tearing a considerable quantity of hair
+out of Red Barbara's head, they tied her hands behind her and, as
+she would not go willingly, they dragged her through the snow to the
+lockup. All the way thither the witch never ceased shouting: "For
+this I'll revenge myself on your whole house."
+
+Michal knew nothing of all this, for she lay in a swoon. It was
+already late in the evening when she came to herself and gradually
+recognized the faces of those who stood round her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Which shows what a good thing it is when "publica
+privatis praecedunt," or, in other words, when public
+duties take precedence of private affairs.
+
+
+As the time approached when the return of Valentine Kalondai with
+the deputation from Pressburg might be reasonably expected, Simplex
+joined the town watchman, with whom he, as trumpeter, stood on terms
+of good fellowship, and watched with him for the approach of the
+sledges.
+
+The carnival was now pretty far advanced, when a postilion arrived
+to say that the deputation was already on its homeward way, and the
+town was to send four fresh horses to meet it, so that it might make
+its solemn entry with due dignity; the four nags which had been
+hired at Pressburg being by this time splashed up to the very ears
+with mud.
+
+As the deputies approached the gate, Simplex seized his trumpet--it
+was the custom when notables drew near to play in their honor a
+selection of the choicest melodies--and played a tune, the text of
+which begins with these words:
+
+    Hasten, little nag, gallop and fly,
+    At home thy mistress sick doth lie.
+
+He thought that Valentine would understand the allusion.
+
+And Valentine did understand it, but he would not take the hint. He
+told the coachman to drive direct to the townhall.
+
+The civic coachman was a very old man. He had many a time driven
+Valentine's father on the business of the town, and was also very
+much attached to his son.
+
+"Mr. Sheriff," he inquired, as they passed beneath the portcullis,
+"hadn't we better drive home first of all?"
+
+"No, old fellow! the business of the city comes first. I'll go home
+afterward."
+
+As the sledge stopped before the townhall, where the
+town-councilors, apprised of the arrival of the deputies, had
+already assembled, the first person whom Valentine met on
+dismounting was Count Hommonai.
+
+He drew Valentine aside.
+
+"Have you been home yet?" he asked.
+
+"Not yet," replied the other, "'publica praecedunt privatis.'"
+
+"Go home first."
+
+"No, my lord! That I will not do. Tidings may there be awaiting me
+which will either irritate or delight me, and so either make me too
+severe or too soft-hearted. The circumstances of the city are at
+this moment so very serious that, till they have been set right, we
+must let our private affairs go. So, by your leave, the townhall
+first and my own house afterward."
+
+And when Valentine explained in the council the actual situation of
+affairs, everyone said that he had acted quite rightly.
+
+The Prince of Transylvania, in order to bring King Ferdinand over to
+his side, had surrendered to him the five counties on this side of
+the Theiss which had been ceded to Transylvania by the Peace of
+Linz. Then, shutting his ears against all good advice, he had
+invaded Poland, and his first attack was crowned with success, for
+Cracow fell into his hands.
+
+King Ferdinand had accepted the portions of Transylvania offered to
+him, but at the same time intimated to Prince George Rakoczy that if
+he did not evacuate Poland at once, he, Ferdinand, would be forced
+to make common cause with the Poles, and compel him to do so by
+force of arms.
+
+And now, too, the Sultan was very wroth with Prince George Rakozcy
+for beginning the war without his consent, and also for surrendering
+portions of the land to Ferdinand. When they are wroth in Stamboul
+it is no joke. The Sultan declared that George Rakoczy had forfeited
+his throne, and issued an athname which gave the scepter to Achatius
+Baresai, at the same time commanding the Khan of the Crim Tartars to
+march into Transylvania and chastise his rebellious vassal.
+
+So the town of Kassa had now to choose between two things.
+
+It might quietly conform to the will of Prince George Rakoczy, and
+consent to be transferred to Ferdinand of Austria, the first
+consequence of which would be that the troops of the Prince of
+Transylvania would quit the town in order to garrison the fortress
+of Onod, while a Walloon regiment, under the command of General
+Loffelholz, would take their place; in which case the Jesuits would
+have their cloisters restored to them, and would reenter the town
+behind the Walloons.
+
+That would be a bitter morsel to swallow.
+
+The second alternative for the town, in case it disliked the
+Emperor's friendship, was to throw itself into the arms of the
+Turks. The Sultan had deposed George Rakoczy, and appointed Achatius
+Baresai Prince in his stead. If the town of Kassa chose, it could
+side with Baresai and summon the Pasha of Eger to its assistance.
+
+One of these two courses had to be adopted.
+
+Good advice was now scarce.
+
+There lay the stone which one fool had cast into the well, and one
+hundred wise men could not pull it out.
+
+The session of the council, when these things had been explained was
+extraordinarily stormy. Valentine Kalondai, who presided, was
+scarcely able to maintain order, so heated were the tempers of his
+colleagues.
+
+One of them threatened to burn his house to the ground rather than
+permit German troops to be quartered upon him, while another
+protested that he would rather massacre his own wife and children
+than allow the Turkish janissaries to perpetrate their atrocities
+upon them; and while some exhausted the whole vocabulary of abuse
+against the unbelieving heathen, others excelled themselves in
+blackening the Jesuits. Thus there arose two fiercely antagonistic
+parties, neither of which would give way a hair's breadth to the
+other.
+
+The president alone was silent.
+
+At last the superrector turned to him and asked him for his opinion.
+
+"Well, if you want to know what I think," began Kalondai, "let me
+tell you that I do not agree with either opinion. Judging the case
+on its merits, I think the Theiss counties ought not to have been
+ceded to Ferdinand till he had fulfilled his obligation of assisting
+George Rakoczy against Poland, which he has not done. But on the
+other hand, neither has the Sultan any right to dispose of the free
+city of Kassa; such right belongs to the Estates of the Realm alone.
+So again, Rakoczy can only be deposed by the Estates of
+Transylvania, and if they wish Baresai for their Prince they alone
+can elect him. My opinion, therefore, is that neither Walloon
+horsemen nor Turkish _Spahis_ be allowed to enter here, but we must
+close the city gates, and, if need be, oppose force to force as our
+fathers have done. If the council wish it so, I'll stake my head
+upon the issue, and God shall judge betwixt us."
+
+But Mr. Zwirina was by no means enamored of so adventurous a policy,
+and he so dexterously strung together the evil consequences which
+would accrue to the town from such obstinacy--to wit, bombardments
+with red-hot bullets, loss of life, famine, plague, conflagrations,
+bankruptcy of the merchants, ruin of the guilds, storms,
+capitulations, wholesale blackmailing, nay, even the wresting of the
+churches from the hands of the Protestants--that when it came to
+voting, the majority of the council decided that the town ought
+rather to conform to the will of the Prince by submitting to the
+change, than come to loggerheads with the Kaiser and the Sultan at
+the same time; and that the Walloons should be allowed to enter,
+especially as they were, after all, the soldiers of the King of
+Hungary.
+
+No sooner had this resolution been adopted than Count Hommonai took
+the golden key of the town from his neck and threw it on the table,
+saying that from henceforth he no longer regarded himself as
+commandant, and would discharge his troops forthwith. He would now,
+he said, retire to his estates to shoot stags and plant cabbages.
+
+"If you go, I go too," said Valentine Kalondai. "I also lay down the
+sheriff's staff on the table; let a better man bear it!"
+
+And so saying, he placed the gold-headed Spanish cane on the table,
+and rose from his seat. It must certainly have been his guardian
+angel that gave him the idea of resignation at that moment, for he
+thereby averted the point of the sword that was actually suspended
+over his head.
+
+But now he was suddenly assailed on all sides. His friends, his
+enemies also (especially the latter), begged and prayed him to
+remain. Most earnestly of all Mr. Zwirina implored him not to
+forsake the town at such a crisis. Was he not so very much wiser
+than they all? Without him the concord of the town would become
+sheer anarchy; it was just at such times as these that they needed a
+strong hand like his to guide them, for where could they find such
+another? At last they attacked him on his weak point. It was
+cowardice, they said, to hide his head just as danger was
+approaching. They pestered him so long that at last the voice of
+ambition drowned the suggestion of his good angel; but it is only
+fair to say that his love for his native place, and his sense of
+duty, also, contributed not a little thereto. He allowed them to
+lead him back to his place, for which complacency he received a loud
+_vivat_. They even wished to lift him up in the air, chair and all,
+as upon the occasion of his election, but he motioned to them not to
+do so.
+
+Then Count Hommonai withdrew from the council-chamber; he had no
+longer any business there.
+
+Valentine Kalondai declared, however, that he would only hold office
+till the new order of things had been established; then they must
+elect them a new sheriff in his place.
+
+After this weighty matter had thus been satisfactorily settled, the
+recorder and the fiscal procurator brought in sundry official
+documents, which only needed the signature of the sheriff, the
+council having already passed them; they were urgent criminal cases,
+in which every delay would be cruel. In all penal matters a swift
+execution is merciful. Not till all this business had been disposed
+of could Valentine quit the council-chamber.
+
+The first document presented for his signature was a death-warrant.
+
+It was the first sentence of death he had ever signed; his heart
+beat violently.
+
+To kill a man in the battlefield, in the heat of the combat; to
+manfully grapple with a man who is already mowing his way through
+the ranks, sword in hand, first bidding him defend himself or
+surrender; to cut down with a strong hand and dash to pieces a man
+who breaks into the land as an enemy, and ravages it like a wild
+beast--all that he had often and cheerfully done, as became a
+soldier. But to sit in a soft armchair and kill a man in cold blood,
+a man in fetters who cannot fly, who cannot defend himself; a man of
+the same town as yourself, a fellow-citizen, perhaps an
+acquaintance, who, pale with mortal agony, begs you for mercy; to
+kill such a man by breaking the staff of office over him--in such a
+thing as that he was quite a novice.
+
+He asked what crime this man had committed.
+
+"He has killed his wife."
+
+A terrible crime!
+
+"He killed his wife, and she, too, big with child."
+
+A horrible, unnatural crime. Such a wound as that none but the
+headsman can heal.
+
+The headsman! He had not thought of that on the day of his triumph,
+when he had visited every church, and prayed before every altar,
+"God preserve this noble city from the misfortune of requiring the
+headsman to come hither to execute justice before the year is out!"
+
+That will, indeed, be a painful meeting when Valentine Kalondai and
+Henry Catsrider meet each other in the narrow path leading to the
+scaffold, the one as the judge of wretched criminals, the other as
+the torturer, the executioner of the condemned felons!
