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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Village Notary, by Jozsef Eoetvoes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Village Notary
+
+Author: Jozsef Eoetvoes
+
+Commentator: Francis Pulszky
+
+Translator: Otto Wenckstern
+
+Release Date: January 2, 2011 [EBook #34819]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE NOTARY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY;
+
+A ROMANCE OF HUNGARIAN LIFE.
+
+TRANSLATED FROM
+THE HUNGARIAN OF BARON EOeTVOeS,
+
+BY OTTO WENCKSTERN.
+
+WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY FRANCIS PULSZKY.
+
+IN THREE VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED FOR
+LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,
+PATERNOSTER-ROW.
+1850.
+
+LONDON:
+SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW
+New-street-Square.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+VOLUME I
+
+PREFACE              iii
+CHAPTER I.             1
+CHAPTER II.           37
+CHAPTER III.          62
+CHAPTER IV.           89
+CHAPTER V.           132
+CHAPTER VI.          139
+CHAPTER VII.         151
+CHAPTER VIII.        171
+CHAPTER IX.          187
+CHAPTER X.           235
+CHAPTER XI.          251
+CHAPTER XII.         273
+NOTES                275
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+CHAPTER I.             1
+CHAPTER II.           11
+CHAPTER III.          29
+CHAPTER IV.           61
+CHAPTER V.            72
+CHAPTER VI.           97
+CHAPTER VII.         118
+CHAPTER VIII.        147
+CHAPTER IX.          171
+CHAPTER X.           196
+CHAPTER XI.          217
+CHAPTER XII.         235
+CHAPTER XIII.        267
+NOTES                279
+
+
+VOLUME III
+
+CHAPTER I.             1
+CHAPTER II.           42
+CHAPTER III.          62
+CHAPTER IV.           90
+CHAPTER V.           105
+CHAPTER VI.          128
+CHAPTER VII.         138
+CHAPTER VIII.        161
+CHAPTER IX.          178
+CHAPTER X.           217
+CONCLUSION           236
+NOTES                242
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+When Joseph, Baron Eoetvoes, wrote his "Village Notary," and when he
+dedicated that work to me, neither he nor I could anticipate the sudden
+and unexpected downfall of the political and social institutions which
+he attempted to portray. It is true that my friend did not, in the
+present work, make an exclusive use of his poetical faculties. The dregs
+of opposition were fermenting in his mind, and his ostensible object, to
+give a sketch of life in a Hungarian province, was mixed up with the
+desire to make his story act as a lever upon the _vis inertiae_ of our
+political condition. In those days, the liberal party in Hungary was
+divided into three factions. Our great reformer, the Count Szechenyi,
+was worn out by his long and seemingly resultless struggles against the
+policy of the Court of Vienna. He made a surrender of the leading ideas
+of his political life. He had ever since 1829 been the champion of equal
+taxation and of legal equality. He had advocated the abolition of
+feudal burdens on the land. But he lived to consider these objects of
+his former aspirations as matters of secondary import. He became a
+practical man, and directed his energies to the steam-navigation on the
+Danube, to the damming and dyking of the river Theiss, to railroads,
+&c.; and for the furtherance of these plans the Count Szechenyi, though
+still faithful to his principles, had drawn close to the conservative
+party, and become reconciled to the government at Vienna. He did not,
+indeed, deprive himself of the pleasure of recounting numberless
+anecdotes and sketches from life, all of which tended to prove the
+incapability and the malevolence of that government; but his voice was
+silent in the debates of the Parliament, and the whole of his energies
+were devoted to the execution of practical improvements. "_Make money,
+and enrich the country!_" such was the advice he gave to us, his younger
+friends; and he added,--"_An empty sack will topple over; but if you
+fill it, it will stand by its own weight._"
+
+Count Szechenyi's practical clique was flanked by a more numerous and
+influential party. M. Kossuth's parliamentary opposition, taking a firm
+stand on the letter of the law, waged an unceasing warfare against the
+machinations of the Vienna bureaucracy. His party advocated the
+institutions of the counties, the free election of civic magistrates,
+and the independence of boroughs; and they stood ready to repel any
+direct or indirect blow which might be aimed at these institutions. This
+party was supreme, both in strength and in numbers. The middle classes
+and the gentry belonged to it; while Szechenyi's followers were members
+of the high aristocracy, who resided in the metropolis, and who scarcely
+ever busied themselves about the county elections.
+
+Baron Eoetvoes was the leader of a third party. He was imbued with the
+levelling tendencies of French liberalism. The men of Eoetvoes's school
+admired the theoretical perfection of Centralisation, and vied with the
+Vienna party in their aversion to the county institutions, with their
+assemblies and elections. But the Austrian Camarilla wished to establish
+the so-called "Paternal Absolutism" in the place of the county
+institutions; while the Eoetvoes party dreamed of a free parliamentary
+government. His party considered Hungary as a "_tabula rasa_," and they
+endeavoured, in defiance of history, to raise a new political fabric;
+not on the ground of written law, but on the treacherous soil of the law
+of nature. It was chiefly composed of young men of letters, who, full of
+spirit and ability, were but too prone to discover the weak and faulty
+parts of the county government, while they were unable to appreciate its
+practical soundness and its salutary influence. This circumstance caused
+them to withdraw from the elections, and to look down upon the struggles
+and contests of parliamentary life. Their doctrines could not,
+therefore, have any influence. To obtain a license for printing and
+publishing a newspaper was extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the Eoetvoes
+party had got possession of a newspaper. Their leaders, though spirited
+and witty, failed in bringing their ideas of centralisation home to the
+minds of their readers. The national instincts of the Hungarian people
+were opposed to such notions. But so convinced was Baron Eoetvoes of their
+truth and justness, that he resolved to publish them and make them
+popular, at any hazard. He wrote a novel, in which he put together a
+variety of small sketches and studies from nature, and formed them into
+one grand picture, for the express purpose of caricaturing the political
+doings in our counties. But, fortunately for the public, Baron Eoetvoes
+was a better poet than a politician, and his political pamphlet ripened,
+very much against his will, into one of the most interesting works of
+fiction that the Hungarian literature can boast of. His book was eagerly
+read and enthusiastically admired, it was devoid of all political
+action. Baron Eoetvoes missed the object at which he aimed; but he carried
+off a higher prize. Instead of popularising his ideas, he popularised
+himself, and the poet atoned for the sins of the politician. Nor was
+this difficult. Baron Eoetvoes was a thoroughly romantic character. He was
+more than the hero of a novel: his adventures and his fortunes made him
+a real hero. His years, though few, had been full of strange
+vicissitudes, and his life, from the cradle to his mature age, was one
+uninterrupted chain of strange and untoward events.
+
+The grandfather of Joseph Eoetvoes was a Hungarian government officer of
+high rank; his grandmother was a passionate woman, and a furious Magyar.
+She was therefore greatly incensed at her son (the poet's father)
+marrying a foreigner, viz., the Baroness Lilien, especially as the young
+lady had been so utterly neglected as to be ignorant of the Hungarian
+language. Often did the old lady vent her feelings on this point in the
+presence of the Baron Lilien, and emphatic were her protests that the
+German woman would remain childless--a prediction which it may be
+supposed was not at all calculated to gratify the baron. But when it
+became apparent that the family of Eoetvoes was not likely to become
+extinct, she changed her tactics by protesting, with the utmost
+boldness, that a German woman could not, by any chance, give birth to a
+boy, and that the family of Eoetvoes would become extinct in default of
+male issue. Baron Lilien put in a demurrer, and at length laid her a
+wager of one hundred ducats in favour of his daughter giving birth to a
+boy. The wager was duly accepted by the baroness, who lost it, and paid
+the amount, saying: "It's a boy after all, but he will turn out to be a
+German and stupid. I'll never see him, for I'll never prize him at a
+hundred ducats!" But the young Baron, Joseph Eoetvoes, lived to defeat all
+his grandmother's prophecies. She did indeed remain true to her word,
+for she never cared for him, and devoted all her tenderness to his
+younger brother; in her will she cut him off with an old piece of
+household furniture, which, after all, was taken from him, and given to
+a distant relative, by virtue of a codicil; but the German grandfather
+made up for the grandmother's harshness.
+
+Young Joseph's earlier years fell in that period of apathy which weighed
+down upon Europe after the feverish excitement of the French wars.
+Constitutionalism and nationality were sneered down as idle and
+reprehensible things. Hungary, too, partook of the lethargy of Europe;
+and the government, which alone was on the alert, made sundry
+successful attempts to wrest from us part of our old historical rights.
+The borough elections and the meetings of the counties were interfered
+with; pains were taken to extend the iron net of Austrian bureaucracy
+over Hungary; and, in 1823, it was thought that all power of resistance
+had left us. It was thought that the Hungarian Constitution was breaking
+up, and ready to be buried in the same grave with the Constitutions of
+Spain and Italy. The Cabinet of Vienna ventured to strike the last blow.
+Without consulting the parliament, they raised the taxes, and decreed a
+larger levy of recruits. These two points, if carried, abolished our
+Constitution, and crowned the endeavours of the House of
+Hapsburg-Lorraine. Great hopes of success were entertained at Vienna:
+the love of our ancient constitution had seemingly become extinct in
+Hungary; the German language had of late come to be the fashionable
+idiom at Pesth; and several of the most powerful magnates were willing
+to assist in completing the ruin of their country. The men at Vienna
+knew, indeed, that all the counties would demur to the decrees of the
+Hungarian Chancery, especially since the Chancellor, Prince Kohary, had
+entered his protest against the intended violation of the Hungarian
+Constitution. But the Cabinet of Vienna were resolved to execute their
+plan; and, if all other means failed, to _force_ the Hungarians into
+submission. Commissioners with unlimited powers were sent to the
+refractory counties. These men were instructed to coerce the county
+meetings by means of the military force. Baron Ignaz Eoetvoes (the poet's
+grandfather) was appointed commissioner. He accepted the office. His
+wife disapproved of the course he had taken, and left his house. The
+Vienna Cabinet were at length forced to yield to the obstinate
+resistance of the counties. They revoked their illegal decrees, and the
+convocation of a parliament was declared to be at hand. But the public
+voice spoke loud against the commissioners. The Count Illyeshazy became
+the most popular of all the magnates, because he had declined to accept
+the post of a commissioner, while those who had consented to act as the
+tools of oppression were scorned and insulted by the multitude.
+
+Young Joseph Eoetvoes, was, of course, profoundly ignorant of these
+events. Pampered by his grandfather, and idolised by his mother, he
+passed that period of bitter reality amidst all the bright dreams of
+happy childhood. He was, indeed, informed of the honours and dignities
+which the emperor had been most graciously pleased to confer upon his
+father and grandfather; but he knew nothing of the curses of the people;
+he knew nothing of the contempt with which his family name was
+pronounced by the Hungarians. But the time was at hand for him to learn
+it all, and feel it too. Young Eoetvoes was sent to a public school.
+
+His father, an able diplomatist, had hitherto placed the boy under the
+care of a tutor, Mr. Pruzsinsky. This gentleman was a staunch
+republican. In his earlier years he was a party to the conspiracy of
+Bishop Martinovich, the friend of Hajnotzy.[1] Pruzsinsky, with no less
+than thirty of his associates, had been sentenced to capital punishment.
+They were compelled to witness the execution of five of their friends.
+At the same time, they were informed that their punishment had been
+commuted into imprisonment for life. Hajnotzy, on his way to the
+scaffold, entreated Pruzsinsky to protect his only sister, whom his
+death would deprive of her last friend. Pruzsinsky promised to fulfil
+the last request of the dying man; but it was long before he could
+redeem his pledge. During eight years he was confined in several
+Austrian prisons. When the French armies invaded the country, the state
+prisoners were taken from the Kuffstein to the Spielberg, from the
+Spielberg to Olmuetz, and from Olmuetz to Munkatsh; and everywhere they
+met with that barbarous treatment which, at a later period, has been so
+faithfully recorded by Silvio Pellico. After eight years of
+imprisonment, Pruzsinsky was at length released; and, after ascertaining
+the residence of Hajnotzy's sister, he informed her of the promise he
+had given to her brother; adding, that his poverty allowed him no other
+means of protecting her than by offering her his hand. The poor girl,
+who at that time was reduced to severe distress, joyfully accepted the
+proposal. They were married. Pruzsinsky lived in the greatest happiness
+with his wife, whose love and devotion made ample amends for his past
+sufferings. But this blissful period was of short duration; at the end
+of two years Mrs. Pruzsinsky died.
+
+[Footnote 1: He was executed in 1795.]
+
+The events which we have detailed had their due share of influence in
+forming Pruzsinsky's character. Naturally severe and independent, it was
+by misfortune rendered harsh and all but repulsive. Baron Eoetvoes chose
+this man to be a tutor to his son, because he expected (and not without
+some show of reason) that the tutor's severity and his unamiable
+character would disgust his pupil with the political ideas of which he
+was the advocate and the martyr. But the boy took a liking to his
+master, in spite of the harshness and coldness of the latter; and an
+event which at that time took place gave Pruzsinsky an opportunity of
+gaining a still stronger hold on his pupil's mind. Joseph Eoetvoes was
+sent to a public school just at the period when every liberal speaker in
+parliament denounced his family name, and when the country cursed it.
+The boys shunned young Joseph; the form on which he sat was deserted,
+and though he would fain have considered this circumstance as a mark of
+respect, paid to him as the only member of the aristocracy that his
+school could boast of, he was soon given to understand that there is
+some difference between honouring a peer and sending him to Coventry.
+His grandfather, too, on visiting the school, was received by the boys
+with unmistakeable signs of disrespect; and when young Eoetvoes demanded
+an explanation, he was told that his grandfather was a traitor. "And
+you, too, are a traitor," added they. "You are almost thirteen years of
+age, and you cannot speak Hungarian. We are sure you will be a traitor!"
+Young Joseph was not a little shocked at this prediction, and of course
+consulted his tutor about the likelihood of its ever coming true.
+Pruzsinsky said simply, that the boys were right, and continued
+grinding his pupil in Cornelius Nepos and the Latin grammar. But
+Joseph's mind was not what it had been. He studied the Hungarian
+language, and devoted his attention to the political conversations in
+his father's _salon_, asking his tutor for an explanation of those
+things which he did not understand. Thus, for instance, he asked why the
+decease of the Count N. was so greatly lamented? "Who was the Count N.?"
+"The Count N.," said Pruzsinsky, "was, by his talents and learning, one
+of the most eminent men in Hungary: his character was odious. He filled
+a high post in the state. As for you, boy, you will never equal him in
+spirit and knowledge." A fortnight afterwards the tutor asked whether
+Count N.'s death was still the subject of conversation; and when Joseph
+replied that nobody thought of it, Pruzsinsky said: "This is well. That
+man has been dead a fortnight, and nobody remembers his death, in spite
+of his talents. The society to which he sacrificed his name and his
+honour wants but two weeks to forget his existence. Mark this, boy, and
+see what thanks you will get from the noble and great!" At another time
+Pruzsinsky took his pupil to the green behind the Castle at Buda, on
+which his five friends had been executed. "Here," said he, "they shed
+the blood of five true friends of the country. No monument marks the
+spot where they bled and lie buried, but the feet of the passing crowd
+have worn the green into the form of a cross, and thus marked the place.
+The time will come when these men will have their monument. That
+monument will be a triumphal arch for the liberated people--it will be a
+gallows for those who opposed our liberties!"
+
+Words like these were calculated to make a deep impression on the mind
+of young Eoetvoes, who manifested his political conversion by addressing
+his schoolfellows in an Hungarian oration, by which he informed them
+that, though his ancestors had served the house of Austria, and betrayed
+the interests of Hungary, he (the Baron Joseph Eoetvoes) was resolved to
+atone at once for the crime of his fathers, and that he (the said Baron
+Eoetvoes) meant to be "liberty's servant, and his country's slave." The
+boys received this speech with the greatest enthusiasm. They rushed up
+to the master's desk, which the young orator had converted into a
+tribune, and, seizing the object of their admiration, lifted him on
+their shoulders, and carried him to the next coffee-house!
+
+But, alas! how short is the step from the capitol to the Tarpeian rock!
+The procession had no sooner reached its destination than the
+school-master's servant appeared to arrest the speaker. His _debut_
+began on the master's desk; it ended in the black hole.
+
+Amidst these, and similar impressions, passed the boyhood of Baron
+Eoetvoes. In the year 1826 the Emperor Francis was compelled to conciliate
+the good will of the Hungarian parliament. He reiterated his promise to
+respect the constitutional rights of the country. The season of popular
+excitement was over, and the hatred to the name of Eoetvoes grew gradually
+less. In 1829, the Count Szechenyi published his plans of reform; the
+old aristocratic opposition of Hungary became a liberal opposition, and
+the party of national progress grew in strength and numbers. The youth
+of Hungary joined this latter party. Tours to foreign countries became
+the order of the day with all young men of education. Baron Eoetvoes, too,
+made the grand tour of Europe. He was amiable, and a great favourite
+with women; some of his occasional pieces had introduced him to the
+public as a poet; he was rich,--in short, he had all that is requisite
+to act a brilliant part in the capitals of the Continent.
+
+In the course of the carnival of 1837, Baron Eoetvoes, who was then at
+Paris, was invited by a young Frenchman to accompany him to Mademoiselle
+le Normand, the notorious Parisian soothsayer. The poet consented; and
+leaving a brilliant and merry party in the Faubourg du Roule, the two
+young men repaired to the house of the mysterious lady. Mademoiselle le
+Normand, after gazing long and earnestly at the handsome face of our
+hero, said at length, "You are rich. The day will come when you will be
+poor. You will marry a rich woman. You will be a minister of state in
+your own country. You will die on the scaffold." Nothing was so unlikely
+as this prophecy: Baron Eoetvoes was greatly amused with it, and after his
+return to Hungary, he used to tell the anecdote for the amusement of his
+friends.
+
+The financial crisis of 1841, and the money speculations of the old
+Baron Eoetvoes, led the family to the brink of ruin. Joseph Eoetvoes was
+compelled to live by his pen; anywhere but in England and France, the
+bread of literature is poverty indeed. In 1842, he married an amiable
+and accomplished woman; but still he smiled at Mademoiselle le Normand's
+prophecy. As a peer and as a public writer, he belonged to the extreme
+opposition; and although his party had the greatest influence in the
+country, there was no reason to suppose that it would ever be called
+upon to grasp the reins of government. The movements of the year 1848
+changed the aspect of affairs and the position of parties. A cabinet was
+formed under the auspices of the Count Batthyany; and Joseph Baron
+Eoetvoes was one of the members of that cabinet. In the month of August
+the political horizon of Hungary became clouded: Jellachich, the Ban of
+Croatia, prepared to invade our country. The duplicity of the Vienna
+Cabinet became daily more manifest. The landsturm assembled in Pesth.
+The Count Lamberg fell a victim to the unbridled passions of the people.
+The Croatians advanced almost to the very gates of Buda. Le Normand's
+prophecy came home to Baron Eoetvoes's mind, and scared him to Vienna. But
+he had scarcely reached the Austrian capital, when the revolution of
+October broke out. Eoetvoes fled. He hastened to Munich, and remained in
+voluntary exile, without taking any active interest in the fate of his
+country and the wayward fortunes of his friends. His career as a
+statesman is ended for many years to come. It is to be hoped that his
+faculties as a writer will survive the blow which crushed his country;
+and that his countrymen will have many a song and a few more novels from
+so clever and spirited a pen. It is the pleasing office of fiction to
+reconcile us to the anxieties and misfortunes of real matter-of-fact
+life. May my friend succeed in pouring balm into the fresh wounds of the
+country; and may his works alleviate, though it be but for a moment, the
+anguish which in this season of sorrows eats into the heart of every
+Hungarian!
+
+FRANCIS PULSZKY.
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+The traveller in the districts on the lower Theiss, however narrow the
+circle of his peregrinations, may be said to be familiar with the whole
+of that part of Hungary. Some families boast of the resemblance, not to
+say the identity, of their members. To distinguish one from another, we
+must see them long and often. The case of these districts is very much
+the case of those families; and the traveller, after a few hours' sleep
+on our sandy roads, has no means of knowing that he has made any
+progress, unless, indeed, it be by looking at the setting sun, or his
+jaded horses. Neither the general character nor the details of the
+country will remind him of his having been subjected to locomotion. As
+well might the seaman on the Atlantic endeavour to mark his course on
+the watery plain which surrounds him. A boundless extent of pasturage,
+now and then diversified by a broken frame over a well, or a few storks
+that promenade round a half dried up swamp; bad fields, whose crops of
+kukuruz and wheat are protected by God only, and by that degree of
+bodily fatigue to which even a thief is exposed;--perhaps a lonely hut,
+with a couple of long-haired wolf-dogs, reminding you of the sacredness
+of property; and the ricks of stale hay and straw, left from the harvest
+of last year, impressing you with the idea that their owners must either
+have an excess of hay, or a want of cattle:--such were the sights upon
+which you closed your eyes, and such, indeed, are the sights which you
+behold on awaking. The very steeples, which, before you fell asleep,
+were visible on the far plain, seem to have gone along with you; for
+there is as little difference between them, as between the village which
+you were approaching in the early part of the afternoon and the one to
+which you are now drawing near. The low banks of the Theiss, too, are
+the same; our own yellow Theiss is not only the best citizen of our
+country,--for it spends its substance at home,--but it is also the
+luckiest river in the world, since nobody ever interferes with it. The
+Theiss is, in fact, the only river in Europe of which it may be said
+that it is exactly such as God has made it.
+
+Somewhere on the banks of the lower Theiss, in any of its
+districts,--say in the county of Takshony,--close to where the river
+flows in the shape of a capital S, and at no great distance from three
+poplars on a hill (there is not a hill for many miles in whichever
+direction you may go, and, least of all, a hill with trees upon it),
+lies the village of Tissaret, under the lordship of the Rety family, who
+have owned the place ever since the Magyars first came into the
+country,--a fact which Mr. Adam Catspaw, the solicitor of the family, is
+prepared to prove at all times, and in all places, to any one that might
+be inclined to doubt it.
+
+Than the family of the Retys none can be more ancient; and it cannot
+therefore be a cause for wonder that the village of Tissaret came in for
+a few spare rays of that dazzling brilliancy which surrounded its
+masters. There is a large park, in which the trees, which were planted
+as early as thirty years ago, have grown to a fabulous height. There is
+a pond, the waters of which are sometimes rather low, but which, no
+matter whether high or low, are always beautifully green, like the
+meadow around. In rainy weather that meadow is rather more sandy than
+the paths, which, though frequently covered with fresh earth, are still
+sometimes in a condition which induces strangers to call them dirty,
+thereby astonishing the gardener, who thinks that they are exactly what
+paths ought to be. And, besides, there is a large castle, with a high
+roof with gilt knobs on the same; and with a Doric hall, in which the
+sheriff used to smoke his pipe; and with a gothic gate, in front of
+which a crowd of supplicants might at all times be seen loitering and
+losing their time. There is a yard, with stables to the left, and a
+glass-house and a hen-roost to the right, without mentioning the grand
+dunghill which covers more than one half of the stables. Every thing, in
+short, is grand and comfortable, and shows--especially the high-road
+from the door of the house to the county-town, and which has been made
+expressly for the Retys--that the place is the residence of a sheriff.
+
+All the buildings of the Retys are of a monumental character; and the
+more so, since one distinguishing feature in monuments, viz. their being
+built at the public expense, belonged to every fabric, road or bridge,
+made by the Retys. Every one in the county knew of this fact; and,
+though a few persons pretended to blame them for it, the great majority
+of the people were quite satisfied, as, indeed, it was their bounden
+duty to be.
+
+But there will be plenty of occasions in the sequel to make my readers
+acquainted with the beauties and comforts of the seat of the Retys, and
+of the village of Tissaret. For the present, I will take them by the
+hand and lead them about two miles from the said village, to the hill
+which is commonly called the Turk's Hill, and which is remarkable, not
+only for its three trees, but also for the distant view you enjoy on it
+of the mountains of Tokay, which, on a clear day, like the one that
+opens this tale, may be seen looming in the distance like dark-blue
+haystacks.
+
+The warm rays of an October sun fell upon the plains of Tissaret; there
+was not a cloud in the sky, not a speck of dust on the heath. The solemn
+silence of the scene was interrupted only by those vague sounds which
+herald the approach of evening,--the carol of the birds, the faint
+tinkling of distant sheep-bells, and the song of a lonely workman
+wending his way homeward, with his scythe on his shoulder. The view from
+the hill commands the country to the wood of St. Vilmosh, the acacias of
+Tissaret, and the far windings of the Theiss. On that hill there are
+two men, whom I take the liberty of introducing to my readers as Mr.
+Jonas Tengelyi, the notary, and Mr. Balthasar Vandory, the curate of the
+village of Tissaret.
+
+Every aristocracy has its marks of distinction. Long nails, a tattooed
+face, a green or black dress, a button on the hat, a ribbon in the
+button-hole, a sword or a stick with an apple,--these are a few of the
+marks which in various times and places have served, and still serve, to
+separate them from the common herd; which, wherever that strange
+animal--man--has left the savage state and become domesticated, part
+them asunder from their birth to their dying hour; and which, in the
+most civilised countries, show you by the very gallows that the culprit
+is not only a thief, but also a plebeian. Nature, too, has her nobility;
+she, too, puts marks of distinction on her aristocrat, by which you may
+know her elect, in spite of all the preachers of a general equality.
+Nature does not, indeed, compete with civilisation in ennobling a man's
+fathers that lived before him, or the babe unborn that is to call him
+father,--but there are cases in which Nature's nobility is unmistakeably
+expressed in individuals. Any man that has once seen the notary Jonas
+Tengelyi, will confess that my statement is correct; and to make this
+fact still more comprehensible, I will add that Tengelyi's nobility
+dates more than a hundred years back, and that, in the present instance,
+Nature had all the advantages which the "usus" could give her.
+
+Tengelyi is about fifty years of age, though his thin locks sprinkled
+with flakes of grey, and the deep wrinkles with which Time has marked
+his forehead, would cause you to think him older; but then he is like a
+sturdy oak, with gnarled roots and branches bearing witness to its age,
+while its leaves are still fresh and green, and show that there is a
+strong and hearty life in it. Tengelyi's manly form and erect bearing
+under his silvery locks, and his shining eyes beneath his wrinkled
+forehead, bespeak him at once as a man whom Time has not broken, but
+steeled,--and who, like colours that have seen many a battle-field, in
+the course of years, had lost nothing but his ornaments.
+
+The man who, sitting at Tengelyi's side, counts the petals of a flower,
+while his eyes are directed to the blue mountain-tops of Tokay looming
+in the distance, appears still more advanced in age, and his mild and
+regular features form a striking contrast to the severity which is the
+leading characteristic of Tengelyi's face. That face exhibits the
+traces of fiery passions and fierce contentions, which, though soothed
+into oblivion, might still under circumstances break forth afresh; while
+Vandory's features might be likened to a clear sky, on which the passing
+storm has left no trace. Vandory's appearance needs no aid from his
+clerical dress to inform you that you accost one of those men whom God
+has sent to represent his mercy upon earth. The notary's bearing shows
+an honest man, who had but little happiness in the world,--while Vandory
+is a living demonstration of the old adage, that virtue is its own
+reward, even in this world of ours.
+
+Vandory at length interrupted the silence which the two friends had
+observed for the last half-hour, by saying, "Where are your thoughts, my
+friend?"
+
+"I scarcely know," was Tengelyi's reply. "I thought of my youth,--of
+Heidelberg,--of my career as a 'jurat.' Do you sometimes think of
+Heidelberg? _I_ do; and whenever my thoughts return to the green
+mountains and the bright rivers of that country, I feel inclined to
+quarrel with fate for casting my lot in this desolate champaign."
+
+"Do not, I pray, abuse our country," said Vandory, smiling. "What can be
+greener than this meadow? Is not that river beautiful, flowing as it
+does among the reeds? And what can be more striking than the far
+steeples and the mountains of Tokay? As for the blue sky and the rays of
+the setting sun, they are beautiful anywhere. You are very unjust, sir,
+and that is the long and the short of it."
+
+"And you are the greatest optimist I ever met with," rejoined Tengelyi;
+"there is not a man on earth but you can talk of his good qualities, and
+by the hour too. But your taking this country under your protection
+makes me verily believe that God, for all that he is omnipotent, cannot
+create anything so bad but that you would hit upon some redeeming point
+in it."
+
+"Why should I quarrel with His works?" said Vandory. "We ought to be at
+peace with all men,--and with all countries, too," added he, smiling.
+
+"We ought--but all cannot!"
+
+"We can. Believe me, we are all optimists, every man of us. God made his
+creatures for happiness; and as Scripture says that heaven and hell are
+both peopled by the denizens of paradise, so is each joy and each sorrow
+the result, not of our nature, but of our will."
+
+"But experience!" interposed Tengelyi.
+
+"Experience proves but what we wish it to prove. If you are pleased
+with the present, you will find pleasant reminiscences in the past, and
+_vice versa_. Go merrily to the glass, and you will see a smiling face
+in it; and even Echo, lovelorn woman though she be, will speak in joyful
+notes, if you but address her with accents of joy."
+
+Tengelyi laughed. "There is no disputing with you. I trust when Mr.
+Catspaw's 'canonisation' comes on, that they will retain you as Heaven's
+advocate. You will then have a fair chance of showing how many occasions
+for the exercise of signal virtues that worthy Catspaw gave in his life;
+for every body who ever refrained from thrashing him, exercised the
+virtue of self-denial to a remarkable extent. The very hare which the
+young gentlemen are hunting down yonder ought to be counselled not to
+appeal to you. You would tell her that to be hunted to death is a hare's
+happiness and pride. Indeed," added Tengelyi, with great bitterness,
+"you have undertaken quite as difficult a task in endeavouring to
+convince your parishioners of what you are pleased to call their
+happiness, and in pointing out to them for what they ought to be
+thankful to Providence."
+
+But this taunt was lost upon Vandory, whose whole attention was with the
+hunt, which then took the direction of the Turk's Hill. "This is savage
+sport," cried the clergyman at length, "one unworthy of Christian men. I
+cannot understand how men of education and parts can delight in it!"
+
+"Still it engages your interest," said Tengelyi; and, casting a look at
+the hunting-party, who were just assembled round the body of the
+wretched hare, he added, with a sigh, "Alas! _these_ men are happy!"
+
+"As for me," repeated Vandory, "I cannot understand how men of education
+can delight in that sort of thing."
+
+"I dare say you cannot," rejoined Tengelyi, smiling. "Rarely as we
+understand the sorrows of others, their joys are a sealed book indeed.
+But this sport is much the same with other enjoyments which pride or
+strength procures us. To spy an object out, to hunt it, to gain upon it,
+and at length to seize it, is indeed a happy feeling--no matter whether
+the object is a hare or whether it is the conquest of a country. It is
+always the same sensation; and the difference, if any, is for the
+spectator, but not for the actor."
+
+"But this is cruel. Consider the sufferings of the poor animal! What an
+unequal contest! A score of dogs and horsemen after _one_ hare. It is
+really shocking."
+
+"You are quite right about the inequality," retorted Tengelyi, "but
+where in this world do you see a fair fight? The cotton-lord and the
+factory-workman--the planter and the negro--they are all unequally
+matched. Believe me, friend, hare-hunting is not a very cruel sport, if
+compared to some which I could name."
+
+Vandory sighed, and though, as an optimist, fully convinced of
+Tengelyi's being in the wrong, he resolved to reserve his reply; for
+Akosh Rety and his party, seeing the two friends on the hill, advanced
+from the plain and put a stop to the conversation.
+
+Of the company which now assembled round the notary and the old
+clergyman, there can be no doubt that my lady-readers would be most
+struck with Akosh Rety and Kalman Kishlaki. They were very handsome;
+indeed it was a common saying in the county of Takshony, that handsomer
+young men could not be found in any six counties of Hungary. They showed
+to great advantage after the hunt, with their flushed faces, and their
+curly hair escaping disorderly from beneath their small round hats.
+Their short blue shooting-coats, too, gave them an appearance of great
+smartness, and----but I am conscious of my duty as a Magyar author, and
+I know that the Justice ought to have the precedence in his own
+district. I therefore beg leave to introduce to my honoured readers the
+justice and his clerk, Mr. Akosh Rety's companions in the hunt.
+
+Learned men maintain that our country is inhabited by a race of classic,
+viz., of Scythian, origin. At times we may forget this fact; for, even
+among the men whose names most unmistakeably proclaim our Eastern
+source, there are many whom any one but a philologist would class with
+quite a different race of people. It is notorious that the current of
+the Rhine loses itself in mud and sand. Even so are the descendants of
+families who were glorious in their generation, intent upon magnifying
+their fathers by eschewing to eclipse the brilliancy of ancestral fame.
+There are men of whose high descent we are only reminded by the
+impossibility to conceive what they could live on, unless it were on the
+inheritance of their fathers.
+
+Far different is Paul Skinner, the justice of the district. Every doubt
+about the authenticity of our national origin must vanish on seeing him
+on his dun horse and lighting his pipe; for Paul Skinner is a striking
+evidence of the fact that the Scythian blood of our ancestors still
+flourishes in the land.
+
+For the benefit of those unacquainted with the administration of
+Hungary, I ought to remark that the office of a district justice is
+unquestionably the most troublesome and laborious in the world. A
+district justice is a firm pillar of the state; he upholds public
+order,--he protects both rich and poor,--he is the judge and the father
+of his neighbourhood; without him there is no justice--or, at the least,
+no judicature. All complaints of the people pass through his hands; all
+decrees of the powers that be are promulgated and administered by him.
+The district justice regulates the rivers, makes roads, and constructs
+bridges. He is the representative of the poor, the inspector of the
+schools; he is lord chief forester whenever a wolf happens to make its
+appearance; he is "protomedicus" in the case of an epidemic; he is
+justice of the peace, the king's advocate in criminal cases,
+commissioner of the police, of war, of hospitals; in short, he is all in
+all,--the man in whom we live, move, and have our being.
+
+If, among the six hundred men holding that office in our country, there
+is but one who neglects his duty, the consequence is that thousands are
+made to suffer: a want of impartiality in one of them kills justice for
+many miles round; if one of them is ignorant, Parliament legislates in
+vain for the poor. And whoever will condescend to compare the reward
+with the labour, and consider that, besides a salary of from 100 to 150
+florins per annum, a district justice must expect, after three years'
+impartial administration of his office, to lose it by the
+instrumentality of some powerful enemy,--whoever, I say, considers all
+this, must confess that there are in this country either six hundred
+living saints, or as many hundred thousand suffering citizens.
+
+From what I have stated it is easy to see that there are two drawbacks
+to the office of a district justice, viz. too much work and too little
+pay. There are indeed some justices who endeavour to doctor their
+dignity, by neglecting part of it, viz. the work,--and who of the other
+part,--that is to say, of the pay,--take more than the law obliges them
+to take. But the more enlightened, scorning such petty improvements,
+advocate the principle of out-and-out reform in all that regards the
+faulty composition of their office. Most wisely do they accept of what
+the office yields with such profusion, (viz. work,) only when it
+promises to yield what they lack, viz. pay. Most wisely, I say; for how
+else could Spectabilis Paul Skinner rear his four sons to be pillars of
+the state? and how else could he possibly make the respectable figure
+which suited his office, and on the strength of which, whenever he, as
+chief dignitary, perambulates the happy meads of the district of
+Tissaret, he imparts a salutary quaking to the said happy meads?--of
+course I mean to their humblest part,--to the abandoned population which
+presumes to solicit a share of the most precious treasure of civil
+liberty, viz. justice, and for nothing too.
+
+But even those who know nothing of all this cannot fail to feel, in Paul
+Skinner's presence, that sacred awe which is so necessary for the
+maintenance of order. His external appearance is calculated to frighten
+both the innocent and the guilty. Fancy a bony man, bilious, and
+wrinkled like a baked apple; add to these graces a black beard, a pair
+of large mustaches, green piercing eyes, which, it appears, are made to
+wound rather than to see, and the short pipe which sticks to him like
+any other member of his body,--fancy a tone of voice so shrill, so
+cutting, that it alone can frighten the whole population of a village,
+and you will confess that every body in the district (with the sole
+exception of the rogues) must tremble on beholding Paul Skinner. But
+never did Justice assume a more terrible shape than when she appeared in
+the guise of the said Paul Skinner travelling his circuit. Then might be
+seen the four horses with their postilion, furnishing a living
+demonstration of the rapid progress of Hungarian justice; behind the
+postilion, the county hussar with his feathered calpac; and--"post
+equitem sedet atra cura,"--behind the hussar a bundle of sticks,
+reminding the lovers of antiquity of the old Roman lictors (thus named
+from their _licking_ propensities); and behind the sticks the judge,
+always smoking and sometimes cursing, his feet stuck in a huge but empty
+sack, which, "quia natura horret vacuum," travels with its master that
+it may be filled. Even the boldest were frightened out of their wits by
+this gradation of terrors.
+
+It is impossible to conceive the idea of a district justice without a
+clerk. Nature produces all creatures in pairs; and the Hungarian
+Constitution, proceeding from natural principles, and acting up to them,
+produces Justice only by the joint agency of two beings, viz. judge and
+clerk. After introducing my readers to Mr. Skinner, it is but just that
+I should recommend Mr. Kenihazy to their notice. That gentleman is at
+this moment engaged in an interesting conversation with one of the dogs,
+and in the joy of his heart--for that lucky dog caught the hare!--he has
+just uttered certain quaint imprecations, which a shepherd was fined at
+the last sessions for using. Andreas Kenihazy, or Bandi Batshi, as his
+most intimate friends are in the habit of calling him, is his master's
+right hand. He is not such a right hand as may sometimes be found among
+other assistants, who, according to the words of Scripture, unconscious
+of the doings of the left hand, that is to say, of the justice, do the
+very reverse of what he did. No! Bandi Batshi is a loyal right hand,
+co-operating to the welfare of the whole of which it is part. As a good
+Christian, Kenihazy practised the lesson about the smiting of cheeks.
+Whenever his superior was insulted (that is, when he was bribed, which
+is the greatest insult you can offer a judge), Kenihazy would hold out
+his hand also, nor would he be pacified unless he was exposed to a like
+indignity. Nevertheless, Kenihazy was not easy to be bribed. To insult
+him was a difficult and dangerous business; and those who had once
+witnessed the outpourings of disgust with which the honest man resented
+so gross an outrage, trembled when they offered their gift to that
+righteous judge, who, for all that, remained mindful of his oath, and
+who, to make matters even, showed himself most favourable to those who
+had tried his temper, unless, indeed, the other party gave still greater
+offence.
+
+We are sure to meet Kenihazy again, and we will not therefore expatiate
+on his blue jacket, which once upon a time boasted of a dozen
+buttons,--or his waistcoat, which owes its present colour to the
+sun,--or the time-honoured neckcloth, which gave the wearer a hanging
+look--and much less on his grey pantaloons. We mention his round hat and
+his boots and spurs merely in order to say that Kenihazy is the very
+picture of seedy gentility; and, having said thus much, we turn to a
+certain prejudice, which, though luckily obsolete in life, is generally
+accepted in theory. The prevailing opinion of the venality of judges is,
+I protest, utterly groundless. It has no foundation but those feelings
+of envy, which low people are wont to indulge in with respect to their
+betters.
+
+Not to mention the fact, that according to our laws--and according to
+laws of which the boldest innovator dare not say that they are obsolete,
+inasmuch as their antiquity makes them venerable--our judges are allowed
+to accept presents: we need only point out the high estimation in which
+gratitude was held by all nations, both ancient and modern. To be good,
+a man ought to be grateful; and is it not therefore very wrong to insist
+upon a judge showing himself insensible to kindness? We are told we
+ought to do by others as we wish them to act by ourselves. Supposing now
+A., the judge, to be in the place of him from whom he accepts a present;
+that is to say, suppose A., the judge, were to plead a cause, about the
+justice of which he entertained some modest doubts, would not A. be very
+happy if the learned gentleman who sits on his case were to take a
+present and pronounce judgment accordingly?--and this being the case,
+ought not A. to deal with his fellows as he wishes to be dealt with by
+them?