+
+How will he be able to look that man in the face?
+
+He would not submit to the inevitable. He requested that the charge
+brought against the accused should be laid before him. A sheriff
+cannot sign a death-warrant before he has heard the defense of the
+accused.
+
+The conrector, acting as secretary, then recited to him both the
+accusation and the defense. A militiaman--Valentine knew him very
+well, for he was a butcher's apprentice--came home drunk one night
+from patrolling. His wife began scolding him, and he furiously drew
+his sword and aimed a blow at her. He only meant to hit her with the
+flat of the blade, but the devil jogged his hand, and the point went
+right through her heart. She died. The murderer gave himself up
+immediately the deed was done. He repented of his crime, and himself
+demanded death as his punishment.
+
+"Then he did this dreadful deed when he was in liquor and is now
+sorry for it?" said Valentine, by way of extenuation.
+
+"Yes, and that is certainly a reason for mitigating the punishment,"
+replied the superrector. "Just for that very reason he has only been
+condemned to be beheaded, otherwise he would have been quartered
+alive for his bloody deed."
+
+"Has he any children?" asked the sheriff.
+
+"Seven," replied the conrector.
+
+"He leaves behind him seven orphans," sighed Valentine, "seven
+innocent orphans, who will be forever branded as the children of the
+man who died beneath the hand of the headsman!"
+
+"So it is!" answered the cold and grim superrector; "seven will be
+branded with infamy for the crime of one. But if we were to pardon
+him, all the inhabitants of Kassa would be branded for all time."
+
+"I don't ask you to pardon him. Lifelong imprisonment in the
+treadmill of the civic reservoir, with the sting of conscience in
+his heart, would be a still greater punishment for him than death."
+
+"Pray don't let us have any mawkish sentiment, good Master Sheriff!
+If we don't kill, people will kill us. If we pardon the evil-doers
+we shall leave the good defenseless. This hard-mouthed people
+requires an example which shall strike its eyes and so frighten it.
+If we pardon one malefactor, a hundred others will spring up. It is
+a sad duty, no doubt, but it is a duty none the less, and must be
+done."
+
+The cold sweat started out on Valentine's forehead like the morning
+dew on a flower-bed, as he dipped the pen into the inkhorn, and his
+large powerful hand trembled so much as he wrote his name under the
+warrant that his signature, ordinarily so bold and energetic, was
+now scarcely legible.
+
+"Are there any more arrears?"
+
+"One more sentence, only one, a 'harum palczarum.'"
+
+We must linger a little on these words in order to find out what
+they mean. Both of the German chroniclers whom we here follow write
+"harum pallizarum," possibly a corrupt contraction with Latin
+terminations of the Hungarian expression "harom palczara," _i. e._,
+"with three staves." But what is the meaning of the expression? In
+the annals of the Debreczin town council we find this peculiar
+punishment (reserved for witches found guilty of pimping and
+seduction) very plainly described. The Debreczin chronicle says,
+"let them be crowned with three staves!" The German chronicler adds
+it was very seldom that anyone survived this punishment. The head of
+the condemned was pressed between three staves, and then the
+executioner slowly screwed them together, thereby causing the
+felons truly infernal torments. Very often they swooned away, and
+then they were beaten with bunches of thorn till they came to again.
+
+This was the horrible sentence which Valentine Kalondai had now to
+sign.
+
+When he read the name of the condemned, he fancied the whole house
+was sinking with him.
+
+"Red Barbara!"
+
+Sparks and rings of fire danced before his eyes.
+
+That _she_ should have fallen into _his_ hands!
+
+"Examine the documents, Master Sheriff; the case will interest you!"
+said the conrector.
+
+Valentine Kalondai read.
+
+It was indeed a hellish message which these documents conveyed.
+
+The confessions of the imprisoned witch, the charge brought by
+Valentine's mother, the testimony of acquaintances and friends all
+showed that a detestable plot had been forged against his happiness
+and honor. The accused denied nothing. She confessed everything at
+the very first examination. The great and mighty Mr. Zurdoki had
+sent her to corrupt the wife of Valentine Kalondai. She had
+intended, by fair means or foul, to have carried Michal off and made
+her Zurdoki's mistress. She had been paid to do so, and had got
+everything ready for carrying out this diabolical plan.
+
+But when they had asked by what means she had managed to approach
+the wife of Valentine Kalondai, and how she had got her to listen to
+her filthy insinuations, seeing that Michal had recoiled from them
+with horror, nay, at least, had even fainted away, the accused had
+simply replied: "I am a witch, I can do everything." Nay, even when
+they applied the question extraordinary, she stood them out that
+she had no other help but her own magic power. At last, however,
+under the extremest torture, she had declared herself the mother of
+Dame Valentine Kalondai. That was why the latter had allowed her
+free access to her person. Nay, so far did this woman's impudence
+go, that she actually maintained that when the sheriff came home, he
+would be the first to implore the town council to let the mother of
+his wife go free.
+
+Valentine felt as if the whole world was falling to pieces over his
+head. And then it was that the maxim occurred to him, that it was
+just when the universe lies in ruins around him that a true man
+raises his head most defiantly.
+
+His friends and foes at the green table were watching him with
+curiosity and concern to see what he would do. Would he quail
+beneath the blow, and justify the assertion of the witch by
+imploring them to do her no harm?
+
+Valentine Kalondai took the pen, dipped it into the inkhorn, and
+wrote, no longer with a trembling hand, the date and his own name at
+the bottom of the warrant, underlining the words "with three staves"
+twice, and taking good care not to mistake the inkhorn for the
+sandbox when he sanded his signature.
+
+And then, his heavy fist still reposing on the bundle of documents,
+he requested the conrector to fold together a sheet of paper and,
+"fracto margine," to write, in the name of the town council, a
+letter of citation to the headsman of Zeb, Henry Catsrider, bidding
+him, as in duty bound, to appear within eight days at the city of
+Kassa, in order to execute the law's sentences which had been passed
+that day, copies of which were sent him. He was then to present his
+account to the civic auditor, who was authorized to discharge it.
+This citation Valentine also subscribed.
+
+He had still a faint glimmer of hope.
+
+When Henry Catsrider receives this citation and learns that he, the
+headsman of Zeb, must come face to face with Valentine Kalondai whom
+he had formerly robbed of his beloved, he was then a genius, a
+luminary, a cleric and a scholar, face to face with him who had once
+been an expelled convict, but now was sheriff; when he reflects that
+he who was now a branded monster, an outcast from every city, is to
+appear before his former rival, who was now the first magistrate of
+one of the most important cities of the land; and when, besides all
+that, Henry Catsrider discovers that one of the condemned, on whom a
+masterpiece of his hellish art was to be performed, was his father's
+former housekeeper, who had once actually been his own nurse and
+suckled him, why, then, he would surely have human feeling enough to
+remain at home, and, as he was often wont to do, send his oldest
+apprentice to execute the sentence in his stead.
+
+Valentine actually believed that there was still some human feeling
+left in Henry Catsrider!
+
+When all this had been done he arose from his seat of honor.
+
+The whole town council bowed before him. The conrector, Ignatius
+Zwirina the younger, expressed the satisfaction felt by all the
+burgesses at having a sheriff whose wise and firm administration
+would serve as an example to all his successors.
+
+And now Valentine hastened home.
+
+He asked no questions. He let no one speak. He stifled the words on
+the lips of his mother and his wife with kisses. Then he took his
+pretty Michal on his knee, and whispered in her ear in the tones of
+a lover to his lady:
+
+"Come what may or must! Be it weal or woe, our comfort is that we
+shall share it together!"
+
+And pretty Michal was content that it should be so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+The fulfilment of the proverb, as you make your bed
+so must you lie in it, comes to pass.
+
+
+Valentine Kalondai knew Henry Catsrider ill, and all his
+psychological calculations foundered completely.
+
+During the last few years Henry Catsrider's nature had entirely
+degenerated.
+
+When Valentine was his fellow-student at the college of Keszmar,
+Henry was a stuck-up youth, proud of his learning, who was always
+boasting to his comrades of his mental capacity and his physical
+strength till he became positively unendurable. The weaker ones he
+persecuted. In his wrestling-bouts with them he shockingly
+maltreated them, and when they played pranks he reported them to the
+authorities. But the end and aim of all his brutal self-assertion
+was to become a clergyman. In this calling he would also have been
+sly and tyrannous, always looking after himself and a scourge and a
+burden to his colleagues; but his father had violently torn him away
+from this path of life, and forced him to go back to his proper
+trade. And perhaps the old man was right.
+
+For this was, after all, the trade for which Henry was intended by
+nature, and within a few years he was as much at home in it as if he
+had done nothing else all his life. Coarse society soon brings down
+everyone who mixes in it to its own level. The feeling, too, that
+all the world despises him, arouses in a man the defiant instinct to
+avenge himself on the whole world for such contempt. Till then he
+had led the life of a recluse, but now he suddenly plunged into a
+continual orgy, and hated sobriety. The ghastly death of his father
+had filled him with the cruelty of a wild beast, and the destruction
+of his house had extinguished in him the last sparks of human
+feeling. After the loss of his wife, whom he had loved passionately,
+he sank completely into the slough of vileness, and sought the
+society of those women whom not the altar but the pillory would
+sooner or later unite to him--to-day a glowing kiss, to-morrow a
+hissing iron. As, moreover, he had lost a large part of his
+treasures in the burning of his house, he became avaricious
+likewise. He wanted to make up again what he had lost. Just then
+they were beginning in Poland to play at games of chance with the
+painted cards invented by Peter Gringenoir, and Henry spent all his
+time in the Polish cities playing cards with the cheats and filchers
+of the district. And in these gambling dens he generally managed to
+lose some fresh piece of his silver plate which he brought with him
+in the leg of his boot. Woe betide them who then fell into his
+hands!
+
+Once he was warned by the authorities that he would be degraded and
+expelled from his office if he did not attend to it better.
+
+After all this we may readily suppose that Henry Catsrider, when he
+received the summons from the town council of Kassa, did not
+hesitate a moment to appear personally in answer to it. That this
+summons was signed by Valentine Kalondai, as sheriff, did not
+disturb him in the least. On the contrary, the idea of appearing
+before his former rival as executioner rather tickled him than
+otherwise. That one of the victims was Red Barbara afforded him the
+greatest satisfaction. He suspected at once that the witch had set
+his house on fire and stolen a portion of his treasures. That she
+had also filched from him his greatest treasure was, however,
+unknown to him as yet. He would not for any consideration have
+relinquished to anyone else the bliss of tormenting her.