+
+It is a legal maxim that the judge ought to consider and weigh the
+proofs which are preferred in the suit. Supposing now the proofs of the
+claimant and those of the defendant are of equal merit, or nearly so,
+and supposing the claimant adds a few bank-notes to the legal documents,
+without the adverse party making a rejoinder to a plea of such universal
+power; what, in the name of fair dealing, can the judge do, but give
+judgment for the best pleader?
+
+Returning to the party on the hill, we find Kalman eagerly disputing
+with Vandory. Their conversation was, of course, of the merits of
+hare-hunting. Tengelyi and Akosh took no part in it;--the former because
+he protested that the subject was one about which on consideration there
+could be but _one_ opinion, while every body would at times act in
+opposition to that opinion; and Akosh declined to second his friend's
+argument, because his mind and heart were hunting on another track. He
+inquired of old Tengelyi how his daughter Vilma was, and his blushing
+face showed that he thought more of Vilma than of all the hares in the
+world. Tengelyi gave him but short answers, and even those reluctantly.
+Paul Skinner and his clerk conversed about the election, and of the
+means of gaining the public confidence. The names of certain villages
+occurred frequently in their interesting dialogue; and when Mr. Skinner,
+brightening up, murmured, "Ten butts, one dollar," Kenihazy was heard to
+respond with, "That will do to keep us in!" and, giving vent to his
+satisfaction, the worthy clerk, knocking his spurs together, blew an
+immense column of smoke from his pipe. In fact, he smoked with such
+violence, that one might have likened him to a steam-engine, but for the
+indecency of comparing a vulgar working machine with an Hungarian
+gentleman.
+
+The party were about to leave, when their attention was suddenly
+directed to something which was going on in the plain below. Two men on
+horseback, and one on foot, were seen approaching over the heath; and it
+was remarked that the individual, whose means of locomotion were so
+unequally matched with those of his companions, walked in front of the
+horses, and sometimes even between them. The servants of the party, nay,
+the very justice, were in doubt as to who or what they were; whether
+Pandurs or robbers, for at that distance it was quite impossible to make
+out the difference, which doubtlessly does exist, between brigands and
+the familiars of the Hungarian Hermandad. On a nearer approach, however,
+all doubts were removed by the considerate manner in which the cavaliers
+sought to divert the attention of the pedestrian from the length of the
+way, by beating him; and it was at once clear that these were servants
+of the county escorting a prisoner, whom they were subjecting to the
+customary introductory proceedings.
+
+"Let somebody ride down to the Pandurs and tell them to bring the
+culprit to this place," said Mr. Skinner to his clerk. "I'm sure he is
+one of Viola's gang; his case ought to be tried by a court-martial.[2]
+What did I tell you?" he continued, turning to Akosh, "I was sure we
+should catch the birds; and though I may not be re-elected, I mean at
+least to deserve the confidence of the county by hanging a parcel of the
+beggars on this hill."
+
+[Footnote 2: See Note I.]
+
+"Not before you've caught them, and I doubt whether you ever will.
+Tengelyi says it is next to impossible to find an honest man. Now your
+example proves that nothing is more easy, because hitherto you've
+caught none but honest men; and I would almost swear," added Akosh,
+"that Viola's comrade, the mighty outlaw whom your people are bringing
+us, and to whose hanging you mean to treat the county,--that other
+Jaromir and Angyalbandi[3],--is no less a personage than our old gipsy."
+
+[Footnote 3: See Note II.]
+
+Upon this everybody recognised old Peti, and there was a general burst
+of laughter.
+
+"Poor Peti!" cried Akosh with a great show of sentiment. "The country
+cannot boast of a man more gifted, more useful. When a house is built,
+it is he who makes the bricks; when a lock is out of order, he puts it
+to rights. He is a born blessing to property. He shoes your horse and
+fastens your spurs; there is not a wedding but he plays the first fiddle
+at it; nay, he is useful to the last moment of your life, for he digs
+your grave. It is said of him that, in his youth, he served the state as
+a hangman. Truly, truly, the world is ungrateful to great men, but still
+more so to useful men!"
+
+"I don't see anything to laugh at," said Mr. Skinner, looking still more
+solemn and black than was his wont. "Possibly there is a case for a
+'statarium.' As for me, I don't think it is your old gipsy, but if----"
+
+"_If_ it is not Peti," cried Akosh, laughing; "if that fellow dares to
+sport a white skin, there is not, of course, any obstacle to his being
+hanged."
+
+"Enough of this! who says the fellow yonder is not a gipsy? but I say,
+who knows whether that old rascal, whom you mistake for an innocent
+musician----?"
+
+"Has not masqueraded as a gipsy all along! But you will bring the truth
+to light. You, Skinner, will skin the culprit. You'll strip him of his
+brown hide; you'll show the world that Viola the great robber is
+identical with Peti the gipsy."
+
+"Don't make a fool of _me_, sir! I won't suffer it!" cried the justice,
+whose pipe had gone out with the excess of his rage. "Paul Skinner is
+not the man whom you can fool, I can tell you! But never mind; who knows
+what that fellow Peti has done all his life besides brick-making? and I
+apprehend that if he set out with being a hangman, he'll end with being
+a hanged man."
+
+This said, the justice lighted his pipe, muttering his imprecations
+against untimely jokes and bad tinder.
+
+Poor Peti had meanwhile proceeded to a distance of five hundred yards
+from the Turk's Hill; and so great was the good man's natural
+politeness, that even at that distance he bowed to the party on the
+hill. Little did he know the intensity of Paul Skinner's rage; but the
+first words of the worthy magistrate showed him that it was an evil
+hour, indeed, in which he had come before his judge.
+
+"Hast at last gone into the snare, thou precious bird?" thundered
+Skinner. "Never mind, you old rascal! never mind! I'll pay you, and with
+a vengeance, too!"
+
+"Most sublime----" sighed the wretched musician; but the justice,
+unmindful of this appeal to his better feelings, continued:--
+
+"Hold your tongue! I know all! all, I tell you. And if you will not
+confess, I'll freshen your memory!"
+
+"Most sublime Lord!" sighed Peti; "I am an innocent, poor, old man.
+I----"
+
+"Dog!" retorted Mr. Skinner. "If you dare to bark, I'll pull your ears,
+that you shall not forget it to the day of judgment. Is it not horrible?
+the profligate fellow would give me the lie!"
+
+"No, sweet, gracious Lord!" cried Peti, weeping; "I do not deny any
+thing, but----"
+
+"It's better for you; at all events, we need not ask you any questions.
+The judge knows every thing." Turning to the Pandurs, Mr. Skinner
+added: "Now Janosh, tell me, what did you bring that culprit for?"
+
+"Only because we have been told to arrest all suspicious characters."
+
+"Ah!" cried Akosh, "and the old musician is a suspicious character! You
+are fine fellows, and ought to be promoted!"
+
+"We'll see that by and by!" snarled Mr. Skinner. "Now tell us, Janosh,
+what is the old rascal's crime?"
+
+"Why," said the Pandur, "the long and the short of it is, that it was
+about three o'clock,--was it not, Pishta?--after having had our dinner
+and rest at the Murder-Tsharda, we rode up to St. Vilmosh forest. We had
+been on our legs from an early hour this morning, and were apprehensive
+that we should not be able to obey his worship's orders about arresting
+at least one suspicious character, when Pishta spied a horseman near St.
+Vilmosh forest, and a man to whom he was talking. 'Suppose this is
+Viola,' said Pishta, who was just lighting his pipe. 'Ah, indeed!
+suppose this is Viola!' said I; and when I looked at the horseman, I
+thought it was----"
+
+"Viola?" said Mr. Skinner, with a voice which left no doubt about the
+answer which he expected.
+
+"I'm sure it was he, your worship," replied Janosh; "I'll bet any thing
+it was he."
+
+"Now this fellow is short-sighted," interrupted Akosh; "I wonder how
+many robbers Pishta saw."
+
+"We'll see that by and by!" said Mr. Skinner, angrily. "The devil may be
+a judge when robbers and vagabonds find such protection. Go on. What
+happened next? Did you see any thing more of the criminal?"
+
+"How was it possible? We spurred our horses on, but the poor beasts were
+so tired they would not run; and when we came to the place, we found no
+one but the old gipsy, walking to St. Vilmosh."
+
+"Well?" said the judge impatiently.
+
+"Of course they handcuffed him, for who knows what outrage he might have
+committed if he had come to St. Vilmosh," cried Akosh. "They are the
+very fellows to be sent after robbers. They will soon starve all
+robbers, by preventing honest men from leaving their houses."
+
+Old Peti saw that he had found a protector. Growing bolder, he asked to
+be freed from his handcuffs, and though the justice opposed, he yielded
+at length to the entreaties of Kalman, Akosh, and Vandory, though not
+without muttering something about "patibulandus" and "fautores
+criminum."
+
+"And what happened when you came up with the gipsy?" said Mr. Skinner,
+again addressing the Pandurs. "Was there any thing very suspicious about
+the old hang-dog scoundrel?"
+
+"There was indeed!" said Janosh, twirling his moustache. "When we came
+up with the gipsy,--which was rather late, for the old Moor ran very
+fast,--Pishta called out to him, at which he appeared frightened."
+
+"Frightened?" said Mr. Skinner. "Frightened, indeed; I'd be glad to know
+the reason;" and the Clerk, shaking his head, added, "This is indeed
+suspicious!"
+
+"Begging your lordship's pardon," cried the gipsy, "the gentlemen swore
+at me, and cocked their pistols, which made me believe that they were
+robbers."
+
+"Hold your tongue, you cursed black dog! If you say another word, you
+shall have beating enough to last you a twelvemonth." Having thus mildly
+admonished the prisoner, Mr. Skinner proceeded with the "benevolum." "Go
+on, Janosh," said he.
+
+And Janosh went on: "Upon this Pishta asked him, 'Where is Viola?' and
+he answered, 'I never saw him.'"
+
+"But we saw him in conversation with Viola!" cried the second Pandur. "I
+said, 'Peti, you are a liar; we have seen you talking to Viola! and
+unless you confess it, we'll make you dance to a queer kind of music."
+
+"What did the gipsy say to that?" asked the Clerk.
+
+"He said he did not know who the horseman was, which made me angry; for
+your worship is aware that Peti knows every body. When he saw me angry,
+he wanted to run away."
+
+"Oh, Goodness gracious!" cried the gipsy; "why should I not run away,
+when they fell to beating me, and offered to handcuff me?"
+
+"An honest man," said Kenihazy sententiously, "cares not for handcuffs."
+
+"I thought so too," quoth Janosh; "therefore, when we saw that he was
+indeed a criminal, we hunted him down, bound his hands, and took him to
+his worship."
+
+"You did your duty," said Mr. Skinner. "Now take the old fox to my
+house. To-morrow we'll commit him to gaol."
+
+"But," cried Peti, "I assure your worship I am as innocent as the babe
+unborn!"
+
+"I dare say you are!" said the justice with a bitter sneer. "You don't
+know Viola,--of course you don't. Who shod Viola's horse? eh?"
+
+"Yes, I do know him," sighed the gipsy; "but is it my fault that I
+lived in the same village with him Heaven knows how long! for Viola was
+the best man in the world before he fell into the hands of the County
+Court. I confess that I did shoe his horse; but what is an old man to do
+against robbers armed with sticks and pistols?"
+
+"But why do the robbers come to you? Why don't they employ honest
+smiths?"
+
+"I think," said Peti, quietly, "the robbers prefer coming to my house
+because I do not live in the village."
+
+"And why do you not live in the village? you scarecrow!"
+
+"Because, my lord, the sheriff will not allow the gipsies to live in the
+village since Barna Jantzi's house was burned. This is hard enough for
+an old man like myself."
+
+Every one of these answers was, in Mr. Skinner's eyes, a violation of
+the judicial dignity. The best of us dislike being mistaken in our
+opinion as to the merit of our fellow men. We would rather pardon their
+weaknesses, than be brought to shame by their good qualities. No wonder
+then that Paul Skinner, whose knowledge of self had given him a very bad
+idea of his species, would never believe a man to be innocent, whom he
+once suspected of any crime. It is but natural that, in the present
+instance, he did all in his power to make the gipsy's guilt manifest.
+
+"Never mind," said he, "I wonder whether you'll give yourself such airs
+when you are in _my_ house; Viola too will be caught by to-morrow
+morning. Take him to my house, and don't let him escape,--else--"
+
+Upon this the Pandurs prepared the handcuffs, when Akosh interfered,
+offering to be bail for the gipsy's appearance. Mr. Skinner, however,
+was but too happy to have his revenge for the jokes which the young man
+had made at his expense in the course of the interrogatory.
+
+"You know I am always happy to oblige you," said he, "but in the present
+instance it is impossible. By to-morrow Viola will be caught, and it
+will be then found that this gipsy is one of his accomplices."
+
+"If you keep Peti until Viola is caught," said Kalman Kishlaky, "you'll
+keep the poor fellow to the end of time."
+
+"We'll see that!" sneered the justice. "All I say is, I am informed that
+he is to be at the Tsharda of Tissaret this very night. He'll find us
+prepared. We take the landlord and his family, bind them, and lock them
+up in the cellar, while the Pandurs, disguised as peasants, wait for
+him at the door. It is all arranged, I tell you."
+
+"Of course always supposing Viola will come," said Akosh.
+
+"This time he will come," replied Mr. Skinner with great dignity. "I
+have trusty spies."
+
+Old Peti seemed greatly, and even painfully, struck with this
+intelligence. His brown face exhibited the lively interest he felt in
+Viola's danger; and his features were all but convulsed when he heard of
+the preparations for the capture of the robber. It was fortunate for him
+that his excitement was not remarked by any but Tengelyi; and when Mr.
+Skinner at length turned his searching eye upon his captive, he saw no
+trace of old Peti's emotions in his imploring attitude. The Pandurs were
+in the act of removing their prisoner, when the latter, turning to
+Akosh, said:--
+
+"I most humbly intreat you, since I _must_ go to prison, to tell my
+Lord, your father, that old Peti is in gaol, and that it is not my fault
+if the letters do not come to hand."
+
+"What letters?" said Akosh.
+
+"My Lord's letters, which he gave me," answered the gipsy, producing a
+packet from beneath the lining of his waistcoat, and handing it to
+Akosh. "I am my Lord's messenger; and I should not have been too late,
+for my lady promised me a present for taking these letters to St.
+Vilmosh before sunset, but for these----gentlemen, who caught me when I
+entered the forest."
+
+Akosh took the letters, opened them, and, having perused their contents,
+he handed them to Mr. Skinner, who appeared not a little distressed
+after reading them.
+
+"You've spoiled it," said Akosh in a low voice. "If you lose your
+election you have at least one comfort, namely, that you have defeated
+your own plans. With the three hundred votes from St. Vilmosh against
+you, you have not even a chance."
+
+"I trust not," murmured Mr. Skinner; "I trust not. The men of St.
+Vilmosh----"
+
+"Are by no means fond of you; and if they elect you, they do it to
+please their notary, who is, indeed, on my father's side; but Heaven
+knows how long! This morning we learned that Bantornyi's party were
+negotiating with him, but that they could not agree. My father writes
+these letters, promises to comply with all the notary's demands, and
+invites the St. Vilmosh gentry to come to him and pledge their votes. So
+far all is right. But you interfere with your Pandurs, you stop our
+messenger, and assist our enemies, who will by this time have repented
+of their stinginess."
+
+"But who could have foreseen that your father would send an important
+message by a man like Peti?"
+
+"Did not I tell you," said Akosh, evidently amused by the judge's
+perplexity, "that old Peti is our servant and messenger. Who would ever
+have thought of the sheriff's quick-footed gipsy being taken up and
+handcuffed?"
+
+"It is true," said Mr. Skinner, despondingly. "But why didn't he
+speak?--why not mention the letters? Come here, you d---- old rascal!"
+thundered the judge, who was one of those amiable men whose rage reaches
+the boiling point at a minute's notice, and whose words are most
+offensive when they ought to be most conciliating. "You dog! why did you
+not say that you were sent by the sheriff? I have a mind to give you two
+dozen--I have!"
+
+The gipsy was aware of the favourable change in his prospects, and he
+replied, with considerable coolness, that the cruel treatment of the
+Pandurs had caused him to forget all about it; "besides," added he, "my
+lady told me not to show the letters to any one; and, moreover, I was
+sure my innocence would come to light."
+
+"Your innocence! it is shocking," cried the justice, holding up his
+hands; "the fellow has a letter from the sheriff in his pocket, and the
+blockhead relies on his innocence! Here are your
+letters;--go!--run!--and woe to you if the letters come too late to St.
+Vilmosh!"
+
+The gipsy nodded his head, and hastened in the direction of St. Vilmosh!
+He was scarcely gone, when Mr. Skinner vented his passion upon the
+Pandurs. He expressed his astonishment, intermixed with curses, at the
+impertinence of these worthy men for having caught the sheriff's gipsy;
+and when they appealed to Mr. Kenihazy, all the comfort they received
+was a gentle hint of certain misgivings that gentleman entertained
+respecting their being suffered to go at large. Akosh and the rest of
+the company were amused with Mr. Skinner's violence and the agility of
+the gipsy, who every now and then looked back, and ran the quicker
+afterwards. The notary and the clergyman remained serious: and when the
+party had left, and neither the merry laugh of Akosh nor Skinner's
+ever-ready curses fell upon their ear, Tengelyi turned to his friend,
+saying, "Do you still think that hare-hunting is the _cruellest_ pastime
+of these gentlemen?"
+
+"No, indeed!" sighed Vandory; "and to think that these men are public
+functionaries, and that the weal and woe of thousands is in their
+hands!"
+
+"Ha!" cried Tengelyi, turning round, and directing the attention of his
+friend to a dark point which moved over the vast expanse of the heath,
+"is not that our gipsy?"
+
+"Yes; but he runs rather in a line with us, instead of to St. Vilmosh."
+
+"So it seems," said Tengelyi, "and for once the sheriff's orders will
+not be obeyed. Perhaps he is bribed by the other party; but who knows?
+Skinner may be right, and Peti is leagued with Viola. In that case he is
+now on his way to inform the outlaw of what the judge most wisely
+communicated to him, for I am sure that gipsy does not run so fast
+without good cause. But what does it matter to us?"
+
+And the two friends returned to the village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+
+On a ridge of the Carpathian mountains, where, gradually lessening, they
+descend to the green Hungarian plain, lies the village of Bard, amidst
+meadow land, forests, and vineyards. Its situation is most pleasant,
+though lonely; and, removed as it is from the busy high road and the
+means of traffic and communication, the village is both unknown and
+poor. About fifty years ago, there lived in this village Esaias
+Tengelyi, the curate of Bard, and father to Jonas Tengelyi, whom we
+mentioned as notary of Tissaret. The life of Esaias Tengelyi passed
+peaceably and unnoticed, like the place in which he exercised his sacred
+calling, or the valley and the mountain side which sheltered his humble
+cottage. The condition of the Reformed Church in Hungary does not by any
+means deserve the epithet of "brilliant," even in our own days; but the
+present village pastors are most enviably situated in comparison to
+their brethren of fifty years ago. Still the life of the Reverend Esaias
+Tengelyi, though full of privations, was rich in enjoyment. He loved
+his cottage, its straw-covered roof, and the brown rafters of its
+ceiling. Sometimes, indeed, he wished to have the windows of his room a
+little larger,--and he went even so far as to take the resolution of
+administering, at his own expense, to this drawback to the comforts of
+his home. The huge stove, too, which served also the purpose of an oven,
+made his room preposterously small, and on baking days it threw out a
+greater quantity of heat than was consistent with comfort. The
+neighbouring curates, whenever they came to pay their respects to the
+Reverend Esaias, were violent in their strictures upon the parish of
+Bard, for neglecting to provide their pastor's study with a decent
+flooring: nay, more, the good man was seriously reproved, and earnestly
+adjured to follow the example of his brethren in office, who had
+successfully petitioned the Synod respecting the gross indecency of
+pastoral clay floors. But Tengelyi could not be moved to stir in behalf
+of his house: perhaps he liked it better as it was. Its windows were
+indeed small; but then he had often sat by them reading the Scriptures;
+and they had seen the roses on his wife's cheek. The stove was
+large,--of course it was,--but in winter it offered a convenient and
+warm seat; and the clay floor of his study was the same on which his
+father's feet had trod, when he was meditating his sermons, while the
+son made his first attempt to stand on a pair of trembling little legs.
+After all, there was nothing like the window, the stove, and the floor,
+for a countless number of sweet and tender emotions were connected with
+them. Esaias Tengelyi was happy; he felt that the largest window, that
+the smallest stove, and the most splendid floor of old oak, could not
+add to his happiness.
+
+But that happiness could be lessened. The pastor's wife died, and the
+heart which had harboured so much bliss was henceforth the home of
+bitter sorrow. Tengelyi gave no words to his anguish, nor did he strive
+to add to or lessen his grief; but his friends felt that time was as
+nothing to the sorrow of his heart, and that his hopes and wishes were
+not on this side of the grave. His little son, Jonas, was the only tie
+which bound the old pastor to the world. The boy was but four years of
+age when his mother died; what would become of him, if he were also
+bereft of his father? People have scarcely a heart for their own
+children; how then is an orphan to fare for love? And the boy was most
+beautiful, when he cast his deep blue eyes upwards to the father's sad
+face! His voice had the tones of that dear voice which taught him his
+first words; his yellow locks were smooth and orderly, as if fresh from
+his mother's hands;--what was to become of the child on this wide earth,
+and with no kindred, but his parents in the grave? Tengelyi would not be
+comforted, but a sense of his duty kept him alive.
+
+Little Jonas throve under his father's care. He knew not what it was to
+be motherless in this world, where the heart finds that trusty, faithful
+love it yearns for, only at a mother's breast. A child's heart is a
+little treasury of joy, and there is no room in it for great griefs. In
+the first days after the event, little Jonas called for his mother, and
+receiving no answer from that mild, loving voice, he sat down and wept
+his fill; in the night he dreamed of her, and lisped her name. But as
+time wore on, his mother's name was rarely mentioned, and when spring
+came, with its flowers, her memory passed away like the distant notes of
+a song. All this was natural. Children are most enviable, because they
+are most forgetful. A thousand flowers are blooming round a child: why
+should it ponder on the sorrows of the past? A thousand melodies flit
+around it, and the young heart leaps to them: it has no ear for the sad
+accents of distant love.
+
+Thus did the first years pass away. When Jonas had completed his eighth
+year, his father commenced his education. The old pastor's plan was
+extremely simple. He made the child ask questions, and answered them in
+a manner which was at once explicit and adapted to the boy's capacities.
+He had no idea of making his son a phenomenon; on the contrary, he did
+all in his power to limit his mental activity to a narrow circle, to
+prevent his being confused by a variety of subjects. The classical
+languages, as far as Jonas could understand them, and the rudiments of
+natural and political history, were all that old Esaias taught his son;
+they were all he thought necessary for that son's future vocation.
+
+For old Tengelyi, like the majority of fathers, had already chosen a
+profession for his son, and though, on consideration, he would have
+shrunk from the idea of forcing anybody, and much less his own boy, into
+a career which might be repugnant to his tastes, still, when he thought
+of his child's future life, he could not possibly fancy that his son
+should wish for any thing besides the curacy of Bard. Old Tengelyi had
+himself followed his father in that sacred office. It was so natural to
+think that he in his turn would be followed by his son. But while the
+father was thus tracing out his future career, and planting in the
+garden, besides improving the house, as he thought, for the child of his
+heart, the boy Jonas Tengelyi anticipated other scenes and a different
+sphere of action. The poor curate's library contained but few books, but
+among them was a great treasure; namely, a copy of Plutarch--a relic of
+college life, with a portrait of the hero to each biography. This
+illustrated copy of Plutarch was the only book of its kind in the
+vicarage, and indeed in the village of Bard. Jonas passed many hours in
+looking at the solemn faces of the classic heroes, nor was it long
+before he knew all their names and actions; and though the old pastor
+regretted that the book was not an illustrated Bible, by which means he
+might impress upon his boy's mind the history and the deeds of the
+heroes of our faith, still his heart grew big with joy when the child
+expatiated on the virtues of Aristides, or (his little cheeks glowing
+all the while) told of the death of Leonidas and Socrates. And old
+Esaias blessed the pagan author who wrote the book, and the college-chum
+who made him a present of it, and even the very printer who had produced
+it. The whole future life of Jonas was influenced by these early
+lessons; and though the milder doctrines of Christianity made a deep
+impression on his heart, yet his mind would always return to the models
+of classic excellence. His sympathies were all with the heroes of
+Plutarch.
+
+At times, when old Tengelyi was from home, Jonas would follow his
+fancies through the dark shades of the woods. He would sit on the ruins
+of Bard Castle, looking at the forest-clad mountains and the wide
+distant plain, and there he sat and pondered until the sun went down and
+the evening breeze woke him from his dreams. There he was happy; for
+there is no greater happiness than the delight which a pure heart feels
+when thinking of great deeds and generous men. The childhood of nations
+and individuals idolises all heroes, and thus did Jonas.
+
+A child's perceptions of distance are very weak: it is the same in the
+moral world. Children try to grasp any shining bauble which strikes
+their eyes, no matter whether far or near. Life has not yet taught them
+to wait, to plod, and perhaps to be disappointed. The boy is equally
+ignorant of the bitter truth, that there is usually but _one_ road which
+leads to the high places of this world, and that the ascent, though easy
+to some, is impossible to others, for from where they stand there is no
+path which leads to the top. And yet how closely is our boyish
+admiration of a great man allied to the idea that he is our example and
+our hope! Children, when isolated,--that is to say, when they are
+deprived of the society of other children,--are apt to become dreamers:
+and this was young Tengelyi's case. His dreams were of a dangerous kind,
+and his conversation was such that his hearers became convinced of fate
+having destined that boy to be either very great or very wretched.
+
+Old Esaias did not indeed suffer from these apprehensions. His son's
+enthusiasm, his hatred of tyranny, his love of his kind, proved nothing
+to old Tengelyi but that Jonas would turn out a first-rate village
+pastor. He never dreamt of this enthusiasm being applied to other
+purposes than those of the pulpit; and he did all in his power to
+develop the talents of so hopeful a preacher. He enlarged on the
+sufferings of the poor and the cruelty of the rich; on the equality of
+mankind before God, and the duties we owe to our fellow men.
+
+In the course of time Jonas was sent to school at Debrezin. Though he
+was only thirteen, his character was already formed. His was a boundless
+enthusiasm for all things noble and generous; his was an equally
+boundless hate against all that is mean; his was the daring which is
+ever ready to oppose injustice with words and with deeds; and his was
+that austerity of principle which is apt to make a man unjust. In short,
+poor Jonas would have proved a model man in Utopia. In our own
+civilised society, the excess of his good qualities was likely to cause
+him to be shunned, if not hated. Nevertheless he was popular with the
+masters and the boys; and the happiest years of his life were spent in
+the dull routine of a public school. The masters admired his ambition,
+and the rapid progress it caused him to make; and though he seldom
+condescended to join in the plays and athletic exercises of his
+comrades, they paid a free tribute of admiration to his love of justice
+and his courage. His studies delighted him, for his soul yearned for
+knowledge. Jonas was indeed happy!
+
+Old Esaias Tengelyi continued meanwhile in his life of tranquillity and
+contentment. His humble dwelling grew still more quiet when his son left
+it; and the grey-headed pastor walked lonely among the fruit-trees of
+his garden, where he formerly used to watch the gambols of his child;
+but the serenity of his mind was still the same. His life passed away
+like the course of a gentle stream which mixes with the ocean. Esaias
+was aware that his days were numbered; but there was nothing appalling
+in the thought. He was at peace with God and the world; and though he
+grieved to leave his son, his soul yearned for her that had left him.
+His last remaining wish was to expire in the arms of his son. His wish
+was granted. Jonas returned to Bard, and a fortnight after his return
+his father was laid in the grave. The poor of Bard wept with Jonas, for
+they too were the old man's children; a simple stone with an inscription
+of rude workmanship (for the hands of poor peasants wrought it) marks
+the last resting-place of Esaias Tengelyi.
+
+His father's death threw Jonas into a different career. Hitherto he had
+sacrificed his ambition to his sense of duty, but now his choice was
+free; and, at his time of life, there are few who will tread an humble
+and tranquil path. Jonas preferred to embark in a political career; and
+since the study of law is the first condition to eminence, he devoted
+the whole of his energies to the rudiments of that dry and uninteresting
+science. Having turned his paternal heritage into money, and realised
+the modest sum of six hundred florins, he passed three years at the
+German universities, but especially at Heidelberg, where the strongest
+bonds of friendship united him with that very Rety, in whose village our
+readers have seen him established as notary. His studies ended, we find
+Jonas Tengelyi at Pesth, in the act of entering into public life. He had
+great hopes, great ambition, and very little money. But Jonas was not a
+man to be daunted by privations. He took his oath, was admitted as
+"juratus," rattled his sword for eighteen months on the steps of the
+Curia, and, being thus duly prepared, he was at length admitted to the
+bar.
+
+This period of our hero's life contains nothing whatever for his
+biographer or the public to take an interest in, excepting always the
+negative wonder of Tengelyi having been a "juratus" for eighteen months
+without having once fought, got drunk, or played at billiards. Need we
+add that he was very unpopular among his comrades?
+
+But we will add that Jonas Tengelyi, though deeply read in law, could
+not prevail upon his examiners to insert into his diploma a better
+qualification than the simple word "laudabilis," while two young
+gentlemen, whom he himself had ground for the examination, passed
+triumphantly each with a "praeclarus." Poor Jonas, though thus roughly
+handled at the very threshold of public life, forgot all his grief that
+very evening, when he took his seat in the humble conveyance which was
+to take him to the county of Takshony. The jolting of the coach which
+bore him to the scene of his future struggles, opened the brilliant
+realms of a fanciful future to his mind. The past was forgotten.
+
+The reasons why the young barrister proposed to practise in the county
+of Takshony are very obvious. He was not, indeed, a large landholder in
+that blessed county, nor could he expect the patronage and the support
+of powerful friends. He chose Takshony because, of the fifty-two
+Hungarian counties, there was not one which offered more, nor, indeed,
+less chances for him, poor and friendless as he was. Hungary was all
+before him where to go, and he went to Takshony. If he was to trust the
+evidence of the natives of the county, it was the most enlightened
+district in the kingdom; and, if credit could be given to the assertions
+of its neighbours, there never was a county so destitute of common
+sense: a man of Jonas's stamp was therefore certain to prosper in any
+case. In an enlightened county his merits were sure to be appreciated,
+and in a dull county they were as certain to be wanted. Besides, he
+trusted the promises, and looked for the support of his friend Rety, who
+was son to the sheriff of Takshony. Tengelyi was, consequently, not a
+little elated and excited when, after a tedious journey, the coach
+deposited him safe and sound in the high street of the county town,
+whose appropriate name in English would be Dustbury. This town, unless a
+traveller happens to see it on a market-day, has little to distinguish
+it from the common run of Hungarian villages; indeed, there would be
+considerable danger of its being thus lowly estimated but for the
+imposing bulk of the county house, before whose massive gates a batch of
+culprits may at all times be heard roaring under the beadle's rod, and
+thus proclaiming the force of the laws of Hungary.
+
+Dustbury, the capital of the county of Takshony, was to be the scene of
+Tengelyi's future labours and triumphs. He sent his letters of
+recommendation to their various addresses, read his diploma in the
+market-place, hired a small study, and waited for clients. Nor did he
+wait long. Young physicians and young advocates have in general plenty
+to do, but their practice is rather laborious than profitable. As a tax
+upon entering public life, they are called upon to exert themselves in
+behalf of the poorer members of the community. Tengelyi's turn of mind
+made him eminently fit to be the advocate of the poor. He embraced the
+cause of his humble clients with uncommon enthusiasm, and pleaded it
+with equal warmth. He was the friend and protector of the oppressed, and
+his love of justice made him soon something like a marked man in the
+town of Dustbury.
+
+At first his position was rather tolerable, for he confined his
+practice to criminal cases. A prisoner whom he defended was indeed
+condemned to death, and some other clients of his received a severer
+sentence than they had a right to expect; but this was, after all, the
+gentlest means for the court to show their sense of the impertinence
+which prompted "such a vagabond counsel to lecture his betters;" and
+certainly the court showed an admirable tact by this indirect
+manifestation of the contempt in which they held Tengelyi's pleadings.
+But there was no feeling of personal animosity against him, until he
+dared to take up a civil process against one of the assessors, whom he
+all but forced to refund a certain sum of money which that gentleman had
+condescended to accept as a loan from a poor peasant. This affair
+settled Tengelyi. The young counsel's impertinence was the nine-days'
+wonder of Dustbury. His colleagues shunned him,--his landlord gave him
+warning to leave his house,--and there is no doubt that the
+self-constituted advocate of the poor would have been ignominiously
+suspended from his functions but for the intercession of the sheriff
+Rety, who pleaded Tengelyi's extreme youth in extenuation of his
+offence. "He is sure to profit by our example," said old Rety; "and when
+he has once sown his wild oats he will be a credit to the county."
+
+An event occurred meanwhile which promised to establish Tengelyi in his
+career. The counsel of the Baron Kalihazy died, with sundry cases still
+pending on his hands; and the head of the family of Kalihazy, who had
+made Tengelyi's acquaintance at Dustbury, thought of appointing the
+young barrister to the vacant post of fiscal; that is to say, he
+proposed to make him the legal friend and adviser of the Kalihazy
+family. So determined was the whimsical Baron to turn the young man's
+talents to account, that not all the persuasions of his friends could
+induce him to relinquish his insane project, which he was on the point
+of executing, when Paul Hajto, the leading counsel of the Dustbury bar,
+interfered. Mr. Paul Hajto was the most intimate friend of our hero.
+Instead of censuring him for his violence, as others were apt to do,
+that worthy man seized every opportunity (when alone with Tengelyi) to
+urge him to still more violent attacks upon the court. In the present
+instance, too, Mr. Hajto did all in his power to remove Tengelyi from
+the temptations which beset the life and threaten the integrity of an
+advocate.
+
+"You are not fit for the bar," he was wont to say: "you are made to
+shine in a more elevated sphere. If I were in your place, I would devote
+myself wholly to politics. As it is, you lose your cases; your labours
+are not only unprofitable, but useless. Hungary wants a thorough reform;
+you are the man to regenerate the country. Besides, you can be an
+advocate and a politician too, if you _will_ stick to the bar." Tengelyi
+resisted; but flattery is too persuasive, especially for youthful minds;
+and he set about seriously to prepare a speech for the next Sessions.
+
+The day came. Tengelyi made his speech, which astonished the whole
+assembly, not solely by its classic Latin and its most modern
+sentiments. No! The astonishment of the meeting was chiefly caused by
+the unheard-of fact that a young advocate, scarcely twenty-four years of
+age,--and a man who was not even an assessor, and much less a
+landowner,--dared to speak at all. Such effrontery was so marvellous, so
+unaccountable, so unheard-of, that the noble members of the meeting were
+utterly at a loss to express their disgust. But they did express it
+somehow; and the sheriff, and the notary, and the recorder of the county
+overwhelmed the young intruder with a torrent of words, of which we will
+only say that they were rather sincere than elegant. Tengelyi, nothing
+daunted, replied to each of them, and carried the matter so far that
+every man in the room cried "Actio!"[4] whereupon the discomfited
+reformer was obliged to pay the usual fine of five-and-twenty florins
+into the recorder's hands.
+
+[Footnote 4: See Note III.]
+
+The loss of this sum was a severe blow to Tengelyi, who had not another
+florin left. Besides this, he lost the fiscalship and the briefs of
+Kalihazy's family; for that gentleman was among his opponents, and
+Tengelyi had not spared his future patron's arguments or feelings. The
+Kalihazy briefs were that very evening made over to his friend, Mr. Paul
+Hajto.
+
+To make a man a martyr is the surest means of making him popular, at
+least with _one_ party. Every sheriff, recorder, or notary has at least
+_one_ enemy, namely, the man who wishes to oust him in the next
+election. The truth of these great political axioms was tested in
+Tengelyi's case. His attack upon the magistrates of the county, and his
+subsequent martyrdom, gained him some friends. Konkolyi, in particular,
+who thought of opposing Rety at the next election, was loud in his
+praises of the young man's courage and common sense. The smaller nobles
+were not fond of Konkolyi, for they thought him proud; but they idolised
+Rety, who had an amiable way of calling them his cousins, and of taking
+a vast interest in the health of their wives and children. Konkolyi had
+not, therefore, any chance of prevailing against Rety, though he, too,
+exerted himself to the utmost, by means of bounties, drinking-bouts, and
+dinners, to convince his fellow nobles of his merits. Hajto was
+Konkolyi's fiscal. He was aware that his patron possessed large domains,
+a fine castle, and on income of twenty thousand florins a year, and that
+a man of such transcendent merits wanted but one thing for the
+shrievalty, namely, a trifling majority of votes. But so great was
+Rety's popularity, that Hajto had lost all hopes of carrying his
+patron's election, when Tengelyi's quarrel with Rety opened a fresh
+field for intrigue.
+
+Hajto came that very evening to see the poor young man; he praised his
+speech, censured Rety's tyranny, protested that the county magistrates
+_must_ go out at the next election, and finally persuaded him to come to
+Konkolyi's house.
+
+Konkolyi was a courtier, and chamberlain to his Majesty the Emperor. The
+great man received Tengelyi with unwonted condescension; and,
+corroborating every one of Hajto's words, he protested that poor Jonas
+must allow his friends to elect him to the justiceship of the district,
+as the only means of giving his opinions the weight which they
+deserved. Jonas pleaded his youth, his poverty, his being a stranger to
+the county; but his objections were overruled.
+
+"We know you, my dear Sir, we know you," said the chamberlain, with his
+kindest smile. "You have made a speech; that's enough. 'Ex ungue
+leonem.' We have put our hearts upon making you a justice. You are
+noble; and a nobleman, however poor and unknown he may be, is entitled
+to the highest place in the kingdom."
+
+What could Tengelyi do? He consented, and became a distinguished member
+of Konkolyi's party. It was Hajto's task to make him friends among the
+lesser nobility. Nothing could be better adapted for this purpose than
+the speech which had caused Jonas to be fined at the Sessions. Hajto
+took possession of that speech, and translated it,--of course with a few
+unimportant alterations. Wherever Tengelyi mentioned the poor, his
+translator inserted the words "poor noblemen;" and the blame which
+Tengelyi bestowed upon the undue length of criminal prosecutions and the
+ill-treatment of the prisoners, was artfully changed into denunciations
+of the unseemly despatch which was used in criminal proceedings against
+noblemen, and the unjustifiable tyranny of the county magistrates who
+refused to bail certain incarcerated noblemen for the election. If the
+author had seen his production in its altered state, the chances are
+that he would have disapproved of it; but certain it is that Hajto's
+edition of the speech insured its popularity. The noble constituents of
+the parishes at Ratsh and Palfalva were in raptures with their new
+advocate; and though Rety's party endeavoured to disenchant them by
+publishing the original text of the speech, they found it impossible to
+undermine Tengelyi's popularity, confirmed as it was by the martyrdom of
+an "actio." Whenever the noblemen came to Dustbury, they made a point of
+paying their respects to their tribune; whenever he accompanied Konkolyi
+to some neighbouring seat, he was received with deafening cheers. His
+popularity brought him some more substantial benefits, in the shape of
+briefs and fees, for his professional advice; in short, he had every
+reason to be satisfied with the progress he had made. His future
+promotion was all but certain. But suddenly a compromise was talked of.