+
+A week after the dispatch of the citation, the wagon of the
+executioner of Zeb rattled over the stones of the market-place of
+Kassa. It was a black vehicle, with red wheels and axles, on which
+the somber company, like a troupe of itinerant comedians, brought
+with them all the requisites of their terrible stage. Mounted
+drabants and musketeers escorted them before and behind.
+
+The worshipful town council had a very hard time of it that day. In
+the early morning, two squadrons of Walloon cuirassiers had marched
+into the town, blowing, not the Hungarian farogato whose richly
+varying melodies so much delighted the people, but those shrill
+trumpets which were only invented for the annoyance of mankind. And
+between the two squadrons of cavalry, sitting on mules and chanting
+discordant hymns, the Jesuit fathers also came back to the town.
+
+The colonel of the foreign soldiers and the superior of the Jesuits
+hastened together to the townhall, and a great dispute arose between
+them in the council-chamber as to which of them should have the
+precedence. General Loffelholz asserted that, by virtue of his rank,
+he was entitled to settle military matters with the magistrates
+first of all. Prior Hieronymus, on the other hand, appealed to the
+privileges of his order, which placed him above every temporal
+authority.
+
+Neither the soldier nor the monk would give way, and the pair of
+them kept their heads covered, the one with his plumed hat, the
+other with his hood. At that moment the sound of clanking spurs was
+heard coming along the corridor, and now both the contending
+parties gave way before the third comer.
+
+The man who now entered also wore a plumed biretta on his head, but
+it was scarlet. His powerful body was dressed in a scarlet coat, and
+over it he wore a long scarlet mantle.
+
+The clergyman and the soldier instantly made way for him. They were
+careful not to come into contact with so much as the hem of his
+garment.
+
+It was the headsman.
+
+Henry Catsrider's face had very much altered since he had laid aside
+his priestly garb. His former long fair hair was now clipped short,
+and his beard flowed down in two long reddish wisps. His face was
+puffy from much drinking, and his large eyes, that had once been so
+sparkling, now gleamed out of his coppery, swollen countenance like
+smoldering embers. His large, coarse mouth was all awry. The
+humanized wild beast had relapsed again into its original savagery.
+Even if he had worn no hangman's weeds, all the world might have
+read his frightful profession from his face. As he approached,
+everyone timidly made way for him.
+
+And if there was anyone who had as much cause to shudder at the
+appearance of this shape, as if the skeleton with the scythe had
+suddenly sprung up out of the ground before him, it was certainly
+Valentine Kalondai. To him this creature was not only the man of
+blood, but the man whom he had robbed of his wife.
+
+Even at the time when passion had led him to this step--a step to
+which a whole host of concurring circumstances, hot blood, and the
+force of fate had constrained him--even then he had thought that he
+might one day fall in with him whom he had made a widower, but he
+had then said, "I will rather get together a robber band than
+surrender my beloved to destruction!" That would have been a very
+different kind of meeting. A meeting like this was more than human
+foresight could have foreseen.
+
+All eyes turned to him who was the head of the city, the president
+of the town council.
+
+And even at that moment his strength of mind did not forsake him. He
+looked Henry Catsrider straight in the face, as if they had never
+known each other, as if he had never trespassed against him.
+
+The headsman planted himself in front of the sheriff and said:
+"'They have called me, and I have come!'"
+
+Valentine, with perfect _sangfroid_, completed the quotation:
+
+"'I have sprung from the dust of an accursed earth.'"
+
+This distich, it is said, was written in Chaldaic characters on the
+wings of those locusts which first appeared at the call of Moses,
+and always reappear when the Lord would abase the pride of man.
+
+Everyone knew this saying. The words of the sheriff, therefore,
+called forth a slight smile on every face, and a murmur of merriment
+ran through the room because he had so dexterously turned the tables
+on the coarse intruder.
+
+Still more satisfied with his wisdom were they when he pronounced
+judgment in the precedence dispute. "The Church first, then the
+temporal power, last of all the headsman."
+
+But the Walloon general, a strapping fellow, tapped his saber, said
+he was the first man in the town, and made a terrible to-do.
+
+Valentine Kalondai thereupon shoved back his presidential chair,
+laid down his mace, girded on his sword, and donned his hat. There
+were now four persons in the council-chamber who had their hats on.
+
+Then he turned to the general and said: "Have we come hither to
+deliberate or to fight?"
+
+The Walloon perceived that he had met his match. Such courage
+pleased him. He held out his hand to the sheriff and said with a
+laugh: "Well, well, Master Sheriff, I have not come hither to
+squabble. Pray sit down again and deliberate," and with that he drew
+back.
+
+This resolute behavior made such an impression on the members of the
+council that, as the sheriff resumed his seat, they greeted him with
+a loud _vivat_, while the victorious prior stretched forth his
+skinny arm toward him and said: "Deus benedicat tibi!"
+
+"I have asked no blessing of your reverence; he who sits in the
+judgment-seat may not even accept a benediction;" and he forthwith
+began to investigate the points in dispute between the city and the
+College of Jesuits.
+
+If you really want to test a man's presence of mind and dialectic
+skill, just engage him in an argument in a foreign language.
+Valentine now showed that he could negotiate with the Jesuit in
+Latin and with the Walloon in German, without stammering or
+stuttering in the least. And indeed, as the conrector could not help
+remarking to his neighbor, the sheriff was a far greater master of
+both languages than those with whom he was negotiating. His precise,
+curial style was easily victorious over the Jesuit's dog Latin, and
+his expressive German, with his pithy Lutheranisms, was more than a
+match for the general's Platt-Deutsch dialect.
+
+And the headsman was standing behind him all the time!
+
+The questions before him were by no means easy to solve. On the
+part of the town a charter had to be drafted and signed,
+guaranteeing to the Jesuits all their privileges and possessions,
+and declaring their cloisters a sacred asylum, whose very threshold
+the secular authorities should never cross. The College of Jesuits
+had also to subscribe an agreement pledging itself not to convert
+Protestants to the Roman faith by force, artifice, moral pressure,
+or any sort of cajolery.
+
+Valentine's clear intelligence knew exactly how to hit the proper
+mean between these directly antagonistic pretensions, and keep the
+document entirely free from those artfully insinuated clauses
+whereby the Jesuits tried again and again to smuggle in their mental
+reservations.
+
+The prior was satisfied with the compact, and when Valentine took up
+his pen to subscribe it the other unctuously exclaimed:
+
+"Such a good sowing will produce a good harvest!"
+
+And Valentine could not help thinking, as he handled the pen, "I
+wonder what sort of harvest the letters I am now sowing will bring
+in to me."
+
+The matters to be settled with the general, too, were not a whit
+less captious. The relations between the military and the civic
+authorities had to be very carefully defined and settled, once for
+all. The city had an armed garrison of its own, and reserved to
+itself the complete control of this garrison. The gates were to be
+watched by both parties together. So the Gordian knot to be untied
+was this: how two sets of men diametrically opposed in nationality,
+religion, and politics were to be made to consent to be faithful
+guardians of the law of the land and the prerogatives of the Kaiser,
+without prejudicing the liberties of the city, or interfering in any
+way with one another, or attempting to violently hew the knot in two
+with the sword.
+
+And that Kalondai settled this complicated matter also in the wisest
+possible way is sufficiently obvious from the fact that neither
+party was quite contented with his decision.
+
+Last of all, it occurred to him that there was still someone
+standing behind him--the headsman.
+
+He did not tell the fellow to stand forth, but alluded to him in the
+third person, and as the man had a Slovack accent, he addressed him
+in the Slovack tongue, just as if they had never squabbled with each
+other in their youth in the Hungarian, German, and Latin languages.
+
+"Master Henry will be at his post on the scaffold at six o'clock
+to-morrow morning, and there await with his apprentices the arrival
+of the magistrates."
+
+He wasted no more words on the subject, but closed the session and
+went home.
+
+In the evening of the same day the very reverend dean was sent for
+to come to Kalondai's house to give a lady the sacrament of the
+altar.
+
+The dean at once supposed that Dame Sarah was on the point of death,
+and great was his astonishment when they led him to the bedside of
+the younger lady. It was pretty Michal who desired the last
+sacraments.
+
+The very reverend gentleman was beyond measure astonished thereat.
+Had he not seen Michal piously praying in church only the day
+before! And now she desired the sacrament of the dying!
+
+"Would you haggle with God?" asked Valentine.
+
+So pretty Michal partook of the Lord's Supper, and the clergyman
+gave her his benediction.
+
+And pretty Michal at that moment had no bodily ailment, yet for all
+that she was on the point of death.
+
+Next day--it was a dark January morning--the gloomy scaffold stood
+ready in the market-place of Kassa. The early risers could see
+through the thick mists the headsman's apprentices, in their pointed
+caps, moving like hellish shadows about the burning fire, in which
+they were heating their terrible tools red-hot, and warming their
+hands the while, to prevent them from growing stiff.
+
+When the clock in the church-tower struck seven, the watchmen on the
+bastions struck the big drum three times, whereupon the felon's bell
+in the tower of the townhall began to toll--a sad, heartrending
+sound. Then the gates of the courtyard were thrown open, and out
+came the procession in the usual order, the headsman first on
+horseback, then the convict, and last of all the members of the town
+council, the sheriff, the superrector, the conrector, the syndic,
+and the civic warden. All these took their places on the dais, with
+the sheriff in the center, while the headsman dismounted from his
+horse and ascended the scaffold.
+
+The soldier who had been condemned to be beheaded was accompanied to
+the place of execution by his comrades. It was the special privilege
+of every citizen of Kassa who suffered capital punishment to go to
+the scaffold free and unfettered, take leave there of his family and
+friends, and not be maltreated by the headsman.
+
+The convict in question advanced with a cheerful countenance and
+head erect. Two of his comrades accompanied him, consoling and
+consoled by him.
+
+"Never mind, gossips! I am not the first to whom it has happened. I
+don't take it so much to heart, and it doesn't hurt anyone else. God
+bless those who are left behind!"
+
+Then he kissed and embraced his little children one after the other,
+and distributed them among his friends.
+
+"To you I give my little son, and to you I leave my little
+daughter."
+
+And so he parted with them all.
+
+Who is that weeping so loudly?
+
+It is the sheriff beneath his canopy. He cannot refrain from
+sobbing.
+
+The convict had compassion upon his judge, and said to him:
+
+"Weep not, Master Sheriff! you have pronounced a righteous judgment
+over me. I deserve to die. Not a drop of my blood will ever burden
+your soul, for it was a righteous sentence. Turn your head aside if
+you find it hard to see the sentence carried out!"
+
+But Valentine Kalondai did not cover his eyes. He bade them weep no
+more, but watch the scene to the very end.
+
+He was learning!
+
+He was learning how to mount the seven steps of the scaffold with a
+firm step, how to cheerily tap the headsman on the shoulder, ask him
+if his ax was sharp, and then send his last greetings to those at
+home.
+
+The man sat down without any assistance on the low stool, put his
+hands on his knees, stretched forward his head, and began to sing
+the well-known verse: "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O
+----" The word "Lord" was still upon his lips as he stood before the
+throne of God.
+
+Valentine had learnt something.
+
+Another and far more terrible scene now ensued. They brought up the
+witch.
+
+_She_ did not endure her fate calmly. She bit, kicked, scratched,
+cursed the saints and all mankind, and called upon the devil to help
+her. They had to bind her by force to the pillar.
+
+And Henry Catsrider actually took pleasure in the hideous contest.
+
+It is one of the most ghastly privileges of the headsman to wound
+with words the wretches whom he is worrying to death, to torture
+their souls as well as their bodies.
+
+"Oh--oh, you old witch! So you have come under my hands at last,
+eh?"
+
+"I suckled you, you dog! You have sucked witch's milk from me. Show
+yourself the devil you are!"
+
+"Come along then, you queen of witches, come and be crowned!"
+
+With that he placed upon her head the crown, made of three staves,
+and began to screw them together.
+
+Red Barbara turned her face toward Valentine Kalondai and cried;
+"Judge! make them take this crown off, it hurts me!"
+
+"Wait a bit!" said the headsman, with a harsh laugh; "I'll give you
+a sedative immediately;" and seizing a scourge with one hand, he
+gave a vicious twist at the screw with the other.
+
+The tortured hag bellowed for anguish.
+
+"Judge, let them kill me outright, let me die!"
+
+"Don't be afraid! I'll wake you up again," sneered the headsman, and
+he tore her gown from her shoulders, so as to give freer play to the
+lashes of his scourge.
+
+It was just such another purple gown as that in which Michal had
+once so greatly excited Valentine's admiration, and the recollection
+of that dress occurred to Henry also.
+
+"Is not this the dress you stole from my wife, you thief, you
+incendiary?" and again the lash hissed through the air.
+
+"Do you strike me, you hangman? You knacker, you! I'll strike you
+back now! I'll brand your face so that you will bear the marks about
+with you to your dying day. You cuckold, you horned beast! You have
+crowned me, have you! I'll crown you still better. Your wife, your
+pretty Michal, still lives, and is the mistress of that sheriff
+yonder! You have two horns on your head, bear them as best you can!"
+
+The headsman's apprentices began to laugh.
+
+Furious with rage at this taunt, the headsman gave the gibbering
+witch such a blow on the head, with the leaden knob of his scourge,
+that she never spoke another word on this earth; then, rushing to
+the edge of the scaffold, he stretched out his arm and pointed his
+whip at Valentine.
+
+The town-councilors sprang to their feet with a shudder.
+
+Then Valentine said in a calm voice: "It is so--it is true!"
+
+Augustus Zwirina immediately turned toward him and said: "Then, Mr.
+Valentine Kalondai, the time has come for you to lay down the
+sheriff's staff!"
+
+Valentine surrendered his staff, descended from the tribune, and
+went straight home. He went quite alone. Not a soul accompanied him.
+
+When he got home, pretty Michal could read from his face that
+misfortune had overtaken him.
+
+"It's all up. We are betrayed and openly accused."
+
+Pretty Michal was not dismayed by this intelligence, she was
+prepared for it.
+
+"I only ask one thing of you," said she to Valentine, "and as you
+love me, you must grant it. Our sole defense is that Henry
+Catsrider, when he married me, gave himself out to my father as a
+different person from what he really was. That is an impediment
+which nullifies the marriage. We might, therefore, defend ourselves
+by contending that I was not his true and lawful wife, that he
+married me under false pretenses, and kept me in his house by
+force. I pray and beseech you not to offer any such defense. My poor
+father knows not what has befallen me, and I wish him never to know
+it."
+
+"But I have a mother."
+
+"Her heart will break for your sake. I know it. But then she will
+live forever among the choirs of angels. She has nothing to reproach
+herself with. Her inward monitor does not accuse her. But it is my
+father's own fault that I came into this terrible situation. If he
+ever learns that he is the sole cause of all this sorrow and shame,
+it will not only be the death of him, but it will make him lose his
+hopes of heaven."
+
+Valentine kissed his pretty Michal.
+
+"You are right. We will not defend ourselves."
+
+At that moment worthy Simplex appeared.
+
+"Quick, comrade! Take horse! The gates are not yet closed. Twelve of
+your trusty friends have banded to assist your flight. There is no
+time for reflection. The town council is at this moment deciding
+your fate."
+
+But Valentine answered: "If I alone were concerned, I do not say
+that I would not attempt to escape. But there are two of us, and
+rather let my head be thrown into the dust along with the head of my
+Michal than her name and mine should be written over the pillory to
+our eternal shame. Here we remain, come what may."
+
+"Good! Be it so!" said Simplex. "But, at least, defend yourself. You
+know the rule: 'Si fecisti, nega!' We will give the accusers enough
+to do. I will swear that I saw with my own eyes the wife of Henry,
+the hangman, perish in the flames. I don't care very much whether I
+am a cell higher or lower in hell. I know the commandment says:
+'Thou must not bear false witness against thy neighbor.' But there
+is nothing said about bearing false witness to befriend thy
+neighbor."
+
+"No, my good Simplex! we don't do that. If my Michal were to say
+that she had never been Henry's wife, but was another person, she
+would next be asked who she really was then, and who her father was.
+But this she never will say. Do you understand why?"
+
+"Yes, comrade, I do understand. She would spare the white hairs of
+her father."
+
+"And if she would not answer this question, would you like them to
+lay upon the rack her whom I adore?"
+
+Valentine, in his anguish, pressed the trembling creature to his
+breast, while Simplex gnashed his teeth, and struck his forehead
+with his fist.
+
+"And finally," said Valentine, proudly raising his head, "I would
+rather die one hundred times over, and see my wife die before my
+eyes, than let a single lie cross my lips, which would make me blush
+when I stood face to face with the knacker of Zeb. Rather let my
+blood trickle to the ground than stream into my face for shame!
+What! would you have me lie to this man, and then turn my face away
+from him? I will oppose him boldly, tell him the truth, and then
+spit in his face."
+
+"Right, Valentine, right! You are acting like a true man," said
+Simplex, while pretty Michal fell at her husband's feet and kissed
+his hands. "Then you must accept our last offer. If you will neither
+fly nor lie, our twelve trusty friends will give good bail to the
+city magistrates to prevent you from being put in fetters."
+
+"I will accept that offer thankfully, and make bold to say that they
+will lose nothing by it."
+
+Simplex had no sooner departed than a message came from the town
+council, summoning Valentine and his wife to appear before it.
+
+Dame Sarah now learnt for the first time whereof her children were
+accused, and was terribly enraged thereat.
+
+Dressed just as she used to be indoors (she did not even throw her
+fur mantle over her shoulders), she rushed after her children. She
+would like to see who would dare to rob her of them.
+
+She followed the accused into the council-chamber. The halberdiers
+would have kept her back, but she sent them spinning to the left and
+right against the doorposts, and forced her way up to the green
+table itself. She could scarcely restrain herself while the syndic
+read out the accusation, according to which Valentine had abducted
+the wife of Henry Catsrider, and unlawfully cohabited with her. Then
+Dame Sarah could contain herself no longer.
+
+"The whole thing is a lie, a shameless, scandalous calumny! What! my
+daughter-in-law, Milly, the wife of the headsman of Zeb! Step forth,
+you scarlet juggler! Produce the marriage certificate which can show
+that my daughter-in-law, Milly, was ever married to the knacker of
+Zeb! Your wife, forsooth, you red dog! This gentle, pious creature,
+who is a veritable angel! Or name, if you can, the clergyman who
+united you at the altar, you spawn of hell, you flayer of men, you
+scarecrow, with this angelic creature!"
+
+Henry was terribly alarmed. His teeth chattered and his chin
+waggled, beard and all, at this woman's onslaught, for he could not
+have proved that Michal had been married to him, the hangman. He had
+married her as a clergyman. He had obtained her hand by subtlety.
+And all this would now come out. He did not know what to say. Words
+failed him.
+
+But still more frightened was Michal. Full of terror she pressed her
+husband's hand.
+
+Then Valentine turned to Henry Catsrider and said:
+
+"I forbid you to answer that question. It has no bearing on the
+case. I acknowledge and confess that my consort was this man's wife.
+I took her from him because it was better for her to die with me
+than to live with him, and I am responsible for it to God alone and
+his avenging cherubim."
+
+"But here below you are also responsible to the high tribunal of
+the worshipful city of Kassa," said the presiding superrector.
+"You know the law. You know that death is the penalty for such a
+transgression."
+
+"I await death."
+
+"You shall not be disappointed."
+
+Pretty Michal crossed her arms over her breast, and turning her
+martyr-like face to heaven, looked up as if transfigured, while
+Valentine supported her with his stalwart arm.
+
+A solemn pause ensued, and then the silence was broken by the
+heartrending cry of Dame Sarah:
+
+"I appeal!"
+
+"To whom?" inquired the cruelly cold voice of the superrector.
+
+"To the Prince."
+
+"He lies in a Polish dungeon."
+
+"To the Kaiser, then."
+
+"He died last week."
+
+"Then I appeal to God!" cried the mother, in her bitter agony.
+
+"He's napping!" answered a deep, hollow voice, which seemed to come
+from the very bowels of the earth. It was the headsman who had
+spoken.
+
+But the dean there and then arose from his place at the green table,
+and gave the speaker such a buffet in the face that the blood flowed
+in streams from his mouth and nose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+Things in this world do not always exactly turn out
+as men devise beforehand.
+
+
+The Zwirinas had won a complete triumph over the Kalondais. They
+were amply revenged for the humiliation in the cathedral, for the
+defeat in the duel. Their wounded pride was satisfied.
+
+The sentence pronounced by the town council was that both the guilty
+parties should be beheaded, the woman first. Moreover, the headless
+bodies were not to be buried in the churchyard, but in the
+churchyard ditch where all the asses of the town browsed on the
+abundant thistles.