+Rety was willing to withdraw from the contest under the condition that
+his son was accepted as justice. Konkolyi's party opposed, because that
+very place was promised to Tengelyi; but Hajto interfered, and, as
+usual, succeeded in arranging matters to the satisfaction of all
+parties concerned. Tengelyi was at that generous time of life when men
+are prone to make sacrifices. He, therefore, was prevailed upon to
+withdraw his claims to the justiceship, and to solicit the votes of the
+county for the inferior post of deputy-justice. The election commenced
+in due course, and Konkolyi and the younger Rety were returned. Tengelyi
+was pleased with the triumph of his friend, and not the less because
+that triumph was obtained at his own expense; but who can picture his
+dismay when the election of the deputy came on, and another man, a
+friend of Konkolyi's, was chosen to fill that place? His heart was
+crushed within him, for he, the proud man, saw too late that he had been
+the tool of a party which cast him off the very moment that his services
+could be dispensed with. His popularity passed away like a dream. The
+part which young Rety had acted in the election was, to say the least,
+suspicious; and that brotherly attachment, which distingushed the two
+young men at college, received a serious shock. But this was not all.
+Jonas loved for the first time in his life; he loved as only those can
+love who are alone in the world, for whom there is no other being on the
+face of the earth whom they place their trust in, whom they hope for,
+and to whom they cling. Erzsi, the object of Tengelyi's attachment, was
+fully deserving of his love; but she was poor: nevertheless our hero
+married her. He was consequently still more imperatively called upon to
+resign his early dreams of glory, and to devote his energies to gain a
+livelihood.
+
+Tengelyi and his wife left Dustbury; but they returned two years later
+poorer than ever, and the more disappointed from the very humbleness of
+their wishes and plans. In the course of those two years he had tried to
+keep a village school, to be tutor in a rich man's family, and to act as
+steward on another rich man's lands; but he signally failed in each. His
+return to Dustbury marked the saddest period of his life. Up to that
+time he had undergone privations; now he suffered from want; his
+struggles with the world had been full of disappointments, but now he
+was borne down by utter hopelessness. Thus he passed three years of
+misery; and although Rety had by this time succeeded to his father's
+estate, and to the almost hereditary dignity of sheriff of the county,
+he never assisted his old friend. He respected Tengelyi too much to
+relieve the poor man's necessities by a gift of money: his principles
+were too rigorous to allow him to use his influence and his patronage in
+behalf of his friend. Nevertheless, after three years of unutterable
+wretchedness, Tengelyi was surprised to see Rety enter his little house.
+The sheriff came to tell his old friend that the notary of Tissaret was
+just dead; and offering that place to Tengelyi, he assured him, with a
+generosity which did honour to his heart, that the new notary should
+have the same immunity from local and parish burdens which had been from
+time immemorial enjoyed by all his predecessors in office.
+
+Jonas thanked Rety for this unexpected favour. That very week he went to
+Tissaret, where we found him at the commencement of our tale, as a
+village notary of twenty years' standing, and with grey hair, but still
+sound in mind and body. The twenty years he lived at Tissaret had passed
+as such a number of years in the life of a poor village notary is likely
+to pass; nor did they contain any notable events beyond Tengelyi's
+acquiring a small freehold in the parish of Tissaret, and the birth of
+two children, a daughter and a son, the former of whom grew up to be the
+prettiest girl in the county. Perhaps we might add, that Mrs. Ershebet
+had lately lost part of that sweetness of temper which formerly
+warranted the name of "_good_ Erzsi," which Tengelyi was pleased to give
+her, and that his friendship with Rety had ever since the last election
+fallen into the seer and yellow leaf. But this is all. Years had passed
+over his head without changing his character; his sufferings had, in a
+manner, soured his temper, but his love of justice was the same, and his
+courage in behalf of the oppressed remained undaunted. Mrs. Ershebet had
+a right to say, as indeed she did, that her husband would never come to
+be prudent and make his way in the world.
+
+Tengelyi had but one friend, viz. Balthasar Vandory, the whole tenour of
+whose mind was in the strangest contrast with his own. Where Tengelyi
+condemned, Vandory was sure to excuse; and whenever the perpetration of
+some great wrong turned all Tengelyi's blood to gall, his strictures
+upon the cruelty and injustice of mankind failed to move Vandory to any
+more determined sentiment than deep grief. The notary was at war with
+the world; the curate was reconciled to it.
+
+Little was known of Vandory's previous history. He never made any
+allusion to his family, but his accent gave unmistakeable proof of his
+Magyar origin. His parishioners adored him, and even the Retys made no
+exception to the general rule.
+
+My readers are now informed of all that can be said of the character and
+the history of the notary and his friend. I will therefore leave them
+alone to improve their acquaintance with Tengelyi, who, after parting
+with the curate, proceeded to the gate of his house, which he was
+prevented from entering by his daughter Vilma.
+
+"I cannot let you go in," said she; "I want to ask something, and you
+must grant it."
+
+"Well, what is it?" said Tengelyi, smiling at her earnestness.
+
+"I want you not to be angry."
+
+"Why should I be angry?"
+
+"Because we have done something without your knowledge."
+
+"Very well then," said Tengelyi, laughing, "I pledge my word I will not
+be angry."
+
+"But you must also approve of it."
+
+"That is a different thing altogether; but if _you_ did it, I think I
+can promise as much." With these words the notary followed his daughter
+into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III
+
+
+The village of Tissaret was peaceful and quiet when the notary returned
+to his house. A few workmen wending their way homewards from the
+meadows, with their scythes on their shoulders, walked slowly along,
+stopping every now and then to say good night to the people in the
+houses. The evening-bell swang slowly to and fro, sending its drowsy
+tones over the country. The very tavern was all but deserted; and Itzig,
+the Jew, who usually sold his liquors at high prices because he was in
+the habit of giving credit on the security of next year's harvest,
+lounged in the hall, listless and sullen. The manor-house, and the
+surrounding fields and gardens, were not less quiet, which is saying a
+great deal, for a Hungarian manor-house is usually the noisiest place in
+the village. But we know that the son of the house, accompanied by all
+the dogs, was out hare-hunting; and as for the sheriff, he was closeted
+with the chief bailiff and the recorder. The conversation of the three
+dignitaries would doubtless have touched upon very weighty matters, had
+it not been for the sultriness of the day, which set them "All
+a-nodding," as the old song has it. And the sheriff's lady's voice,
+which usually filled the house as the song of the nightingale does the
+woods, with the sole difference that Lady Rety's voice waxed louder in
+tone, and more frequent in use, as she advanced in the summer of her
+years; Lady Rety's voice, too, was silent in the hall, for that lady
+walked in the garden. That garden was a splendid place! It contained a
+hermitage, an oven to dry plums in, a pigeon-house built like a temple,
+a fishpond, with a fisherman's hut, a grotto, a cottage, and a variety
+of other things, bearing witness to the inventive genius of the Retys,
+and astonishing the travellers who were favoured with a view of its
+marvels, its stout Bacchuses, thin Pomonas, artificial ruins, and
+Chinese arbours. Its furthest end merged in a poplar wood--a real wood
+of real poplars, and which, but for the unaccountable fancy which the
+lord lieutenant had taken to it, would long ago have been compelled to
+make room for a batch of new wonders which the sheriff Rety longed to
+establish in his garden. For truly that poplar wood was quite a savage
+place; there was no trace of modern civilisation and refinement in its
+luxuriant foliage and the sturdy generation of brushwood which
+surrounded the massive trees. A single path wound through it, or,
+rather, round about in it. In this path we see Lady Rety engaged in an
+important and interesting discussion with her most humble and obedient
+servant and solicitor, Mr. Catspaw.
+
+Lady Rety is of a _certain_ age--I cannot possibly say more on so
+delicate a point--she is tall and full-grown. Her hair--though we have
+none of us a right to judge of her hair until we see her without a cap,
+an event which is very unlikely to happen--is most probably dark,
+unless, indeed, we are deceived by the colour of her thick eyebrows, and
+of that slight but treacherous shade on her upper lip. Lady Rety's face
+is full of majesty, but at certain times (and these times are very
+_certain_, for they embrace a regular period of six months out of
+thirty) that face is beyond all measure condescending and kind, though
+its usual expression is one of scornful pride, which, by the agency of
+two warts on her upper lip and chin, becomes so strongly marked that it
+merges into something like an habitual sneer. The lucky possessor of
+that sneer is as high-bred a lady as any in the country; her household
+is on a grand scale; none of her dinners was ever shorter than two
+hours, and her courts and outhouses are full of poultry and guests, of
+which the latter, if of high rank, are waited upon with the kindest
+consideration. Lady Rety's voice is of an easy flow, like a generous
+fountain, and sweeping, for it would shake even stronger walls than
+those of Jericho, besides causing the servants to quake. Her discourse
+is admirable, for it is a verbal repetition of the sayings of her liege
+lord. This rare instance of conjugal harmony alone would entitle Lady
+Rety to our respect; but we are free to confess that we venerate her for
+that sound knowledge of common and statute law, which her conversation
+betrays, and which marks her as a practical woman, besides giving to her
+words, as such knowledge never fails to do, a peculiar grace and
+amiability. There was not a lawyer in the kingdom fonder of arguing a
+point of law; and so great was her discernment and readiness of mind,
+that Mr. Catspaw would often confess that he purloined the substance of
+his best pleadings from the conversations of the most noble, the Lady
+Rety.
+
+Mr. Catspaw himself is a small spare man of more than fifty years of
+age, with a pale face, a pointed nose, and a pair of small restless
+eyes, whose look, though piercing, it is difficult to catch. His back is
+bent, more from habit than from age. Add to this his high bald forehead,
+and his scanty hair of bristling grey, and you will have a tolerable
+idea of Mr. Catspaw's outward man. He was most devoted to the Rety
+family, in whose service he had passed the last thirty years, and with
+whom he had at length come to identify himself. This last assertion of
+his was of course contradicted by his enemies, who protested that his
+attachment to the Retys sprang from motives of the most sordid
+selfishness. But however this may be, certain it is that on the evening
+in question the worthy solicitor was by no means identified, either with
+the Rety family in general, or with Lady Rety in particular; for while
+that majestic lady stalked through the poplar wood, with Mr. Catspaw
+following at her heels, she favoured him with a very violent oration;
+nor would she condescend to listen to the humble remonstrance, by means
+of which the lawyer sought to assuage her anger. For, shaking her head
+with great impatience, she gave that learned gentleman to understand
+that it was easy to talk,--that every body was aware that Mr. Catspaw
+would not allow any one to speak,--and that real devotion showed itself
+by deeds. "I will candidly tell you," said Lady Rety, stopping short,
+and thumping her parasol on the ground, "what you told me drives me to
+despair!"
+
+"But, my lady, allow me to observe, that there is no reason why you
+should despair, for I am sure----"
+
+"Oh! I dare say! You don't despair--not you! What do _you_ care for our
+troubles? You do not mind what becomes of us!--you have your profession,
+and who knows but----"
+
+Here she was in her turn interrupted by Mr. Catspaw. "Is this my
+thanks," cried the solicitor, in a generous passion; "is this my thanks
+for my service of thirty years? I, Adam Catspaw, have more than once
+risked my life in promoting the interests of your family, and, in lieu
+of gratitude, you suspect me!"
+
+"I really beg your pardon," said Lady Rety, very humbly, for she saw at
+once that her zeal had led her too far, and that she was not now
+addressing her husband,--"I am a woman, and my unfortunate
+circumstances--and----"
+
+"All this is very fine, my lady," retorted Mr. Catspaw, emboldened by
+his success; "but your ladyship talks always advisedly. All I can do is
+to look out for another place. A solicitor whom his employers
+suspect----"
+
+"But who tells you that we suspect you?" entreated Lady Rety. "It is you
+on whom we rely. What could we do without you? Besides, you know our
+promise about the grant."
+
+"As for the grant," muttered Mr. Catspaw in a milder tone, "the Lord
+knows I toil not for the sake of gain; but if, for my faithful
+service--_ob fidelia servitia_--you will remember me, I am sure my
+gratitude will outlast my life."
+
+"I know that your generous mind scorns to be selfish; but for all that
+it is a fine grant, and though its value is as nothing to your services,
+still it is a splendid property."
+
+"And I will obtain it, in spite of a thousand obstacles!" exclaimed the
+solicitor.
+
+The lady sighed. "Are you still confident? As for me, I have no hope!"
+
+"But why? because our first attempt had no success? This is mere
+childishness. Consider: the man who broke into Vandory's house was as
+expert a thief as any. To avert suspicion, I instructed him to take not
+only the papers which your ladyship wants, but also some money and
+trinkets--it made the affair look like a _bona fide_ robbery. But the
+fellow did not find any money, and while he was rummaging the drawers,
+the curate came home and alarmed the neighbours. Tzifra had not time to
+look for the papers; all he could do was to escape through the window.
+Those papers are at present in Tengelyi's house, who, I am informed,
+keeps them in the iron safe near the door, with his own papers and the
+parish records. I pledge my word that we find them, and perhaps
+something else, for I have an account to settle with that notary."
+
+"But the notary's house is much frequented. I tremble lest Tzifra should
+be caught."
+
+"In that case we will hang him fast enough," said Mr. Catspaw, with
+great composure; "God be praised! the county has the Statarium."
+
+"But supposing he were to confess?"
+
+"Oh! he won't confess. Leave me to manage that; and if he were to
+attempt it, I promise you he shall be hanged before he can do it."
+
+"Oh, if you could but know,"--cried Lady Rety--"if you could but know
+what it costs me to take this step; and when I consider--that--but who
+can help it? The honour of my name, the welfare of my children--all that
+which makes life worth having, compels me----"
+
+"A mother shrinks from no sacrifice for her children's sake!" said Mr.
+Catspaw, wiping his eyes, for the darkness allowed him to dispense with
+tears. "Nobody," continued he, "knows the goodness of your heart as I
+do; but, Lady Rety, if the world could know it, it would go down on its
+knees before you!"
+
+"God forbid!" cried Lady Rety, alarmed but still pleased; for she was
+happy to see the ease with which so ugly a thing as theft undoubtedly is
+could be brought to assume the more grateful names of motherly devotion
+and generosity of feeling. "God forbid that any body besides you and I
+should know of this matter. The world is severe in its judgments, and
+perhaps it might be said----"
+
+The lady did not finish her sentence. She was astonished, for she felt
+herself blush.
+
+Mr. Catspaw understood the feelings of his patroness. "Why should you
+thus torment yourself?" said he. "It is an every-day affair, to say the
+worst of it. Such things are so common in Hungary, that nobody ever
+thinks twice of them, excepting perhaps the party who fancies he is
+aggrieved. Title deeds, mortgage deeds, and promissory notes are lost
+somehow or other; but who cares? The present case is not half so
+bad--for what are the papers your ladyship wishes to possess? Why, they
+are simply some confidential letters, most of them in the sheriff's own
+handwriting, which you have an objection to leave in the hands of
+strangers. The matter is most innocent, though the manner is perhaps in
+a way open to objection."
+
+"Yes! yes! the manner!" sighed Lady Rety. "It is
+house-breaking--robbery--Heaven knows how they might call it!"
+
+"It is indeed burglary," observed the man of the law; "but who is the
+burglar? The man who actually breaks into the house, I should hope.
+Suppose A. talks to B., who, though not a very respectable character, is
+not at the time under any criminal prosecution, and whom the law
+consequently supposes to be an honest man; and suppose A. tells B., in
+the course of conversation, of a certain packet of papers in a certain
+closet in Mr. Vandory's house, which packet of papers A. wishes to
+possess, either from curiosity, or caprice, or for some scientific
+purpose; and suppose A. were to remark, quite incidentally of course,
+that he would gladly give one hundred florins to any man who should
+bring him the said packet: suppose all this, and tell me whether such a
+conversation could be called criminal? Of course not. Very well then;
+now suppose A. adds that the curate is to be from home on Saturday
+night, he being asked to take supper at the manor-house, and that it has
+been observed that the door which leads to the garden is never locked,
+and that there was indeed danger of some dishonest person scaling the
+garden wall and committing the abominable crime of stealing the said
+papers,--than which indeed nothing could be more easy; suppose A., who
+is something of a gossip, says all this in the course of conversation,
+is there anything criminal in mentioning a neighbour's imprudence? By no
+means. Well then, and if B. is wicked enough to abuse A.'s confidence,
+if B. scales the garden wall, enters the house and steals the
+packet--can you accuse poor A. of having committed a robbery? And if B.
+takes the packet to A.--thereby reminding A. of his promise to pay a
+certain sum of money to any man who should bring the packet--is not A.
+bound to abide by his word? That is my case. As an honest man, I pay the
+money; the rest does not concern me."
+
+"You are quite right," said Lady Rety; "but the world judges
+differently."
+
+"Of course the world does; but then it is always wrong. However, the
+world will never know of this business."
+
+"I, too, should think so, if those papers were still at Vandory's,"
+returned Lady Rety; "but they are at Tengelyi's. His house is much
+frequented; besides, there is a watchman at night."
+
+"True, but the papers are in an iron safe; and though there are but two
+keys to the said safe, there are plenty of locksmiths in the world."
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted by young Rety's retriever breaking
+through the brushwood and running up to Lady Rety.
+
+"My son is come home," said she; "let us go to the house." She was in
+the act of going when the manner and the barking of the dog directed her
+attention to the thicket, and to a slight rustling among the branches.
+The dog advanced, but returned, after a few minutes, yelping and
+limping. Akosh Rety and his sister, Etelka, came up at that moment and
+joined the pale and trembling pair.
+
+"What is the matter?" said Akosh.
+
+"Did you not hear any thing?" replied his mother.
+
+"Of course! My retriever barked. There must be a dog or a fox
+somewhere."
+
+"No, young gentleman," cried Mr. Catspaw, with his eyes still directed
+to the spot whence the noise had proceeded, "I'll stake my life on it,
+it was a man."
+
+"Perhaps some poor fellow from the village," said Akosh, caressing the
+dog.
+
+"The fellow has heard our conversation. I am positive he came to
+listen!" said Lady Rety, greatly excited, and to the signal annoyance of
+Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"I cannot think he did," said Etelka. "Mr. Catspaw is indeed known to
+be the worthiest person alive, but I cannot believe that anybody will
+creep up in the darkness to listen to him, and in October too."
+
+The attorney frowned. "My dear Miss," returned he, "you do not
+understand these things. We were discussing matters of great
+moment--there are several suits now pending----"
+
+"Ah! I understand!" cried Akosh, laughing. "You mean to say that the
+counsel for the other side has lurked among the trees to find out the
+plans of our crafty attorney. But why not arrest the culprit? Gallant
+Mr. Catspaw, I understand, does not shrink from any odds."
+
+"I!" said the little man, trembling, "I should----"
+
+"Of course. Why should you not? Come along with me. If there's any one
+hidden in these bushes, we will have him out in no time!"
+
+"I really beg your pardon, _domine spectabilis_!" cried Mr. Catspaw, in
+great distress, while Akosh pulled him along; "but, _domine
+spectabilis_, we are quite defenceless, and the night is very
+dark--and--and--shall I call for help?"
+
+"Nonsense! The fellow will be gone long before anybody can come to
+assist us. Come along, dear sir! Let my mother and Etelka go home, while
+you and I, heroes both, brave all dangers. Let us conquer or die, or
+run away. Is it not so, most intrepid of fee-taking counsel?"
+
+Mr. Catspaw was by far too much engrossed with fear for his personal
+safety to care for the jokes of his companion; nevertheless he protested
+that it might be advisable to send for the servant. But Lady Rety
+entreated him to accompany Akosh; and, after some further delay (for he
+wisely thought his best plan would be to give the listener a good
+start), the little attorney at length buttoned his coat with great
+deliberation, and loudly protesting that he had no fear, as far as his
+own safety was concerned, he followed Akosh into the thicket, while Lady
+Rety and Etelka directed their steps to the house: the dog, thinking
+perhaps that one beating was enough for one evening, accompanied them.
+
+Young Rety and his reluctant companion were meanwhile beating the bushes
+in search of the mysterious stranger. Mr. Catspaw was vastly comforted
+by the darkness, which his instinct taught him would defeat the plans of
+any assassin who might fire at them; and, besides, if by ill-luck they
+should fall in with a stranger, he was firmly resolved to run away and
+call for assistance. But there was little chance of any unpleasant
+_rencontre_, for, what with the darkness and the brushwood, and the
+time which had been lost by Mr. Catspaw's prudent delay, Akosh could not
+expect to do any thing, except to annoy his mother's man of business.
+And annoy him he did, by madly rushing into the thickest part of the
+wood, and causing the branches of the trees to strike Mr. Catspaw's
+face, until at length they arrived at the furthest border of the
+plantation. Here Akosh stopped, and, turning to Catspaw, who stood
+breathless by his side, he said, "I'll take my oath there is no one in
+the wood; will you now confess that you were mistaken, or frightened by
+a hare or partridge, or some such formidable animal?"
+
+"It was a sound of human footsteps; Lady Rety is my witness, and I----"
+
+"Of course, if that is the case, let us go back and beat through another
+part of the plantation, until the fellow is caught."
+
+"Don't, don't!" sighed Mr. Catspaw. "I am sure no one is there; goodness
+knows our search was minute enough. I can scarcely stand on my feet,"
+added the little attorney, wiping his forehead.
+
+"Very well, sir, if you are satisfied that nobody is hid here, I am so
+too. But let us cross the ditch; there is some chance of finding him on
+the other side." Saying which, Akosh leaped over the ditch, while Mr.
+Catspaw descended into the depth of the cutting, from whence a few bold
+gymnastic evolutions brought him to the other side. Having joined his
+companion, the two men walked silently on, and disappeared at length
+round the corner of the garden-wall.
+
+All around was hushed. The night was as dark and comfortless as October
+nights usually are. The brilliant setting of the sun was followed by a
+looming and cloudy sky. The wind sighed over the boundless heath,
+shaking the yellow leaves from the trees. Here and there a solitary
+star, or the watch-fire on the far pasture-land, threw a faint and
+melancholy light on the scene. The footsteps of the two men were lost in
+the distance, and the stillness of night was at intervals interrupted
+only by the distant barking of a dog, or a shepherd's song floating on
+the breeze, when a man rose from the ditch close to the place where
+Akosh and Catspaw had crossed. His broad-brimmed hat, and the rough
+sheep-skin which hung over his shoulders, were enough to hide his
+features and stature, even if the night had been clearer. The man
+listened to the song as it rung through the stilly night, and, after
+looking cautiously round to satisfy himself that no one was near, he
+stepped out of the ditch and hastened towards the fire.
+
+But it is time we should return to Tengelyi, whom we left just when,
+accompanied by his daughter, he crossed the threshold of his humble
+dwelling.
+
+Reader, did you ever know domestic happiness? did you merely see it in
+others, or are you among the blessed whose homes are heavens of peace
+and love? If sacred family love is known to you; if you are convinced
+that this, the most precious gift of heaven, can only fall to the share
+of a pure heart; if you feel that all the distinctions, all the glory we
+struggle for, all the wealth we covet, are an nothing to the joy and
+love of the domestic hearth; then you will enter the notary's house with
+a feeling of reverence, and you will pray that happiness and peace may
+continue to dwell there.
+
+After Tengelyi sat down, he said to his daughter, "Now tell me the great
+secret, for you must know," added he, addressing his wife, "that Vilma
+would not allow me to enter the house until I consented to pass a bill
+of indemnity in her behalf.'
+
+"I know," said Mrs. Ershebet; "and I consented only to please my
+daughter. Speak, Vilma!"
+
+But Vilma did not speak. She looked vainly for a form of words in which
+to prefer her suit.
+
+"Am I to be informed of the matter or not?" said Tengelyi, impatiently.
+"She cannot have committed a crime!"
+
+"Of course not, dear father. But you promised me not to be angry."
+
+"To be angry? do I look like a tyrant? Tell me girl, where have you
+learned to fear your father?"
+
+"No, father, I am not afraid of you," said Vilma. "If I did wrong, I
+know you will tell me that it was wrong, and I shall have your pardon
+for it. But I do not think I did wrong. You know there was an execution
+in the village, and you went away with Vandory, for you said you could
+be of no use to the poor people, and their sorrow grieved you too much.
+Mother and I remained at home, and saw all the horror. They took our
+neighbour's cows, and from John Farkash they took the pillows and
+blankets of his bed, and Peter's widow (you know she used to sell eggs,
+and do jobs in the town,) has lost her donkey. The son of the woman
+Farkash would not allow them to take his mother's bed away, and they
+beat him and bound him with cords, and took him to the justice's. They
+say he is going to prison to-morrow. We saw and heard all this,"
+continued Vilma, wiping her eyes, "and we wept bitterly. Mother said it
+must be so, for the taxes are put on by law, and these poor people were
+not able to pay their dues. But I prayed that you might come home soon,
+for you read so often in your law-books, and I should say there _must_
+be some little law in those books providing that something at least
+ought to be left to the poor who cannot pay their taxes, hard though
+they may work."
+
+"You are wrong, dearest child," said Tengelyi, "you would vainly look
+for such a law in my books. The nation have been so busy for the last
+800 years, that they have not found time to make such a law."
+
+"Have they not? Then I am afraid their laws will do little good, for
+they want God's blessing!" said Vilma, with a deep sigh. "But though the
+law may not, our Creed assuredly does command us to pity our neighbour's
+sufferings, and therefore I went to Mrs. Farkash to see whether I could
+not help them in some way. We are not rich, but we can do something for
+an honest man, and the Farkashes were always good neighbours."
+
+"You did right, my daughter," said Tengelyi, whose eyes filled with
+tears. "You did right; may God bless you! I, too, have eaten the bread
+of poverty; and I will not shut my door against my neighbour."
+
+"I thought so, too," said Mrs. Tengelyi, pressing her husband's hand.
+
+"When I came to the house," continued Vilma, "I found them all in
+despair. Old Farkash sat on the floor, leaning his head on his hands,
+and looking at the empty stable; his wife was bewailing the loss of her
+son. The lesser children sat by the stove: they could not understand
+what had happened, but they wept with their mother. In the room were a
+few broken chairs; and the straw from the bed was spread about the
+floor, just as if the German soldiers had sacked the house. And the
+neighbours were there, comforting the poor family, and cursing the
+officers;--my heart bleeds to think of it! I did my best to console
+Mother Farkash. I promised her that the curate should talk to the
+sheriff, and that her son should not go to prison; for she was most
+afraid of that, saying, that all men who were sent to prison, were sure
+to come back robbers. She thanked me for my promise, but declined our
+assistance; for she said, if her son were free, they could manage to go
+on. 'We poor people,' said she, 'stand by each other; one of my
+neighbours gives me some bedding, another gives me bread, and a third,
+a few pence; and so, mayhap, the Lord will help us on. If Mr. Kenihazy
+had paid for the two horses which my husband sold him at Whitsuntide, we
+would never have come to this. But there's the misfortune. We are
+distrained for the taxes, and yet we are not allowed to claim our own.
+But at the Restauration[5], I mean to go and speak to the
+Lord-Lieutenant. At the last Restauration, he helped several of our
+neighbours, who had claims on Mr. Skinner, the justice.'
+
+[Footnote 5: General elections.]
+
+"'Oh, you are well off, you are!' said old Mother Liptaka. 'You have got
+a husband, and Missie tells us that John shall not go to prison, and he
+will work for you. Besides, you are an honest woman; but what is to
+become of Viola's wife? She is dying,--she, and her baby, and the little
+lad, and she has got a sentinel in the room, for the justice has ordered
+them to arrest every one that comes near the house--let alone entering
+it; for he says they are Viola's pals, every man of them. And that same
+Susi was a pretty girl and a good girl, when a child; it is not her
+fault, is it, that her husband is a robber? Missie, if you could help
+poor Susi, 'twere a good deed!'
+
+"I inquired after Susi," continued Vilma, "and understood that Viola,
+formerly a wealthy peasant, had become very poor, for that he, as a
+robber, could not attend to his husbandry. His cattle and his ploughs
+were taken away, his fields are untilled, and his poor wife is left
+alone with two children. She is ill, almost dying. I told them to show
+me to the house, for I knew they would not suspect me of being an
+accomplice of Viola."
+
+"You were right," said the notary; "pray go on." Thus encouraged, Vilma
+continued,--"The misery of the Farkash family was indeed as nothing to
+the wretchedness which I saw at Viola's. On approaching the house, I was
+struck by a fearful noise. The justice has been informed that Viola
+intends to see his family this very night; he has put three haiduks into
+the house, ordering them to lie there and to catch Viola in case he
+should enter. The haiduks were drunk, and would not allow anybody to
+leave the house, lest Viola might be informed of the snare that was laid
+for him,--although their drunken noise rendered this precaution
+perfectly superfluous. The house was quite empty; nothing was left but a
+heap of ashes on the hearth, and the seat by the stove, which is of
+clay, and which could not be taken away; every other particle of
+furniture that might have been there had fallen into the clutches of the
+justice. When I entered the kitchen the corporal recognised me at once,
+for he has often brought letters to our house. He came up to me, and
+asked me what I wanted; and on my telling him that I had come to look
+after the sick woman, he said it was scarcely worth while, and that the
+woman might be dead, for all he knew to the contrary; but if she lived
+till to-morrow, she would be a widow by the hangman's grace. His
+comrades laughed at this rude joke, but when I insisted on seeing the
+woman Viola, the corporal took me to the room where she lay. I asked
+them to remain quiet, though only for a little while, and entered the
+apartment, which was so dark that it was a good while before I could
+discern any thing. The poor thing lay in a corner on a heap of musty
+straw. The baby and the little boy lay by her side. They did not speak.
+The noise of the revellers outside contrasted painfully with the silence
+in the room. The woman was asleep, and so was the baby, but the little
+boy knew me, and creeping up to me and nestling in my arms, he told me
+the history of their misfortunes. Three days ago his mother had fallen
+sick. She had a bed to lie on; but early this morning the justice came,
+and ordered her to pay one hundred and fifty florins. She had no money,
+and could not pay; the justice cursed her, and told the haiduks to take
+everything away. His mother was driven from her bed, and old Liptaka was
+kicked out of doors by the justice, who told the haiduks to sit and
+drink in the kitchen. 'After this the justice went away; and mother has
+been in a sad state ever since,' added the poor boy, weeping; 'and I
+have made her a bed of the straw which they tore from our good bed. It
+was all that mother could do to creep up and lie on the straw, and she
+has been wandering in her mind ever since. The justice and the soldiers
+said terrible things. They said father would come in the night, and they
+would hang him. Mother has gone on about that. I was quite frightened.
+After that, my little brother fell a-weeping, and it struck me that he
+had not had anything to eat. As for me, I was very hungry,--so I stole
+out to ask our neighbours to give me some bread; but they would not, for
+the justice has said that no one should give us any thing, and that we
+are to die like dogs! I brought nothing but some water, and a few
+flowers which I broke from the hedge for my little brother to play with,
+for I would not come back empty-handed.' That is the boy's story. He
+wept bitterly while he told it."
+
+"Poor little fellow!" said Tengelyi, "his is indeed an early knowledge
+of life's bitterness;" and, turning to Mrs. Ershebet, he added, "I trust
+you sent some relief to those wretched people. I'll go at once and see
+what can be done for them."
+
+"Do not trouble yourself, father, dear," interposed Vilma. "We did not
+send them any thing; we have brought them to this house."
+
+"To my house!" exclaimed Tengelyi. "Did you consider the consequences?"
+
+"I did. I considered that they were sure to perish if they remained
+where they were; and I entreated the corporal, and implored him, and
+vowed that I would bear the blame, until he gave me his permission to
+remove the woman to this house. Nay, more, he helped me to carry her."
+
+"You were right in taking them away," said Tengelyi, walking to and fro,
+evidently distressed; "I only wish you had taken them to some other
+place. I would willingly pay for any thing they want. But here! the
+robber's family in the house of the notary of Tissaret! What will my
+enemies say to that?"
+
+"But, father, you often told me that we need not care for the judgment
+of mankind, if we know and feel that we do that which is good and
+right."
+
+"Of course, if we are quite convinced of that. But they tell me Viola
+is passionately fond of his wife. She is ill, and he will brave all
+dangers to come and see her. What am I to do? My duty, as a public
+functionary, forces me to arrest him, while my feelings revolt at the
+idea."
+
+"I know you will not arrest him, dearest father," said Vilma, softly.
+"You cannot do it."
+
+"And suppose I allow him to escape, what then? I shall lose my place. I
+bear the stigma of being the accomplice of a robber, and nothing is left
+to us but to beg our bread in the streets."
+
+"No, father, that will never be!" said Vilma, confidingly, though her
+eyes filled with tears. "God cannot punish you for a good action."
+
+"God may not, but men will sometimes. But do not weep," added Tengelyi,
+seeing his daughter's tears, "we cannot now undo what you have done, and
+perhaps my fears are worse than the reality."
+
+"Oh do not be angry with me," sobbed Vilma. "I never thought of the
+consequences. I never thought that I _could_ be the cause of so great a
+misfortune."
+
+"Angry?" cried the old man, pressing her to his heart--"I be angry with
+_you_? Art thou not my own daughter, my joy, and my pride? my fairest
+remembrance of the past, my brightest hope of the future?"
+
+"But if Viola were to come," said Vilma, still weeping, "and if things
+were to happen as you said just now?"
+
+"I know he will not come," replied the anxious father, who would have
+given anything to have concealed his apprehensions. "And if he were to
+come, it is ten to one that nobody will know of it. You know I am always
+full of fears. At all events it is not _your_ fault, for if I had been
+at home, and if I had known of this woman's distress, I too would have
+taken her to my house--ay! so I would, though all the world were to turn
+against me. Dry your tears," he continued, kissing Vilma's forehead,
+"you did but your duty. Now go and look after the woman, while I go to
+Vandory: he is half a doctor."
+
+Saying this, the notary hastened away to hide his tears, and as he went
+he passed some severe strictures on his own weakness, which caused him
+to indulge in tears, a thing which is only pardonable in a woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+
+The stranger of the ditch, whom we left in the act of approaching the
+fire, had meanwhile accomplished that object, and proceeded to the place
+where a man sat squatting by the flame, poking the burning straws with
+his staff, and singing a low and mournful melody.
+
+"Are you at it again? again singing the Nagyidai Nota?"[6] said the
+stranger, touching the singer's shoulder.
+
+[Footnote 6: See Note IV.]
+
+Peti the gipsy (for it was he who kept his lonely watch by the fire)
+started up, and, seizing hold of the stranger's hand, dragged him away
+from the light, whispering, "For God's sake, take care! Some one might
+see you!"
+
+"Are you mad?" retorted the stranger, disengaging his hands, and
+returning to the fire. "I've lain in the ditch, and am all a-muck. I
+must have a warm."
+
+"No, Viola, no!" urged Peti, "the village is filled with your enemies.
+Who knows but some of them are by? and if you are seen you are done
+for!"
+
+"Now be reasonable, old man," replied Viola, taking his seat by the
+fire. "Not a human being is there on this heath that I wot of. What is
+it you fear?"
+
+"Oh! you know this very afternoon you and I, we were near the wood of
+St. Vilmosh, and the Pandurs were here close to the park palings, and
+yet they knew you even at that distance."
+
+"Yes, very much as we knew them. They presumed it was I. But if they
+have a mind to make my acquaintance, I'd better look after the priming
+of my pistols. So! Now let them come. After sunset I fear no man."
+
+"Oh! Viola, Viola!" cried Peti. "I know your boldness will be your bane.
+You laugh at danger, but danger will overtake you."
+
+"But, after all, were it not better to die than to live as I do?" said
+the robber, feeling the edge of his axe. "I curse the day at dawn
+because the light of the sun marks my track to the pursuer. The wild
+bird in the brake causes me to tremble. The trunk of a fallen tree fills
+me with dread; for who knows but it may hide the form of an enemy? I fly
+from those I love. I pass my days among the beasts of the forests, and
+my dreams are of the gallows and the hangman. Such is my life! Believe
+me, Peti, I have little cause to be in love with life!"
+
+"But your wife and your children!"
+
+"Ah! you are right! my wife and my children!" sighed the robber, and
+stared fixedly at the fire, whose faint glow sufficed to display to Peti
+the cloud of deep melancholy which passed over the manly features of his
+companion.
+
+Viola was a handsome man. His high forehead, partly covered by a forest
+of the blackest locks, the bold look of his dark eyes, the frank and
+manly expression of his sunburnt face, the ease and the beauty of each
+movement of his lofty form, impressed you with the idea that in him you
+beheld one of those men who, though Nature meant them to be great and
+glorious, pass by humble and unheeded; happy if their innate power for
+good and for ill remains a secret; yes, happy are they if they are
+allowed to live and die as the many, with but few to love them and few
+to hate.
+
+"Don't be sad, comrade," said Peti. "It's a long lane that has no
+turning. But go you must, for here you are in danger of your life. The
+election is at hand, and Mr. Skinner has every chance of losing his part
+in it. He will move heaven and earth to catch you. After I met you this
+afternoon, the Pandurs arrested me, and took me to him. May the devil
+burn his bones! but he treated me cruelly: he was so savage that my hair
+stood on end. Had it not been for the younger Akosh (God bless him!),
+I'd be now taking my turn at the whipping-post. He has his spies among
+us; he did not mention their names, but certain it is that he knows of
+every step you take; I protest nothing short of a miracle can have saved
+you! But certainly if we had not agreed to meet by this fire, you could
+scarcely have escaped him. The landlord and his servants are bound and
+locked up in the cellar, and Pandurs, dressed up as peasants, watch in
+the inn. There are also Pandurs in your house; and the peasants have
+been ordered to arm themselves with pitchforks, and to sally out when
+the church-bells give the signal. When I was Mr. Skinner's prisoner he
+cursed me, and mentioned his preparations; I have found out that he said
+rather too little than too much."
+
+Viola rose. "There are Pandurs in my house, and you tell me that my wife
+is ill?"
+
+"Oh! do not mind _her_. Susi has left the house; she is as comfortable
+as a creature can be with the fever. They have taken her to the notary's
+house."
+
+"To Tengelyi's? Is she a prisoner?"
+
+"Oh, by no means; it's all Christian love and charity. Oh! friend, that
+same Christian love is a rare thing in these times. May God bless them
+for what they do for her!"
+
+"Christian love and charity! Fine words! fine words!" muttered Viola.
+"But who tells you that this is not a snare? My wife is in the notary's
+hands, and with her my life."
+
+"For once you are mistaken!" cried the gipsy. "I, too, had my suspicions
+at first; why should I not? since I am no peer, but merely a gipsy. It's
+not my fault, surely, that I mistrust those officials; and when they
+told me that Susi was at the notary's, I did not half like it. But I
+understood that old Tengelyi knew nothing at all about it, and that his
+daughter, Vilma, did it all. Now Vilma is a born angel, take my word for
+it. But do not stop here. I ought to be at St. Vilmosh before the sun
+rises, and every minute you stay is as much as your life is worth."
+
+"I'll not stir a single step unless you tell me all about Susi. I cannot
+understand it."
+
+Peti knew Viola too well not to yield to this peremptory demand; and he
+tried, therefore, to inform his friend, in as few words as possible, of
+all the particulars of Susi's illness. Viola, leaning on his fokosh,
+listened with eagerness. He stood so still, so motionless, that, but for
+the deep sighs which at times broke forth, he might have been mistaken
+for a statue.
+
+"Poor, poor woman!" cried the robber at length, "has it indeed come to
+this? A beggar, eating the bread of charity! a vagabond, abiding under
+the roof of the stranger! God, God! what has _she_ done that thy hand
+should strike _her_?"
+
+"Let us be off!" urged Peti. "Your wife is all snug and comfortable, and
+we ought not to stand here like fools, railing at the injustice of the
+world. Besides, the day of settling our accounts is perhaps nearer than
+you think. I owe Mr. Skinner more than one turn. Cheer up, comrade! many
+a man has been in a worse scrape than you are, who got out of it after
+all."
+
+"What do I care for myself? I am used to it. There is blood on my hands,
+and, perhaps, it is but just that Heaven's curse pursues me. But she,
+whom I love,--she, who never since her birth did harm to any one,--she,
+who stands by my side like an angel of light, withholding my arm from
+deeds of blood and vengeance! Oh! she kneels at church, and prays by the
+hour. That she loves me is her only crime,--why, then, should _she_ be
+punished? Let them hunt me down--torment me; ay! let them hang me! what
+care I, if she is but safe and free from harm?"
+
+"So she is!" cried Peti, impatiently. "She was never better off in her
+life, man! Come along, or else we are done for, and by your fault too!"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that none of the villagers helped her?--that
+none of them would shelter her?"
+
+"No! I told you, no! the judge forbade it; and none of them dared to
+look at her."
+
+"Very well; I mean to be quits with them. I never harmed any of them.
+None of them ever lost a single head of cattle; and now that my family
+are in distress, there is not one of them but thinks that this is as it
+ought to be. But Viola is the man to make bonfires of their houses!"
+
+"You are right!" cried Peti, seizing the robber's hand. "A little
+revenge now and then serves your turn. It puts them on their guard! It
+reminds them that there is still some justice in this world. But come to
+St. Vilmosh. You are safe there, at least for a few days, for the
+kanaz[7] there is one of our people. We will go down to him, and see
+what can be done."
+
+[Footnote 7: See Note V.]
+
+"You had better go first; I have some business here."
+
+"Where?" cried Peti, stopping his friend as the latter turned to leave
+the place.
+
+"I tell you to go first to St. Vilmosh, and to wait for me at the
+kanaz's. I want to speak to the notary. By the time the sun rises I mean
+to be with you. Get something to eat, for I am hungry."
+
+"Maybe the ravens are hungry, and have told you to go and be hanged, to
+make a dinner for them!"
+
+"What a coward you are! I tell thee, man, it is not so easy to catch
+Viola as you may think. Go and tell them to cook me some gulyash[8]; and
+if you think it will ease your mind, I will bring you the chief haiduk
+gagged and bound."
+
+[Footnote 8: See Note VI.]
+
+"All this were well and good if the people of Tissaret were still on
+your side, for in that case you might do as you please. But since the
+parson's house has been broken into, they are all against you, they will
+have it that you committed that robbery."
+
+"I did no such thing; and it is just on that account I want to speak to
+Tengelyi. I have never been obliged to any man, who had the dress and
+appearance of a gentleman. The notary is the first of the kind to whom
+I owe any thing, and, by G--d, he shall not call me ungrateful."
+
+"But of what use can your capture be to the notary?" said Peti, who now
+yielded to Viola's obstinacy, and accompanied him to the village.
+
+"Some villany is abroad, and Tengelyi is to suffer. It's the same affair
+as it was with the parson. I'll inform him of it."
+
+"Not to-night?"
+
+"Ay, this very night! Who knows but to-morrow it might be too late? The
+birds are greedy for their prey. It will scarcely take me an hour. You
+ought to go to St. Vilmosh."
+
+"Not I!" said the gipsy. "If you are mad, and won't be advised, you
+cannot, at least, force me to leave you alone in this scrape. If they
+hang you, they must hang me too."
+
+Viola said nothing; but he pressed the hand of his faithful comrade. The
+two adventurers approached the village, where every thing was prepared
+for the capture of the robber. Not only was Viola's house occupied by
+the Pandurs, not only was the inn garrisoned, and its inmates gagged and
+bound, but the streets of Tissaret, and the cottages of those peasants
+who were suspected to be in communication with the robber, were occupied
+by soldiers, or, at least, closely watched. Rety's servants, armed with
+pitchforks and cudgels, were assembled in a barn, and every peasant was
+prepared, at the first signal from the steeple, to rush out and attack
+the outlaw. Some generous men, devoted to the public safety, and fearing
+for their cattle, and some not less generous women, had contributed a
+few hundred florins as a reward for that lucky peasant, or Pandur, who
+should succeed either in capturing or killing the robber. There could be
+but one opinion about Viola's fate, in case he should happen to come to
+Tissaret; but whether he would come or not was an open question, to say
+the least of it; for while the justice and his clerk were out
+hare-hunting, the inspector Kanya had thought proper to publish Mr.
+Skinner's instructions by means of the public crier, who, on this
+important occasion, was preceded by a couple of drums, and whose
+commands to the peasantry were backed by the threat of five-and-twenty
+lashes, as a punishment of the refractory or negligent; and though the
+justice on his return had poured out a most energetic volley of
+imprecations on Mr. Kanya and his zeal, and though he had immediately
+given orders that no one should be permitted to leave the village, yet
+there was good reason to fear that Viola would smell more than one rat.
+Indeed, so much probability was there for this supposition, that by the
+time Viola and Peti drew near to the village the inhabitants of Tissaret
+to a man had thought proper to retire for the night, leaving the
+soldiers and Pandurs to follow their example, which, to do them justice,
+they did.
+
+"Wait a few moments," said Peti to his companion, when they came to the
+threshing-floors, "I'll look out for you. It is just here where they
+have placed a guard of those rascals in frogged jackets. I'll try to
+find out what they are after." Saying which, the old man crept through
+the ditch and disappeared. He returned almost immediately. "They are
+fast asleep. If the others are equally vigilant, we are safe enough."
+Viola advanced with Peti. They entered the village, and walked quickly,
+but noiselessly, along the hedges and under the shadow of the houses.
+
+Tengelyi's house, the neatest building in the village, was on one side
+bordered by a narrow court-yard, and on the other by a garden of
+somewhat larger dimensions. The buildings in his immediate neighbourhood
+were on the one side the Town-hall, and on the other the workshop of the
+village smith; while over the way there was the only shop in Tissaret,
+the property of Itzig, the Jew, and remarkable, not only for its amazing
+stores of European and Indian produce, but also for its bright yellow
+paint, and its pillars of glaring sky-blue which ornamented the hall
+outside.
+
+There were but two roads to Tengelyi's house--one leading by the
+Town-hall, and the other touching the smithie; and though the sound of a
+hammer ringing on the iron of the anvil was still to be heard from the
+last named place, still Peti thought it advisable to take the latter
+road, and this the more, since he perceived that there was no light in
+Itzig's house,--a circumstance which led him to suppose that that "toad
+of a Jew" had retired into the interior of his den, there to sleep on
+his dollars. Quitting, therefore, the dark corner between the smith's
+shop and the main road, the two men hastened up to the house of
+Tengelyi. The fire from the smithie threw a ruddy glare on the road and
+on the Jew's shop, the closed shutters of which seemed to denote that
+all the inmates had retired to rest. But while they were in the act of
+crossing the road, Peti suddenly seized Viola's hand, and pointing to
+the Jew's house, he whispered, "They have seen us!" A human form was
+indeed visible behind the pillars. It moved quickly to the door, and
+disappeared.
+
+"Go to the notary's! Just by the wall there's a hole in the hedge. Creep
+through it, and hide yourself as best you may; but for God's sake don't
+enter the house! I'll come to fetch you as soon as the alarm is over."
+
+So saying, Peti crossed the road and disappeared among the buildings.
+Viola hastening onward, found the opening in the hedge. He had scarcely
+crept through it and hidden himself among the shrubs, when he saw that
+the gipsy was fully justified in his apprehensions. Voices were heard in
+the streets, lanthorns were carried by, and the quick tramp of steps,
+and the sound of the village bell, proved to him that the alarm was
+indeed given, and that the people of Tissaret were up and in arms to
+arrest him. Mr. Skinner's and Mr. Kenihazy's answering imprecations
+might have proved, to any one who doubted the fact, that the public
+justice of this country is not always asleep, but that its eyes are
+sometimes open as late as 10h. 30m. P.M.
+
+Viola was in a dangerous position. The notary's garden was but an
+indifferent hiding-place. It was small, and but thinly planted with
+trees. A strong light from the windows of the house illumined part of
+it, and nothing could save Viola, if the hole in the hedge was
+discovered, and a lanthorn passed through it. But the robber was
+accustomed to danger. He kept his weapons in readiness and waited.
+After some time the noise of the robber hunters grew gradually less. The
+crowd rushed to another part of the village. The sound of distant voices
+and the continued ringing of the bell showed that the danger was at
+least in part over.
+
+On these occasions it is only the first quarter of an hour which is
+dangerous in our country; after that '_mauvais quart d'heure_' has once
+passed, there is none but seeks for an excuse for discontinuing the
+search. For we are an Eastern people, nor did we come to the West to
+toil and slave. Indeed, that man was a profound historian who protested
+that our ancestors left their homes in search of a country where the sun
+rose late, and allowed them to sleep longer than they could in their
+former abodes. Viola, who had often been hunted, and who was perfectly
+familiar with the leading features of our national character, rose from
+the ground and walked boldly up to the house.
+
+That house harboured his wife, the only being on the face of the earth
+who loved him; the only being he could call his own, and whose mild
+words made him feel that, though exiled, pursued, and condemned, there
+was still something which he could call his own, which the world could
+not take from him, and which bound him to life and to his Creator. And
+Viola's heart, however unmoved by danger, beat loud and fast when,
+creeping by the windows of the house, he stopped at length in front of
+the one window for which he sought. Everything was tranquil in that
+room. His wife lay sleeping, and Vilma sat by her side, watching her,
+while the old Liptaka was seated at some distance, reading her Bible,
+and rocking a cradle. His little boy lay in an arm-chair. He was fast
+asleep. The robber looked long and earnestly at the group before him. He
+wept.
+
+The child in the cradle awoke. Old Mother Liptaka took it up and carried
+it to and fro. Little Pishta too awoke; he rubbed his eyes and stared
+around, as if uncertain where he was, or how he came to be there. But
+looking up to the window he beheld Viola, and jumping from the chair he
+clasped his hands and shouted--"Father! father!"
+
+"God forbid that he should be here!" said Mother Liptaka, walking up to
+the window. "You are half asleep, child, and talk in a dream: you see
+there is no one here."
+
+"He is not there now,--but he was there. He is gone now, but I am sure
+he is in the garden. I will go and call him in."
+
+"Don't think of it!" said the Liptaka, seizing the boy's hand. "You know
+your father is----" Here the good woman stopped, for she was at a loss
+to find gentle words for a harsh fact.
+
+"I know!" said the boy, "my father must hide himself; but I am sure it
+is not true, what they say about his being a robber."
+
+"Of course not, child: be quiet, and don't say a word about it, not even
+to Miss Vilma. I will go, and if your father is in the garden, I'll
+speak to him." And the old woman left the room.
+
+Viola's situation had meanwhile become more dangerous. When he retired
+from the window where his boy recognised him, he found that his
+movements were watched by a man, who stood in the opening through which
+he had entered the garden, and who withdrew when the robber's face
+turned in the direction of the hedge. Viola was at a loss what to do. He
+could not stay in the garden, for it was too small; the streets were
+filled with peasants and Pandurs, and the inmates of the house were
+strangers to him. He could not trust his life to their keeping. The
+tocsin was again sounded, and the approach of lights and steps showed
+him that his pursuers were aware of his hiding-place, and that they came
+to take him.
+
+At this critical moment the Liptaka entered the garden, and called the
+robber by his name. Seeing no other means of escape, he walked up to
+her and informed her of the danger of his situation.
+
+"Ay, brother, why _did_ you come this blessed night?" said the old
+woman. "Two days later you might have been safe."
+
+"But what is to be done? Can you hide me in the house?"
+
+"I can, for the notary is not in, and Vilma will not betray you. Stand
+here until I call you." She returned into the house, and Viola stood up
+against the wall to hide himself. The noise increased meanwhile, and the
+sonorous voice of the justice was heard, denouncing the eyes, souls, and
+limbs of his trusty Pandurs, when the door opened, and the Liptaka
+appeared, motioning Viola to advance cautiously, lest the light from the
+windows might mark his figure: the robber crept along the wall and
+entered the house.
+
+"Where is he? where?" screamed Mr. Skinner, from the other side of the
+hedge.
+
+"Steady, boys!" shouted his clerk, from the furthest rear. "At him! Why
+should you fear the scoundrel? The man that catches and binds him shall
+have a hundred florins."
+
+"Are any of you at the other side of the garden?" bawled the
+commissioner, with a stentorian voice.
+
+Nobody answered.
+
+"Smash your souls, you cursed hellhounds!" roared Mr. Skinner. "Why are
+you all here? Why are you not at the other side of the garden?"
+
+"Your lordship's lordship told us to come to this place," said a Pandur;
+but a blow from Paul Skinner's stalwart arm sent him sprawling to the
+ground. "Be off!" shouted the intrepid justice; "be off a few of
+you--but not too many. Seize him and bind him!"
+
+"Shoot him on the spot, if he shows fight," urged the clerk.
+
+"Shoot him--indeed!" roared the justice. "I'll brain the man that dares
+to shoot him, for I must have the satisfaction of hanging the fellow."
+
+Amidst these preparations for the capture of the robber, the person
+"wanted" had quietly entered the house, where old Liptaka stowed him
+away behind some casks, which lay in the room. Vilma trembled.
+
+"Fear not, Missie," said the Liptaka; "they dare not enter this house.
+Of course, if it were a poor man's case, they'd ransack every corner,
+and turn the whole house out of the window. But it's a different thing
+with a nobleman's curia."
+
+The Liptaka was mistaken, and she had soon ample opportunity of
+convincing herself of the fact that the keeping of the law is one thing,
+and the law itself another. For Mr. Paul Skinner, after surrounding the
+garden on all sides, and after summoning Viola to come forward and be
+hanged, found it necessary to proceed to a close investigation of the
+premises. He opened the garden door and entered with his _posse_ of
+Pandurs and peasants. Vilma's flowers and Mrs. Ershebet's broccolis were
+alike trodden down by the intruders, and great exertions were made to
+start the game. But their search was fruitless. So were their curses.
+Mr. Skinner protested that the robber must be hid in the house, and
+Kenihazy instantly suggested the propriety of searching the suspected
+habitation. The justice consented, and walked up to the door which
+communicated between the house and the garden, when the door was opened
+from the inside, and Mrs. Ershebet appeared on the threshold.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?" cried the notary's wife, with a voice
+which, on the present occasion, was more remarkable for its energy than
+for its sweetness. "Who is it that dares, at this hour of the night, to
+break into an honest man's house? Are you robbers, thieves, or
+murderers? Be off, instantly, every one of you! This is a nobleman's
+curia, and no one has a right to be here, unless it be with my consent!"
+
+Mr. Skinner, not a little abashed, tried to stammer some excuses; but
+Mrs. Ershebet, knowing that she had the law on her side, refused to
+listen to his explanations. Her abuse of the justice kept pace with the
+hate she bore him, and she eagerly seized the opportunity to give him
+what we poetically call "a bit of her mind." She did this so effectually
+that the justice was at length compelled to muster all his courage to
+make a reply.
+
+"Mrs. Tengelyi," said the worthy functionary, his voice trembling with
+suppressed rage, "Mrs. Tengelyi, moderate yourself; consider that you
+stand in the presence of a superior officer."
+
+"Superior officer, indeed!" screamed Mrs. Ershebet. "You are the master
+of robbers and thieves, but not mine. What care I for the county! What
+care I for the justice? I am a nobleman's wife, and I'd like to see the
+man who dares to enter my house without my permission!"
+
+"You shall have that pleasure!" roared the justice. "Forward, my men!
+enter the house! search it, and capture the robber. Knock them down and
+bind them, if they offer you resistance! I'll teach you to know who is
+master here!"
+
+"A stick! a stick! give me a stick!" cried Mrs. Ershebet. Her maid
+handed her Tengelyi's cane. She raised it, and exclaimed triumphantly,
+"I protest!"
+
+Mr. Skinner stepped back; but, after a few moments, he rallied his
+forces, resolved, in open contempt of the Hungarian law and its formal
+protest[9], to force an entry into the notary's house. There can be no
+doubt that he would have accomplished his purpose, but for the opportune
+arrival of Akosh and Mr. Catspaw, who restrained his violence; for the
+attorney, to whom the justice stated the case, and who had his reasons
+for supposing that Viola was not in the house, did his utmost to prevent
+the premises from being searched. He did this not from any love he bore
+Tengelyi, but because he knew that the affair might at a later time
+serve to cast a suspicion on the notary's character. His dispute with
+Mr. Skinner was suddenly interrupted by a new and unforeseen event.
+
+[Footnote 9: See Note VII.]
+
+"Fire!" cried a voice in the street; and the crowd in the garden roared
+"Fire! fire, at the Castle!" The tocsin sounded, and the peasants
+hastened in the direction of the fire. The Pandurs alone were kept back
+by Mr. Skinner's express commands, for he still hoped to find Viola.
+But when one of the servants from the House came down to tell them that
+the conflagration was in the sheriff's barns, and that his whole store
+of hay was in flames, it was thought necessary to dispatch the power of
+the law to the threshing-floors to save the sheriff's hay. Not one of
+the intruders remained on the spot.
+
+"For God's sake, save him!" whispered Vilma, addressing the Liptaka. "Be
+quick, and save him before they come back."
+
+"Never fear, Missie. Give him but a fair start, and he is not the man to
+be caught. But keep your counsel; your father would never pardon you!"
+
+The Liptaka turned to Viola's hiding-place behind the casks. "Now get
+thee gone," said she. "There is a fire at the sheriff's. Get out at the
+other side of the village, where nobody will stop your way. I can't help
+thinking the fire is on your account."
+
+"Listen to me!" said Viola. "You know I owe the notary a debt of
+gratitude. His family have taken my wife to his house: may God bless
+them for it! They have saved my life, too; and I mean to show my sense
+of it. Tell them I know that the notary keeps some papers in an iron
+safe. Those papers are of great value to him and to the parson. Tell him
+to find another place for them, and to keep a good look out. He has
+powerful enemies; I know of some people who would do any thing to get
+those papers. Tell this the notary, and may God be with you!"
+
+The robber was in the act of leaving the garden, when a hand held him by
+his bunda. "Who is it?" said he, raising his axe.
+
+"It is I, Peti! What do you think of my illumination?"
+
+"That it saved me for once. I knew it was your doing. Thanks! may God
+bless you!"
+
+"Now let us be off to St. Vilmosh," said Peti, crawling through the
+opening of the hedge. "Look there," he added, pointing to the next
+house; "I'll lose my head if that fellow Catspaw does not stand there!"
+
+"And if he were an incarnate devil I _will_ go on!" muttered Viola, as
+they turned the corner of the street. Mr. Catspaw, for it was he, had
+recognised the robber. He shook his head and walked leisurely up to the
+Manor-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+
+The day which followed this eventful night was a Sunday. Already had the
+church-bells of Tissaret called the parishioners to prayers; and the
+lower classes, obedient to the summons, crowded the little church, there
+to forget the disturbance of the night and the whole of their worldly
+cares. At the House, or Castle, as the family seat of the Retys was
+sometimes styled, preparations on a large scale were on foot for the
+reception of the guests who were expected to arrive that day. Akosh and
+his sister Etelka walked in the garden. Neither of them spoke, as they
+trod the paths which were already covered with the leaves of autumn;
+while Tuender, their favorite greyhound, bounded to and fro, now starting
+a bird, now hunting a falling leaf. The dog had its own way of enjoying
+the beauty of that bright day.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Etelka?" said Akosh, at length. "You are
+out of spirits to-day."
+
+"Am I?" replied Etelka, smiling, and with a slight stare. "I dare say
+you are like Mr. Catspaw, who in his annual fits of jaundice flatters
+himself that the whole world is yellow."
+
+"Very true," rejoined Akosh; "I am a dreadful bore to-day."
+
+"Of course you are. To be a bore is one of the privileges of a Hungarian
+nobleman. But do not put yourself under any restraint on _my_
+account!"--saying which the young lady turned away, and busied herself
+in smoothing the shrivelled leaves of a half-faded flower. Thus pursuing
+their walk, they reached a hill in the plantation, from the summit of
+which they looked down on the village, the river, and the boundless
+plain.
+
+"They are coming!" said Etelka, turning her eyes in the direction of St.
+Vilmosh.
+
+"I wish to God I were a hundred miles off!" sighed Akosh.
+
+"Would not a lesser distance do? Shall we say the village, or the
+notary's house?"
+
+"Don't mention it. It makes me weep to think of it. You know what has
+happened?"
+
+"I should think so."
+
+"Well, I have no hope."
+
+"Do not say so! Vilma loves you. You are not likely to change your mind,
+and our father----"
+
+"Our father,--oh, if there were no obstacle but his denial!" exclaimed
+Akosh. "I venerate our father; but there are limits to my
+veneration,--and if he compels me to choose between Vilma's love and
+his, I am prepared to sacrifice the man who prefers his prejudices to
+his son's happiness. But is Vilma prepared to follow my example? And,
+believe me, old Tengelyi is far more inexorable than my father!"
+
+"But he idolises his daughter----"
+
+"You do not know him as I know him. Yes, he idolises his daughter! He
+would sacrifice any thing to her, except his honour. On that point he is
+inexorable. After that cursed conversation with my step-mother, in which
+she hinted that she would be well pleased to see his daughter less
+frequently at our house, Tengelyi came to me. He told me all that had
+happened, and asked me to discontinue my visits to his family, for--such
+was his bitter expression--it was not well for young gentlemen of rank
+to hold intercourse with poor girls. Ever since that day, when I meet
+him in the street and accompany him to his house, he bows me off at the
+door, and sends me about my business. I have spoken to his wife, but she
+tells me that she cannot do any thing to soften him. I have spoken to
+Vandory, but he, too, has no comfort for me. Now consider that Tengelyi
+is sure to lay the blame of that disgraceful scene of last night at our
+door, and that our party at the next election will do all to oppose his.
+No! I tell you there is no hope left for me!"
+
+"And yet I hope!" said Etelka, taking her brother's hand: "I know but
+too well on which side the victory is likely to be, in a contest between
+a woman's head and her heart."
+
+"Do you really think so?" exclaimed Akosh, kissing her hand. "Oh if I
+could but know,--if I could but feel sure that my enemies will not
+succeed in estranging her heart from me!"
+
+"You are mad, my respected brother," interposed Etelka; "pray who are
+your enemies? Old Tengelyi loves you as a son, though he does not say
+so; but suppose he _did_ hate you, believe me, though father, and
+mother, and the whole country were to sit down for a twelvemonth abusing
+you, Vilma's feelings would remain as they are."
+
+"Oh if I could but see her! if I could but see her, though it were only
+for a moment!"
+
+"Be patient. Who knows what may happen when Tengelyi goes to the
+election? But we must turn back now; the Cortes[10] are about to make
+their appearance. I would not for the world lose the spectacle of their
+arrival."
+
+[Footnote 10: Constituents.]
+
+They turned and walked to the house, whence arose the sound of many
+voices, like the roll of a distant thunder-storm. The Hungarians are
+wont to commence their affairs, no matter whether they be great or
+small, not with light--but with noise. I leave my readers to imagine the
+fearful din with which the halls of the Retys resounded. Servants and
+haiduks ran in all directions, fetching and carrying all sorts of
+things. The cook and his boys,--the bailiff and the butler, the
+housekeeper and the maids, were shouting at, ordering about, and abusing
+one another; and Lady Rety, who every moment expected the arrival of her
+guests, had just sent her third maid with most peremptory instructions
+to cause the people to be silent,--without, however, obtaining any other
+result from the mission than a still greater confusion of tongues and
+voices. Great was her rage, and violently did she struggle to preserve
+that gracious smile which the Cortes were wont to admire in her at fixed
+periods every three years, viz., at the time of the general election.
+
+The Sheriff Rety, Valentin Kishlaki, Mr. Paul Skinner, the justice, and
+sundry "_spectabiles_" of his party, were smoking their pipes in the
+hall, and a couple of poor relations, who were always invited on such
+occasions, filled and lighted their pipes for them, and made themselves
+generally useful, to show their deep sense of the honour which was done
+to them. Mr. Catspaw stood leaning against the wall. He looked the very
+picture of watchful humility.
+
+This company, the like of which may be found in Hungary every where,
+especially at the time of the election, but which it were next to
+impossible to discover anywhere else, consisted but of a limited number
+of individuals. They were the grandees of the county of Takshony.
+
+The man who first attracts our attention is Valentin Kishlaki, the
+father of Kalman Kishlaki, whom my readers had already the pleasure of
+meeting on the Turk's Hill. The good old man offers much to love, but
+little to describe. He is a short man, and withal a stout one; his hair
+is white, his cheeks red. He has a good-natured smile, and a pair of
+honest blue eyes. He is fond of telling a story without an end, but this
+weakness is his greatest crime.
+
+Among the other persons in the sheriff's hall, the most remarkable are,
+doubtless, Augustin Karvay, the bold keeper of the county house, and
+Thomas Shaskay, the receiver of the taxes. The former was a Hungarian
+nobleman of the true stamp: bred on the heath, fagged at school, and
+plucked at college. The insurrection of 1809 afforded the noble youth a
+brilliant opportunity of displaying his talents for homicide, which were
+supposed to be astounding. But the speedy termination of the war nipped
+Mr. Karvay's martial honours in the bud; nor does history record any of
+his deeds of bravery and devotion, except the fact that he left his
+regiment at the commencement of the first and only battle in which that
+gallant body took part, and in which it was routed; and that, regardless
+of the fatigue and toils of the way, he hastened home to defend his
+household gods and the female members of his family. But so modest was
+Mr. Karvay, that the slightest allusion to this act of unparalleled
+devotion was observed to cause him pain, and even to spoil his temper.
+This modesty we take to be a proof of true merit.
+
+Mr. Karvay's gallantry, or, perhaps, his touching modesty, did
+afterwards so much execution upon the heart of Lady Katshflatty, a young
+widow of fifty, that she consented to bless the youthful hero with all
+the charms and gifts of fortune which her years and her late husband's
+prodigality had left her. The blessing, in either respect, was by no
+means very great, and Mr. Karvay was reduced to the extremity of living
+upon his wits, which in his case would have been tantamount to the
+lowest degree of destitution, but for the good fortune he had of making
+some enemies by his marriage with Lady Katshflatty. His enemies belonged
+to the opposition in the county; that is to say, they were members of
+the minority;--reason enough for the party in power to take him up; and
+under the sheriff's protection Mr. Karvay was successively appointed to
+the posts of Keeper of the County House, Captain of the Haiduks, and
+Honorary Juror, and promoted to all the honours, bustle, and emoluments
+of these respective dignities.
+
+Such was the person to whom Mr. Thomas Shaskay was bound by the ties of
+a cordial and mutual dislike. The two men seemed to be created for the
+express purpose of hating one another. Shaskay was a small and spare
+man; his face reminded one of an old crumpled-up letter, his hair was
+scant, his nose sharp and long, and his narrow forehead covered with a
+thousand wrinkles. Karvay's huge bulk, mottled face, and curly black
+hair, were in bodily opposition to this frail piece of humanity. Candour
+was Mr. Karvay's characteristic feature; indeed, there were people in
+the county of Takshony who protested that the gallant captain would be
+more amiable if he were less candid. Now Shaskay was the closest man
+breathing. He answered reluctantly even to the simplest questions. Some
+of his friends protested that his closeness and secrecy were quite out
+of place, for that Nature, when she framed him, had treated him as
+druggists do their goods, and that "Poison" was as distinctly written on
+his face as it ever was on an arsenic bottle.
+
+Shaskay had met with many misfortunes in the course of his life; but so
+great was his strength of mind that he was never known to allude to
+them, and least of all to his greatest misfortune, which, however, was
+mentioned in the records of the county. While he held the office of
+receiver-general of the district, sundry monies which were entrusted to
+his care disappeared; and though Mr. Shaskay protested that the money
+was stolen, and though the whole county believed him; nay, though no one
+had the least doubt that Shaskay (who said it) had _seen_ the thief as
+he left the room, still the government, grossly violating the laws both
+of nature and of the country, dismissed the unfortunate receiver-general
+from his office. The county of Takshony made no less than thirteen
+petitions in his favour, but the worthy man could never succeed in
+regaining the office, of which he had discharged the duties to the
+unqualified satisfaction of the nobility, and from which he had not only
+derived no gains, but also sacrificed his own private property at cards.
+But so great is the virtue of a truly good man, that Mr. Shaskay,
+instead of joining (as might have been supposed) the opposition,
+remained faithful to his politics and his party, exerting the whole of
+his influence in behalf of the government, which had treated him so
+unjustly.
+
+Mr. Rety, the sheriff, stands in the centre of his own hall. He is
+dressed in a blue attila with silver buttons, his boots are armed with
+silver spurs, and his Meerschaum pipe is embossed with silver. His
+thoughts were of the approaching election, and of the speech which he
+intended to address to the Cortes; but the brilliant phrase upon which
+he had just stumbled, was interrupted by a distant howling and
+bellowing, which became gradually more distinct.
+
+"Eljen Rety! Eljen Skinner! Eljen the liberty of Hungary! Hujh ra!" and
+similar exclamations, with now and then a curse, and the report of a
+pistol, resounded through the village. And besides there was the
+wonderful burden of the song:--
+
+    "May the tulip flowers bloom for aye,
+    And Rety be our sheriff this day!"
+
+which will do for any election, and which is remarkable for the ease
+with which it may be adapted to the case or the name of any candidate.
+And there was a van with a gipsy band performing the Rakotzi, and all
+the dogs of the village stood by and barked their welcome.
+
+"This is indeed enthusiasm! this is indeed popularity!" said Karvay,
+stroking his moustache, and looking pleased; "by my soul it is a fine
+thing to be so much beloved! I am not rich, but I would give fifty
+florins any day to hear myself extolled in this manner."
+
+"Ah! but I trust to goodness they won't burn any thing!" said one of the
+poor relations, whose reminiscences of the last election were not of an
+agreeable kind.
+
+"Burn any thing! Terrem tette! of whom dost dare to speak?" roared
+Karvay. "Dost not know that thou speakest of noblemen? that St. Vilmosh
+has three hundred votes? The sheriff's house is insured, and if the
+worst were to come to the worst, and if all the village were burnt down,
+we ought to bless our stars that they have come to us instead of siding
+with the other party!"
+
+"Karvay is right," said Rety to his trembling cousin; "How dare you
+speak disrespectfully of my guests? I know the gentlemen of St.
+Vilmosh."
+
+"So do I!" roared Karvay, "every tenth man of my prisoners is from St.
+Vilmosh. Capital fellows they are! Your thief and murderer is a capital
+fellow in war, _or_ at an election."
+
+"There are some exceptions to that rule," interposed Shaskay. "In the
+insurrection of 1809, I understand the men of St. Vilmosh----"
+
+It was lucky for Shaskay that the Cortes had by this time come to the
+gate, for Mr. Karvay was preparing to pay the ex-receiver-general in
+kind, by an allusion to sundry monies. His biting jokes on that tender
+topic were, however, cut short by the arrival of the whole noble mob in
+not less than thirty large vans. The vans in front and in the rear were
+ornamented with large yellow flags with suitable mottoes, such as
+
+                         "Rety for ever!"
+
+     "No nobleman will condescend to build streets and dykes!"
+
+and mongrel rhymes in the following fashion:--
+
+    "To pay no taxes, to pay no toll;
+    To be exempt from the muster-roll;
+    To make the laws, and to live at we can,
+    Abusing the salt-prices:
+    This befits a nobleman."
+
+Every nobleman had a green and yellow feather stuck in his hat or
+kalpac; these colours being emblematical of the hopes of their own
+party, and the envy of their adversaries, while they served the
+practical purpose of a badge of recognition.
+
+The sheriff advanced, amidst violent cheering, to the front steps of the
+hall; the mob of noblemen shouting Halljuk[11]! formed a circle, and the
+notary of St. Vilmosh, stepping forward, addressed the patron in a
+speech of extraordinary pathos; in the course of which the words--Most
+revered,--Greece,--Rome,--Cicero,--patriotism,--singleness of
+purpose,--load star,--fragrant flowers,--forked tongues, pyramids, and
+steeple--were neither few nor far between, and which concluded with an
+assurance of the unbounded attachment of the constituency to the
+illustrious patriot he (the orator) had the supreme honour of
+addressing, and the quotation of "Si fractus illabetur orbis, impavidum
+ferient ruinae," or to adopt the translation of the whipper-in of the
+Cortes:--
+
+[Footnote 11: Hear! hear!]
+
+    "May the tulip-flowers bloom for aye,
+    And Rety be our sheriff this day!"
+
+This speech, but especially its conclusion, called forth a torrent of
+applause; and the enthusiasm reached its culminating point, when Mr.
+Rety, as usual, assured them that he was overwhelmed with
+confusion--that he was unprepared--that this was the happiest day of his
+life--that he had no ambition, but that it appeared his friends of St.
+Vilmosh commanded his services, and that he was always the man who----
+
+The assurance that Mr. Rety was "always the man who" excited cheers of
+the most deafening magnitude from his audience; and after the whipper-in
+had informed the sheriff that but one thing was wanting to the happiness
+of the noble mob, and that this one thing was the permission to kiss
+Lady Rety's hand, the crowd uttered another frantic shout of Eljen! and
+rushed into the house.
+
+A sumptuous repast awaited them in the sheriff's dining-room and in the
+barn. The former apartment was occupied by the _elite_ of the company,
+while the lower precincts of the barn sheltered a less select, though by
+no means a less noble party. The _elite_ feasted on four-and-twenty
+different kinds of sweetmeats, with Hungarian Champagne, Tokay, and
+ices; and the great mass of the Cortes filled their noble stomachs with
+Gulyash and Poerkoelt, Tarhonya, cream-cakes, dumplings, roast meats, wine
+and brandy.
+
+Etelka left the company immediately after dinner, while the Lady Rety
+conversed with some of the rising assessors and clergymen of the
+district. The gentlemen smoked their pipes in the hall, and in front of
+the house; and if the notary of St. Vilmosh was not among their number,
+his absence may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that Etelka's maid,
+Rosi, lived in another part of the house.
+
+Akosh and Kalman were walking in the garden. They were equals in age and
+station, and of course they were sworn friends. Nevertheless, the two
+young men were utterly different in their characters and tempers. Kalman
+was, by his education and constitution, a Betyar, that is to say, a
+root-and-branch Magyar of the old school; but it was his great ambition
+to be mistaken for a man of high European breeding and refinement.
+Akosh, on the other hand, who had the advantage of the best education
+which Paris and London can afford, had taken it into his head to act the
+Magyar, _par excellence_. Neither of them succeeded in maintaining his
+artificial character; and especially on that day they had both signally
+failed in their endeavours to falsify the old proverb: "Naturam expellas
+furca; tamen usque recurret."
+
+Akosh was indeed a Betyar when the dinner commenced; but he grew less
+talkative and noisy as the talking and the noise around him increased,
+until at length he found himself fairly silenced. Kalman, who sat by
+Etelka, and who was greatly cheered by the kind manner in which she
+treated him (for poor Kalman was desperately in love with Miss Rety),
+took but little wine, and for a time his conduct and conversation were
+all that he or Etelka could wish. But by degrees he fell back into his
+Betyarism, until the displeased looks and curt replies of the lady made
+him aware of his error. At the end of the dinner he was as silent as his
+friend. He scarcely ventured to look at Miss Rety; and when dinner was
+over he hurried Akosh to the garden, there to bewail his sad and cruel
+fate.
+
+"I am the most wretched of mortals!" cried he. "Did you observe the
+manner in which your sister treated me? She does not love me--nay, she
+detests and despises me!"
+
+"Are you mad?" replied Akosh.
+
+"No! I am not mad. Etelka does not love me; nor will she ever love me,
+and she is right. She is too good for the like of me."
+
+"You ought never to take any wine, Kalman; it makes you sad."
+
+"So you _did_ see it? And she, too, is disgusted with me! I will leave
+the country! I will go to a place where nobody knows me! where your
+sister will not be annoyed by my presence!"
+
+Kalman's lamentations were here cut short by Akosh, who, on being
+informed of the reason of this extraordinary distress, pledged his word
+that he would reconcile his sister to his friend; and Kalman's grief
+having given way to the hope of fresh favour, the two young men turned
+back to the house to find Etelka, and to solicit and obtain her pardon
+for any offence which her lover might have committed. But fate had
+willed it otherwise.
+
+Old Kishlaki, misled by the excitement of the day, had taken rather more
+wine than he ought to have done; his ideas were consequently less steady
+than they might have been. A match between Miss Rety and his son had
+always been among his pet projects. Urged on by the conviviality of the
+day, he had undertaken to address the Retys, and to solicit their
+daughter's hand for Mr. Kalman Kishlaki, his son and heir. Rety's answer
+to this unexpected offer was that he could not presume to judge of his
+daughter's inclinations; and the Lady Rety, in her turn, gave Mr.
+Kishlaki to understand that it would be more wise to reserve matters of
+such moment for the period after the election. The good man was too much
+excited to understand the real meaning of these answers. He fancied
+that everything was arranged; and, walking from group to group, he told
+the great secret to every one whom he met.
+
+The Cortes were meanwhile actively employed in rehearsing their votes
+for the election. They had already disposed of some of the lower places,
+and they now proceeded to elect Kalman Kishlaki a justice of the
+district. They strained every nerve of their lungs in shouting "Eljen
+Kalman Kishlaki!" Old Kishlaki was transported with joy, but he was
+grieved that his son's glorification should be lost within the walls of
+the barn. He called his servant, and informing him of the great secret,
+he hinted at the pleasure Miss Rety was sure to feel if the Cortes were
+to seize Kalman and to carry him in triumph to her room. The servant
+was, of course, quite of his master's opinion. He made his way to the
+barn, shouted "Halljuk!" and spoke so much to the purpose that the whole
+crowd of electors consented to accompany him to the garden. We ought to
+observe that Kishlaki's messenger gained his point chiefly by informing
+the Cortes of the proposed alliance between Etelka and Kalman.
+
+The three hundred noblemen of St. Vilmosh set up a deafening shout of
+"Eljen!" and directed their steps to the garden, while old Kishlaki wept
+with joy, and muttered: "Hej! it is a fine thing to be so popular!"
+
+Akosh and Kalman were close to the house when they met Kishlaki with all
+the Cortes at his heels. The old man had just time to embrace his son,
+and to cry out, "Do you hear it, Kalman? This is meant for you, my boy!"
+The very next moment they were surrounded by the men of St. Vilmosh.
+Their shout of "Eljen Kalman Kishlaki! Etelka Rety!" put a stop to all
+further conversation. The two young men were astonished. They did not
+know what to do or to say. But when old Kishlaki's servant proposed that
+the young man should be taken to "Miss Etelka, his betrothed bride;" and
+when a score of arms were stretched out to seize the fortunate lover,
+then it was that Kalman began to see how matters stood. He resisted, he
+prayed, he imprecated; and his father, too, who had no idea of
+proclaiming the affair in _this_ way, did his utmost to prevail upon
+them to leave Miss Rety's name unmentioned. His endeavours were in vain.
+Kalman's resistance was of no avail. There was a sudden rush--a
+scuffle--and he found himself hoisted on the shoulders of a couple of
+stout fellows. His hair was dishevelled and his coat torn. He had lost
+his cravat and his hat. But the crowd, unmindful of these drawbacks to
+the personal graces of their favourite, bore him onward to the
+apartments of his mistress. Great was the uproar, and violent were their
+cheers of "Eljen Kalman and Etelka!"
+
+The guests in the house rushed to the door, and, hearing the names of
+Kalman and Etelka, they turned to the sheriff and wished him joy. Mr.
+Rety received their congratulations with a sickly smile. Lady Rety,
+though mindful of Kishlaki's influence, protested with some warmth that
+there must be some mistake. But Karvay raised his powerful voice in
+honour of the young couple, whose St. Vilmosh friends had by this time
+arrived at the threshold of Etelka's room.
+
+Kalman was more dead than alive. He was about to appear before the lady
+of his love with his coat torn and his hair out of curl, and borne on
+the arms of three hundred Cortes! Entreaties, tears, imprecations--all
+were in vain; and they certainly would have introduced him to Miss Rety
+in the most disgraceful plight that ever lover faced his mistress in, if
+that lady had been in the room. But, when the door opened, they
+discovered in her stead Rosi, Miss Rety's maid, and at her side no less
+a personage than the hopeful notary of St. Vilmosh. This event brought
+matters to a favourable crisis. Akosh interfered, and pointing out to
+the assembly that a justice must needs have a juror, and that nobody was
+better qualified to fill that office than his friend, the notary of St.