+
+This was an aggravation of the original sentence. But it was a case
+where a memorable example had to be made. A vile transgressor had
+intruded himself into the highest office of the town; an infamous
+woman, living in adultery, had dared to appropriate the foremost pew
+in the cathedral, thus defiling the most respectable society in the
+town with her presence, and shamelessly laying claim to honors which
+did not belong to her. Public opinion was shocked and outraged by
+such a scandal. It was an offense which death alone could not atone
+for. It must be pursued even beyond the grave.
+
+Yet the judges had at least so much humanity--they would not let
+Henry Catsrider execute his own wife. It was enough that the seducer
+should be made over to him.
+
+And again the felon's bell rang, again the gates of the townhall
+were thrown open, and in the midst of the sad procession came the
+unhappy pair, supporting one another; Michal in a snow-white
+garment, her beautiful face bound round with a white fillet, but
+Valentine in his court dress, in his jacket with the foxskin collar,
+and with his long hair flowing down his shoulders.
+
+The members of the council took their places on the dais beneath the
+baldachin, and in the midst of them sat Augustus Zwirina.
+
+When they reached the scaffold, Valentine would have supported
+Michal as she ascended the steps, but she needed no assistance. It
+was with an easy heart and a light step that she mounted up.
+
+In the distance could be heard the shrieks of a woman, whom the
+halberdiers had to keep back by main force lest she should make a
+disturbance. It was Dame Sarah.
+
+When they had got to the top of the scaffold, which was hung with
+black cloth, Valentine kissed the hands and the cheeks of his
+Michal.
+
+"Do you forgive me?"
+
+"I have nothing to forgive."
+
+"For your horrible death?"
+
+"It unites me eternally with you."
+
+"Do you expect that we shall meet again?"
+
+"I'll wait at the gates of heaven till you come."
+
+"And if for my sin's sake I go to hell?"
+
+"I'll pray to God till he releases you."
+
+"Would you like to pray again now?"
+
+"No, my heart is at peace."
+
+"Amen!"
+
+Then she sat her down on the little stool, and bound up her hair
+with the white fillet.
+
+An iron coffin was there to hold them both.
+
+The headsman's henchman stood close by the little stool, leaning on
+his sword.
+
+Michal recognized and spoke to him.
+
+"Tell me now, Master Matthias! was I not always a good mistress to
+you?"
+
+"Would to God you had never been!" murmured the rough fellow.
+
+"Deal gently with me now, and God reward you for it."
+
+A flash, a whiz, and human justice was satisfied. But there above
+the angels were awaiting their sister, and asked her which was the
+better of the two--death, or what they call life on earth?
+
+Henry Catsrider sprang from the other end of the scaffold to pick up
+the corpse.
+
+"Touch her not!" cried Valentine, with the voice of an angry lion,
+"or I'll give you a blow which will send you to the other world
+before me."
+
+With that he threw off his jacket, and called to the crowd around:
+
+"Whoever will come and help me, shall have my foxskin jacket!"
+
+"Here I am!" cried a well-known voice, and the faithful Simplex
+ascended to the scaffold.
+
+"Help me to lay her in the coffin!" said Valentine; "and then don't
+forget what I asked you to do." And with the help of his friend he
+laid his pretty Michal in that sad bed from which no one ever rises
+again till the last trump.
+
+Then he embraced his faithful comrade and sent him away.
+
+"Now it is our turn, Henry Catsrider!" said he, turning to his
+mortal foe.
+
+The dean, who had accompanied him so far to give him the
+consolations of religion, exhorted him to turn to God in this the
+last moment of his life and to pray. Valentine beckoned him away.
+
+"I believe in a God, but not in the bloodthirsty God in whom you
+believe."
+
+"Do not die without the blessing of the Church," said the clergyman
+appealingly.
+
+"Can I require a greater blessing from the Church than to have for
+my confessor the executioner who cuts off my head?"
+
+The crowd below took great pleasure in this passage of arms.
+
+Valentine, in fact, was seized by that desperate merriment which is
+known as gallows humor. The spirits of those who had preceded him in
+this dreadful stage swept around him and suggested bitter jibes and
+taunts.
+
+"Well, my good friend," said Valentine jocosely, to Henry, "is it
+to-day with you or to-morrow? Your eyes look as crooked as if you
+had not slept all night. I fear me you will not strike where you
+aim."
+
+Henry had indeed been drinking hard all night to keep up his
+spirits.
+
+"Well! How shall I do up my hair?" asked Valentine, sitting down on
+the little stool, and tying up his locks with the self-same white
+fillet (it was red now) which Michal had wound round her tresses.
+
+"Will it do so?"
+
+"A little higher!" said Catsrider.
+
+"What! higher still? Well! how will that do for you?"
+
+This nonchalance made the headsman perfectly furious. He had no
+opportunity of reveling in the mental agony of his foe, for, even on
+the very threshold of death, Valentine only bantered him. In
+ordinary times it was not in Valentine's nature to behave thus, but
+now a feeling of mad disdain had come over him, whereby he expressed
+the utter scorn he felt for all his enemies.
+
+"Now, master headsman, pray don't keep me waiting."
+
+Rage filled Henry's heart, and rage is a bad marksman. He raised his
+sword, and the blow fell just where the hair on Valentine's head was
+coiled in its thickest folds. The false blow made Catsrider lose his
+balance. He stumbled, fell sprawling, and struck his head so hard
+against the corner of the coffin intended for Valentine that he
+remained lying there senseless.
+
+The mob raised a fearful howl when, after the blow had descended,
+they saw the delinquent spring up while the executioner lay prone on
+the ground.
+
+"Let him go free!" cried some; "when the headsman misses his blow
+the delinquent should be reprieved." Others, however, were for the
+headsman's apprentices taking up the sword and completing the
+sentence.
+
+During this uproar Valentine looked down from the lofty scaffold. He
+saw the excitement of his enemies on the dais, and heard them cry:
+
+"Down with him!"
+
+He saw a desperate woman attempting to force her way through the
+crowd, and recognized in her his mother. He threw a glance at his
+slain beloved, and then an idea suddenly flashed through his brain.
+
+"Hither, Valentine, hither!" It was the voice of Simplex.
+
+Valentine sprang down from the scaffold among the crowd.
+
+"After him, seize him!" cried the members of the town council to the
+drabants surrounding the scaffold.
+
+The throng was very dense. Each man pressed hard upon his neighbor.
+But when Valentine broke through, a path was made for him which
+closed immediately on his pursuers. Not one of the crowd laid hands
+on him. Simplex and his comrades covered his flight.
+
+He escaped from the crowd, and ran along the street with his
+pursuers hot upon his heels, headed by the superrector with his
+gold-headed stick of office raised aloft, the headsman (who had in
+the meantime recovered) with his drawn sword, and the drabants with
+their halberts.
+
+At the end of the street Valentine found an open door, through which
+he darted. This door closed behind him, and when the pursuers came
+up and loudly demanded admission, it suddenly reopened and out
+stepped the Prior of the Jesuits, Father Hieronymus, with the
+charter in his hand. They could tell it by the long pendant seals.
+
+"Be off!" cried he, "this house is an asylum!"
+
+It was the cloister of the Jesuits. The secular authorities were
+debarred from crossing the threshold by their own charter.
+
+So wondrously fulfilled was the prophecy of the prior, that the seed
+which Valentine had sown when he subscribed this document would one
+day turn out to his advantage.
+
+When, however, they brought the news to Dame Sarah that her son had
+fled to the cloister of the Jesuits, and now remained beneath their
+protection, the poor lady was quite overcome and said:
+
+"Would that he had rather died by the side of his Michal!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Wherein carnival revels are described.
+
+
+Out of this incident a great dispute arose. The worshipful
+corporation held it as a point of honor that when once they had
+condemned a man to death, that man's head must be severed from his
+body. The College of Jesuits maintained, on the other hand, that
+whoever had once taken refuge in their cloister could be removed by
+no earthly authority from that sacred asylum.
+
+And besides their respective rights in the matter, each party had
+other reasons in _petto_.
+
+Those who had got the government of the city through Kalondai's fall
+could never feel absolutely at their ease so long as he remained
+alive. They were afraid that the rapid turn of Fortune's wheel might
+bring him to the helm again, and then, woe betide them.
+
+But the Jesuits calculated that Valentine, out of gratitude for his
+deliverance by them, would become their convert, in which case their
+hands at Kassa would be greatly strengthened.
+
+Both parties therefore thought it worth while to send
+plenipotentiaries to the Palatine and the Supreme Court of Hungary,
+petitioning for a decree in their favor.
+
+Meanwhile the gates of the Jesuit cloisters were watched day and
+night, so that Valentine might not escape.
+
+There were two persons who made it their special business to watch
+the cloister: Augustus Zwirina, who sent a drabant, and Henry
+Catsrider, who sent one of his own apprentices.
+
+The headsman had another reason, besides mere personal vengeance,
+for cutting off Valentine's head. His own neck was in danger. The
+world is so bad that even the headsman has enemies. Report said that
+Henry was drunk when he came to execute the law's sentence, and that
+was why he missed his aim. And the executioner has his own
+executioner also, who strikes him in the face in the middle of the
+market place, if he commits a fault sufficiently grievous to carry
+deprivation from his office along with it.
+
+Therefore Henry bowled up at the windows of the cloister every
+evening, and threatened to quarter Valentine alive when he got him
+into his hands.
+
+The watchers allowed no suspicious person to leave the cloister
+unsearched. It happened once that a servant died at the cloister. As
+they were carrying the corpse away to be buried, the town council
+ordered the coffin to be searched to make sure that Valentine was
+not being smuggled out in that way, and a stringent order was issued
+forbidding people to go out at night without lanterns, under the
+penalty of imprisonment.
+
+At last the judgment of the Supreme Tribunal on the asylum question
+reached Kassa.
+
+The judgment ran as follows: "Whereas the Jesuits have the right of
+asylum for their cloister, but whereas it is forbidden them to
+forcibly detain those of another persuasion, it is now hereby
+declared that the privilege of sanctuary can only be accorded to
+Valentine Kalondai on condition that he consents to be received into
+the bosom of the Catholic Church as a priest, but if he remains in
+his former faith he is to be handed over to justice. Three days'
+grace, moreover, are allowed to the said Valentine Kalondai, within
+which time he is to come to a decision."
+
+With this politic document both the Jesuits and the Zwirina faction
+were very well satisfied. The former calculated that the delinquent
+who had escaped from the scaffold would much rather submit to the
+tonsure than lose his whole head, and would rather renounce the
+friendship of Calvin than dear life itself, and this they thought
+would be a great triumph for them. But this very thing would have
+been no small triumph to Zwirina and Co. also, for the whole
+Hungarian party, which consisted for the most part of Calvinists,
+would be humbled to the dust by such an apostasy. As a renegade,
+Valentine Kalondai would be as good as dead and buried.