+Vilmosh, he caused that gifted individual to be raised on the arms of
+the Cortes, who carried him after the justice that was to be, and at
+length presented both justice and juror to the sheriff.
+
+It need scarcely be said that Rosi was greatly shocked, but she became
+comforted on beholding her beloved notary on the shoulders of the
+Cortes, and when she understood that the public voice designated her
+chosen husband to fill the office of juror. She busied herself with
+arranging the things in the room, which had been put in disorder by the
+tumultuous entry of the Cortes. While she was thus occupied she heard
+Mr. Catspaw's voice in the next room (which was his own). He was, it
+appears, in the act of dismissing some individual, for he said:--
+
+"Well, then, at seven o'clock precisely, near the notary's garden."
+
+"Yes, your lordship! I mean to be punctual, your lordship," said another
+voice, which, though Oriental, did not seem to belong to a Hungarian.
+
+"You know your reward," rejoined Mr. Catspaw, as his interlocutor left
+the room.
+
+"Confusion!" exclaimed the frightened maid. "Mr. Catspaw was in his
+room! He knows all now, for he is wondrous sharp of hearing. What if he
+were to peach to my lady?" And uttering maledictions on the head of the
+attorney and his Jew, Rosi locked the door of her mistress's room and
+made the best of her way to the kitchen.
+
+The sheriff had meanwhile informed the most influential of his guests
+that he wished them to meet him for the purpose of a consultation. The
+Dons of the county assembled in the dining-room, which had been arranged
+for the sittings of a committee. In a corner of this room, which was
+ornamented with Rety's family portraits, and which still retained a
+faint smell of the dinner, there were three men of note standing
+together. They were Mr. Slatzanek, the agent and plenipotentiary of the
+Count Kovary; Baron Shoskuty; and Mr. Kriver, the recorder. Their
+conversation ran in the most natural course, that is to say, it turned
+on the chances of the election.
+
+"Are you sure," said Mr. Slatzanek, addressing the recorder, "of that
+wretched Vetshoesy having joined Bantornyi's party?"
+
+"I grieve to say that there can be no doubt about it."
+
+"Did I not always tell you," cried the Baron--"did I not tell you a
+thousand times that I suspected Vetshoesy? Three years ago, just a
+fortnight before the election, on a Friday afternoon, unless I am
+mistaken, I met you, Mr. Kriver, at the coffee-house. There were some of
+us, and some officers likewise, and I lighted my pipe and sat by you,
+and I said: 'That fellow Vetshoesy----'"
+
+"You were quite right, sir; but----"
+
+"That fellow Vetshoesy, said I, is a liberal, and, what is worse, he
+talks of his principles; he has some property, and----"
+
+"Just so!" interposed Slatzanek. "Vetshoesy is an influential man; the
+more fools we for making him justice of a district in which there are so
+many votes; but----"
+
+"I know what you are about to say!" cried the Baron. "He might be gained
+over. Now, I'll tell you, I live in his district. Very well then, what
+do you say to a hunt--a legal hunt--a wolf hunt? We will have the
+peasants to drive the game. You will all come, and he, as justice of the
+district, must be one of us. Of course our wolf hunt is but a legal
+fiction, but he, as district judge, must be one of us, and we'll snare
+him, that we will."
+
+"Alas!" sighed the recorder, "this is well and good; but the great
+obstacle is your son, the young Baron. He has more influence in the
+county than you have, and he is against us."
+
+"Devil of a boy! devil of a boy!" cried the Baron, "and yet how often
+did I not say: My son Valentine----"
+
+"Suppose you were to exert your paternal authority?"
+
+"Just so! You are right. My paternal authority authorises me to force my
+boy to any thing I like. And we are always of the same opinion, that boy
+and I; and he obeys me in all things, that boy does; and I think he had
+better, so he had! but on that one subject he is most unreasonable, I
+tell you."
+
+"But it is on that very subject that he ought to yield to your superior
+wisdom."
+
+"You are right! indeed you are. I'll disinherit that boy, confound me if
+I do not!"
+
+Slatzanek, who was aware that the old Baron had very little to leave,
+and whose sagacity taught him to expect little or no effect from so
+vague a threat of a remote contingency, inquired whether there was no
+other means of compelling the young man; to which the Baron replied that
+there was no lack of means, especially if the lad could but be induced
+to marry.
+
+"You have no idea, sir, how strongly marriage tells upon a man," said
+he, "especially in our family. When I was a bachelor, I was the most
+liberal man you could meet with in three counties any summer's day; and
+at present----. But the boy won't marry!"
+
+"How do we stand in this district?" said Slatzanek, addressing Mr.
+Kriver.
+
+"As bad as can be. Tengelyi is against us."
+
+"Tengelyi!" cried the Baron. "Tengelyi indeed! A mere village notary!
+Bless my soul! Tengelyi! How many Tengelyis does it take, do you think,
+to face _me_ at the election?"
+
+"Alas!" said Slatzanek, "votes are counted in this country, and not
+weighed; I know few men that are more powerful than this notary."
+
+"And Akosh Rety," suggested Mr. Kriver, "does not indeed oppose us, but
+that is all."
+
+"Ah!" cried the Baron; "just like my own son! I said just now----"
+
+"However, if the Kishlakis stand but by us, we are pretty certain of
+this district."
+
+"But we cannot rely on the Kishlakis," said Kriver. "Kalman is out of
+temper; he is jealous of the Count Harashy."
+
+"You don't say so! Miss Rety was proclaimed as his future wife."
+
+"Ay, but the Cortes did it," whispered the recorder, "and it struck me
+that Lady Rety was not at all pleased."
+
+"You are right," said the Baron. "It struck me too. I sat by Lady Rety,
+talking of the weather, when the Cortes bore Kalman about, and when I
+heard them shouting,--'Dear lady,' said I----"
+
+"We must be careful," said Slatzanek; "I fear ours is a bad position."
+
+"As for me," said Mr. Kriver, "you are aware of my zeal; and I assure
+you that I will keep our party _au courant_ of all the enemy's
+manoeuvres."
+
+"And to know your adversary's plans is half the battle!" cried the
+Baron, clapping his hands.
+
+"Oh! if the noblemen in the county were all like my own tenants!" cried
+Slatzanek. "They vote with me; if they do not, they lose their farms.
+They are the men for an election!"
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the sheriff, and
+the labours of the committee commenced in due form with a provisional
+election of functionaries: Rety came in for the shrievalty; Mr. Kriver,
+the recorder, was appointed his Vice; and almost every one of the
+persons present obtained the promise of a place, either for himself or
+a friend. This done, the committee directed their attention to the means
+of fighting the battle of the real election; and, after a lengthened
+conversation on the usual electioneering tactics,--the favouring of a
+class, the kidnapping of electors, and the devising of plans for the
+especial annoyance of the hostile party, it was finally resolved to
+arrange the reception of the Lord-Lieutenant, who was to conduct the
+election, in such a manner as to impress that great functionary with a
+favourable opinion of the Rety party. But the most arduous duty of the
+committee was the "finding the ways and means" for the confirmation of
+their political friends, and the conciliation of such among the enemy's
+troops as had some scruples about the justice of the cause which they
+had espoused. But Slatzanek's talents of persuasion, and the Lady Rety's
+sarcastic remarks, prevailed against the prudential considerations of
+certain timid assessors and justices; and the subscription having
+terminated to the general satisfaction of Rety and his friends, the
+meeting dispersed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+
+While the committee were carrying on their deliberations in the castle
+of Tissaret, the house of the notary stood in peaceful tranquillity, and
+only the lights, which shone through the windows, gave evidence of the
+presence of its inhabitants. The house had two rooms fronting the
+street; one of these apartments, which had a back door communicating
+with the court-yard, was devoted to the use of Tengelyi, who kept his
+papers in it. The other room, which opened into the former apartment and
+the kitchen, was occupied by Mrs. Ershebet and her daughter. The kitchen
+had two doors, one leading to the garden, and the other to the yard.
+Next the kitchen was the store-room in which Viola had been hidden. At
+the further end of the house was the servants' room, and a small chamber
+in which lay Viola's wife. Tengelyi had spent the day at Tsherepesh, at
+Mr. Bantornyi's house; for the Bantornyi party, too, had their meetings
+and committees. Mrs. Ershebet, and Vandory who had dined at the
+notary's, were in the sick chamber, and Etelka and Vilma sat chatting in
+the second front room.
+
+"Then you did not see him after all!" said Etelka. "'Tis a pity. I would
+give any thing to meet Viola, for I take a great interest in him."
+
+"How _can_ you talk in that way! God knows I pity the poor man; but I
+certainly do not wish to make his acquaintance. You are bold and
+courageous! but as for me, I am sure it would kill me to see him. They
+say he is a murderer."
+
+"Nonsense! a man who is so fond of his wife as Viola cannot be so wicked
+as they say he is. I do not know of any man--except your father--who
+would brave so great a danger to see his wife under such circumstances:
+I can admire that love, even in a robber; and thus I too wish to be
+beloved, no matter by whom!"
+
+"If that can satisfy you," said Vilma, "I am sure there is nothing but
+what Kalman will do for you."
+
+"Always excepting the being sober, and eschewing swearing, and all the
+clumsy affectation of a cavalier. Kalman would do any thing for me, but
+the one thing I ask him to do."
+
+"Now you are unjust. I am sure he would leap into the fire for your
+sake."
+
+"Of course he would, especially if some of his friends were present to
+extol his bravery. Kalman is very brave; it is his nature to be so; he
+cannot help it. He has many good qualities, I grant, but pray do not
+tell me that he loves me."
+
+"I see you are again at odds with him. What is his crime?"
+
+"He--but never mind! I will not talk about it. I cannot respect him, nor
+can I believe that he loves me."
+
+"Akosh has a far different opinion of him."
+
+"So he has!" rejoined Etelka; "but may I not question the justness of
+his views? Men are wont to prize their friends for those qualities which
+are of the greatest use to them. A good sportsman, a man that sticks to
+his word, and who will fight a duel for his friend at a moment's
+warning--such a man is their idol; they are half astonished, and more
+than half disgusted that we should ask for more. But I do!"
+
+Vilma was silent. She saw that Etelka was hurt, and Etelka too wished to
+change the topic of their conversation. Addressing Vilma again, she
+said:--
+
+"I can fancy your father's disgust last night, when he came home and
+learned what had happened."
+
+"I never saw him in such a state. But Vandory came with him; he
+succeeded in quieting my father. I tremble when I think of it. He says
+he will have his right in this business."
+
+"Never fear," said Etelka.
+
+"But do you know whom he suspects of being the cause? He lays it all at
+the door of your father and mother?"
+
+"Of my _step_mother; and I am afraid he is right in his suspicions."
+
+"Yes; but my father is again angry with all your family, except
+yourself. He is most violent against Akosh, who saved us from ruin. Only
+think if they had searched the house and found Viola! My father----"
+
+"He will never know it."
+
+"But if my father were to bring an action against Mr. Skinner? He
+protests he will do it."
+
+"He will never do it. He was angry at the time, and I am sure he will
+reconsider the subject. But do not speak to him about it. If he knew it,
+he would not keep quiet, and there are many people who would be glad of
+any opportunity of showing their enmity against him."
+
+"That's what old Mother Liptaka said. But you cannot think how
+distressing my situation is. I, who never kept any thing secret from my
+father, must now face him with an untruth. Every noise alarms me; for
+with my secret I lose my father's love. Oh! I cannot bear it!"
+
+"And yet you must bear it," replied Etelka, embracing the weeping girl.
+"The peace of mind and the welfare of your father demand this
+sacrifice."
+
+"I think so too," said Vilma; "but then you have no idea how kind my
+father is, and how I long to kneel down and confess my fault to him!"
+
+"My poor Vilma," sighed Miss Rety, "I am at a loss whether I am to pity
+you, or to envy you. I am not in a position to confide in my parent. But
+be comforted: trust me, things will be altered. I understand my father
+is to resign after the election, and Mr. Tengelyi's anger will subside.
+Vandory will perhaps provide for Viola's wife. In a few weeks you will
+be able to tell your father all your sorrows."
+
+"But what am I to do in the meantime? Viola came, though he knew that
+the whole village was in arms against him. The Liptaka tells me that he
+loves his wife more than I can think or understand. May he not come
+to-morrow, or to-night, or any time?--Jesus Maria!" shrieked Vilma,
+turning her pale face to the garden--"there he is!"
+
+"Who?" asked Etelka, looking in the same direction.
+
+"He! he is gone now,--but trust me, there he stood! I saw his face quite
+plainly!"
+
+"Do you speak of Viola? Believe me you will not see him here, so long as
+Mr. Skinner, with half the county at his back, keeps infesting the
+place. How foolish and how pale you are! Come. I will fetch you a glass
+of water; it will do you good."
+
+Just as Etelka got up to leave the room, some one outside knocked softly
+at the door.
+
+"Oh, pray do not go!" cried Vilma. "Who can it be that knocks. It is so
+late! I fear----"
+
+"Some one for your father; but we'll see. Come in!" said Etelka.
+
+The door opened, and a Jew entered with many low bows and entreaties to
+excuse the liberty he was taking in saying good evening to the high and
+gracious ladies.
+
+Vilma's fear, and the Jew's humility, formed so strange a contrast, that
+Etelka could not repress a smile, especially when she saw that Vilma
+remained still in bodily fear of the stranger, who stood quietly by the
+door, turning his brimless hat in his hands. His appearance was not
+that of a robber; on the contrary, he was a sickly and unarmed man;
+still his aspect was of a kind to make even a bold man feel
+uncomfortable in his presence. Jantshi, or John, the glazier (such at
+least was his name in _this_ county) was the ugliest man in the whole
+kingdom of Hungary. His diminutive body seemed as if bowed down by the
+weight of his gigantic head; his face was marked with the small-pox, and
+more than one-half of it was covered with a forest of red hair, and a
+wiry, dirty beard of the same colour. He had lost one of his eyes--its
+place was covered with a black patch; the searching and roving look of
+his other eye, his shuffling gait, and his cringing politeness, made him
+an object of suspicion and dislike to every one that chanced to meet
+him. Even Etelka felt disagreeably touched by the man's looks, and she
+became positively alarmed when Vilma whispered to her, that that was the
+face which she had seen at the window.
+
+"Mr. Tengelyi is out, I tell you," said Etelka. "You may come to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Most gracious lady," said the Jew, still turning his hat and looking
+round, "this is indeed a misfortune! I have some pressing business with
+the high-born Mr. Tengelyi."
+
+"Well then, come back in half-an-hour; perhaps he'll be home to supper."
+
+"If so, may I wait outside?" asked the Jew, without, however, moving
+from the place where he stood. "Has his worship any dogs?"
+
+"Dogs?" said Vilma.
+
+"Yes, if there are no dogs in the yard I can wait; but if there are any
+I cannot wait. I am afraid of them."
+
+"You may wait!" said Etelka, angrily; "there are no dogs in the house."
+
+"Yes: but there may be some in the next house. I am a stranger, and it
+was but last year, in the third village from here, that the dogs nearly
+tore me to pieces. Since that time I fear them." And the stranger told
+them a long story, how he was walking through the village, how the dogs
+attacked him, and how he was saved by a shepherd who happened to hear
+his cries. "Bless me!" added the Jew, "if that man had not come they
+would have torn my cloak, and it was a very good cloak; it was not new,
+but it was a good cloak, for I bought it at Pesth for five florins and
+thirty kreutzers."
+
+The Jew was so cunning, and withal so awkward, that Etelka could not
+help laughing at him; but Vilma felt uncomfortable, and asked him to go
+and come back in half an hour. Whereupon the Jew said that he would
+wait in the servants' room.
+
+"No!" said Vilma; "there is a sick woman lying close by the servants'
+room; besides, we have told you over and over again that you must come
+back in half an hour, and that you shall not stay."
+
+The Jew bowed very humbly, and walking to the door which led into the
+kitchen, he opened it.
+
+"Stop!" said Vilma; "where are you going to?"
+
+"I throw myself at your feet! I ask a thousand pardons! I am so
+confused. May I go through that door into the yard?"
+
+"That door is locked. Get out by the door through which you came in."
+
+The Jew made another low bow, and walked across Tengelyi's room to the
+door by which he had entered; not, however, without looking to the
+adjoining room, dropping his hat on the floor, and turning the handle of
+the door in every direction but the right one, while his eye seemed to
+peer into and examine every corner of the apartment.
+
+"What do you say to that?" asked Vilma, when he was gone; "I will bet
+you any thing that fellow is a spy."
+
+"Nothing is more likely; for he seems to be capable of any thing, and in
+war he would certainly act as a spy. But why should he exercise that
+noble trade in your house?"
+
+"He was looking after Viola and his wife. You know how eager Mr. Skinner
+is to arrest the robber."
+
+"I know that yesterday he was in pursuit of the poor man; but to-day he
+has other matters to think of. No, I am sure the Jew has some request or
+some complaint to make to your father."
+
+"But he asked so many questions; he looked into every corner of the
+room."
+
+"He was afraid of the dogs, and perhaps he hoped to discover a broken
+pane of glass. It would have been a job for him, you know."
+
+But Vilma was by no means easy in her mind. She was about to give vent
+to a great many more fears, when Tengelyi's arrival put a stop to the
+conversation.
+
+While his daughter took charge of his hat and cane, the notary turned to
+Etelka.
+
+"I was hardly prepared to find Miss Rety here," said he, "there are so
+many guests at the Castle."
+
+"Are you not aware that their presence at the Castle adds to my reasons
+for coming here?"
+
+"Indeed! I fancied that these gentlemen could not be sufficiently
+honoured just before the election."
+
+Etelka's feelings were hurt, and she was at a loss what to say; but
+Vilma, who wished to turn the conversation into another channel, asked
+her father whether he had not met a Jew, who had just left the house.
+
+"I did meet him," said the notary. "I found him near my door, talking to
+Mr. Catspaw. By the by, now I think of it, Mr. Catspaw asked me to give
+his compliments to Miss Rety, and to inform her that he is going to send
+a servant with a lanthorn. They are going to supper; the sheriff has
+several times asked for Miss Rety."
+
+"But what did the Jew want with you? He was very pressing; he wanted to
+see you on business of great importance."
+
+"Business? ay, yes, it's a sorry business to him, though good sport to
+others. The poor fellow did a job at the Castle, and the very
+praiseworthy Cortes of the county took his glass chest and broke it for
+him; and because he was not at all amused, or because he is a Jew, or
+one-eyed, or Heaven knows why they thrashed him. It's a trifling matter,
+you see," said the notary, addressing Miss Rety, "for some people must
+be beaten at an election, especially Jews, merely to give the new
+officers something to do, and to convince the sufferers that, as far as
+they are concerned, things have remained much the same as they were
+before."
+
+"But, father dear, this is indeed horrible," said Vilma.
+
+"Nothing more simple, dearest child. What were an Hungarian's liberties
+worth, if he were not allowed to thrash a Jew? But the affair has been
+settled. Mr. Catspaw has promised to pay for the glass, and I am very
+much mistaken if the Jew does not make the attorney pay for the beating
+too."
+
+Mrs. Ershebet and the clergyman entered the room. Etelka kissed her
+friend and returned to the Castle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+
+It was but natural that while the Conservative party at Tissaret made so
+many preparations for the election, Mr. Bantornyi's cooks and butlers
+should be equally busy. Tserepesh was the seat of Bantornyi's party,
+whose numbers surpassed those of Rety's adherents. Almost all the great
+landowners of the county, with the exception of Kishlaki, Shoskuty, and
+Slatzanek, resorted to Tserepesh. Their enthusiasm (to judge from the
+noise they made) was unbounded, and their chief strength consisted in
+the support of the younger and consequently more liberal members of the
+community. But Mr. Kriver, who sided with either party, had his reasons
+for doubting the ultimate success of the Bantornyis. He was aware that
+excepting himself, the prothonotary, and a few vice-justices, all the
+placemen of the county belonged to the Conservative party, which did the
+more credit to their disinterestedness and foresight, as it was well
+known that Bantornyi was leagued with men, who, like himself, aspired
+for the first time to the honours and cares of office, a policy whose
+edge will sometimes turn against him who uses it. Besides, (and this is
+indeed Mr. Kriver's chief ground of doubt,) Bantornyi's party had
+resolved to act upon the mind of the Cortes by persuasion, and to eschew
+bribery. This sublime, but rather impractical idea emanated from
+Tengelyi, whose motion to that effect was so zealously supported by
+Bantornyi's friends (excepting always the candidates for office), that
+the recorder's eloquence and Bantornyi's entreaties were of no avail
+against this virtuous resolution of theirs. In justice to Bantornyi we
+ought to say, that he and his family strove to make up for this fault,
+and his noble friends were never in want of either wine or brandy; but
+this rash resolution which the Retys published with their own
+commentaries was nevertheless a serious drawback to the success of the
+party. Well might the Bantornyis agitate for the emancipation of the
+Jews (so the Rety party said) since they were stingier than a thousand
+Jews; they despised the nobility because they refused to treat its
+members. Bantornyi's secret donations were fairly smothered by these
+public calumnies. Kriver was perfectly justified in protesting that what
+the party wanted was the _power of publicity_. Rety's men, on the other
+hand, perambulated the villages; they bore gaudy flags; they had their
+houses of resort; they distributed feathers among the men and ribbons
+among the women; the very children in the streets were gained over to
+them. Every noble fellow knew that it would be three zwanzigers in his
+pocket if Rety was returned. And the Bantornyis walked about
+empty-handed, appealing to moral force! They had not even the ghost of a
+chance; the candidates for office became dissatisfied and talked of
+effecting a compromise with the enemy, and there is no saying what they
+might have done but for a most unexpected event, which caused them to
+rally round their leader.
+
+The lord-lieutenant wrote to inform Mr. Bantornyi of his intention to
+visit the county, and of staying a night at Tserepesh. The letter which
+contained this welcome intelligence was in his Excellency's own
+handwriting, and the sensation produced in the county was of course
+immense. The lord-lieutenant had always taken up his quarters in Rety's
+house. Now Rety was a renegade. An old liberal, he had joined the
+Conservative party. And the lord-lieutenant, scorning Rety's proffered
+hospitality, turns to the house of his antagonist. His Excellency was a
+liberal at heart, and that was the secret--at least in the opinion of
+the Tserepesh people. The Rety party were a little shocked. They said,
+of course, that his Excellency consulted but his own convenience; that
+Bantornyi's house was the most convenient place on _that_ road, and that
+the inns in that part of the county were villanous; but in their inmost
+souls they denounced this step as the greatest political fault which his
+Excellency could have committed, and which, they were sure, _must_ lead
+to his downfall. The anti-bribery party were positive that the high
+functionary was aware of the despicable means which the Retys employed
+to get their chief returned, and that he claimed Bantornyi's hospitality
+only to express his disgust at the unlawful practices of bribery and
+corruption. It need scarcely be said that Tengelyi was a zealous
+supporter of the latter opinion. But whatever reasons the Count
+Maroshvoelgyi had for going to Tserepesh, certain it is that the news of
+his coming gave the Bantornyis hopes, and more than hopes of success. It
+steadied the wavering ranks of their partizans and recruited their
+number by a crowd of would-be candidates. The day appointed for the
+Count's arrival saw the house of the Bantornyis thronged with
+anti-bribery men; and though his Excellency was not expected before
+nightfall, it was all but impossible to cross the hall at nine o'clock
+in the morning.
+
+Bantornyi's house was one of those buildings with which every traveller
+in Hungary must be acquainted. It was a castellated mansion with nine
+windows; a large gate in the middle, and a tower at each of its four
+corners. The interior of these buildings is always the same. An ascent
+of three stone steps leads you to the gate, and walking through a large
+stone-paved hall you enter the dining-room, to the right of which are
+the apartments of the lady of the house, and to the left the rooms
+destined for the use of the landlord and his guests. Bantornyi's castle
+was built on this plan; but, ever since the return from England of Mr.
+Jacob--or _James_ Bantornyi--(for he delighted most in the English
+reading of his name) Mr. Lajosh Bantornyi had come to be a stranger in
+his own house.
+
+There is in England a very peculiar thing which is commonly known by the
+name of _comfort_. Mr. James had made deep investigations into the
+nature and qualities of this peculiar British "thing" (as he called it).
+Indeed he had come to understand and master it. The "thing," viz.
+comfort, is chiefly composed of three things: first, that a man's home
+be built as irregularly as possible; secondly, that there be an
+abundance of small galleries and narrow passages, and no lack of steps
+near the doors of the rooms; and, thirdly, that the street-door be
+fastened with a Bramah lock and key. Curtains and low arm-chairs are
+capital things in their way; but most indispensable are some truly
+English fire-places fit for burning coal, for it is the smoke of coal
+which gives a zest to English comfort. When Mr. James Bantornyi returned
+from England, he rebuilt the family mansion on a plan which was
+suggested by "Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage Architecture." The new
+building which did so much honour to his taste, was not above one story
+high; but one of the old towers, which communicated with the new house,
+was built higher, and (in spite of Mr. Lajosh's protests) provided with
+a wooden staircase. A verandah was constructed on that side of the house
+which fronted the garden, and an antechamber and a billiard-room were
+built in the yard. The giant oaks of an English park were indeed but
+indifferently imitated by a few Mashanza apple trees; but the garden
+walls, which Mr. James caused to be painted red and yellow, gave a
+tolerable idea of the unpainted walls of an English landscape. The
+stables were, of course, condemned to similar improvements; and the
+grooms were threatened with instant dismissal if they presumed to do
+their work without that peculiar hissing noise which English grooms are
+wont to make in the exercise of their professional avocations. Stairs,
+steps, passages, verandahs, curtains, fireplaces, and arm-chairs--in
+short, every thing was there; and the Bramah lock was famous throughout
+the county; for once upon a time, when Mr. James had gone to Pesth, the
+street-door was found to be locked, and the key (by some inexplicable
+mischance) lost; nor could the family enter the house or leave it in any
+other way than by climbing through the windows of the verandah, until
+Mr. James, who had the other key fastened to his watch chain, returned
+from his journey and opened the door. The old castle, which was
+inhabited by Mr. Lajosh, had escaped most of these improvements; but Mr.
+James caused his elder brother to consent to some alterations being made
+in the dining-room. It was moreover pronounced to be a high crime and
+misdemeanour to smoke in any part of the house.
+
+While Mr. Lajosh Bantornyi was busy in receiving and complimenting his
+guests, his brother James and Mr. Kriver were walking in the garden.
+James was evidently out of spirits. He shook his head, stood still,
+walked and shook his head again, beat his boots with a hunting-whip, and
+replied to the recorder's remarks with "_most true_," "_yes_,"
+"_indeed_," and other expressions of English parliamentary language.
+
+"I am sure," said Mr. Kriver, in a whisper, "I am sure we are losing our
+labour, unless we have a committee-room and some flags. Your spending
+money is of no use. Your brother's popularity will not do him any good.
+They take your money, but they don't come to the election, and _if_ they
+come, they are kidnapped by Rety's party."
+
+"_You are right, my friend_, which means, I agree with you; but what the
+devil shall we do?"
+
+"Induce your brother to get up some English affair, some _moting_, or
+_meeting_, or some such thing."
+
+"_Meeting_, from _to meet_, which means that people meet. I hope you
+understand the derivation of the word!"
+
+"That's it! We ought to get up something like a meeting where people
+meet and drink."
+
+"You are mistaken. That drinking business is altogether a different
+affair: they call it a '_political dinner_.' But you _meet_ to discuss a
+question; and people sign their names to petitions by hundreds of
+thousands and more, and such a petition tells upon the government. I
+attended such a meeting at Glasgow, but----"
+
+Nothing can equal the horror which Mr. Kriver felt when he saw Mr.
+James prepared to favour him with a sketch of his travels. "Ah! I know,"
+said the recorder quickly, "you, too, signed the petition; it was when
+you made that agitation about the Poor Law. But to return to what I was
+saying, we ought to give a political dinner, and you ought to make a
+speech, and state the principles of the party."
+
+"No; they drink the king's health first, and the health of the members
+of the royal family, for the dynasty ought to be honoured. A man is at
+liberty to say of the government whatever he pleases; but the king, you
+know, the king must be honoured. That's the liberty of an Englishman.
+Next----"
+
+"The lord-lieutenant."
+
+"Shocking! You are quite in the dark about it. After the royal family we
+must have some class toasts; for example, the Church, army, and navy."
+
+"I'm afraid those toasts would do little good. There is a strong feeling
+against the Papists; that toast of the Church is enough to send all our
+Protestants to--Rety."
+
+"You are quite right. Our Dissenters hate our High Church as much as the
+English Dissenters hate theirs. But I don't see why we should not toast
+'the Church.' Every man drinks to his own Church; but if they were to
+accuse us of sympathy for the Roman Catholics, where's the harm? Only
+think how closely the Whigs were leagued with O'Connell!"
+
+"My friend," said Mr. Kriver, "you know England; but I know this county.
+Our countrymen cannot understand and appreciate your ideas."
+
+"Yes!" said Mr. James, highly flattered, "I am sure they cannot. But the
+army we must have."
+
+"Of course, if you wish it. But the great thing is to make it a regular,
+downright, out-and-out, drinking bout."
+
+"But what in the world are we to do? My brother and I have gone all
+lengths. We have spent a year's income on this confounded election."
+
+"Nor is money the thing we want, if we can but make some grand
+demonstration. But unless our people get their feathers and colours, we
+are winged. Do but induce your brother to act like a man; we are sure to
+gain the day."
+
+"We have promised to employ none but honourable means----"
+
+"To get the majority. But the means which I propose are, in _my_
+opinion, most honourable. Is there any thing dishonourable in
+hospitality?"
+
+"Certainly not; and I grant you the resolution admits of various
+interpretations. But some people there are who do not think so."
+
+"Nonsense! When we passed that silly resolution, there were indeed lots
+of fools that voted with Tengelyi; but why did they do it? Because they
+were not booked for a place, and because they were afraid for their
+money. But with your own money you are quite at liberty to buy as many
+Cortes as you please."
+
+"But Tengelyi!"
+
+"Tengelyi! What of him? And suppose he were to leave us, what then? He
+is an honest man, I grant you; but after all, he is only a village
+notary."
+
+"His influence is great, especially with the clergy; and if _he_ were to
+oppose us----"
+
+"Oppose us? Impossible! Tengelyi is more impracticable than any man ever
+was. No matter whether you insult him or flatter him, you lose your
+pains. The good man fancies that a village notary's conviction goes
+beyond every thing. Besides, he will never vote for Rety's party; and if
+he votes for them, I know of something that will play the devil with his
+influence."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Tengelyi," whispered Kriver, "is not a nobleman."
+
+"Not a----! can it be possible?"
+
+"I am sure of it. You know that fellow Catspaw is a crony of mine. Old
+Rety was Tengelyi's friend, though they hate one another now; and old
+Rety knows all Tengelyi's secrets. Catspaw told me that the notary has
+not a rag of paper to prove his noble descent by. The prothonotary, too,
+is aware of it, though he keeps his counsel; and so do we, if he votes
+for us. But if he turns against us, we have him close enough in a
+corner."
+
+The prothonotary, who at this moment came up, confirmed Mr. Kriver's
+statement; and Mr. James pledged his word as a gentleman to hoist the
+colours of the party, and to invite the whole county to a political
+dinner.
+
+The day passed amidst Mr. James's varied, and indeed interesting,
+accounts of the Doncaster races, and the debates of the English
+parliament--accounts which were given seriatim to small knots of guests
+in every corner of every room in the house; while Mrs. James Bantornyi
+was busy superintending the arrangement of the apartments destined for
+the lord-lieutenant's use. In the evening Mr. Lajosh Bantornyi was in a
+state of great excitement. He walked restlessly to and fro, pulled out
+his watch, and looked at it. He walked out into the park and came back
+again, addressing every one he met with: "Really his Excellency ought
+to be here by this time!" Whereupon some of the guests said: "Yes, so he
+ought!" and others protested that his Excellency must have been detained
+on the road. The words of "_contra_" and "_pagat ultimo_" rung from the
+card table; and the noise of a political discussion, in which no less
+than thirty persons joined, intent on reconciling twelve opinions on
+four different subjects, drowned the complaints of Mr. Lajosh Bantornyi.
+But Mr. James, who saw and pitied his brother's distress, mounted his
+horse, and, accompanied by two torch-bearers, set out to meet the
+lord-lieutenant on the road. He was scarcely gone when the din of an
+angry discussion broke through the dense cloud of smoke which enveloped
+the card-tables.
+
+"Mr. Sheriff, this is unsupportable; this is!" cried a man with a sallow
+and somewhat dirty face. It was Mr. Janoshy, an assessor, and a man of
+influence. "Mr. Sheriff, I won't stand it. Penzeshy has saved his
+pagat!"
+
+"Has he indeed? Well then, there is no help for it, if he has saved it."
+
+"But I covered it."
+
+"But why did you cover it?"
+
+"Because I have eight taroks."
+
+"Eight taroks! Why then, in the name of h--ll, did you not take it?"
+
+"Why, what did _you_ lead spades for?"
+
+"What the deuce do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Clubs, sir! It was your bounden duty, sir, to lead clubs, sir," said
+Janoshy, very fiercely.
+
+"Clubs be ----! Do you mean to tell me, sir, that I ought to have played
+my king? I'd see you----"
+
+"I appeal to you!" cried Janoshy, addressing Penzeshy, who was shuffling
+the cards, while the company thronged round the table.
+
+"Go on!" said Mr. Kriver.
+
+"This is not fair play!" cried Janoshy.
+
+"I play to please myself and not you," retorted the sheriff.
+
+"Then you ought to play by yourself, but not for _my_ money!"
+
+"Here's your stake! take it and welcome!"
+
+"I won't stand it. By G--d I won't!" cried Mr. Janoshy, jumping up.
+"You, sir! you take the money back, or give it to your servant, (poor
+fellow! it's little enough he gets); but don't talk to me in that way,
+sir! I won't stand it, sir!"
+
+Here the altercation was interrupted by the general interference of
+every man in the room, and in the confusion of tongues which ensued,
+nothing was heard but the words, "pagat,--sheriff--good manners--_tous
+les trois_"--until Shoskuty, in a blue dress embroidered with gold (for
+every body was in full dress), entered the room. He silenced the most
+noisy by being noisier still. "_Domini spectabiles!_" cried Shoskuty,
+"for God's sake be quiet, Mr. Janoshy is quite hoarse, and I am sure his
+Excellency is coming. That confounded pagat!--only think of his
+Excellency!--though it was saved--for after all we are but mortal
+men!--I am sure he is hoarse;" and thus he went on, when of a sudden the
+doors of the apartment were flung open and a servant rushed in shouting,
+"His Excellency is at the door!"
+
+"Is he? Goodness be--where's my sabre?" cried Shoskuty, running to the
+antechamber which served as a temporary arsenal, while the rest of the
+company ran into the next room, where they fought for their pelisses.
+
+"I do pray, _domine spectabilis_! but this is mine. It's green with
+ermine!" cried the recorder, stopping one of the assessors who had just
+donned his pelisse, and who turned to look for his sword. The assessor
+protested with great indignation, and the recorder was at length
+compelled to admit his mistake. Disgusted as he was, he dropped his
+kalpac, which was immediately trodden down by the crowd.
+
+"'Sblood! where is my sword? Terrem tette!" shouted Janoshy, making vain
+endeavours to push forward into the sword room, while Shoskuty, who had
+secured his weapon, was equally unsuccessful in his struggles to obtain
+his pelisse.
+
+"But I pray! I _do_ pray! I am the speaker of the deputation--blue and
+gold--I must have it--do but consider!" groaned the worthy baron. His
+endeavours were at length crowned with success, and he possessed himself
+of a pelisse which certainly bore some similarity to his own. Throwing
+it over his shoulders Baron Shoskuty did his best to add to the general
+confusion by entreating the gentlemen to be quick, "for," added he, "his
+Excellency has just arrived!"
+
+The lord-lieutenant's carriage had by this time advanced to the park
+palings, where the schoolboys and the peasantry greeted its arrival with
+maddening "Eljens!" The coachman was in the act of turning the corner of
+the gate, when the quick flash and the awful roar of artillery burst
+forth from the ditch at the road-side. His Excellency was surprised; so
+were the horses. They shied and overturned the carriage. The
+torch-bearing horsemen galloped about, frightening the village out of
+its propriety, as the foxes did, when Samson made them torch-bearers to
+the Philistines. Mr. James, following the impulse of the moment, came
+down over his horse's head; the deputation, who were waiting in
+Bantornyi's hall, wrung their hands with horror. At length the horses
+ceased rearing and plunging; and as the danger of being kicked by them
+was now fairly over, the company to a man rushed to welcome their
+beloved lord-lieutenant.
+
+The deputation was splendid, at least in the Hungarian acceptation of
+the word, for all the dresses of all its members were richly
+embroidered. Shoskuty in a short blue jacket frogged and corded and
+fringed with gold, and with his red face glowing under the weight of a
+white and metal-covered kalpac, felt that the dignity of a whole county
+was represented by his resplendent person. Thrice did he bow to his
+Excellency, and thrice did the deputation rattle their spurs and imitate
+the movement of their leader, who, taking his speech from the pocket of
+his cloak, addressed the high functionary with a voice tremulous with
+emotion.
+
+"At length, glorious man, hast thou entered the circle of thy admirers,
+and the hearts which hitherto sighed for thee, beat joyfully in thy
+presence!"
+
+His Excellency unfolded a handkerchief ready for use; the members of the
+deputation cried "Helyesh!" and the curate of a neighbouring village,
+who had joined the deputation, became excited and nervous. The speaker
+went on.
+
+"Respect and gratitude follow thy shadow; and within the borders of thy
+county there is no man but glories in the consciousness that _thou_ art
+his superior."
+
+"He talks in print! he does indeed," whispered an assessor.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the curate, very nervously, "it was _I_ who
+made that speech."
+
+"_Tantaene animis coelestibus irae!_ These parsons are dreadfully jealous,"
+said the assessor. Shoskuty, turning a leaf of his manuscript,
+proceeded:
+
+"The flock which now stands before thee"--(here the members of the
+deputation looked surprised, and shook their heads)--"is but a small
+part of that numerous herd which feeds on thy pastures; and he who
+introduces them to thy notice"--(Shoskuty himself was vastly
+astonished)--"is not better than the rest: though he wears thy coat, he
+were lost but for thy guidance and correction."
+
+The audience whispered among themselves, and the lord-lieutenant could
+not help smiling.
+
+"For God's sake, what _are_ you about?" whispered Mr. Kriver. "Turn a
+leaf!" Baron Shoskuty, turning a leaf, and looking the picture of blank
+despair, continued:
+
+"Here thou seekest vainly for science--vainly for patriotic
+merits--vainly dost thou seek for all that mankind have a right to be
+proud of----"
+
+The members of the deputation became unruly.
+
+"They are peasants, thou beholdest,----"
+
+Here a storm of indignation burst forth.
+
+"In their Sunday dresses----"
+
+"Are you mad, Baron Shoskuty?"
+
+"But good Christians, all of them," sighed the wretched baron, with
+angelic meekness: "there is not a single heretic among my flock."
+
+"He is mad! let us cheer!--Eljen! Eljen!"
+
+"Somebody has given me the wrong pelisse!" said Shoskuty, making his
+retreat; while the lord-lieutenant replied to the address to the best of
+his abilities, that is to say, very badly, for he was half choked with
+suppressed laughter.
+
+But the curate, who had displayed so unusual a degree of nervousness at
+the commencement of the address, followed Shoskuty to the next room,
+whither that worthy man fled to bemoan his defeat.
+
+"Sir, how dare you steal my speech?" cried the curate.
+
+"Leave me alone! I am a ruined man, and all through you!"
+
+"Well, sir; this is well. You steal my speech, and read it. Now what am
+I to do? I made that speech, and a deal of trouble it gave me. Now what
+am I to tell the bishop at his visitation on Monday next?"