+
+When Dame Sarah heard of this judgment, she said to Simplex, who
+since the days of her calamity had been a constant visitor at her
+house: "Go to my son, and tell him that I would rather see his head
+severed from his body than his soul separated from my soul. He will
+understand what I mean."
+
+But Simplex had something else to say to Valentine, of which Dame
+Sarah knew nothing.
+
+Two days of the respite had already elapsed; the third was Shrove
+Tuesday, the day of fools.
+
+Valentine had as yet not declared his resolution, but he had now
+only till vespers to do so. If he still remained silent, then it
+would be taken as a sign that he preferred to submit to the sentence
+of death.
+
+Henry Catsrider had had the scaffold reerected. Valentine could see
+it from the cloister window.
+
+No one else, however, troubled himself about it, for it was the last
+day of carnival, and all the world was thinking of the carnival
+frolics. All day long boisterous masks paraded the streets--men
+disguised as women, all sorts of guys dressed up on horseback; and
+in the evening, they all met together to carry out the carnival and
+bury him. The lads vied with one another as to who should make the
+greatest fools of themselves. One lengthened his legs with stilts,
+another made himself up as a giant. There were some who stuck
+themselves all over with feathers, and strutted about like birds,
+while others stuffed themselves out till they were as big as
+barrels. One trumpeted, another rattled, a third drummed away on a
+huge frying-pan.
+
+The most attractive mask of all, however, was the carnival horse,
+which consisted of two men. The first man made up the fore part of
+the horse; he wore the horse's head, which was true to nature and as
+large as life, while the other, who planted his head in the middle
+of the first man's body, composed the rear part of the horse; both
+were covered with a large horsecloth, on which lay a saddle with the
+dependent stirrups, and the whole thing looked exactly like a real
+horse. The man in front had all the fun of the thing. He could
+trumpet whenever he felt inclined, he drank whatever people liked to
+give him, and he held a large whip in his hand, with which he struck
+at everyone who came too near him. But the poor fellow who formed
+the rear part of the horse had a much harder billet. He saw nothing
+and heard nothing, and was obliged to scramble along in a stooping
+position wherever the man in front chose to lead him; and if his
+leader did not look well after him, he got from everyone of the
+passers-by a sounding thump on the hindermost part of his person. It
+was not easy, therefore, to find someone willing to accept this
+role, and generally some lubber of an apprentice, who had failed in
+everything else, was pitchforked into it.
+
+Now just at that time there was no such apprentice in all the
+guilds of Kassa, so that there was absolutely no one to take up this
+unpleasant role but the poor, good-natured Turk Ali, who could be
+persuaded to do anything, and everyone could see his red slippers
+peeping out from under the horsecloth as the carnival steed pranced
+along. It was an open secret that the carnival horseman who rode
+this steed was Simplex himself.
+
+Behind the carnival steed came the carnival himself in a cart drawn
+by two oxen. He lay in a red coffin, which was covered all over with
+fools' caps, bells, and masks. Giants with heads as large as barrels
+and gigantic storks walked alongside of him, carrying his escutcheon
+on a pole, and behind the coffin marched a roystering band of
+apprentices made up as buxom wenches, who offered their tankards to
+everyone who passed and would absolutely take no denial.
+
+The carnival's funeral procession stopped before the dwelling of
+every guildmaster and every clergyman. The leader of the procession
+pronounced a loud eulogium on every notability, to which the
+notability in question responded by refilling the empty tankards
+with wine or beer. On each such occasion the fool's sacristan awoke
+the carnival in his coffin, lifted up the pall and gave him a drink.
+The carnival was also an apprentice, and he certainly had one of the
+very best billets, for all he had to do was to lie still and drink.
+
+When the carnival's funeral procession arrived in front of the
+cloister of the Jesuits, the two armed watchmen, the drabant and the
+headsman's assistant, were still standing there, one on each side of
+the door.
+
+The waggish crowd pressed upon them from all sides, and while the
+funeral car with its canopy, its cortege, and its banners surrounded
+the door, one of the buxom wenches fell upon the neck of the drabant
+and kissed and hugged him, while a giant raven with a pointed beak
+forced his tankard on the headsman's assistant, and compelled him to
+drain it to the dregs, finally bonneting him with the empty tankard.
+
+All this lasted for a single brief instant, but it was quite long
+enough for the cloister door to open and close again. What had
+happened in the meantime was known only to the initiated.
+
+Then the fools' procession went on more noisily than ever.
+
+When they arrived at the Miskolcz gate, the superrector Zwirina and
+his halberdiers barred the way.
+
+"Whither are you going?" said he to the carnival horseman.
+
+Simplex held a quill to his mouth, and squeaked through it in a
+thin, chirpy, birdlike voice:
+
+"We are going to bury the dead carnival."
+
+But Augustus Zwirina was a knowing man, and he had his suspicions.
+
+"Let me see if this carnival is really dead," said he.
+
+And with that he tore the cover from the face of the figure lying in
+the coffin.
+
+The fellow representing the carnival rose in his bier, distended his
+broad mouth, and grinned in the superrector's face. He was an honest
+brushmaker's apprentice. The whole crowd burst into roars of
+laughter and derisive yells. Everyone instantly guessed that the
+superrector had sought for Valentine Kalondai in the carnival's
+coffin.
+
+Old Zwirina was very angry and ashamed.
+
+"You may take him to hell, if you like!" cried he to the crowd of
+revelers, and, by way of jocose emphasis, he gave the backward part
+of the carnival horse a spanking thump, but received a kick in
+return which sent him sprawling into the mud. The horse, which lost
+one of the red slippers of its hind feet in consequence, then bolted
+off like mad, while Simplex yelled like a cockney horseman on a
+runaway nag, tugged at the reins, and implored the laughing crowd to
+stop the beast. But the mob only chivied the horse all the more,
+till it had far outdistanced its panting escort. When at last he
+arrived in the neighborhood of the churchyard, Simplex blew his
+trumpet with all his might, and at the shrill sound two stout lads
+leaped up out of the cemetery ditch, leading after them a horse
+saddled and bridled.
+
+"Valentine!" cried Simplex, "ecce tuum Bucephalum!"
+
+Then the man forming the hinder part of the carnival steed sprang
+quickly forth from beneath the horsecloth. It was not the Turk Ali,
+but Valentine Kalondai.
+
+The condemned convict threw himself upon the horse and galloped off.
+
+Simplex and the comrades who had assisted him in the execution of
+this stratagem threw their masquerading costumes into the churchyard
+ditch, and after making a wide circuit of the town, returned to it
+by the Leutschau gate as if they knew nothing at all about it.
+
+The Turk Ali had exchanged roles with Valentine in the gates of the
+cloister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+The Lenten penance succeeds the carnival revels.
+
+
+When they brought the news to Augustus Zwirina that Valentine
+Kalondai had happily escaped, the big fat man suddenly grew blue in
+the face, and was struck down with apoplexy on the spot. So swiftly
+did death overtake him that he had not even time to make his will.
+
+This extraordinary case made a huge sensation throughout the town.
+Whole processions of acquaintances thronged the house of mourning,
+and in the courts of the Zwirinas there was wailing and woe.
+
+Now the courtyard of the Kalondais was only separated from that of
+the Zwirinas by a narrow partition wall. When then Dame Sarah heard
+the lamentations in her neighborhood, and learnt the cause thereof,
+viz., that her son had managed to escape and that the superrector
+had died of grief in consequence, she planted herself in the
+passage, and, despite the keenness of a February morning, began to
+sing the psalms in which King David celebrates the humiliation of
+his enemies. The louder grew the lamentations next door, the louder
+she sang her revengefully exultant psalms.
+
+Who could forbid her? Were they not sacred songs?
+
+On the day of the funeral, too, she sat on the balcony of her house,
+and while the priests and the choristers below were intoning dirges
+by the side of the bier, and the relations of the dead man
+accompanied these mournful songs with their sobs, the butcher's
+widow, dressed in white, as if she were holding high festival,
+mingled her exultant songs of triumph with their sobs and dirges.
+
+And henceforward, through the still watches of the night, when
+everyone was asleep, Dame Sarah sang her psalms and exulted over her
+fallen and humiliated enemies.
+
+Who could forbid a poor forlorn widow to seek comfort for her
+afflicted soul in spiritual songs?
+
+As for Henry Catsrider, he was driven from his profession three days
+later for putting to shame the dignity of his office, the reputation
+of the city, and the majesty of the law by his bungling. On the same
+scaffold which he himself had erected his own apprentices tore his
+red mantle from his shoulders and the red cap from his head, struck
+him three times in the face before all the people with the great
+silver seal hanging round his neck (which was a gift from the King
+of Poland), and finally drove him away amid the derisive laughter of
+the crowd.
+
+What became of the degraded headsman, how and where he ended his
+days, on these points nothing has ever been recorded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+In which it is shown how ghosts haunt churchyards.
+
+
+The adherents of the disgraced faction did not cease persecuting
+Valentine Kalondai.
+
+From the very first they had sent pursuers after him who had
+followed hard upon the fugitive; but at a certain inn, when they
+were already close upon him, two men, evidently instructed
+beforehand, met him with a fresh horse. The fugitive mounted and was
+instantly off again, while his pursuers thought it best to slowly
+ride their jaded nags back to town.
+
+The new superrector, young Ignatius Zwirina, calculated thus:
+Valentine Kalondai will one of these days come back of his own
+accord to the neighborhood of Kassa. His beloved rests there in the
+churchyard ditch, and he will never be able to keep away from the
+spot where she whom he loves so much reposes.
+
+So in the ditch where pretty Michal had been cast he kept nine
+musketeers in ambush, night and day, that they might seize Valentine
+when he came thither, and shoot him down if he sought to fly.
+
+The trap was laid for him, and they made certain that he would fall
+into it.
+
+Nor did he remain long away.
+
+In the first stormy night, when the Lenten wind drove the shapeless
+clouds from one end of the sky to the other and shook the leafless
+trees, and the will-o'-the-wisps darted about among the graves, a
+lonely horseman approached the churchyard from the plains.
+
+A poplar which had been torn down by the storm marked the spot where
+pretty Michal lay.
+
+"I hear the tramp of horses' hoofs," murmured one of the musketeers
+in the ditch.
+
+"What if it be the devil riding on a buck-goat?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, who else would think of riding over the plains at such
+a time?"