+
+"But, in the name of Heaven, why did you take my cloak?"
+
+"_Your_ cloak?"
+
+"Yes; _my_ cloak. I am sure my speech is in your pocket."
+
+The curate searched the pockets of the pelisse, and produced a
+manuscript. "Dear me!" said he, wringing his hands; "it _is_ your
+cloak." And the discomfited orators were very sad, and would not be
+comforted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+Dustbury is the chief market town of the county of Takshony. While the
+Greeks of old built their cities in the clefts and hollows of rocks, as
+the learned tell us, we are informed that the vagrant nation from which
+we are descended were wont to settle on fertile soil; wherever our
+ancestors found luxurious crops of grass and a fountain of sweet water,
+there did they stop and feed their flocks. In this spirit they made
+their earliest camp at Dustbury. But when the tents gave way to houses,
+the luxuriant green of the pasturage disappeared, and the fountains of
+sweet waters, which invited our fathers to stay and rest on their banks,
+stagnated, and became a vast substantial bog. Still, if you look at the
+streets of Dustbury in autumn, and if you take notice (for who can help
+it?) of the deep cart-ruts in the street, you must confess that Dustbury
+does indeed lie in Canaan; and throughout many weeks in every year even
+the least patriotic of the natives of Dustbury find it difficult, and
+even impossible, to leave the city. The houses of Dustbury are
+intersected and divided by a variety of narrow lanes and alleys, which,
+by their intricacy, are apt to perplex the stranger within her gates.
+They have a striking family likeness. Except only the council-house and
+a few mansions, they are all, to a house, covered with wood or straw;
+and so great is their uniformity, that the very natives of Dustbury have
+been known to make awkward mistakes. A great deal might be said of the
+modern improvements of the town,--such as the public promenade, the
+expense of which was defrayed by a subscription; and the plantations,
+containing trees (the only ones in the neighbourhood), which are
+protected by the police, and which left off growing ever since they were
+planted. There was a plantation of mulberry-trees, too; but it dated
+from the days of the Emperor Joseph; and no more than three
+mulberry-trees were left in it to tell the tale of departed glory. Next,
+there is the pavement, which a French tourist most unwarrantably mistook
+for a barricade; though, for the comfort of all timid minds, be it said,
+that the pavement has since been covered with a thick layer of mud, so
+as to be perceptible to those only who enter the town in a carriage. I
+could adduce a variety of other matters to the praise and glory of
+Dustbury, but I abstain; and, leaving them to the next compiler of one
+of Mr. Murray's Handbooks, I introduce my readers into the council-house
+of Dustbury, and the lord-lieutenant's apartments.
+
+The great man's antechamber was thronged with men of all parties, who,
+"armed as befits a man," waited for the moment--that bright spot in
+their existence!--which allowed them to pay their humble respects to his
+Excellency. Rety, Bantornyi, Baron Shoskuty, Slatzanek, and all the
+county magistrates and assessors, were there, either to report
+themselves for to-morrow's election, or to offer their humble advice to
+the royal commissioner. And truly their advice was valuable. One man
+said that X., the juror, was a man of subversive principles, and that
+the crown was in danger unless X. was to lose his place and Z. to have
+it. Another man protested that Mr. D. must be sworn as a notary: in
+short, every one had the most cogent reasons for wishing a certain place
+out of the hands of the very man who held it. The crowd dispersed at the
+approach of the evening. Some went to their club-rooms to harangue the
+Cortes, while others were busy preparing a serenade for the
+lord-lieutenant. That great man, meanwhile, tired out with his own
+kindness and condescension, promenaded the room, and talked to his
+secretary.
+
+"So you think," said his Excellency, "that things will go on smoothly
+to-morrow?"
+
+"Smoothly enough, except for those who may happen to get a drubbing.
+Rety is sure to be returned. Bantornyi does not care. He put himself in
+nomination merely to please his brother. His party will be satisfied
+with a few of the smaller places. Rety, who is a good, honest man,
+resigns the office, and Kriver, who is agreeable to either party, takes
+his place."
+
+"I trust there will be no outrages."
+
+"Nothing of the kind. We have two companies of foot on the spot, and the
+cuirassiers are coming to-morrow."
+
+"But you know very well that I detest the interference of the military.
+People _will_ misconstrue that kind of thing. They talk of the freedom
+of election."
+
+"No!" said the secretary, smiling; "your Excellency can have no idea how
+fond the people here are of bayonets. Bantornyi and Rety asked me at
+least ten times whether due preparation had been made for the
+maintenance of order and tranquillity, and when I told them of the
+horse, they were ready to hug me from sheer delight. Your Excellency's
+predecessor was fond of soldiers, and there are people who cannot fancy
+a free election without bayonets. If they were called upon to paint the
+picture of Liberty, they'd put her between a grenadier and a
+cuirassier."
+
+"Pray be serious!"
+
+"So I am. Still it makes me laugh to think that the very men who now
+divide the county trace their origin as political parties to an idle
+controversy on the uniforms of the county-hussars. Hence the yellows and
+the blacks. I am sure your Excellency would laugh if you had seen their
+committee-rooms. Rety's head-quarters ring with high praises of his
+patriotism, for his having at the last election fixed the price of meat
+at threepence a pound; while in the next house you find all the butchers
+of the county for Bantornyi, the intrepid champion of protection and
+threepence-halfpenny. Just now, at the cafe, I overheard an argument on
+Vetshoeshy's abilities, which were rated very low, because he is known to
+be a bad hand at cards. In short, your Excellency can have no idea of
+the farce which is acting around us. Slatzanek called half an hour ago,
+lamenting the lose of two of his best Cortes. They were stolen."
+
+"They were--what?"
+
+"Stolen, your Excellency. One of the men is forest-keeper to the bishop.
+He is a powerful fellow, with a stentorian voice, strongly attached to
+his party, and very influential in his way. He is a black. The yellow
+party surrounded him with false friends; they made him dead drunk, and
+in that state, in which they keep him, they take him from village to
+village, with the yellow flag waving over his head, thus showing him
+off, and making believe that he had joined their party. The thing
+happened a week ago, and the fellow, fancying that he is with the
+blacks, shouts 'Eljen!' with all the fury of drunken enthusiasm. The
+blacks have made several unsuccessful attempts to rescue their leader,
+and three noble communities, who were wont to vote with the bishop's
+keeper, have joined Bantornyi's party. The other man is a notary at
+Palinkash. They have put him down to a card-table, and whenever the
+wretched man thinks of the election, they cause him to win or to lose,
+just an it serves their turn to keep him there."
+
+The lord-lieutenant laughed.
+
+"Have you spoken to Tengelyi, the notary of Tissaret?"
+
+"He is coming. To see that poor man lose his time and labour is really
+distressing. I never saw more sincerity of enthusiasm and more
+manliness of feeling. The good man is almost sixty, and still he has not
+learnt that a village notary cannot possibly be a reformer."
+
+"I am afraid he's tedious," said his Excellency; "but we must bear with
+him, since you tell me he is a man of influence."
+
+"So he is, and more so than any notary in any county I know of. Vandory,
+by whom the clergy of this district are wont to swear, votes with the
+notary."
+
+"He is a demagogue, I am told."
+
+"No; I do not think that name applies to him. The principles, which
+demagogues make tools of, are the grand aim and end of his life. In
+short, he is half a century in advance of his age."
+
+"The worse for him, he'll scarcely live to see the day of general
+enlightenment. Men of his stamp are most dangerous."
+
+"Hardly so. Men of strong convictions are for the most part isolated.
+They want the power to do harm, for they have no party. Who will side
+with them?"
+
+"_Nous verrons!_" said the Count Maroshvoelgyi. "The notary is a family
+man; besides, he is poor. Kriver told me all about him, and I dare say
+there are means of settling him."
+
+"If your Excellency is right, I am mistaken."
+
+"Nor will this mistake be the last of your life," said his Excellency,
+rising. "The glaring red on a woman's cheek ought to tell you that that
+woman is painted, and the _belle des belles_ of the ball is palest in
+the morning. But I hear somebody in the next room. Pray see who it is;
+and if it be Tengelyi, leave me alone to talk to him."
+
+The secretary left the room, which Tengelyi entered soon afterwards. His
+Excellency received him with great cordiality.
+
+"Have I your pardon," said the great man, "for asking you to come to me?
+I wanted to see you, and I was disappointed in my hopes of finding you
+among my other visitors."
+
+Tengelyi replied, that he was always ready to obey his Excellency's
+orders, but that he knew his position too well to trouble the Count with
+his presence on such a busy day as this.
+
+"My dear sir, you are wrong to believe that I know not to distinguish
+between a man and his position, and that I mistake you for one of the
+common notaries."
+
+"And your Excellency is wrong to believe that this would hurt my
+feelings. The extent of our usefulness determines the value which we
+have for others. People do not value our will, but our power; and though
+a village notary such as I, may possibly in his own thoughts rate
+himself higher than he does his colleagues, it would be wrong in him to
+ask others to do the same. But may I inquire what are your Excellency's
+commands?"
+
+"Some years ago, when you were intimate with the Retys, I used to see
+more of you."
+
+Tengelyi looked displeased.
+
+"Pardon me," added the count, "if I have pained you by reminding you of
+that time."
+
+"On the contrary, I feel truly honoured that your Excellency should have
+remembered my humble self, painfully though I feel that my influence
+does not stretch to the length of my gratitude."
+
+There was a hidden sting of bitterness in Tengelyi's words, and
+especially in the tone in which they were delivered. The count
+continued:--
+
+"What I ask--or rather what I crave of you--has nothing to do with
+influence. It rests solely with you to grant my suit, and to oblige me
+for all time to come."
+
+Tengelyi cast a glance of suspicion at the great man. "Your
+Excellency," said he, drily, "may rely on me, if your command can be
+reconciled to my principles."
+
+"I know you too well, and respect you too much to express any other
+wish. What I ask of you will convince you how deeply sensible I am of
+your merits."
+
+Tengelyi bowed.
+
+"I know," continued the count, "that you are _au fait_ of the condition
+of the county. Your office brings you in contact with the lower classes.
+You see and hear many things which a lord-lieutenant can never know.
+Speak freely to me, I pray, and be assured that to advise me is an act
+of charity."
+
+The notary was silent.
+
+"Do not impute my demand to an idle and vain curiosity. The election
+comes off to-morrow. It decides the fate of the county for the next
+three years. You _must_ be sensible of the importance of this moment,
+and you know that my influence can be of use to the public, if I exert
+it with my eyes open."
+
+Tengelyi was in the act of opening his lips and heart to the
+lord-lieutenant; but he remembered that a man may take any line that
+suits his plans, and that his Excellency was known to be not over nice
+in such matters. He replied, therefore, that he was not mixed up with
+any party, and that he could not, to his great sorrow, enlighten his
+Excellency on that head.
+
+Maroshvoelgyi, who was a master in the noble art of flattery, had never
+yet encountered such an antagonist in the county of Takshony. He waived
+the attack.
+
+"You mistake me. Do you indeed fancy me to be ignorant of the position
+of parties? I know more of them, I assure you, than is either good or
+wholesome for me. But is there nothing in the county beyond these
+wretched parties? Ought I not to know the condition of the people? Ought
+I not to know how the functionaries behave in their offices, and what
+the poorer classes have to expect from the candidates?"
+
+"Is it then the condition of the people which your Excellency wishes to
+know?" said Tengelyi, with a deep sigh. "But who _can_ give you an idea
+of their condition? Did you not, when you rode through the county, look
+out from your carriage at the villages on the roadside? And what was it
+you saw? Roofless huts, the fields neglected, and their population
+walking dejectedly, without industry, without prosperity, without that
+joyful merry air so characteristic of the lower classes of other
+countries. Believe me, sir, the people in this country are not happy!"
+
+"But, my dear Tengelyi, I think there is some exaggeration in your
+words. The Hungarian people do not stand so low as you would place them:
+I know none more proud and manly. The Hungarian peasant is happier than
+any I ever saw."
+
+"Do not be imposed upon by appearances. The peasant of Hungary is a
+stiff-necked fellow; and I must say, I take a pride in this race, when I
+see that the oppression of so many years has not bent its neck. A nation
+which after so much oppression can still hold up its head, seems to be
+made for liberty,--but for all that, the people are not happy. We do not
+see them in rags,--but why? because they never had any clothes, except
+linen shirts and trowsers! but do they therefore feel the cold of winter
+less? They do not complain. No; for they know, from the experience of
+centuries, that their complaints are unheeded. But do they not feel the
+oppression which weighs down upon them? Do they not feel the separation
+from their sons, when the latter are enrolled in the regiments, while
+the children of their noble neighbours show their courage in hunting at
+the expense of the subject's crops?"
+
+"You live among the people," said the lord-lieutenant, quietly; "but
+believe me, in this respect, you are mistaken. I know Hungarian peasants
+who in wealth can vie with the agriculturists of any country."
+
+"Of course; but are they the only peasants in Hungary? Are not there
+others in our counties,--men who are equally our brethren,--and who
+equally claim our attention? Consider the Russniak population of the
+county. We see them in rags, starved and wretched. Has any thing been
+done to bind these people to our nation? has any attempt been made to
+raise them to the rank of Magyars? of citizens of the country?"
+
+"You are right, and it is to be hoped that the nation will soon
+understand its own interests. But what can the county magistrates do in
+this respect? What can I do?"
+
+"Very much indeed!" replied the notary, enthusiastically; "if your
+Excellency would only extend your protection to the poor people!--if
+you would use your influence for the election of officers who are alive
+to the sacred duties of their office!"
+
+"Alas!" said Maroshvoelgyi, "I wish to God it were so, and that I _could_
+be to the people what I wish to be."
+
+"Your Excellency _can_!" cried Tengelyi. "There are honest men, even
+among the present county magistrates: I need not tell you their names.
+You know them as well as the Retys, Krivers, Skinners. Take the part of
+the former, and oppose the latter. Believe me, your Excellency, the
+county has no lack of noble and generous men, and it lies in your hands
+to make the people of Takshony a happy people."
+
+"But you forget my political position. Rety, Kriver, and the other men,
+are men of my party whom I cannot possibly throw overboard: but, I
+assure you, I respect the feelings which you have expressed to me. If
+you were in my place, you would see that there are some great and fine
+ideas which a man cannot call into life, whatever his seeming power and
+influence may be. Whatever influence I may have in the county, I owe to
+the popularity which I have obtained through my conduct; and if I were
+to follow your advice, I should lose my popularity."
+
+"Popularity! of course, all coteries have their popularity; whenever a
+body of men are united for a certain purpose, they show their gratitude
+for him who promotes that purpose, and applause, garlands, and triumphs
+fall to the share of him who speaks loudest, and agitates most zealously
+for the realisation of the common object. But do not others live in our
+country besides the nobility which fills our council-halls? Are there
+not nobler things to strive for than these paltry Eljens? And the
+people, those millions who silently surround us, those vast multitudes,
+who have at present no reward for their benefactors but sighs and tears,
+but who, on the day of their glory, will raise the names of their
+champions in a louder shout than all the Cortes in all Hungary;--are
+they nothing to you?"
+
+Here the speaker was interrupted by a distant cry of "Eljen."
+
+"I go, your Excellency," continued the notary, "to make room for others.
+You will be surrounded with adorers. You will have music and speeches;
+but, believe me, the gratitude of the people is not the less strong for
+being silent, and if our country has a future, it will certainly not
+pick out its great men from among the cheered of this wretched time!"
+
+Tengelyi bowed. The Count Maroshvoelgyi shook his hand, and followed him
+with a deep sigh as he left the room.
+
+"What do you say now, your Excellency?" said the secretary. "Was I not
+right in saying that this man's proper place is not in this county?"
+
+"Let me tell you that his proper place is nowhere in this country," said
+Maroshvoelgyi, as he stepped to the window to receive the serenaders.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IX.
+
+
+As the evening wore on, the streets of Dustbury were restored to their
+usual darkness. The lord-lieutenant had retired after supper, and
+everything was quiet. From the committee-rooms, where the Cortes were
+locked up to keep them safe from foreign influence, there proceeded a
+low, dreamy, murmuring sound, mixed up at intervals with a hoarse voice,
+shouting the name of Bantornyi, or Rety, as the case might be; but no
+other signs of turbulence were there to warn the stranger of that
+gigantic uproar which, in less than thirty hours, was to welcome the
+birth of the new magistracy. One of the principal causes of this strange
+tranquillity might have been found in the fact that the town was
+occupied by Bantornyi's men only, and that consequently, any general
+engagement of the hostile parties was quite out of the question. For the
+Rety party had recurred to the well-known stratagem of marching their
+troops, in small detachments, close up to the scene of the contest,
+without entering the city. They were thus secured from having their men
+kidnapped, and could expect that their appearance in one compact body
+would produce a general and striking effect in their favour.
+
+One of their extra-mural camps was at the distance of five miles from
+Dustbury, at one of Rety's farms; and it is there we meet again with our
+old friends the three hundred noblemen of St. Vilmosh. The village inn
+is small. It is one of those agreeable hostelries in which the stranger,
+though he may not find accommodation for himself, is at times lucky
+enough to find a stable for his horse; nor is there any impediment to
+his eating a good supper if he happens to be provided with victuals,
+salt, plates, knives and forks. The stable and the large shed, which,
+save on rainy days, offered a good shelter at all times, were on this
+occasion filled with clean straw, and devoted to the exclusive use of
+the nobility. Mr. Pennahazy, the notary and leader of the St. Vilmosh
+volunteers, had carefully locked the gate of the yard, to prevent his
+men from deserting; and, having taken this necessary precaution, he
+retired to the bed of the Jewish landlord, while the Jew and his family
+lay on the floor of the same room. The inn was as noiseless and tranquil
+as if no stranger were tarrying within its gates. In the bar-room alone
+there was a light shining from a deal table, at which two men were
+engaged in discussing a small flask of brandy. One of these men is the
+Jewish glazier to whom my readers were introduced in Tengelyi's house.
+His comrade, who is just in the act of lighting his pipe, has not yet
+figured in the pages of this story; but anybody that has visited the
+gaols of the county of Takshony will at once be convinced that the
+gentleman before him is Mr. Janosh of St. Vilmosh, alias Tzifra Jantshy;
+for it is not probable that he should have seen the gaol at a time when
+Tzifra was not in it; nor is it likely that any one who had once seen
+the man should ever forget him. Tzifra's character was very legibly
+marked on his face. His low and wrinkled forehead, his bushy eyebrows,
+his grey restless eyes, protruding jaws and livid face, with the frouzy
+grey hair and bluish, scorbutic lips, were calculated to make a strong,
+and by no means agreeable, impression upon any one who saw him. His
+sinewy limbs and powerful figure were, in the present instance, the more
+conspicuous from their contrast to the spare and starved form of the
+Jew.
+
+"Well, well!" said the latter, shaking his head; "who could ever have
+supposed that you would come to the council-house without being dragged
+to it?"
+
+"If a man's a nobleman, and is called to come--you see that is a fine
+thing! I know the lower stories of the county-house extremely well, but
+I must say I like the upper stories better."
+
+"If I were in your place, I would not go, that's all. There are so many
+people who know you,--the turnkeys, the haiduks----"
+
+"What the devil do I care for them? Who dares to touch a nobleman of St.
+Vilmosh?" cried Tzifra, striking the table with his fist. "They _shall_
+know me! I want them to know me; and when they see me walking in the
+hall, and when that confounded turnkey sees that I am a nobleman, while
+he's but a scurvy cur of a peasant, he'll burst with envy. No, I want to
+go there to make them savage; and if any of the fellows dares to look at
+me, by G--d I'll kick his pipe out of his mouth."
+
+"Well!" sighed the Jew; "it's a fine thing to be a nobleman."
+
+"So it is; d--n me, so it is! If a man's once suspected, they nab him
+and put him into quod, where he may wait until the gentlemen upstairs
+have time to think of him. Now a nobleman is bailable; he goes about for
+two or three years; and when sentence _is_ passed and they nab him, at
+least they dare not beat him. Oh! I tell you the franchise is a fine
+thing, especially as you get it dirt cheap."
+
+"You're a devil, Tzifra!" said the Jew; "but don't let Viola know of
+your call at the parson's. If he were to know of it, I wouldn't change
+my skin with you for all your nobility, nor for your devilship either."
+
+The robber seized his knife. "Don't laugh at me, thou dog!" cried he,
+"for I will be----"
+
+The Jew jumped from his seat. A few moments afterwards he sat down
+again.
+
+"Don't joke in this manner," said he; "I know you won't kill me, because
+I tell you of your danger. I myself heard Viola say that he will do for
+the man who did that job at the parson's."
+
+"He'll never know it; or do you think that Viola suspects me?"
+
+"No indeed, but----"
+
+"Or do you mean to betray me?" cried the robber, again seizing his
+knife. "You are the only man who knows that I was at the parsonage."
+
+"Tzifra, you are a fool!" cried the Jew. "What have I to do with Viola
+or with the parson; didn't I sell the roan horse for you, which you
+_made_ beyond the Theiss? And didn't you get ten florins and a half for
+that same hack?"
+
+"Yes, but you did me then; but never mind, you're born to do it--it's
+your nature. But don't you talk of that business--you know what I mean.
+Don't even tell it to your God; for otherwise Viola cannot possibly know
+it, and he'll be hanged before he is a month older."
+
+"Will he, indeed!" said the Jew. "How will they do it?"
+
+"Why, didn't they catch him the other day?" replied the robber. "He'd be
+done for by this time, had it not been for one of his comrades who fired
+the sheriff's haystacks."
+
+"Does he owe that good turn to _you_?"
+
+"To _me_! Can there be any one who hates him as I do? Viola was a child
+playing in the streets; when I came to the village with my men he used
+to hide behind the stove; and now, curse me! you ought to see him, how
+he lords it over me. If right and justice were done in this villanous
+world of ours, who do you think ought to lead the outlaws but I, Tzifra
+Jantshy, who have been their leader for many years?--I, who know every
+hole and corner on either side of the Theiss, and who am a greater man
+with the Tshikosh and Gulyash[12] than even their masters! But the
+rascals wanted another man, d--n them! I found Viola amongst
+them!--that fellow who trembles like a woman when he sees a drop of
+blood! that coward who pities a weeping child! they liked him better
+than me, and if I had said a word they would have hanged me. He commands
+and I obey--but, blast me! he'll have the worst of it!"
+
+[Footnote 12: See Note VIII.]
+
+"Bravo!" said the Jew, pushing the bottle over to his comrade; "it is
+quite ridiculous to think that Viola should presume to give his orders
+to a man like _you_."
+
+"Of course, so it is!" cried the robber; "and what stupid orders his
+are! The other day he finds me driving a peasant's oxen from the field,
+and kicks up a row, and swears that I must take them back, for he
+wouldn't allow any of the poor people to be hurt. Last year I shot a
+Jew, whereupon the fool told me he'd shoot _me_ if that kind of thing
+were to happen again. But never mind! D--n him, we'll see which of us is
+to be food for the ravens first! He'll feel my revenge by and by!"
+
+"Ah, I see!" cried the Jew. "It is you, then, who told his worship the
+justice that Viola was coming to Tissaret."
+
+"Confound you! hold your tongue! And suppose I _did_ tell him; what
+next?"
+
+"Nothing that I know of; but I know an opportunity of giving Viola a
+kick, and making good sum of money too."
+
+"Halljuk!" shouted the robber.
+
+"Silence!" cried the Jew, "you'll wake every man in the house. What did
+you get for that little job at the parsonage?"
+
+"Are you at it again, you hound of a Jew?"
+
+"Never mind. What do you say to five-and-twenty florins? I'll put you in
+a way to get them."
+
+"Five-and-twenty florins? But how?"
+
+"If you've but pluck----"
+
+"Pluck!" repeated Tzifra, staring at his comrade.
+
+"Well, never mind! Mark me now. The papers which you could not get the
+other day are at Mr. Tengelyi's."
+
+"I am glad to hear it."
+
+"Be quiet, will you? They are in the large iron safe, where you won't
+put your fingers on them, if I do not open it for you. Now, look here!"
+
+And the Jew produced an old rag from which he took two keys. "Here they
+are," said he; "here are the keys, my man. I've got the key of the room
+too, and----"
+
+"D--n the fellow!" cried Tzifra, grinning; "how in the devil's name did
+you get those keys?"
+
+"I reconnoitred the place, saw the box, and knew it at once. Tengelyi
+bought it from one of our people in the market at Dustbury. He gave me
+the keys. The notary is at present at the election. We can do the job,
+and there is little danger."
+
+"Aye!" said the robber; "let me see?"
+
+"I won't!"
+
+But Tzifra took the keys and put them into his pocket.
+
+"So, now I don't want you. I can do it alone."
+
+"Don't be a fool!" said the Jew; "what can you do with the keys?"
+
+"Do?" cried Tzifra. "Go in and win! I'll have a hundred florins instead
+of five-and-twenty. I know that's the price which they offered."
+
+"You're vastly clever, my friend. But do you happen to know the secret
+of the lock?"
+
+"What is the secret?"
+
+"Not so fast! You may wait a long while before _I_ tell you."
+
+"If you don't I----"
+
+"Don't kick up a row. Give me the keys, and come along with me, and the
+five-and-twenty florins are yours. All you have to do is, to watch the
+house, and, in case of danger, to come to my assistance."
+
+"But twenty-five florins! Rascal, you know you'll have a hundred, and
+you offer me but twenty-five!"
+
+"But who is it that enters the house? Who got the keys? Twenty-five
+florins is a deal of money--it is the price of two young oxen."
+
+"Will you give me fifty florins?"
+
+"Impossible!" said the Jew. "The keys alone cost me no less than ten."
+
+"Impossible? Very well. Oh! I am quite satisfied. I'll go to the
+election, and you may go to----"
+
+"Give me the keys!" cried the Jew. "I'll find another man."
+
+"Nonsense! I'll keep them. If you want another comrade, I'll leave you
+to find other keys."
+
+"I'll give you forty."
+
+"I'll be d--d if I take less than fifty."
+
+After quarrelling for a time they struck the bargain; and the Jew,
+putting his hand in his pocket, paid the robber ten florins in advance.
+
+"Now let us be off," said the Jew, "for when the leaders get up they
+won't let you go."
+
+"You are right," rejoined Tzifra. "They take us to the election as they
+do cattle to the market."
+
+They had scarcely left the room when the dusky face of Peti was seen to
+emerge from a heap of coats and cloaks. The gipsy had listened to their
+conversation. He left his hiding-place, stole from the room, and
+hastened away to St. Vilmosh.
+
+It is now our pleasant duty to turn to a far different scene from that
+which we were compelled to place before our readers, any of whom, if
+they have ever loved, can easily guess the sensation with which Akosh
+mounted his horse on the eve of the election, and, leaving the streets
+of Dustbury, hastened to Tissaret. Night had set in, and his absence
+escaped observation. A dense fog covered the plain between Dustbury and
+Tissaret, and the horseman found it difficult to keep on the path which
+led through the meadow-lands. But he did not feel the searching coldness
+of the night air, nor was he inclined to stop by the watch-fires of the
+shepherds, and to dry his clothes. He hurried on, for Etelka had
+promised her brother that he should meet Vilma, to whose house he now
+directed his course.
+
+Strange though it may appear to the less initiated into the mysteries of
+the human heart, Tengelyi's influence with his family, though paramount
+in every other respect, was eclipsed by the superior power of their
+feelings; Vilma and her mother knew of young Rety's visit, and expected
+him with great eagerness and anxiety. Mrs. Ershebet's time and attention
+were indeed taken up with the cares and anxieties which fill the heart
+of a Hungarian housewife who is expecting and preparing for the
+reception of a favoured guest; but when the evening wore on, when the
+turkey[13] was on the point of over-roasting, and the pastry drying
+up,--and when the good woman looked at the clock and saw its hands
+approaching to eight, she shook her head, and, looking out at the
+kitchen-door into the drear and misty night, she was fairly overpowered
+with fear.
+
+[Footnote 13: See Note IX.]
+
+She went to Vilma's room, and, in order to lighten the load of anxiety
+which pressed upon her own heart, she commenced consoling her daughter.
+"I am sure he will soon be here," said she; "but the worst is, my supper
+will be spoilt. But do not be afraid, child. There is indeed a dense
+fog--you cannot see over the way--but then Akosh knows his road in the
+dark as well as by daylight. There are no wolves about the country now;
+no, indeed! and he does not care whether he rides by day or by night."
+And Mrs. Ershebet laughed, and appeared rather amused than otherwise by
+Akosh's staying away. But her words had a far different effect from what
+she intended. Vilma had never once thought that any misfortune _could_
+befall him she loved; and when her mother's words directed her attention
+to the possibility of an accident which might happen to Akosh, she
+became painfully alive to all sorts of dangers by which she fancied him
+surrounded.
+
+"Good God!" cried she, "if any thing happens to him, it is I who am the
+cause!"
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Ershebet, anxiously, "he is on good terms with the
+robbers, his horses are safe, he knows his way, and it is quite
+ridiculous to think that he should have strayed into the morasses of St.
+Vilmosh."
+
+Vilma opened the window; and when she saw the thick fog, she shuddered
+to think that Akosh was alone on the heath. Half an hour passed amidst
+the greatest uneasiness; at length the sound of a horse's hoofs was
+heard in the distance. Mother and daughter listened anxiously, and their
+surprise was any thing but agreeable, when the door opened, and, instead
+of Akosh, the Liptaka entered the kitchen. Vilma, scarcely able to
+repress her tears, cried out:--
+
+"Oh, mother! now I am sure he is lost!"
+
+"Perhaps he has not been able to get away," said Mrs. Ershebet; "at
+least, not early enough. He'll come to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow!" cried the Liptaka: "do not tell the girl such a thing. Mr.
+Akosh would not stay away--nay, that he would not!--even if there were
+as many thunderbolts as there are drops of rain. Akosh too late! Is
+there a finer fellow in the county? I do not speak of the gentlemen, for
+it's easy to be a better man than any of them; but he beats us vulgar
+people, and in our own line, too. He is as strong as any that ever wore
+a _gatya_[14], and he is as bold as any _szegeny legeny_[15] in the
+world; and should he be afraid of darkness and rain? No, no, missie
+dear! any man will brave death for such a sweetheart as you are!"
+
+[Footnote 14: See Note X.]
+
+[Footnote 15: See Note XI.]
+
+"Don't be foolish!" said Mrs. Ershebet, highly flattered; "Vilma is no
+man's sweetheart."
+
+"No matter," said the Liptaka, shaking her head; "it's what we poor
+people call a sweetheart. But never mind; come he must and he will,
+though the darkness of Egypt were on the heath."
+
+"I am sure he will come," said Vilma, trembling. "Akosh is so bold! he
+knows not what danger is; but it is that which frightens me. The night
+is dark; and how easily can he have met with an accident!"
+
+"The night is indeed dark," replied the Liptaka, with great earnestness;
+"but are not God's eyes open in the darkness? Not a sparrow falls from
+the roof without His will, and He protects the righteous on their paths.
+Fear nothing, missie sweet!" added the old woman: "young Mr. Rety is in
+no danger. Perhaps he will suffer from the cold; but the fire of your
+eyes will warm him soon enough. A sorry thing it would be, indeed, if
+such a fellow could not manage to ride from Dustbury to Tissaret. Ay,
+indeed, if he were a fine gentleman, as the others are: but no! Akosh is
+a jewel of a lad. _I eat his soul._[16] I suckled him when a child, and
+I ought to know what stuff he is made of."
+
+[Footnote 16: See Note XII.]
+
+"Oh, Liptaka, I wish he were here!" whispered Vilma, while her mother
+walked to the other room. "I am so afraid." And the Liptaka replied in
+the same tone: "I, too, should be sorry to see your mother go to the
+kitchen. There are others who have come from a longer journey, and who
+dare not enter until Mr. Rety is here."
+
+"For God's sake!" said Vilma, "is Viola here?"
+
+The Liptaka's reply was prevented by the appearance of Akosh. To attempt
+a description of Vilma's joy would be a vain endeavour. No word in any
+language can convey to those who never felt the like, any idea of the
+deep, heartfelt happiness which was expressed in her gestures and face,
+and in the tone with which, calling out her mother's name and that of
+her lover, she hurried the new comer into the next room.
+
+The old nurse left the room by the opposite door. "Now for Viola,"
+muttered she; "for he, too, loves his wife. Why, old fool that I am! my
+eyes have got full of tears in looking at the children! I can't help it;
+but I must think of my own Jantshy, and how I loved him, and how happy
+we were; and now the poor fellow is buried in France. It is written, Man
+shall not sever what God has brought together; but, for all that, the
+magistrates took Jantshy from me, and made him a soldier."
+
+She was roused from these cogitations by a low voice, calling her name.
+
+"Who's there?" said the old woman.
+
+"It is I! Don't you know me?"
+
+"Peti!" cried the Liptaka. "I thought you were at Dustbury. Where do you
+come from?"
+
+"For God's sake, be quiet! Is _he_ here?"
+
+"Who?--Viola?"
+
+"Yes! Whom else could I mean?"
+
+The Liptaka was silent, for she knew that there were false brethren in
+Viola's gang.
+
+"Do you suspect _me_?" said the gipsy, impatiently. "I have been on my
+legs ever since yesterday; but, if _you_ do not know where he is, I must
+run until I find him, tired though I am."
+
+"Are you coming to see him on business?"
+
+"I _must_ talk to Viola! I _must_, I tell you!"
+
+"Very well; come with me," said the Liptaka, moved by the plaintive
+voice of the gipsy: and, more than half ashamed of having suspected him,
+she added: "One _does_ get cautious in this sad time, since there are so
+many rascals even among the poor people."
+
+The notary's house was indeed the home of happiness. They say, love
+spoils a man's appetite; but a ride of twenty miles goes a great way to
+counteract at least this symptom of the complaint. Mrs. Ershebet had
+cause to be pleased with her guest, who, fatigued with his ride and
+starved with the cold, was in that lucky temper in which a man enjoys a
+warm room and a hot supper.
+
+"Take another piece of this tart," said Mrs. Ershebet, when young Rety's
+attention to the dishes began to flag; "it is not so good as the pastry
+your worship is accustomed to, but it is of the best our poor house can
+afford. It is, perhaps, a little too brown,--for your worship came later
+than we expected; but it is very soft. Take some, I pray."
+
+Akosh--who would have done any thing to escape the _peine forte et dure_
+of the tart, protested against Mrs. Ershebet's ceremonious address. "Am
+I a stranger to you, that you should call me 'your worship?' Have you
+not a kinder name for me?"
+
+Ershebet was confused; but the look which she cast at Akosh expressed so
+much affection and joy, that the latter, kissing her hand, continued:
+"Call me your Akosh! call me your son! for that is the title I covet
+most."
+
+"My dear Akosh!--my son!--if you will have it so," said Mrs. Ershebet,
+with tears in her eyes. "You are good, you are generous, Akosh. No man
+in this world is so deserving of Vilma's love: and yet you can have no
+idea what a treasure the girl really is!"
+
+Vilma embraced her mother, while Akosh kissed her hand; and his soul was
+moved as he thought of his own mother.
+
+"Is it not too childish?" said Mrs. Ershebet, at length. "I weep with
+joy when I see you both, and feel the happiness which you might find in
+your love; but I forget how many obstacles there are between the present
+moment and that in which I may call you really and truly my son. Dearest
+child," continued Mrs. Ershebet, "you had better tell them to take the
+things away:" and, when Vilma had left the room, she pressed Rety's
+hand, and said, with a trembling voice: "Akosh! I implore you, make my
+child happy!"
+
+Akosh was silent; but he pressed her hand, and his eyes filled with
+tears.
+
+"You cannot know--you cannot think--how devotedly the girl loves you!
+and if she were deceived; if she----"
+
+"Do you think me so mean, so utterly abandoned, as to make myself
+unworthy of Vilma's love?"
+
+"No, my dear Akosh! not by any means!" said Mrs. Ershebet, with great
+composure. "If I did not respect you so much, surely there would be no
+need of this conversation; nor would I, for the first time in my life,
+disobey my husband's commands. I would not receive you in my house if I
+were not convinced of your noble and generous nature. But, Akosh, you
+are rich--you have a grand future before you; and it is this which makes
+me anxious. Look at all the great families whom you know, and tell me
+how many there are with whom real love and real happiness dwell? Your
+life offers a thousand enjoyments--a thousand temptations: it is full of
+purpose and splendour; glory and popularity surround you. Have you the
+strength to keep your heart undivided amidst so many objects? For to be
+happy, Vilma wants your whole heart. The fragments of a husband's love
+cannot satisfy her. And besides," continued Mrs. Ershebet, when Akosh
+had done his best to convince her of the immutability of his love, "have
+you thought of all the objections which others may raise?"
+
+"I shall be twenty-four in a few weeks, and consequently independent. My
+mother's property, of which I am already possessed, is enough to keep my
+wife and me; and if my father _were_ to quarrel with me, I do not care.
+I prefer Vilma's love to all!"
+
+"I believe you, dear Akosh," said Mrs. Ershebet; "but what will Tengelyi
+say? He is good and loving; but when he takes it into his head that
+something is opposed to his principles, no power on earth can make him
+yield."
+
+"Except the power of love," said Akosh.
+
+"No, not even that: Jonas never loved any thing or anybody as he does
+me; may God bless him for it! and still I cannot obtain any thing from
+him that is opposed to his convictions."
+
+"Yes; but can it be against his principles to see his daughter happy?
+may we not hope for his blessing? As for _my_ father, why should we
+despair of _his_ consent? Nobody knows him better than Vandory does, and
+he told me over and over again that my father is sure to yield."
+
+Mrs. Ershebet's fears were dispelled. Akosh told her that he intended to
+take Vilma to his new residence, in a neighbouring county, where she
+need not come into contact with his mother-in-law. Mrs. Ershebet, to
+whom he explained the whole arrangement of the house, rose up as her
+daughter entered, and pressed her to her heart.
+
+"So, my children," said Mrs. Ershebet, taking Akosh and Vilma by the
+hand, "be true and constant in your love, and God will not allow you to
+be separated. You see Jonas and me; we had many difficulties to contend
+with; but we overcame them. Come, my dears," continued the good woman,
+kissing Vilma's forehead, "speak to each other now, and say all you have
+to say, for God knows when you will meet again."
+
+"Vilma," said Akosh, taking the blushing girl by the hand, "your eyes
+were filled with tears when I came. Why did you weep?"
+
+"Oh! you will laugh at me! I am a weak, frightened girl; we were all
+anxious about you; and when I saw you safe----"
+
+"My angel, how happy you make me with your love! When I look into your
+eyes, and see their loving gaze fixed upon me; and when I hear your
+sweet voice; when I press your hand to my lips, and think that this
+hand is to be mine--that within a short time perhaps you are to be
+truly, wholly mine, I feel as in a dream, or as if some misfortune
+_must_ happen to us, for I cannot conceive it possible for human beings
+to be so thoroughly happy!"
+
+"For God's sake take care!" cried Vilma. "You are bold and careless of
+danger. You shun nobody; but you ought to think of _us_. My mother, too,
+was greatly frightened to-night."
+
+"On account of my staying away?"
+
+"Certainly! and on account of the fog. We thought you had met with some
+accident in the swamps of St. Vilmosh."
+
+"If there are no greater dangers than those of the Dustbury road, you
+may be easy," replied Akosh, smiling. "There is not at present water
+enough in the swamps of St. Vilmosh to drown a child; and my only danger
+to-night was one which certainly does no credit to me--I lost my way.
+The fog was so dense that I was hopelessly lost; and perhaps I should
+still be erring in the wilderness but for the sound of hoofs, which I
+heard at a distance. I turned my horse in the direction of the sound;
+but when I approached the horseman, he went off in a gallop. I followed,
+and we made a race of it, in which he beat me. At last I saw a light,
+and found myself at the entrance of the village. I presume the man, who
+belonged to the village, mistook me for a robber. Thank goodness I met
+him, for without him I had no chance of finding my way."