+
+"Look how the will-o'-the-wisps are dancing!" said a third, raising
+his head a little above the ditch.
+
+From time to time, a reddish tongue of flame shot up from among the
+graves, casting a lurid glimmer on the angels praying on the
+monuments.
+
+Then it seemed as if the deep notes of a horn were mingling with the
+howling of the storm. It sounded like a subterranean music. A
+shudder ran down the backs of the musketeers in the ditch and their
+teeth chattered.
+
+"An accursed signal that!"
+
+When the midnight rider reached the churchyard, he dismounted from
+his horse, bound it to an elderberry tree, and replied to the signal
+with a trumpet-blast of his own, whereupon a spectral flame shot up
+among the tombstones.
+
+"Do you hear that? The devils are answering one another."
+
+"It is either the devil or Valentine Kalondai."
+
+"If it be Valentine Kalondai he will come hither, and we will take
+him prisoner; but if it be the devil 'twere best to leave him
+alone."
+
+That was very sage advice, certainly.
+
+The horseman found the churchyard-gate open and went in.
+
+He went straight to the spot where he had seen the flames shoot up.
+
+It was no will-o'-the-wisp, no perambulating spirit, but Simplex,
+who, to scare the watchers and guide Valentine, had ignited
+lycopodium powder from time to time.
+
+"Hush!" said he to his approaching friend, "they are on the watch."
+
+"Let them watch!" murmured Valentine; "I have a sword with me.
+Though I should die on the spot for it, I mean to speak to my
+beloved."
+
+"You shall speak to her. Follow me! but duck your head that they may
+not see us."
+
+With that he led Valentine along among the graves till they came to
+a large monument. It was a red marble obelisk, surmounted by a
+wreathed urn. The bed round the grave was planted with violets and
+primroses with an ivy border. On the pediment lay several wreaths.
+
+"Look there!" said Simplex, drawing a dark lantern from beneath his
+mantle; "look and read!"
+
+Valentine drew near and saw on the splendid monument the name,
+"Augustus Zwirina," followed by a long litany of the deeds and
+services of that distinguished citizen.
+
+"Why have you led me to the grave of my mortal foe?" asked Valentine
+sternly.
+
+"It is not your mortal foe who sleeps here," returned Simplex, "but
+pretty Michal. The night after they had buried your mortal foe, I
+came to the churchyard with the faithful Ali. Then we set to work
+and dug out the coffin of pretty Michal and brought it hither, and
+placed it where the coffin of Zwirina had been laid, and now you can
+be quite easy in your mind, for your beloved reposes in consecrated
+ground, and flowers bloom over her all the year round."
+
+Valentine threw himself with his face to the ground.
+
+"Listen how the ghosts are weeping!" said one of the watchers to his
+comrade.
+
+"Depend upon it, Beelzebub is tormenting them!"
+
+"Don't look back or they'll twist your neck for you!"
+
+After Valentine had wept to his heart's content, and consoled
+himself with the reflection that his tears would filter through the
+mound to his sleeping love and give her sweeter dreams, he arose and
+said to Simplex:
+
+"But suppose the thing becomes known?"
+
+"There are only three of us who know anything about it. One is Ali
+the Turk; your mother has emancipated him, and he has now gone home
+to Thessaly. The second is the grave, and the grave tells no tales.
+I myself am the third, and I can keep as silent as the grave."
+
+Valentine pressed his faithful friend to his heart and covered him
+with kisses. And then he kissed the grave and the flowers which
+covered it:
+
+"Don't you hear how the specters are kissing each other?" whispered
+one of the musketeers.
+
+"No doubt Lucifer is caressing them!"
+
+"And whither then have you removed Augustus Zwirina?"
+
+"Why, where he ought to be, of course! We laid the good man in the
+churchyard ditch in the place intended for Michal, and all the asses
+of the town will come and nibble their thistles over his head from
+one year's end to the other."
+
+"Listen how the ghosts are laughing!"
+
+"I would not go among them if they gave me the whole city of Kassa."
+
+Even the howling wind seemed to take up the ghostly laughter and
+carry it on further. It was indeed a ghastly jest--a jest fit even
+to provoke a loud peal of laughter in a churchyard at midnight, that
+pretty Michal and the author of her death should have changed places
+with each other, that pretty Michal should have been laid in the
+flower-strewn bed, in the grave dug in consecrated ground and
+watered with tears, while the author of her death should have been
+cast forth into the churchyard ditch, to gaze up at the asses when
+they came to chew the thistles over his head.
+
+"Now that you have spoken with your beloved, hasten away!"
+
+"God bless you, my loyal comrade! Greet my dear mother. Tell her
+that to-morrow I am off to the wars. Eger is to be stormed. Tell her
+to pray that I may die a glorious death!"
+
+With that he hastened back to his horse and darted away into the
+waste night.
+
+"The ghost is riding back to his realm!"
+
+"All good spirits praise the Lord!"
+
+And if Dame Sarah prayed as her son desired her, her prayer was
+certainly heard in heaven. At the brilliant assault by which the
+city of Eger was won back to Hungary, Valentine Kalondai died a
+hero's death on the field of honor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+In which everyone at last gets his deserts.
+
+
+Old Zurdoki, whose unseemly amours had been the cause of the tragedy
+of two loving hearts, so far from being sobered by this sad
+occurrence, so far from taking to heart the blood of the gentle lady
+which had flowed through his foul fault, had no sooner escaped from
+Poland with a part of the Prince's routed troops (the rest had been
+carried away captive to the Crimea by the Tartars) than he set about
+another evil prank. Failing to seduce one of the pretty women, he
+now spread his nets for the second.
+
+Here, too, he soon found a willing go-between. Even if Red Barbara
+were no more, there was still enough of witches and to spare. Was
+not Annie, the wife of the kopanitschar, at hand? So far from being
+scared at the fearful fate of her superior, she burned to occupy the
+vacant place of honor in the witches' ranks. For the saying of the
+sages, that from the blood of one martyr a hundred others spring up,
+is equally true when applied to evil-doers. Among sinners also there
+are enthusiasts who count it an honor to suffer for hell, and where
+one felon is executed a hundred are always ready to step into his
+shoes. This was especially the case with witches. The burnt and
+tortured members of that grim sisterhood always had immediate and
+innumerable successors. The world seemed too small to hold them all.
+The love of evil notoriety took possession of them like a sort of
+intoxication, and plunged into the abyss even those who otherwise
+would never have thought of becoming witches. It is thus that we are
+able to explain why Annie undertook a far more dangerous commission
+than even that by which Barbara had found her death. Moreover, the
+dazzling promises of Zurdoki, who was no niggard with his money, had
+also great weight with her. And Zurdoki was now richer than ever.
+George Rakoczy, when the Crim Tartars invaded Hungary, had intrusted
+the whole of his treasures to Zurdoki to conceal them in Berga
+Castle. On the way thither as much of this treasure might be lost as
+Zurdoki pleased. Who amid the hurly-burly of those troubled times
+would ever think of calling him to account for it?
+
+So Zurdoki intrusted to Annie the billet-doux which he had written
+to the lovely Isabella, the spouse of Count Hommonai. He had not
+been very particular in his style, nor had he wasted his ardor in
+romantic effusiveness, but he went straight to the point like the
+man of business he was. He said he was ten times richer than
+Hommonai, and if the countess were kind to him, he would give her
+three hundred ducats down and a diamond collar such as princesses
+wear, besides making a will in her favor, whereby she would inherit
+after his death a city, a castle, two-and-twenty villages, and all
+the flocks, herds, and studs thereunto belonging.
+
+Zurdoki, therefore, did not woo very romantically, perhaps, but for
+all that the letter was full of burning love. He thought that the
+handsomeness of the gift would make the lovely lady forget the
+ugliness of the giver.
+
+But Isabella was very wroth when she received this shameful
+proposal. She immediately took the letter to her husband, and begged
+him to order the bearer of it to be exemplarily whipped. They were
+then dwelling at their castle at Saros.
+
+"No," said Count Hommonai; "why whip the bearer of the letter, it is
+the writer who deserves a whipping." And he there and then dictated
+to his wife the answer she was to send to Zurdoki, which was so
+worded as to seem to consent to his proposition.
+
+Annie, whom Isabella also rewarded most handsomely, took back the
+letter and delivered it to the ancient Celadon.
+
+The object of Hommonai's stratagem was to get Zurdoki into his
+hands, so Zurdoki fell into the trap which he himself had laid.
+
+Count Hommonai had an occasion ready to hand. He had a pair of old
+retainers, a coachman and a female lodge-keeper, both of Turkish
+extraction, and living together as man and wife after the Turkish
+fashion. These the count had converted to the Calvinistic Christian
+faith, and now they were to be united at the altar according to the
+Christian rite.
+
+Such cases used to make a great sensation, for in those days, when
+the Turk was a mighty potentate who had two-thirds of Hungary in his
+power, and kept the remaining third in constant fear and trembling,
+it was an extraordinary phenomenon when a Mussulman pair voluntarily
+denied the Prophet and went over to the Christian faith. Therefore,
+all the neighboring gentry were invited from far and near, and most
+of them came, so that Count Hommonai's castle had to be enlarged in
+all haste by wooden annexes, so as to provide suitable accommodation
+for the servants of so many guests.
+
+To this memorable wedding Zurdoki was also invited. Indeed it may be
+said that it was mainly on his account that the whole affair was got
+up.
+
+He was well aware of this; but he fancied that the lady had arranged
+it all for love of him, whereas it was the husband's doings, and
+there is always a great difference between the motives of a husband
+and the motives of a wife.
+
+Zurdoki arrived on the day of the wedding and brought thirty
+retainers with him. Hommonai received him very heartily, and did not
+once allude to the old theme of dispute; nay, he even allowed the
+old coxcomb to dance attendance upon his wife and whisper all sorts
+of tender compliments in her ear.
+
+The ceremony was conducted with all due solemnity, and the behavior
+of the converted couple engrossed all the attention of the assembled
+guests. They could talk of nothing but how the bridegroom could not
+draw the ring off his finger; how he gave the bride his left hand
+instead of his right; how the bride, under the influence of the
+baptismal water, began to sneeze; and how the bridegroom drained the
+chalice to the very dregs instead of only sipping it; and how both
+of them, when they should have said "yes," only shook their heads,
+which, with the Turks, signifies assent. Who, under such
+circumstances, had any time to notice that Zurdoki was constantly
+whispering to the lady of the house?