+
+"But how will you return?" said Vilma, anxiously. "My mother tells me
+that you intend going back this very night."
+
+"Of course I must, unless I wish my expedition to be known at Dustbury.
+I have tied my horse to the garden gate. At midnight I must take to the
+saddle, and the dawn of morning finds me in the council-house. But I
+promise you I will not lose my way this time; and----but really things
+cannot remain as they are! This state of uncertainty is unbearable. I
+will speak to your father."
+
+"Beware!" cried Vilma. "We cannot hope for my father's consent until
+your father gives his."
+
+"But I know my father will approve of my choice. I will open my heart to
+him. I will tell him how dearly I love you, and that I cannot be happy
+without you. I will tell him that to live with you is bliss; but that to
+live away from you is worse than hell. And if I tell him all this,
+asking for his blessing and nothing else, trust me he will not refuse
+it. Oh, Vilma! we are sure to be happy!"
+
+Vilma did not withdraw her hand, which Akosh seized; nor did she speak
+to confirm her lover in his hopes; but there was a heaven of joy in the
+look which she cast upon him.
+
+"Yes, Vilma, we are sure to be happy. I have spoken to your mother, and
+explained everything. I have a home not far from here--it was my
+mother's property; and my father gave it into my hands. I have had the
+garden put to rights. The rooms of the little house are comfortably
+furnished--it is there we will live. Of course your father and mother go
+with us."
+
+"And Mother Liptaka," said the girl, smiling with gladness, "she is so
+fond of us."
+
+"Yes, she shall go; and Vandory is sure to come often to see us."
+
+"Oh, he is sure to come. We will get him a large arm-chair to sit in
+when he comes, and we will send for a glass of fresh water from the
+well. Oh, it will be so beautiful. And did you not say there was a
+garden?"
+
+"There is a large garden, full of roses!"
+
+"Oh, roses!" cried Vilma, clapping her hands, "and when you come back
+from the hunt, or from Dustbury or Tissaret, and when I hear your
+horse's hoofs I will come to meet you, with roses in my hair and in my
+hands. I will fill your room with them. Oh, happiness!"
+
+"Vilma!" cried Akosh, seizing her hands, and covering them with kisses,
+"can you think--can you believe--can you dream how happy we shall be?"
+
+Vilma withdrew her hands, and sighed. "Who knows whether all this is to
+be?" muttered she.
+
+"To be?" cried Akosh, again pressing her hands to his lips, "God
+vouchsafes us the sight of such bliss; He gives us a deep conviction
+that without this bliss our life is a curse; how, then, can you doubt?"
+
+Vilma trembled. "Akosh!" said she, "your hands are feverish. I am sure
+you are ill. Pray be calm."
+
+"Oh, Vilma, do not withdraw your hand! do not treat me as you would a
+stranger! Call me your love--say you are mine!"
+
+Vilma blushed.
+
+"Oh, tell me that you love me! tell me that you will never leave me,
+whatsoever may happen! tell me that you are mine own!"
+
+"Your _own_!" whispered Vilma; and Akosh caught the trembling girl in
+his arms, and his first kiss burned on her lips.
+
+At that moment the sound of a heavy fall, followed by a stifled groan,
+came from the next room. There was a tramp of feet, and all was quiet
+again. Vilma screamed, and sprang from her lover's embrace. Mrs.
+Ershebet, who had been asleep in her arm-chair, rose; and Akosh, seizing
+a candle, hastened to the door of the apartment.
+
+Tzifra and the Jew, who had planned to rob the notary's house in the
+course of the night, and whose conversation had been overheard by Peti,
+had no idea of young Rety's presence. When all was quiet in the village
+they made their way to the house. They found the door of the kitchen
+locked, and the windows dark, for the shutters of that one room in which
+there was a light were closed. The Jew placed Tzifra as a sentinel at
+the gate, and commenced his operations by opening the outer door of
+Tengelyi's room. Having effected an entry, he produced a small lamp,
+lighted it, and prepared to unlock the iron safe. He did indeed hear the
+conversation in the next room, but he continued his work with great
+equanimity, because he fancied that the speakers were Mrs. Ershebet and
+Vandory, and because he was resolved to use his knife if they should
+happen to surprise him. The safe was opened. The papers and a bag of
+money were in his hands, and he was on his way to the door, when he
+felt himself seized by the throat.
+
+"Hands off from the papers, you thief!" whispered the man who held him.
+The Jew thought of Tzifra; but the dying glare of the lamp, which had
+fallen to the floor, displayed to him the features of Viola.
+
+When Peti informed him of the intended robbery, the outlaw hastened to
+the notary's house to watch it. He had no means of preventing the
+execution of the theft. His own life was forfeited to the law, and if he
+had attacked the thief before the crime was committed, the latter might
+have called for help, his own life would have been endangered, and the
+Jew might at any other time have carried out his project. Viola waited
+therefore until the Jew had entered the house, and sending Peti to the
+gate to watch Tzifra, he crept into the room, where he seized him in the
+act.
+
+"Hands off the papers!" said Viola, "you're a dead man if you keep
+them."
+
+Vainly did the Jew strive to shake off the iron grasp of his assailant.
+He tried to stab, but a blow from Viola's fist knocked him down. His
+fall alarmed the family. Viola took the papers and fled. Peti followed
+him. The Jew, still stunned from the effects of the blow which he had
+received, crawled through the door; and when Akosh entered he saw
+nothing but the open safe, a bag of money, and Viola's bunda lying on
+the floor.
+
+Akosh hastened to the door. In the yard he found the Jew lying on his
+back and calling for help. He stooped to raise him. At that moment a
+shot was fired, and Akosh fell bleeding to the ground.
+
+Ershebet and Vilma, who had followed him, screamed out. The villagers
+hastened to the spot, and the smith next door saw, as he left his house,
+a man hastening by. He raised the shout of "Murder!" and pursued the
+fugitive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. X.
+
+
+The late events at Tissaret had not yet transpired at Dustbury; and
+though Mr. Rety was any thing but pleased with his son's absence (which
+he ascribed to political reasons), still he looked with deep-felt
+satisfaction on the large crowd of his champions, who bore him to the
+scene of the grand national fete. Those who believe that great men are
+unmindful of those to whom they owe their elevation, would change their
+opinion if they could have seen the kind and even humble bearing of the
+sheriff. Nay, the wish of that enthusiastic Cortes of St. Miklosh, who
+held the sheriff's foot, and who repeatedly exclaimed, "What a pity that
+we cannot carry that dear sheriff from one year's end to another!" was
+not only very flattering for Mr. Rety, but, considering the position of
+the Cortes, it might be called a _wise_ wish. Owing to the great number
+of noblemen, the scene of the election was laid in the court of the
+council-house. When the members of the holy crown remove their court
+from the hall to the yard, the arrangements of what one might call the
+hustings are very much the same any where, no matter whether the piece
+is acted on the banks of the Danube or of the Theiss. A long table of
+rude workmanship is usually placed before the lord-lieutenant's chair;
+this table is as usually covered with any odd pieces of green baize that
+happen to be found in the council-house. The other parts of the yard are
+filled with the hostile factions, and from the windows of the
+council-house and other high places we find the fair and tender sex
+looking down on the scene of the great contest, where (without the
+assistance of either steel or flint) the finest sparks of enthusiasm are
+struck from the eyes of noblemen; where the magistrates of the county
+are created, as the world was, out of Chaos; where the faces of so many
+assessors not only burn, but actually sweat for their principles; and
+where the patriot, in beholding the enthusiasm which causes such numbers
+to offer their services to the country, obtains the proud conviction
+that Hungary will never perish, at least not for want of functionaries.
+
+The Dustbury election was as complete in its arrangements as the zealous
+care of the rival parties could make it, and there was, moreover, a
+company of soldiers for the express purpose of assisting the
+magistrates. This circumstance caused a few of the older assessors to
+shake their heads with an air of great wisdom. But the young men, who
+were children of their time, were by no means astonished to see the
+bayonets, because they knew that soldiers were present at all the
+elections in the adjacent counties; and why should not Takshony have its
+soldiers as well as its betters? To cry out against the army was
+perfectly absurd!
+
+The ceremonies of the election came off in due course. The
+lord-lieutenant addressed the assembly less (he said) for the purpose of
+enlightening them, than because he wished to give vent to his feelings
+and to those of his audience, who drowned his voice in deafening cheers.
+Rety too made a considerable display of oratorical talent in his
+farewell speech for himself and his brother magistrates; and, lastly, a
+provisional court was appointed for the suppression and punishment of
+any excesses that might be committed. This done, two deputations were
+sent off under the guidance of Baron Shoskuty and another magistrate in
+red and blue, for the purpose of collecting the votes, while the parties
+raised Bantornyi and Rety, and carried them--not without some mutual
+violence--out of the gate; the yard was left to his Excellency's private
+enjoyment, a benefit which he shared with three curates and an old
+assessor. Even the ladies, eager to attend the birth of the new
+magistrates, and panting for the glory of the fight, turned to the
+opposite side of the council-house, whence they looked down upon the
+battle of the vote-collecting deputations.
+
+The council-house, which was built in the form of a square, had, besides
+the front gate, two more gates at the sides of the building. They were
+each occupied by a deputation. The front entrance was closed, and the
+Cortes were invited to pass through either Bantornyi's or Rety's gate,
+as the case might be.
+
+The county of Takshony had lately become a convert to the ballot,
+principally at Tengelyi's suggestion. The sight of the preparations for
+carrying out one of his favorite principles would have gladdened that
+good man's heart. A small table was placed close to the gate and round
+it sat Shoskuty, Slatzanek, Kishlaki, and--for the other party too was
+represented--the brother of the rival candidate. At some distance two
+screens were placed, and between them the table with the urn. Augustin
+Karvay and Mr. Skinner watched the gates, to prevent the approach of any
+unqualified persons. Mr. Catspaw joined the last-named party as a
+volunteer.
+
+The assessors lighted their pipes; the gates were flung open, and the
+electors entered for the purpose of secret voting. They, to a man, on
+seeing the deputation, shouted "Eljen Rety! Eljen Bantornyi!" a shout to
+which the Cortes outside replied with equal fervor; and the person
+entering having then done his duty as a nobleman, retired behind the
+screens to give his vote.
+
+"Nothing in the world so beautiful as this plan of secret voting," said
+Mr. James, taking his cigar and pushing off the ashes, while he shook
+the hand of an elector who had come up to the table with a thundering
+shout of "Eljen Bantornyi!" "If that contrivance could be introduced in
+England, they would have the most perfect constitution. The ballot, the
+ballot for ever! that's our cry; it makes a man feel so independent!"
+
+"All this is very well," sighed Kishlaki; "but I wish to goodness they
+would not go on bawling in that heathenish way. My friend," said he,
+interrupting one of the Cortes in his shout of "Eljen Rety!" "don't roar
+so loud. It's secret voting, you know!"
+
+"Of course, so it is! Vivat the Sheriff Rety!" And he disappeared behind
+the screens.
+
+"I really _do_ beg your pardon," said Kishlaki, rising; "but this must
+be stopped. It's a mere farce, you know."
+
+"But who _can_ dictate to the feelings of our dear noble friends?" cried
+Shaskay; "it's natural that they should vent them at such a moment, and
+they do vent them, and----"
+
+"Very well, let them give vent to their feelings; but what the deuce are
+the screens for? Besides, they are continually being kicked over."
+
+Shaskay remarked that the screens were placed there by the express order
+of the magistrates.
+
+"Then let the worshipful magistrates know that they have decreed the
+thing which cannot be done!" cried Kishlaki. "These fellows roar all the
+louder for being allowed to roar singly; they vie in showing the
+strength of their lungs. We shan't come to the end of this kind of
+thing; and here's a precious cold draught, let me tell you."
+
+"But, begging your pardon," interposed Mr. James, "is there any harm in
+these people shouting a name? They may still give their secret vote
+behind the screen. _Quite independent, you know._"
+
+"Ay, indeed; but----"
+
+"I say," continued Mr. James, "how the deuce can they see for whom we
+vote, no matter what name they may cry?"
+
+"But the names of the two candidates are written on the urns: now if a
+man can't read, how is _he_ to vote? I have seen ten of them at least
+who I know never knew a letter. Hollo, Pishta!" cried Kishlaki, stopping
+the man who was just walking to the screens; "do you know your letters?"
+And Pishta replied, with great pride, "I do not read before the Lord our
+God."
+
+"But then you _can_ read!" suggested Shoskuty. "You do not read because
+you don't choose; but you could if you would?"
+
+"No, I never learnt it. I am none of your Slowak students; neither did
+my grandfather learn it in his time."
+
+"I told you so!" cried Kishlaki, triumphantly; and addressing the
+Cortes, "What urn did you throw your ball in?"
+
+"The right-hand one!" replied the Cortes, adjusting his bunda. "Any
+thing to please my judge. Eljen Bantornyi!"
+
+"This man came to vote for Bantornyi, and you see, gentlemen, he has
+voted for Rety," said Kishlaki, with great satisfaction. "Now I ask
+whether this sort of thing is to continue?"
+
+"It is very extraordinary!" sighed Mr. James; while Slatzanek, stroking
+his moustache, protested that accidents would happen.
+
+"Accidents, indeed! let us have another look at these accidents. Can you
+read?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"God forbid!"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I learnt it when a child, but----"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"A little!"
+
+Mr. Shaskay, who seemed greatly amused by these questions, and the
+answers which they elicited, said he hoped Mr. Kishlaki was now
+satisfied that the illiterate were in the majority; and James hastened
+to the gate, where he implored every new comer to vote for his brother.
+But Shoskuty, desirous to carry out the resolution of the county
+magistrates, placed two assessors behind the screens for the purpose of
+explaining the names on the urns to the voters.
+
+The ballot was being proceeded with on this improved and practical
+principle, when Tengelyi, accompanied by Kalman Kishlaki and others,
+approached the gate. A single look showed him the absurdity of the
+proceedings. "How, in the name of Heaven," said he, addressing Shoskuty,
+"can you, dare you, allow this gross violation of the county law?"
+
+"Violation!" cried Shoskuty. "What violation? What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Did not the county magistrates give an order that the voting should be
+secret?"
+
+"And because they gave that order, sir, we obey that order, sir! Or do
+you think, sir, that we sit here for the mere joke of the thing? What
+are the screens for, I should like to know? Secret voting, indeed! What
+do you call this, sir? Hasn't the draught given me a cold already? and
+how dare you say, sir, that I violate my instructions?"
+
+"You cannot go on in this manner!" said Tengelyi, with great warmth;
+"I'll speak to the lord-lieutenant. This election is null and void."
+
+"Hold you tongue, sir notary!" cried Slatzanek, angrily; "don't you
+mistake this place for one of your alehouse clubs. You may give your
+vote if you please, and for whom you please, but we won't be lectured,
+and, least of all, by the like of _you_."
+
+"Stop, sir!" cried Kalman. "Tengelyi is right. There can be no secret
+voting in the presence of two people."
+
+"I thought so too," said old Kishlaki, "but the majority----"
+
+"Sir, I _do_ pray----"
+
+"_Rogo humillime_----"
+
+"I say----"
+
+"_I_ am going to explain it!" cried Slatzanek, Shoskuty, and another
+assessor; but Shoskuty's shrill voice overcrowed them, and the baron
+said:--
+
+"My dear young sir, I _do_ pray you will consider what your honoured
+father was pleased to observe just now, namely, that the majority of
+this deputation are agreed on all the arrangements of this ballot, and
+that it is quite ridiculous to talk of errors or faults. And besides,
+are you not aware that no act is valid in Hungary without the
+_testimonium legale_ of two magistrates? Very well, then, the gentlemen
+behind the screen will--if need be--prove that the Cortes gave secret
+votes--_absque ira et studio_--quite independent."
+
+Kalman laughed. Tengelyi spoke, though no one listened, of the sanctity
+of the laws, and the proceedings came to a stand-still. Mr. Skinner, to
+whom Catspaw had whispered, advanced, and, seizing Tengelyi by the
+collar, said, "Be off, sir; you have no business here, not being a
+nobleman!"
+
+The astonishment which these few words created was prodigious. Shoskuty
+wrung his hands; Shaskay sighed and looked up to heaven; Slatzanek
+looked fierce and scornful; and old Kishlaki, who felt most for
+Tengelyi, exclaimed, "Did I ever!--no, I never!" Saying which he fell
+back into his chair.
+
+Tengelyi's face was purple with rage; but the justice, addressing the
+deputation, said, "Strange though it may seem to you, gentlemen, this
+man is not noble; I move that he shall not be allowed to vote."
+
+Tengelyi had meanwhile regained his self-possession. "And who," said he,
+"is there to prove that I am not noble?"
+
+"_Onus probandi semper privato incumbit!_" said the recorder.
+
+"Of course it does!" cried Shoskuty. "_Incumbit privato_, which means
+you must give us proof of your noble descent, or you may go and be ----
+for all I care. Noble descent is proved----"
+
+The worthy baron's memory failed him, and the recorder resumed the
+argument.
+
+"Have you a royal donation, sir, the 'Armales,' or have you an authentic
+Transsumtum, or the Statuaries with the clause 'Cum nos,' or, at least,
+according to Verboetzi I. 6., the receipts for the quartalitium?"
+
+"Why," said Tengelyi, pettishly, "there is not a man in all Hungary who
+can give such satisfactory proofs of his noble descent as I can,
+but----"
+
+"Very good sir; give them!" cried the recorder. "Perhaps you claim a
+prescriptive right; but that too must be proved with documents. You
+prove it with extracts from baptismal registers, royal grants of
+land--come sir, give us something of the kind!"
+
+"My papers are in my house."
+
+"Then bring them here. As soon as you bring those documents we will
+admit you to the vote," said the recorder, with a sneer.
+
+"Of course," cried Shoskuty. "Show us your papers!"
+
+"But I always enjoyed the privileges of a nobleman; I always paid my
+contributions to their rates."
+
+"_Fraus et dolus nemini opitulatur!_" cried Shaskay. "Why did you not
+register your patent in the county?"
+
+"Because no one ever doubted of my nobility," said the notary, trembling
+with passion. "Because I stood for a justice seat, and was actually
+appointed to a notariat."
+
+"It's a good thing for a man to have his patent properly registered,"
+said the recorder: "if you had been more cautious, you would have
+avoided this awkward inquiry. But your having pretended or been
+appointed to a post of honor cannot decide any thing. It's not legal
+evidence. Are there not plenty of instances of the recorders having
+neglected their duties, by allowing the number of noblemen to increase
+in the said illegal manner, to the no slight detriment and prejudice of
+the tax-paying population?"
+
+The notary found it impossible to repress the feelings of scorn which
+the recorder's last words called forth. "Ay, ay, sir," said he, "you are
+indeed a generous man. What a blessing to the tax-payers if they could
+always have you for an advocate!"
+
+"Don't stand losing your time!" cried Shoskuty; "tell them to go on with
+the ballot, and let Mr. Tengelyi send for his documents."
+
+"I insist on giving my vote," said Tengelyi. "A nobleman cannot lose his
+rights on the ground of an information; and pending the proceedings I
+have a right to my present position."
+
+"Mr. Tengelyi is right," said a young solicitor; "the act of----"
+
+"De 21 Julii 1785?" added the recorder, shaking his head. "The said bill
+enacts that while the inquiry on the nobility cujuscunque is pending,
+the defendant is to remain in his former position."
+
+"Which means in the fourth estate, which is the notary's case until he
+procures his documents," suggested Slatzanek.
+
+"I have always passed for a nobleman--have I not?" said Tengelyi,
+turning round upon Mr. Catspaw. "You ought to know, for you have known
+me these thirty years."
+
+"All I can say," said the little attorney, rubbing his hands, "is that
+my worshipful master, the sheriff, has always treated Mr. Tengelyi as he
+would a nobleman; but then all the world knows that my master is a most
+_charitable_ gentleman, though indeed he gets no thanks for his
+goodness. I never saw Mr. Tengelyi's documents. His patent is not
+registered. To tell you the truth, he came from some distant place; and
+there are cases in which----"
+
+"Knock him down! kick him out!" roared the crowd; and Karvay, whose
+voice was most conspicuous in the general confusion, advanced and seized
+Tengelyi.
+
+"Come on, any man who is tired of his life!" cried Kalman, taking his
+stand in front of the old man. "Tengelyi is my friend; and whoever
+touches him is a dead man, even if he had as many lives as a cat!"
+
+The gallant Captain Karvay retreated almost as quickly as he had
+advanced. Kishlaky hastened to his son's side, and reminded him of his
+alliance with the Rety party. Baron Shoskuty spoke with great energy
+about the sanctity of the place; and the recorder was heard to pronounce
+the ominous word "Actio."
+
+But Kalman was not the man to be either cajoled or intimidated; and old
+Kishlaky himself would have been at a loss to say whether he wept tears
+of joy or of sorrow when his generous son exclaimed:
+
+"What alliances? what do I care for engagements? they are nothing to the
+duty which I owe to every honest man and to myself! I cannot, and I will
+not, allow anybody to be treated with injustice, if I can help it!"
+
+"But, _domine spectabilis_, I must humbly implore you to consider that
+this is the council-house!" groaned Shaskay.
+
+"Thank you for reminding me of it I!" roared Kalman. "This house--yes!
+it was built for the maintenance of public order and safety, and it is
+here that honest men are in danger of being knocked down. Men come here
+to seek justice, but, confound you all! they don't find it. We look for
+judges and find cudgels. God knows, to look at you all, one would fancy
+that this place is a robbers' den!"
+
+"D--n him, he abuses us!" cried a leader of the Cortes. "He attacks the
+nobility. Actio! Actio!" And the crowd roared, "Actio! Actio!"
+
+"Actio? Very well, you worshipful gentlemen!" sneered Kalman; "make it
+an action if you please, and put it on record that it is enough in the
+county of Takshony for such a fellow"--here he pointed at Mr.
+Skinner--"to calumniate an honest man, to rob the latter of all his
+rights." And flinging his ring on the table, he took Tengelyi's arm.
+
+"Come along, dear sir. I myself will drive you to Tissaret. I promise
+you I will bring you back before the day is over."
+
+The noble mob groaned, and Slatzanek said to Kishlaki, "If Mr. Kalman is
+not elected, you will not accuse us, I am sure." Old Kishlaki sighed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XI.
+
+
+The notary's house was now indeed the abode of care and sorrow. Young
+Rety's wound was not dangerous, for only his arm was hurt; and at his
+own entreaty, and with Vandory's consent, he had that very night been
+removed to the Castle: but the theft, Vilma's state of excitement and
+despondency, and the consciousness of having disobeyed her husband's
+orders in receiving Akosh in her house,--all this plunged Mrs. Ershebet
+into the lowest depth of misery and remorse. The whole place was in
+confusion. Vilma had gone to bed; and the servants ran to and fro,
+scared and gossiping. Mother Liptaka was scarcely able to reply to and
+send away the crowd of curious inquirers who entered the house, thus
+adding to its confused and cheerless aspect. Vandory was the only friend
+the family had; and it was owing to his gentle persuasion that Vilma
+became gradually calmer, and that even Mrs. Ershebet mustered up some
+courage against her husband's return. Vandory had been sent for
+immediately after the accident, and he had not left the house since. He
+examined the safe, and ascertained the loss of his own papers and of
+most of Tengelyi's. He knew, therefore, the extent of his loss; but his
+pious confidence, and his firm conviction that God will not abandon the
+righteous, imparted itself to those who surrounded him, and shielded
+poor Ershebet from despair.
+
+"She is asleep," said she, entering the room in which Vandory sat; "the
+poor girl is asleep. Oh, God! what will Jonas say when he sees her
+looking so pale! When he left us she was fresh and blooming; and
+now----"
+
+"Vilma will be all right before Tengelyi comes home. Akosh has given
+orders that none of the people of the house are to go to Dustbury; you
+need not expect your husband until the election is over."
+
+"Oh, I am miserable! I am ruined!"
+
+"Now pray be calm, my dear Mrs. Ershebet," said Vandory, taking her
+hands. "Rety's wound is not dangerous; and the loss of the papers is not
+so serious a matter as you seem to think. They will be restored."
+
+"Perhaps; but my husband's confidence--will that, too, be restored? I
+have lost his love, his respect--in short, I am ruined! How often did
+he not intreat me, 'Pray do not allow Akosh to come to our house! Do
+not allow him to speak to Vilma,--the girl's peace of mind and her
+honour are at stake!' And I promised to--but I did not obey!"
+
+"It is a sad case; but I know Tengelyi is kind; he will pardon you: I
+know he will. And do not be concerned about your daughter's reputation.
+Vilma and Akosh are betrothed. Who knows but that his wound will be of
+use to him? for neither the Retys nor Jonas can oppose the marriage
+after this."
+
+"Oh, these Retys!" sobbed Mrs. Ershebet.
+
+"These Retys! dearest Mrs. Ershebet. I am afraid you take them to be
+worse than they really are. Rety is weak, but good and kind; and his
+wife----can there be any _woman_ who would not, after such an event,
+urge her son to act the part of an honest man?"
+
+"And to consider," said Mrs. Ershebet, "that it is Viola who did all
+this to us, and that we took pity on his wife and children when no one
+else would pity them!"
+
+"I have my doubts whether it was Viola."
+
+"There can be no doubt. When the Jew recovered, he told us that, passing
+our house on his way to his home, he saw our gate open; and, knowing
+that my husband was at Dustbury, he thought that something must be
+wrong; he entered for the purpose of inquiring whether my husband had
+come back. At that very moment Viola left the room with his booty; and,
+meeting the Jew, he knocked him down. The smith, who went in pursuit of
+the robber, tells me the man whom he saw was Tzifra, one of Viola's men:
+and the Liptaka, too, has confessed that Viola was in the village, and
+even in her house.--There can be no doubt.--Besides, you may ask the
+Jew, who is still suffering from Viola's violence."
+
+"The Jew is a liar!" said a female voice in the room. Mrs. Ershebet and
+Vandory turned round, and saw Viola's wife, Susi, who had entered during
+the latter part of their conversation. "Ay," continued Susi, "it is I
+who say it. Viola did not steal in this house; he'd never do it, though
+he were to live for a hundred years!"
+
+"Thank God that it is so!" said Vandory, who was loth to lose his faith
+in his fellow-creatures. He was happy to see the effect which Susi's
+words produced on Mrs. Ershebet.
+
+"Trust me, so it is!" cried Susi. "Viola is a poor, ruined man, driven
+from house and home, hunted from place to place like a wild beast; but
+I know that he has not done this. Cut him to pieces!--tear his heart
+out!--you will never find him ungrateful!"
+
+"You are right, Susi," said Mrs. Ershebet; "you are right in taking your
+husband's part, for you have vowed to be his own for better and for
+worse; and I, too, wish I could believe you; but it is in vain.
+Everything is against him; and--I do not mean to hurt you, my good
+woman; but you know your husband is a robber."
+
+The words were repented almost as soon as spoken. Vandory said something
+to calm the poor woman's mind; but Susi advanced, and, leaning her arms
+on the table, stood with a flushed and frowning face. "Yes," said she,
+"Viola _is_ a robber; you are right: I _am_ a robber's wife. They know
+it in the village; they know it in the county. A reward has been offered
+for his capture. The very children in the streets know it. But when the
+Day of Judgment comes, and when God appears visibly to our eyes, with
+His Son at His right hand, and all the angels round him, and when He
+judges our crimes, do you think He will call Viola to account for being
+a robber? No, He will not. He will enter into judgment with those who
+_forced_ him to be a robber--with those who punished him before he was
+guilty. God is just. He cares not who is rich and who is poor. He looks
+into our heart; and I know that Viola is pure before his God!"
+
+The Liptaka, who entered in that moment, overheard Susi's last words.
+"You are right, my child," said she: "trust in God, who will not abandon
+you."
+
+"Oh, you bid me trust in God!" said Susi, gloomily. "You've told me that
+at least a hundred times, and, indeed, what would poor people come to,
+if they did _not_ trust in God? But when I think of our misfortunes, and
+when I see that we are suspected by everybody, and that the honestest
+people--such as the curate and Mrs. Tengelyi--believe that my husband
+would injure his greatest benefactors, why then, you see, my good angel
+leaves me, and there is a voice that whispers in my ear that there is no
+God for the poor!"
+
+"Fye, Susi!" said the Liptaka. "It is written that 'it is easier for a
+camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter
+into the kingdom of heaven.' The poor, of all men, ought not to doubt
+God's goodness, for His Son chose His disciples from among our number.
+And suppose Mrs. Tengelyi said bitter things, you ought to consider that
+she did all she could for you. The best of us are unjust when we
+suffer; even my own husband--may God give him eternal rest!--suspected
+Peti, the gipsy, when they stole our cow. Bear your cross humbly with
+your Saviour."
+
+"Aye, but He was the Son of God! and I am but a sinful child; and
+besides, can you, can anybody know what I have suffered? I was a poor
+orphan. My father and mother died when I was a child, and if you had not
+taken me to your house, I'd have perished, as many children do who have
+no mother to take care of them. But you, God bless you! brought me up,
+and there wasn't a merrier girl in the village than I was. O, though my
+sweet mother died when I was born, yet you loved me as much as she would
+have done, I'm sure!"
+
+Vandory and Ershebet were silent; the eyes of the Liptaka filled with
+tears.
+
+"Yes, I was a merry girl!" said Susi. "I didn't think I could be
+happier, and I thanked God for my happiness. But this was not all. It is
+since I knew Viola that I know what it is to have a heaven on earth. At
+first I did not think that a man such as he could love me. Viola was
+wealthy. He had inherited a fine farm from his father. Next to the
+notary's, his house was the finest in the village; he had splendid
+cattle,--how then could I, poor orphan, expect him to love me? When I
+was reaping the harvest in the field, and he stopped by my side, with
+his four beasts, and helped me to tie up the corn,--or at the Theiss,
+when he filled my pails,--or at weddings, when he brought me bunches of
+rosemary, I said to myself, 'Viola is good, ay, very good and kind;' but
+I never thought that he would marry me, and I prayed that such proud
+thoughts might be kept out of my mind. But when he called at Christmas,
+and asked me whether I loved him, and when I did not reply to that, but
+looked down, and he took me in his arms and said that he would marry me
+in the spring, oh! it was then I felt giddy with happiness, and I
+fancied the angels of heaven must envy my joy!"
+
+"Poor, poor woman!" said Mrs. Ershebet, drying her tears.
+
+"A proud woman I was then!" cried Susi, "ay! a proud woman indeed, and a
+happy one! The whole world seemed to me one large marriage feast; my
+happiness took away my breath, and I could have wept at any moment. But
+that was nothing to my happiness in my husband's house, and when our
+first child was born, and we had to take care of our little Pishta. Oh!
+and God blessed our house and our fields; and our cattle were healthy,
+and our wheat was the finest in the county. There's many a bride enters
+her husband's house with a happy heart; but I, proud woman, thought each
+day more blessed than the last, nor did I ever think of my wedding-day,
+I was so happy!"
+
+Her heart was oppressed with the reminiscences of the past. For some
+moments she did not speak; and when she continued, it was with a hoarse
+and low voice, as though that breast of hers had not breath enough to
+tell the tale of her woe.
+
+"And then, you see," said she, "it breaks my heart to think that all is
+lost now. We were not overbearing in our happiness. We never offended
+anybody. My husband paid his taxes and rates, and served his fifty-two
+robot-days; he was kind to the poor--ay, very good and kind, for God had
+blessed us. He was wealthy; but then he was but a peasant, and among the
+gentry there were those that hated him. The attorney--may the Lord find
+him!" said Susi, shaking her fist, "_he_ hated my husband, for he was
+the speaker of the other peasants when they had a complaint to make. And
+the justice too swore he'd have his revenge, for he wanted to go after
+me; but I, as an honest woman, told him to leave my house, as it was my
+duty to do. I was always anxious lest something might come of it, though
+my husband told me we had no reason to fear either the attorney or the
+justice, so long as he did his duty. But the gentry plot together, and a
+poor man's innocence cannot protect him from their revenge. It's now two
+years since I was brought to bed with a little daughter. Early that
+morning I was in a bad way:--my husband was with me, and so were you,
+Liptaka, when the attorney sent to us--I think the midwife had told him
+about the way I was in--to order Viola to take four horses to the
+Castle, and drive my lady to Dustbury. My husband spoke to the haiduk;
+he said he could not go that day, and that his horses had done more
+service that year than those of any of the other peasants; but that he
+would be glad to go any other day. And we thought all was well; but the
+haiduk came back, saying that my husband must do his duty, and that he
+_must_ come, for that he had the best horses in the village. Viola was
+angry, but I entreated him to send the servant with the horses, which he
+did, though reluctantly, because he did not like to trust them with a
+stranger. But my travail had just begun, when the haiduk came back with
+the servant, saying that Viola must come, for my lady was afraid of
+anybody else driving. And Viola saw my sufferings, and knew that I
+wanted him to be near me; he said they might do as they pleased, it was
+enough that he had sent the horses, and he wouldn't stir from the
+spot--no! not for the king's own son. But the haiduk said, he'd do the
+same if it was his own case; yet, for all that, he would advise my
+husband to go, considering that the justice was at the Castle, who had
+sworn an oath that he'd have him brought up per force; so he'd better
+look to the end of it. Now my husband _is_ violent, and at times
+obstinate; he sent word to the justice that he had done his robot for
+that year, and he wouldn't go to save his soul from perdition. The
+haiduk went away, and after that I know not what happened, for I got so
+faint I could neither hear nor see; but the neighbours and the Liptaka
+tell me that the justice came with his men, cursing and abusing Viola,
+whom they bound, while I lay bereft of my senses, and dragged him to the
+Castle!"
+
+"It's quite true!" cried the Liptaka; "yes! it's quite true. I followed
+them as they led Viola away. It was a fearful sight, I tell you; he
+refused to walk, and cast himself on the ground; he was so angry! and
+Mr. Skinner dragged him away as you would a pig. Every body was
+horrified, and all the people from the village wept and followed them,
+though none dared to help him. But we wept in our minds, and murmured
+when they beat him, poor innocent fellow! because he would not walk--for
+beat him they did with sticks and fokosh, while the judge walked along
+with many fearful oaths and threats. And when we came to the house, the
+justice examined the haiduk before us, asking him whether he had been at
+Viola's, and told him that he was summoned to service, and what Viola
+had said, and Lord knows what besides! and at last he said, 'I'll tie
+you up for it, my fine fellow!' and sent for the deresh[17]; for he
+said, 'I'll serve you out for contempt of the county.' And he said,
+'Lash him to the deresh.' Now Viola stood among the Pandurs; and though
+I were to live a hundred years, I'd never forget what a sight it was
+when he stood in the yard, with his head and face covered with blood,
+and his lips blue with biting them! They had untied his hands to lash
+him down; and when he was in the yard, he tore away from the haiduks and
+made a leap like a lion, shouting, 'Stand back, every man of you!' And
+they stood back; but that incarnate devil, Skinner, cursed them, and
+swore he'd kill them if they did not tie him down. They made a rush to
+seize him. But Viola caught up an axe which had been used for
+woodcutting, and which the devil put in his way. He seized the axe and
+spun it round, and two of the fellows fell weltering in their blood. Oh!
+and he raised the bloody axe, and rushing through them, he ran home, got
+a horse, and rode off to the St. Vilmosh forest. One of the men he had
+struck died of his wounds, and Viola has been an outlaw ever since."
+
+[Footnote 17: See Note XIII.]
+
+"And a robber ever since that day!" cried Susi, wringing her hands. "May
+God bless you, Mrs. Tengelyi, for what you did for me and my poor
+children! I'll go now and try to find my husband. If he knows aught of
+the stolen things, or if he can trace them, you need not fear: Mr.
+Tengelyi shall not lose his property."
+
+"What are you about?" said Mrs. Ershebet; "do you think I will let you
+go in this way?"
+
+"Don't be afraid!" cried Susi, with a bitter smile. "I'm sure to come
+back! I leave you my children; and though I _am_ a robber's wife, trust
+me, I'll never leave my children."
+
+"I did not mean _that_, Susi," replied Mrs. Ershebet, holding out her
+hand; "but you are still in bad health, and to walk about in this cold
+weather cannot be good for you."
+
+"Thank you, but I'm pretty well now. The air of the heath will do me
+good. But stay here I cannot. You suspect Viola; I know you do. The Jew
+accuses him, and so do others. He was in the village--there's no denying
+that! His bunda has been found in this room. Everything is against him,
+and people cannot know that it was quite impossible for him to do that
+of which they accuse him. It's a dark matter, but I will have it cleared
+up. I'd die if I were to remain here and listen to all the horrid things
+they are sure to speak of my husband." And Susi turned to leave the
+room.
+
+"Poor woman!" sighed Mrs. Ershebet. "She, at least, deserves a better
+fate!"
+
+Susi had reached the door, but when she heard these words she turned
+round and cried. "A better fate? Trust me, if I were to be born again,
+and if I were to know all that has happened to Viola, still I would not
+have another husband. If they hang him, I'll sit down under the gallows,
+thanking God that I was his wife. There is not such another heart on the
+earth as his. But, adieu! and may God bless you!"
+
+"I am sure," said Vandory, looking after her, "that Viola had no hand in
+this matter. A man who goes on for eight years loving his wife in this
+manner cannot act meanly and disgracefully!"
+
+He had scarcely said these words when Tengelyi entered the room,
+exclaiming, "Is it true that there has been a robbery committed here?"
+
+"Only the safe was forced open," replied Mrs. Ershebet, trembling; "the
+other parts of----"
+
+"The safe? Give me the keys! Where are the keys?"
+
+"I dare say they are in your desk. But the safe is open."
+
+Tengelyi hastened up to the place, and throwing open the lid, he bent
+down and turned the papers about, while his wife and Vandory stood by
+silent and anxious. The fearful contraction of his features showed them
+the extent of his loss. At length he rose, and throwing himself back in
+his chair, he covered his face with his hands. "I am lost!" muttered he.
+"My papers are gone--I am a ruined man!"
+
+Mrs. Ershebet and Vandory did all in their power to take off the first
+sharp edge of his sorrow; but what they said was unheeded by him.
+
+"Right? It's all right," said Tengelyi; "the papers only are lost, are
+they? Oh! I know it. You found the money all safe--it lay here close to
+the door--did it not? But do you know, woman, that we are no longer
+noble! We and our children are not noble! We are peasants!--things to be
+despised, to be kicked, to be trodden under foot, things that have no
+property, and that can have no merits, things like those which inhabit
+the hovels around us. They are not aliens, because they were born here;
+but still they have no rights, no property, and no country!" And,
+turning to Vandory, the notary told him all that had happened at
+Dustbury; adding, "Now you know it all. They ask for proofs of my noble
+descent. I came from another county; my father, in his position as a
+curate, had little cause to care for his nobility; nobody ever doubted
+my rights, and I thought it was quite superfluous to have my title
+proclaimed in this county; and now my papers and patents are lost! Alas!
+my poor son!"
+
+"Jonas," said Vandory, "you know that I too have had a loss. You know
+the extent of that loss, and how likely it is to affect those things
+which I care most about in this world. You understand me! But let us
+place our trust in God."
+
+"You have no children! Is there any son of yours the worse off for what
+you have lost?"
+
+"I understand you, and believe me I feel for you. My sympathy would
+certainly be greater, if you were indeed deprived of your rights as a
+nobleman. But is there no hope? Those papers are of no use to him who
+stole them. He will send and ask a certain price for them. But suppose
+he did not, cannot you prove that your papers were stolen, and that you
+and your father enjoyed all the privileges of nobility? Besides, you can
+make an appeal to the king's grace."
+
+"The king's grace for _me_, a poor village notary?"
+
+"Why not? If we do not find your papers, I myself will go to Vienna. I
+will kneel before the king's majesty, and state the case to him. The
+county is sure to send a petition, and I'll tell the king that you have
+a family, and that you are wretched for their sake. God has made the
+king so rich and so powerful--he has surely given him a feeling heart,
+and a sense of pity and compassion for those that suffer."