+
+Next followed a splendid banquet of four-and-twenty courses. During
+the meal Simplex played on the farogato, so as to put even the gypsy
+musicians to shame. Since Valentine's death he had entered the
+service of Count Hommonai as trumpeter, at a salary of five hundred
+gulden and his keep, which shows in what high estimation a skillful
+trumpeter was held in those days.
+
+After the meal was over the ladies withdrew to their rooms to dress
+for the dance, but the gentlemen remained behind over their cups.
+
+Then, according to a good old custom of Russian origin, the
+"fratina" went from hand to hand. This "fratina" was a silver pocal,
+set with precious stones and engraved with many sage saws, and the
+men drank to each other out of it and drained it to the very dregs.
+No one laughed at him who fell in this contest. The servants simply
+picked him up and carried him into his bedroom, that he might there
+sleep off his carouse.
+
+He to whose head the wine flew soonest was the host himself. He very
+soon had had enough, and laid his head down on the table. They
+quickly carried him away.
+
+"This wine really is very strong," said Zurdoki. "I suppose the
+vintage is of the year of the great comet? It has got into my head
+too." And with that his tongue began to loll out, his head sank back
+in his easy-chair, and the tankard fell from his hand.
+
+"He's had his fill too," said the guests, whereupon four servants
+raised him from his chair and carried him to his room.
+
+But Zurdoki was not drunk after all; he had only been pretending. As
+soon as he was alone in his room he locked the door, and sought for
+a tapestried door concealed at the foot of the bed. Through this he
+proceeded to a little corridor which led direct into the countess's
+room.
+
+The time of the rendezvous could not have been better chosen. The
+guests who had not already succumbed to the wine proceeded from the
+dining-room to the dancing-room, and there practiced a martial dance
+among themselves till the fumes of the wine had evaporated and the
+ladies assembled, when they began to dance together the palotas, the
+polonaise, the torch dance, and the dance of the three hundred
+widows.
+
+No one thought of the absent.
+
+Zurdoki found the countess in her chamber; she had been waiting for
+him, and was quite alone.
+
+The old inamorato at once fell down upon his knees before the lovely
+lady, and to convince her of the sincerity of his passion laid at
+her feet the promised gifts; a purse filled with gold, the collar of
+brilliants, and the will and testament, authenticated by the seal of
+a cathedral chapter.
+
+"All this is thine, my beloved, if thou wilt receive me favorably."
+
+"Get up, sir! and you will certainly have a warm reception," replied
+the lovely Isabella.
+
+At this the enamored old buck sprang to his feet, as fiery and lusty
+as a young weasel.
+
+On the wall opposite were life-size portraits of Count Hommonai and
+his wife, but between them hung a beautiful Venetian mirror in a
+cut-glass frame. The old vulture placed himself before this mirror,
+and, stroking his gray mustache, exclaimed very complacently, as if
+rejoicing in his beauty: "Come now, my lord Count Hommonai, which of
+us two is the handsomer fellow now?"
+
+"Why, I am, of course, and always shall be!" cried Count Hommonai;
+for he was behind the picture, which opened like a tapestried door,
+and out he stepped.
+
+The terror-stricken Zurdoki stood there with his mouth wide open. He
+now perceived that they had been fooling him all along.
+
+Count Hommonai did not exchange many words with him, but seized him
+by the collar and thrust him into the room where all the other
+guests were dancing. They were not a little astonished to see their
+host and his friend, who, as they fancied, had been overcome with
+wine, now appear among them quite brisk and sober. But what
+astonished them still more was the circumstance, that whereas they
+had both been carried off to their respective bedrooms a few moments
+before, they now both came out of the countess's chamber.
+
+"Look, gentlemen!" cried the count derisively, "look at that old
+buck-goat who would fain browse in my garden!"
+
+At this, a roar of laughter greeted the discomfited Lothario, and
+his terror at being caught in forbidden ways now turned into furious
+rage at being mocked in public. Perceiving his page, to whom he had
+intrusted his sword when he sat down at table, he beckoned to him,
+tore the weapon from his hand, and planting himself in front of
+Hommonai, exclaimed:
+
+"Shame, confusion on you, to entice a nobleman into a trap and
+ridicule your guest in your own house! But you shall not boast of it
+to anyone, and the marriage feast which you arranged on my account
+shall now be turned into a funeral wake. You must fight me, sir!"
+
+Hommonai's only intention had been to make the old libertine a butt
+and a laughing-stock. He had, therefore, no weapon with him. But
+when Zurdoki drew his sword and challenged him to single combat, he
+also called his page, sent him for a rapier, and stood on his
+defense. The guests in the hall fell back to give the combatants
+room. Nobody attempted to intervene. It was only right that such an
+insult should be settled by arms.
+
+First the furious Zurdoki aimed a mighty blow at the count, but
+miscalculating the length of his saber, the point of his weapon only
+grazed the yellow, gold-gallooned jack-boots of the count, and then
+struck the floor. But the blow which Hommonai dealt him in return
+settled him on the spot, and he breathed forth his filthy soul at
+the feet of the aggrieved husband.
+
+And everyone present said it served him right. Hommonai ought to
+have killed him a year ago at least. Then Zurdoki would not have
+persuaded Prince George Rakoczy to undertake his unlucky campaign,
+then many good Hungarian warriors would not have fallen into
+captivity, and Hungary and Transylvania would not have been wasted
+with fire and sword.
+
+But when the Countess Isabella heard that her husband had killed the
+old fool, she said:
+
+"What a pity he had but one life! He has only atoned for the blood
+of my poor Michal. Valentine Kalondai is still unavenged."
+
+They then called the maids, who cleansed the floor with hot water.
+Meanwhile the host led his guests into the castle gardens, and told
+them of all the miserable plots in which the evil-minded old
+libertine had played a part, down to his latest intrigue when he had
+attempted to seduce the countess. To prove his words he produced the
+gifts and the will which were to have served as a decoy, and gave
+them to the Protestant bishop who had celebrated the wedding of the
+Turkish couple, that he might employ them for the benefit of the
+College of Sarospatak. Zurdoki had spent not a farthing on church or
+school, but now his sinful liberality was to be turned to pious
+uses.
+
+Then they returned to the dancing-room; the fiddles, flutes, and
+farogatos struck up, and the guests danced over the very spot where
+Zurdoki's blood had flowed, just as if absolutely nothing had
+occurred.
+
+And surely you cannot express your contempt for a man more
+emphatically than by dancing over the spot where his blood has been,
+only an hour after his death!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Simplex, from whose contemporary diary we have compiled this
+history, most of whose events the narrator had himself witnessed and
+experienced, subsequently entered the service of Achatius Baresai,
+whom the Padishah had made Prince of Transylvania in George
+Rakoczy's stead. He also accompanied his Highness on his journey to
+Turkey. His latest memoirs are dated from Stamboul. What ultimately
+became of him no one has ever been able to find out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+All things pass away, but science remains eternal.
+
+
+But the learned Professor David Frohlich continued for many years to
+implant the sciences in the youthful mind, and enrich the world with
+his inventions. Down to the very day of his death he was in constant
+correspondence with the most distinguished European scholars, and
+was still informed about everything which was going on in foreign
+parts.
+
+But what had become of his daughter Michal he never could find out.
+
+Oftentimes, indeed, he would cast her horoscope and compare its
+various aspects; but he always arrived at precisely the same
+conclusion, viz., that his daughter Michal was now leading a most
+blissful life in some far-distant land, the very name of which was
+unknown to him.
+
+And perhaps it really was so!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in
+the original edition have been corrected.
+
+A missing period was added after "CHAPTER XXXI" in the Table of
+Contents.
+
+In Chapter I, "with real enthusiasm,;" was changed to "with real
+enthusiasm;".
+
+In Chapter II, "the more merciful harum palzarum" was changed to
+"the more merciful harum palczarum", missing quotation marks were
+added after "the god-fearing and the godless" and before "Write in
+your book", and an extraneous quotation mark was removed after
+"marry within thy station!".
+
+In Chapter III, "he aswered yes" was changed to "he answered yes".
+
+In Chapter IV, "neck and skull were thown backward" was changed to
+"neck and skull were thrown backward", a missing quotation mark was
+added after "fire upon them in return", and "mixed up in a
+skirmrish" was changed to "mixed up in a skirmish".
+
+In Chapter IX, "commited such crimes" was changed to "committed such
+crimes", and "humilated wretch" was changed to "humilated wretch".
+
+In Chapter XI, "of one her favorite songs" was changed to "of one of
+her favorite songs".
+
+In Chapter XIV, "passed the kopanitscha of Hamer" was changed to
+"passed the kopanitscha of Hamar".
+
+In Chapter XVI, "Gonez" was changed to "Goncz", and "Gonezer cask"
+was changed to "Gonczer cask".
+
+In Chapter XVIII, "Simplex was caried back to his dungeon, and there
+he had leasure" was changed to "Simplex was carried back to his
+dungeon, and there he had leisure".
+
+In Chapter XIX, "great red wheels" was changed to "great red
+wheals".
+
+In Chapter XXII, "Frolich could have heard" was changed to "Frohlich
+could have heard".
+
+In Chapter XXIII, "my pretty young misstress" was changed to "my
+pretty young mistress".
+
+In Chapter XXVI, "her daughter-in law's lovely hair" was changed to
+"her daughter-in-law's lovely hair".
+
+In Chapter XXVII, "the good Countess Hommonia" was changed to "the
+good Countess Hommonai", and "Kalondai preceived the danger" was
+changed to "Kalondai perceived the danger".
+
+In Chapter XXVIII, "was then of that pecular yellowish tinge" was
+changed to "were then of that peculiar yellowish tinge".
+
+In Chapter XXIX, "Valentine Kolondai desired to challenge" was
+changed to "Valentine Kalondai desired to challenge".
+
+In Chapter XXX, "With grandoise aplomb" was changed to "With
+grandoise aplomb", and "Frolich possessed" was changed to "Frohlich
+possessed".
+
+In Chapter XXXI, "makiug the circuit of the town" was changed to
+"making the circuit of the town", and "The Calvinists saluted prety
+Michal" was changed to "The Calvinists saluted pretty Michal".
+
+In Chapter XXXIII, a quotation mark was added after "harom
+palczara".
+
+In Chapter XXXVI, "ag reat dispute" was changed to "a great
+dispute".
+
+In Chapter XXXVIII, an extra quotation mark was removed before "look
+and read".
+
+In Chapter XXXIX, "Zurdoki aimed a mighy blow" was changed to
+"Zurdoki aimed a mighty blow".
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pretty Michal, by Mór Jókai
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