+
+"Friend," said Tengelyi, impatiently, "you are as mad as any optimist I
+ever met with. The county, you say, is sure to petition in my favour?
+Don't you see that there is a purpose in this robbery?--that it is part
+of a plot to ruin me? and of a plot, too, which those very gentlemen
+have made who, you fondly believe, are sure to petition in my favour?
+Or do you think it's chance that my noble descent, which no one ever
+doubted, is publicly denied at the very time that my papers are stolen?
+Or was the composition of the commission accidental? Or was it an
+accident that no one told me I should be called upon to prove my
+nobility? Is all this mere chance and accident? Oh! you would not say
+so, if you had seen that fellow Catspaw as he stood by the table
+sneering at me! I am a victim to their diabolical plots! Viola is but
+their tool. I'm down, never to rise again!"
+
+"For God's sake, Jonas!" cried Mrs. Ershebet, seizing her husband's
+hand; "my heart is ready to break when I see you thus desponding. Think
+of the past!--think of all our sorrows and troubles!--did we not often
+all but despair, when----"
+
+Tengelyi's face bore the impress of the deepest agony. He pressed his
+wife's hand, and asked with a low and tremulous voice,--"What is it that
+has happened to Vilma?"
+
+Her cheek grew pale, and her voice failed her.
+
+"Ershebet!" gasped the notary; "what has become of my daughter?"
+
+But Ershebet, scared by the expression of his face, was silent. Vandory
+searched vainly for words to inform his friend of what had happened.
+
+"I see!" said Tengelyi, pushing back her hand, which trembled in his.
+"They told me the truth--nothing but the truth! My daughter's honour is
+lost!"
+
+Ershebet wept. Vandory said all he could say. He talked of young Rety's
+honourable intentions,--of the love of young people,--and that it was
+quite ridiculous to think of any violation of honour. Tengelyi stood
+pale and stern. His lips moved, but they had not a word of comfort for
+Mrs. Ershebet.
+
+"Of course," murmured he, with a bitter smile,--"of course it's all
+arranged--it's all for the best;--no doubt of it;--I am to have back my
+nobility, and my daughter her honour. You, Vandory, you go to Vienna,
+and his majesty gives us all we demand. The king indeed is a fountain of
+honour, but do you think he can patch up a woman's reputation?"
+
+Again Vandory attempted to demonstrate that there was no reason why
+Akosh should not have met Vilma in her mother's presence, and that he
+had sought the house with truly honourable intentions.
+
+"But did he come to the house as an honourable man would?" asked
+Tengelyi; "did he not leave Dustbury in secret and in the dead of the
+night? Did he not tie his horse to the garden gate and creep to my
+house just for all the world as if he were a thief? After this, who will
+be fool enough to believe in his honourable intentions?"
+
+"The future will prove them," said Vandory, quietly. "Who will dare to
+speak against Vilma when she changes her name to Rety?"
+
+"When she changes her name to Rety--that's it! isn't it, wife?" said
+Tengelyi, turning fiercely upon Ershebet; "and it is you who wish it,
+and it is you who I dare say are happy that things have happened as they
+did, and that Akosh is bound. But are you aware that you have worked
+your daughter's ruin? Are you aware that she will curse you for having
+sacrificed her happiness to your vanity? Is my daughter to be Lady Rety
+because she is dishonoured? because you have got Akosh in a corner.
+They'll scorn her in her husband's house! She will have no position,
+having lost the one which became her! She will be a slave! a wife by her
+husband's charity! To see her will remind him of his having been _bound_
+to marry her, but not of the love which made her his. I tell you, you
+have ruined your own child!"
+
+Ershebet wept.
+
+"Weep, wretched woman, weep!" continued Tengelyi, "though your tears
+cannot atone for your offence. Was there ever a better child, or one
+more loving? and see what you have made of her! She was my pride; my
+heart became young when I saw her. I forgot the past. I might almost
+have loved mankind, because _she_ was of their kind, and because they
+praised her. But now I must blush when her name is mentioned. I dare not
+raise my eyes, and am a criminal for no crime of my own!"
+
+"For God's sake, pity me!" cried Mrs. Ershebet; "if you love me,--if you
+ever _did_ love me, pity me!"
+
+"If I ever _did_ love you? God knows that I did! Did I ever speak an
+unkind word to you? did I not listen to your wishes? did I not tell you
+all my thoughts? and how did you requite me for all this love? I
+entreated you not to receive young Rety in my house, and you promised
+it, and, at that very moment, you thought of deceiving me. Akosh knew
+the day on which my command was to be infringed! You taught your
+daughter to deceive me. You waited for your guest in my absence. You
+trembled at the thought of my approach! This is what you did for all my
+love!"
+
+"God sees my heart, Jonas. He knows that I do not deserve this!"
+
+"Silence! don't speak to me unless you wish me to curse the day on
+which I led you to the altar and brought you to this house!"
+
+His violent speech was interrupted by Vilma, who, rushing into the room,
+threw herself at his feet.
+
+"Father!" cried she.
+
+He stood still. He looked at his daughter, and felt that his heart was
+indeed broken. All his passion was softened into grief. The hand which
+he had raised for a curse dropped, and rested on the head of his child.
+
+"Can you pardon your own Vilma?" said the girl.
+
+"Come to my heart!" cried Tengelyi, clasping her in his arms. He wept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XII.
+
+
+Young Rety's wound, as we have already stated, was by no means
+dangerous, the bullet having passed through his left arm without
+touching the bone. Indeed the young man was more than half ashamed of
+having fainted, though but for a moment, in consequence of so slight a
+wound. But the surgeon, who had been sent for from St. Vilmosh, and
+Vandory, insisted on his going to bed, on account of the fever which
+they expected to follow. We find Akosh Rety laid up and out of temper.
+Kalman was smoking his cigar by the bed; and Janosh, the old servant,
+was busy with sundry wet towels, which were being placed on the injured
+limb. Young Rety's rooms were large and comfortable. Papers and books
+lay on the tables, and the walls were hung with portraits of famous
+Englishmen, and of still more famous English horses; guns, swords,
+foils, and whips were heaped up in a corner, and a few foxes' brushes
+and ears showed that the former objects were not only ornamental, but
+also useful. Of course there was no lack of pipes, tobacco, and cigars;
+in short, the room was a perfect bachelor's snuggery, even without the
+sofas and lounging chairs, which form so necessary, and, let us say,
+comfortable a feature in the _entourage_ of a young Hungarian. But in
+spite of all these comforts, which were materially heightened by the
+bright fire in the grate, the two young men were sadly out of spirits.
+So much had happened since Akosh left Dustbury! Misfortune had sought
+him in the midst of his happiness; and Kalman, though far from
+regretting his defence of Tengelyi, felt that he had given fresh cause
+of offence to the Retys, and thus created another barrier between
+himself and Etelka. Janosh alone seemed to be in good spirits. He made
+his spurs jingle as he walked about the room in the discharge of his
+domestic duties; nor did his young master's moodiness affect him.
+
+"I say, sir," said he at length, as he removed the bandages from Rety's
+arm.
+
+"Take care! mind my arm!" cried Akosh.
+
+"I am an old donkey!" said Janosh. "I always hurt you!"
+
+"Never mind. I am sure it does not hurt me now. Don't fret, Janosh; and
+tell me what you were going to say."
+
+"Oh, I was going to tell you, sir, that the weather is very bad."
+
+"Indeed!" said Akosh.
+
+"Yes, sir; and the potatoes which they are lifting to-day are done for.
+They won't be good enough for the pigs to eat."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Ay! and I hope none of the gentlemen will hunt on our fields. It will
+spoil the crops. But," said Janosh, brightening up as if a sudden
+thought had struck him, "I do beg and entreat you, sir, don't grieve at
+it."
+
+"At what?" said Akosh, astonished.
+
+"Don't be sulky at the wound. It's a mere trifle. I can't say it does
+one good; no, indeed, I myself had a taste of it in the battle of
+Leipzig, and afterwards in France. But it doesn't do harm noways. You
+see there are no bones broken."
+
+"Why, you old fool! you don't think, surely, I fret about my wound?"
+
+"What else have you to grieve for?" said the hussar. "I know that you
+gentlemen feel every thing worse than we do. When we were on the march,
+our young gentlemen were as delicate as ladies. They lamented and cried
+out at the least hurt, and some of them were always a-going to the
+hospital. But they got used to it; ay, indeed they did, sir. We are all
+equal in war; and bullets and sabres have no respect for gentle flesh
+and blood. Officers and men must do with little food or none, as the
+case may be; and when they get something to eat, they share it like
+brethren. You'd never believe it, sir, what doings there are in war."
+
+Akosh smiled; but his face regained the whole of its former gloom as he
+said, "Believe me, Janosh, were it but for this trifling wound, I should
+not be sad. There are other sorrows to----"
+
+"Other sorrows--ay, so there are! How could I possibly forget it?"
+replied the old hussar, with a broad grin, for the purpose of making his
+master understand that his sorrows were known and appreciated--"isn't it
+about the notary's little Vilma? Oh! I know all about it. It's the same
+with love as with new tobacco, which makes your eyes run with tears from
+the mere looking at it. But do you know, sir, what I'd do if I were in
+your place?"
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Why, to tell you the truth, I'd marry her."
+
+"You big fool! So I would if _I_ had the last word to say in the
+matter."
+
+"But who else has?" said the old man, shaking his head. "You won't be a
+cripple, sir, from this here little wound; and I am sure Vilma wouldn't
+take a man with three hands to your one. I'll be a cat, if Vilma will
+ever be any other man's wife than yours!" Saying which, he left the
+room, shaking his head and muttering.
+
+"The old fellow has hit the mark," said Kalman. "You are in no danger of
+losing Vilma's love. You have no cause for sorrow."
+
+"Nor do I grieve on that account," replied Akosh, energetically;
+"Vilma's love is not so lightly lost as all that. But I am anxious in my
+mind because I'm uncertain about her future and mine."
+
+"You're not accustomed to lie in bed. It makes you fanciful," said
+Kalman.
+
+"No, I tell you, no! Never was man more inclined to look at the bright
+side of things than I am. I beat Vandory hollow; and in his own line
+too. But ever since that accident happened to me, I am altogether
+altered. My mind is filled with dark thoughts and bodings. I feel as if
+the hand of fate were upon me, and I would fain flee if I knew but
+whither."
+
+"You've lost a precious deal of blood."
+
+"No, it's not that!" said Akosh, shaking his head. "When I pressed Vilma
+to me, when I felt the beating of her heart, and when I was more happy
+than I ever thought it possible in my nature to be, it was then, Kalman,
+the thought struck me, whether this was not my last joy, as it was my
+greatest. Hitherto my thoughts of Vilma were all of hope; but since I
+was thus rudely waked from my dream of bliss, I have examined my
+position more narrowly. I cannot say that it gives me much comfort. A
+man cannot make his wife happy unless he places her in a proper
+position, in which she can respect herself and claim the respect of
+others. If he fails in that, the utmost he can do is to share her grief,
+and become a partner of her sorrows; but he will never come to make her
+happy. Now that's _my_ case. Vilma's father is at daggers-drawn with my
+parents."
+
+Kalman sighed.
+
+"Can I hope for my parents' consent? I don't mean a mere formal consent,
+which people give because they cannot help it, but a real, ready, hearty
+blessing, for it is that which I want for Vilma's happiness. Love scorns
+sufferance; it asks for sympathy; and if that is denied it, and from
+one's nearest relations too, my heart is lonely in spite of all love;
+though it may cling to the beloved object, it is in sorrow, not in joy.
+Mutual love is enough for bliss; but for that quiet happiness which we
+look for in marriage, a great deal more is wanted than two mere loving
+hearts."
+
+"I don't deny it," said Kalman; "but time works wonders, let me tell
+you. At present the old people have indeed a cordial, ay, a _fraternal_
+hate against each other. Only think; when the Jew told Tengelyi that his
+papers were gone, the notary was at once struck with the curious
+coincidence (for _curious_ it was) of his noble descent being put in
+question at the very moment of the theft. He spoke of a deep laid plan,
+of a plot, the prime mover of which was----"
+
+"Not my Father!" cried Akosh, anxiously.
+
+"No, not exactly; besides, he is aware of my position in your family.
+But he talked of our friend Mr. Catspaw, whom, as I take it, he thinks
+but a tool in the hands of a third person."
+
+"My father is incapable of such a thing!"
+
+"Perhaps the notary does not suspect him so much as he does your
+step-mother. He had much to say about the other robbery which they
+attempted at the curate's, when the thieves, it appears, were likewise
+after papers, for they touched none of the things in the room, but
+opened the drawer in which Vandory kept his papers. Those papers have
+since been removed to Tengelyi's house; and the notary told me over and
+over again he was sure the two robberies were done by one and the same
+hand, and planned by the same head. By the bye," said Kalman after a
+pause, "do you happen to know any thing of Vandory's papers?"
+
+"Who, I? Of course not. I've often wondered what important papers
+Vandory must have, since it seems there _are_ people who wish to steal
+them."
+
+"I understand," whispered young Kishlaki, "that his papers have
+something to do with your family."
+
+"With _my_ family?"
+
+"Ay, you know your father had an elder brother by your grandfather's
+first wife. His second wife, your own grandmother, made the poor boy's
+life miserable."
+
+"Yes, and he ran away!" said Akosh. "They told me all about it. It
+strikes me second wives don't do in the Rety family. But what connection
+is there between all this and Vandory's papers?"
+
+"I understand that that poor fellow, your uncle, went to Germany,
+probably to some university; for he was seventeen when he ran away, and
+a good scholar, they say. Now I am told that Vandory knew your uncle,
+and that he still knows of his whereabouts; and, in short, that the
+papers refer to your lost uncle Rety."
+
+"This is indeed strange!" said Akosh.
+
+"You know how people _will_ talk. Your father's friendship for Vandory,
+and the curate's power over him, which is even greater than his wife's
+influence, and a thousand other things, have made people believe that he
+must have some means of acting upon your father; yes, that he knows of
+something which it would not be convenient to tell to everybody; and
+since the attempted robbery, there is not a blockhead in the county but
+swears that there is something wrong somewhere."
+
+"All I can say is, that this is a strange thing. Here we have two
+robberies in less than two months, evidently for the purpose of
+obtaining the papers; but then----"
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted by Janosh, who entered with the
+surgeon of St. Vilmosh.
+
+"There, sir! there's some ice to put on your arm, and here's the
+_sawbones_. Hell put things to right in no time."
+
+The little man who was thus unceremoniously introduced as a "sawbones,"
+cast an angry look at the hussar, walked up to his patient, examined the
+wound, and expressed his satisfaction with its appearance and condition;
+while Janosh, who always lost his temper when he saw anybody but himself
+administering to his master's comforts, gnashed his teeth, grumbling and
+discontented. He was wrong; for Mr. Sherer, a Magyar of German
+extraction, who had successively exercised and failed in the various
+callings of shoemaker and barber, and who had become a surgeon by dint
+of great boldness, and by the grace of a rich widow, who had lent him
+money to pay for his diploma, was deserving of any thing but
+indignation. On the contrary, he was a very amiable man, who, during the
+sixteen years he had lived at St. Vilmosh, had never given occasion for
+the slightest complaint to those who, like Janosh, had never been ill.
+
+"A nice wound! very nice! Yes, on my honour, pretty indeed!" said
+Sherer. "On my word of honour, I never saw a prettier wound in my life."
+
+"I wish you'd been in the wars," murmured Janosh, "you'd have seen
+something like wounds, I tell you!"
+
+"What do you know about it?" replied Sherer, "you'd value a wound by its
+size. Now, on my word and honour, a large wound is not at all nice."
+
+"No, indeed not. But a small wound is; one that heals without troubling
+the sawbones."
+
+Doctor Sherer (for by that title he loved to be called) turned away and
+asked:
+
+"How has it pleased you to sleep, sir?"
+
+"Very well."
+
+"And how do you feel?"
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"You don't feel excited?"
+
+"Oh no! not by any means."
+
+"Ay, perfect apirexy, which means want of fever?"
+
+"I should say so."
+
+"Perhaps you have some appetite?"
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"Did I not tell you so? Almond milk works wonders in such cases!"
+
+Akosh smiled.
+
+"Nobody can think what healing powers there are in almond milk. You are
+quite well, eh? quite comfortable?"
+
+"Yes, I am."
+
+"On my word and honour, I am sorry they did not call me sooner! I would
+have bled you."
+
+"Why should you, since my master is well?"
+
+"Hold your tongue! On my word and---- I tell you that phlebotomy works
+wonders in such cases."
+
+"The homoeopathists never bleed people," said Akosh, with a degree of
+gravity which Kalman vainly attempted to imitate, when he saw the effect
+these words had upon the doctor.
+
+"Homoeopathists!" cried that learned person, with a grin of rage. "Well,
+and what do _they_ do? do they give you emetics, tonics, and hot
+medicines? Did any of them ever give you jalappa, bark, antispasmodic,
+antiphlogistic, antirheumatic, and aromatic medicines? Cardus
+benedictus, Rhabarbara, Tartarus, Sal mirabile Glauberi?"
+
+"Stop!" cried Kalman. "I am as sick as a dog!"
+
+"Who ever heard of a homoeopathist blistering or putting any other
+plaster on you? I'll not talk of poultices, issues, cupping, and hot
+baths. On my word and honour, what's a doctor good for if he can't even
+give you a paltry black draught, Elixirum Viennense?"
+
+"True, doctor," said Akosh; "a patient, if treated homoeopathically, must
+do without a multitude of enjoyments. The healing art ought, above
+all,----"
+
+"To heal!" interrupted Sherer; "and it's the doctor's duty to try every
+drug at the chemist's, and to call other medical men to a consultation,
+until his patient's recovery----"
+
+"Or death!" said Kalman.
+
+"Bravo!" cried Janosh.
+
+"Or death?" shrieked Doctor Sherer, highly disgusted. "On my word and
+honour, I tell you, gentlemen, a really good doctor saves nine patients
+out of ten; and if the tenth dies, why so much the worse, for I am sure
+_he_ suffered from an old complaint, or he applied for advice when no
+doctor could do him good. But suppose the patient were to die, sir; can
+that circumstance, trifling I may call it, relieve the doctor from his
+duty to give him everything which the professors teach at the
+university? On my word and honour, sir! answer me that, sir, if you
+can!"
+
+"Oh, I can't. But the homoeopathists too have their medicines, and cure
+their patients."
+
+"Of course they do," sneered the doctor; "but then Nature does it for
+them. Nature works wonders in many cases."
+
+"But what does that signify if the patient recovers?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it does matter. If you don't help Nature, it will over-exert
+itself, and do more harm than good."
+
+"But when your patients get well, who knows whether Nature or you did
+it?"
+
+"We, sir; we do; we who have been at the university for not less than
+five years, where our professors have told us that a patient will not
+recover unless we give him certain medicines. Those ignoramuses who know
+nothing of science, those homoeopathists who know neither chemistry nor
+mineralogy, nor anthropophagy--anthropology I meant to say, they are
+always at their old tricks. Whenever we make a brilliant cure, they say
+that Nature has done it. But we know better! Why, on my word and honour,
+of what use would our studies at Pesth have been, if we did not know so
+much as that?"
+
+"Certainly!" said Akosh. "What's the use of learning so many things if
+you know no more than anybody else?"
+
+"True, sir; and catch a homoeopathist with a bad case!" cried Sherer.
+"What does he do? He calls in an allopathist, as happened in the case of
+the old advocate at Dustbury."
+
+"He died three days after he had fallen into the hands of the county
+physician," said Kalman. "I talked to the doctor who treated him first,
+and he told me that, seeing that the case was hopeless, and that the
+poor man's sufferings were great, he called in the county physician to
+finish him. The doctors of your class despatch people so quickly, you
+know."
+
+This attack proved too strong for the surgeon's temper. He was convinced
+of the usefulness of his science, for that science gave him, as district
+surgeon, an annual income of three hundred florins, with the use of a
+house, not to mention fees, which were considerable. What Kalman said
+was to him worse than blasphemy; and unbounded were the disgust and
+scorn expressed in all his features, when he saw Janosh, radiant with
+joy, notifying his unqualified assent to, and approbation of, the jokes
+of young Kishlaki.
+
+"Now is there a single grain of sense in all the doings of the
+homoeopathists?" said he at length. "Suppose a man is ill. Suppose he has
+eaten a large quantity of Tarhonya, and he can't digest it. Now what
+does a homoeopathist give him? On my honour and conscience, what else but
+the millionth part of a drop of camomile oil? Now all I want to know is,
+how you make it out? A large dish of Tarhonya and----"
+
+"Of course," cried Kalman; "but I can't understand why bark should cure
+me when I have the fever from stuffing myself with cake or cabbage?"
+
+"I don't see how you should understand it," said the surgeon, with a
+smile of conscious superiority. "You are ignorant of the science of
+medicine. But, on my word and honour, it's the simplest thing in nature!
+Bark has got a certain secret power against the fever; nothing more
+natural than this. God has made bark for us to cure the fever with."
+
+"But why did not God, when he created sausages and cabbages in this
+country, which you know give us the fever, create bark likewise, since
+it's rather a long way from here to China?"
+
+"All you can do is to talk!" said Mr. Sherer, shaking his head; "we
+cannot possibly converse with you on scientific subjects. But, now I'm
+sure, nobody will deny, that if a small dose can have any effect, the
+effect of a large dose must be still greater. If, therefore, the
+millionth part of a drop of camomile can do any good, _I_ must do my
+patients more good still, because I give them three large cups of
+camomile tea; and this, after all, is the truth, for camomile tea, if
+you administer it in large quantities, works wonders."
+
+"Why," said Kalman, "much depends on the quantity, I grant; but much
+depends likewise on the manner in which you administer the dose. Now
+Doctor, for instance, you may sit on a bundle of sticks, say for two
+hours and longer, without feeling greatly incommoded by the operation.
+But suppose a _single_ stick be taken from the bundle, placed in the
+hand of--say of Janosh--and applied in a certain manner of his own, to a
+certain part of your own; I think, though the whole bundle did not cause
+any disagreeable sensations, yet the single stick--How do _you_ think it
+would act, Janosh?" continued Kalman, turning to the hussar, who
+laughed immoderately.
+
+"My opinion is, that it is all the same with the homoeopathy and the--I
+forget how you call it; but faith, it matters very little! Our lives are
+in God's hands, and when a man's last day is not come, he won't die
+though you were to call in a hundred doctors."
+
+There is no saying what Doctor Sherer would have said or done, (for he
+looked _bistouris_ at the impertinent hussar,) had not Lady Rety entered
+the room and interrupted the conversation. No sooner did the man of
+science see her, than he hastened to kiss her hands, pouring forth a
+long speech about cold water and ice, almond milk, camomile tea, and the
+wonderful effects of each and all of these invaluable medicines.
+
+Lady Rety was rather ill-tempered, and she showed it to the surgeon as
+well as to Kalman, who received her with a low bow. But Akosh had always
+great influence with his step-mother, and even now she treated him, if
+not kindly, at least with politeness. Sitting down by his bed-side, she
+asked him, with a great show of interest, how he felt.
+
+Doctor Sherer and Janosh left the room. Kalman saw that his society was
+not wanted; he went to the other end of the room, opened the window,
+and looked down upon the garden. Lady Rety looked at Akosh. "Now you
+see," said she, with a low voice, "what comes of your running after
+women, instead of doing your duty at the election."
+
+Akosh blushed, and said nothing.
+
+"You need not blush. Vilma is pretty and----"
+
+"My lady!"
+
+But Lady Rety continued in the same tone.
+
+"Vilma, I say, is a pretty woman; and as for you, young man, it would be
+too hard upon you if we would quarrel with you for taking what is freely
+offered. If the young woman does not care for her honour, why should
+you?"
+
+"My lady!" said Akosh; "I entreat you, do not speak in this tone!
+Vilma----"
+
+"Is a pretty woman," said the lady, with a sneer; "she is less correct
+than I thought she was, but that's her mother's affair, not mine. They
+over-educate these girls, and put strange fancies into their heads.
+Tengelyi ought to have known that such an education is not fit for a
+notary's daughter."
+
+"Vilma is my betrothed," replied Akosh, who struggled manfully to keep
+his temper.
+
+"Indeed?" said his step-mother, with a forced smile. "Pray how many
+_fiancees_ has your sultanship got?"
+
+"She is the first," said Akosh, calmly, "and, I swear it, she shall be
+my last."
+
+Lady Rety cast her eyes down, and was silent.
+
+"You talk wildly," said she at length, with her former gracious smile.
+"Only think, Vilma to be a Lady Rety, and after such a scene!"
+
+"Vilma being, as I told you, my betrothed, there is nothing
+extraordinary in the whole occurrence."
+
+"My father used to say to my brother, 'Whenever you marry, pray don't
+take a woman who prefers you to her honour; for such a woman is likely
+to prefer another man to her husband.'"
+
+Akosh frowned. "I entreat you, don't rail at your own sex, by speaking
+in this manner of a virtuous girl."
+
+"Of course she is a virtuous girl. Master Akosh says it, and he ought to
+know!"
+
+"Do as you please! Why should you not be allowed to talk of your
+daughter-in-law in any terms you like best?"
+
+"_My_ daughter-in-law! Are you aware that Tengelyi's noble descent is a
+matter of doubt?"
+
+"I know it; but when Vilma is my wife she does not want any proofs of
+nobility. To tell you the truth, that is another reason for me to marry
+her."
+
+"Tengelyi protests that he has papers by which he can prove his
+descent----"
+
+"He _had_ the papers, but they are gone. The Tengelyis have no one to
+rely on but me!"
+
+"But I understand," said Lady Rety, anxiously, "that the robbery did not
+take place,--that the robber did not get the papers."
+
+"On the contrary," replied Akosh, watching her emotion; "they left the
+money, and took the papers."
+
+Strive as she would, Lady Rety's face was radiant with joy.
+
+"Who do you think is the thief?" said she.
+
+Akosh, who had never once taken his eyes from her, said that everybody
+suspected Viola of the robbery. Lady Rety rose at once, saying she was
+called away by business of very great importance.
+
+Kalman, who had listened to the last part of the conversation, looked
+greatly amazed. Akosh sat up and pondered for a few moments. At length
+he said:--
+
+"Did you not tell me that Tengelyi suspects my mother of having hired
+the thief?"
+
+"He said as much."
+
+"And do you think that it was Viola who committed the robbery?"
+
+"It was either Viola or the Jew. But no papers have been found upon the
+latter."
+
+"Heaven knows I cannot bring myself to believe it," said Akosh, shaking
+his head. "But if Viola has the papers, I am sure he will return them."
+
+"So he will, unless he has used them for wadding."
+
+"Was it not you that told me of Viola's being seen with a certain
+Gulyash? Go to him at once, and promise any thing you like, to get the
+papers. This cursed wound of mine prevents my going to him, and yet it
+must be done. Make haste!"
+
+Kalman had already seized his hat. "What a big fool I was, not to think
+of it!" cried he. "The Gulyash is sure to get us the papers."
+
+Akosh remained in a gloomy and nervous state, which was at length
+interrupted by the appearance of Janosh, who told him that Lady Rety was
+closeted with Mr. Catspaw. Shortly afterwards the tramp of Kalman's
+horse was heard, as he left the Castle in a gallop, doing which he
+passed a carriage which the attorney was just about to enter.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES TO VOL. I.
+
+
+NOTE I.
+
+COURTS-MARTIAL.
+
+The _Statarium_ of the old Hungarian law is not exactly what is known in
+other European countries under the name of court-martial, though it has
+some affinity with that institution. Whenever housebreaking, highway
+robberies, and arson were rife in any of the Hungarian counties, the
+Palatine was empowered to give them the right of statarium for any term
+of months not exceeding one year, for the more efficient prevention of
+crime, and for the apprehension and punishment of the malefactors.
+
+The Statarium, as an exceptional court, was composed of seven judges,
+who were appointed for the year, and empowered to take cognizance of and
+give judgment in any cases of robbery and arson that were committed in
+the county, provided always that the culprit was taken "_in flagranti
+delicto_," or "_in continua persecutione_," either in the act or
+immediately after, he being incessantly pursued all the while. In these
+cases the court gave summary judgment without appeal, and the only
+verdict they were empowered to pronounce was a capital sentence. The
+culprit, if convicted, was hanged on the spot.
+
+To make out a conviction, it was necessary that all the judges should
+agree. A single dissentient voice was enough to overthrow the verdict
+and to bring the culprit within the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts.
+
+The minutes of the proceedings of the courts-martial, and the
+depositions of the witnesses, were sent to the Palatine, and examined by
+a commissioner; and the judges of the Statarium were responsible for
+each case.
+
+It was moreover an old popular prejudice, that a prisoner ought not to
+be "roofed," that is to say, that he ought not to be confined in a gaol
+or house, if he was to be judged by a Statarium. In compliance with this
+prejudice, which, however, had no foundation in the laws of Hungary, the
+culprits were usually chained to a post in the open air.
+
+
+NOTE II.
+
+JAROMIR AND ANGYALBANDI.
+
+The name of Jaromir, the Bohemian brigand, is probably known to the
+readers of German romances of the last thirty years. The story of his
+noble descent, guilty love, and wretched end, no matter whether a mere
+fiction or founded on facts, has been handed down through successive
+generations. The adventures of Jaromir obtained their _acme_ of
+popularity by Grillparzer's drama, "Die Ahnfrau," and by the lines,--
+
+    "Ja, ich bin's den du genannt!
+    Bin's den jene Haescher suchen,
+    Bin's dem alle Lippen fluchen!
+    Der in des Bauers Nachtgebet,
+    Hart, nahe an dem Teufel steht.
+
+    *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Ich bin der Raeuber, Jaromir!"
+
+Angyalbandi is a much more real personage than Jaromir. The facts of his
+case are of less dramatic interest, though certainly of greater truth,
+than the adventures of the Bohemian robber and his bride.
+
+The name of Angyalbandi, for many years the terror of all the landed
+proprietors in Upper Hungary, was a _nomme de guerre_, which covered the
+aristocratic and truly respectable name of the Onodys. A member of that
+family, the Baron Onody, was so strongly gifted with those roving and
+robbing propensities which distinguished his Scythian ancestors, that he
+would leave his country seat near Mishkolz for days and weeks together,
+for the purpose of cattle-stealing. His talents in that line, his
+strength, activity, and boldness, filled the whole country with fear;
+and no nobleman or peasant thought his flocks safe from Angyalbandi's
+depredations, for the robber foiled all watchfulness and outran all
+pursuit. It so happened, in one of his expeditions, that he fell in with
+some fine horses near Debrezin; but his attempt to carry them off was
+discovered, the tocsin was sounded, and the chase commenced. Angyalbandi
+fled, and with the same horse he swam through the Theiss and the
+Danube--a feat which his pursuers did not care to imitate. After a long
+and successful career, Baron Onody was at length suspected, and his
+identity with Angyalbandi was established on the occasion of some
+business which he transacted at Kashau. His privilege of nobility saved
+him from incarceration, for as he had not been discovered "_in
+flagranti_," he was admitted to bail. While his process was under the
+consideration of the High Court, Mr. Atzel, the judge advocate, had an
+accident on the road near Mishkolz. His carriage was overturned, and the
+axletree broken.
+
+Mr. Atzel and his servants called for help, and, seeing a gentleman
+approaching in the distance, they walked up to him, and asked him to
+assist them in finding a wheelwright. He informed them that no
+wheelwright was to be found in that part of the country; "but," added
+he, "never mind; I will give my orders, and see your carriage taken to
+Mishkolz, where they will put it to rights. Come to my house, and stay
+with me."
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Atzel, "I'm very much obliged to you. I would not
+pass a night in one of your wretched village inns on any consideration;
+but to stay at a gentleman's seat is a different thing altogether. Are
+your servants well armed?"
+
+"We have got some rifles, though there is little chance of using them. I
+am afraid you are a nervous subject, sir. Perhaps you are not accustomed
+to this part of the country?"
+
+"Indeed I am not! I know it only from its bad reputation. And, of all
+men, _I_ am in the greatest danger in this county, for I understand it
+is somewhere hereabout that Baron Onody lives. His case is in my hands,
+and I hope to get a verdict against him, and see him hanged."
+
+"Indeed? Do you know Baron Onody?"
+
+"By no means," replied Mr. Atzel; "nor do I wish for his acquaintance."
+
+"'Tis a pity, for you might make it with the greatest ease. He lives
+close by. Do you see that house on the hill? It's one of his farms."
+
+"For God's sake, sir!" cried the lawyer, "let us make haste to your
+house and to your rifles. If Onody knew I was so near him, he would
+spare me as little as I intend to spare him!"
+
+Thus urged, the stranger led Mr. Atzel to his house; supper was served,
+and the two men talked of Onody, his robberies, and the politics of the
+county, till a late hour, when the stranger rose, and, addressing his
+guest, "Mr. Atzel," said he, "from all you have told me, I see that you
+have a worse opinion of that poor fellow Onody than I have. He----"
+
+"He's a vagabond, sir! a disgrace to his station----"
+
+"Pray don't be personal, sir! _I_ am the Baron Onody!"
+
+Nothing can equal the dismay of the poor judge advocate. His host
+continued:
+
+"I am not half so bad as you believe me to be. You've told me I can
+expect no mercy at your hands. You've sworn to my face that you will not
+rest until you see me hanged. Now I would not hurt you, though I could.
+You've had your supper. You will have a good bed to sleep in, and a
+breakfast in the morning. I will send you to Mishkolz with my own
+horses. That's what _I_, Onody or Angyalbandi the robber, do to you.
+Now consider what are your intentions towards me, and tell me which is
+the worse man?"
+
+Mr. Atzel was silent. We need not say that he passed a sleepless night,
+and that he congratulated himself on his good fortune when he was safe
+in Kashau. But so great was the impression which Onody's generosity had
+made upon him, that he exerted himself to the utmost to influence the
+Court in the culprit's favour; and the result was, that Baron Onody,
+instead of receiving a capital sentence, was condemned to twelve months'
+confinement in the county gaol of Kashau. His term of imprisonment over,
+he returned to his seat near Mishkolz, where he lived quietly and
+honestly, without ever stirring from his own estates; "lest," as he used
+to say, "the sight of some fine oxen or horses might again tempt him to
+a robber's life."
+
+
+NOTE III.
+
+ACTIO.
+
+The Hungarian law has certain provisions for the purpose of limiting and
+regulating the liberty of speech of political and judicial assemblies. A
+speaker who oversteps the limits of decency, or who indulges in personal
+abuse, is punished by the infliction of a fine of twenty-five florins.
+If he is not able to pay the amount of the fine on the spot, he is at
+liberty to leave his ring or his sword as a pledge, and to redeem them
+by the payment of eighty florins. The person who decides on a breach of
+order is the Recorder of the county; but when a speaker is very
+offensive, the person or persons aggrieved signify their wish for the
+Recorder's interference by loud cries of "Actio! Actio!"
+
+
+NOTE IV.
+
+NAGYIDAI NOTA.
+
+The song of Nagyida. Nagyida is a small fortress in Hungary which,
+during the insurrection of Rakotzi, was garrisoned by a troop of
+gipsies, who defended it against an Austrian corps, and whose patriotic
+devotion was proof against the bribes and the attacks of the Austrian
+besieging army. Reduced at length to great distress, and without
+victuals and ammunition, the gipsies made so violent and bold a _sortie_
+from their fortress, that they broke through and routed the ranks of the
+Imperialists.
+
+The Austrians fled in great confusion; and it was in the heat of the
+pursuit that a gipsy called after an Austrian officer, whose quickness
+of foot he was unable to compete with, "Run, you rascal! You are safe
+enough; but trust me, we would not let you off so easily, if we had
+half-a-pound of gunpowder left!"
+
+Upon this, the Austrians rallied. They returned, stormed the fortress of
+Nagyida, and put the garrison to the sword. The song of the Nagyida,
+like the romance of the fall of Alhama, relates the history of that
+defeat, and bewails the sufferings of the gipsies. They keep the melody
+to themselves, and nothing can induce them to play or sing it to any
+one who is not of their tribe.
+
+
+NOTE V.
+
+KANAZ.
+
+A Kanaz is a swineherd. In the summer and autumn, the swine are turned
+out into the forest to fatten on acorns. Their keepers, who live almost
+always in the woods, and apart from the rest of the rural population,
+have repeatedly, and perhaps not unjustly, been accused of aiding and
+abetting the various bands of robbers, which, in consequence of Austrian
+misgovernment, have from time to time infested the counties of Upper
+Hungary.
+
+
+NOTE VI.
+
+GULYASHUS; POeRKOeLT; TARHONYA.
+
+A great deal might be said on the subject of Hungarian cookery; but we
+confine ourselves to three dishes, which stand in that country in lieu
+of the beef, puddings, and dumplings of Old England.
+
+Gulyashus is made of beef, mutton, and bacon, cut in squares, and stewed
+with Hungarian pepper (Paprica), spices, and onions. It is very much
+like an Irish stew, without the potatoes.
+
+Poerkoelt is beef cut in slices, and roasted with paprica, and without any
+gravy.
+
+Tarhonya has some resemblance with the Kuskusu of the Arabs. It is a
+kind of cake or pudding of stale and dried dough, which they fry with
+bacon or boil in milk.
+
+
+NOTE VII.
+
+PROTEST.
+
+A forcible entry into a house, or the seizure of goods and chattels on
+the premises of a nobleman, could be prevented by the owner of the
+house, or his representative, protesting against the proceedings. His
+protest was justified only in the case of a violation of forms. If the
+defendant was of opinion that such a violation had taken place, he
+seized a stick or a sword, and holding it up, he exclaimed: "I protest."
+Upon this the officers of justice were bound to stay the proceedings,
+and to leave the premises; while the defendant was equally obliged,
+within a reasonable time, to make his appearance in court, and to plead
+in justification of his protest. If his plea was disallowed, he was
+usually fined for vexatious opposition. If, on the contrary, the court
+admitted the validity of the plea, the cause was argued _ab initio_; and
+in this second suit, no opposition to stay proceedings was admissible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will take this opportunity to say a few words about the terms
+"nobleman" and "peasant," which frequently occur in "The Village
+Notary," and indeed in most Hungarian works. The term nobleman, in the
+general Hungarian acceptation, means neither more nor less than a
+freeman; and the peasant, as the unprivileged class of the population,
+may be said to be in a state of villanage. The privileges of the
+Hungarian constitution, namely, liberty of speech, freedom from
+unwarranted arrest, the privilege of not being subjected to corporal
+punishment, the right to elect their own magistrates, and a variety of
+similar immunities, are, in all the charters, described in terms which
+for a long time caused them to be confined to the descendants of the
+ancient conquerors of the country, or to those persons who obtained the
+freedom of Hungary by a grant of royal letters patent.
+
+The rest of the community, the Jews, Razen, gipsies, Russniaks, and
+other tribes, are mentioned as "hospites," guests or strangers, who have
+no political rights. Whether bound to the soil, like the peasants, or
+migratory, like the Jews and gipsies, the "hospites" were alike
+unprotected by law and at the mercy of all the whims, neglects, and
+cruelties of a legislature, which bears traces at once of the fierceness
+of their Turkish neighbours and the pedantic vindictiveness of the
+Hapsburgs. It was to break the yoke which for many centuries weighed
+down upon the unfortunate "_villains_" and "aliens" of Hungary, that the
+Reform party exerted itself against the Hungarian Conservatives and the
+Court of Vienna.
+
+
+NOTE VIII.
+
+TSHIKOSH AND GULYASH.
+
+The former are persons who have the care of horses in the pasturage;
+while the latter are the herdsmen of horned cattle. The Tshikosh and
+Gulyash, like the Kanaz or swineherds, are a fierce and indomitable
+race, inured to fatigue and the severity of the weather, active and
+enduring. In the late attempted war of liberation, the Tshikosh were
+formidable enemies to the Austrian cavalry, whom they pulled down with a
+peculiar whip, consisting of a short handle with a long leather thong
+and a leaden bullet at the end of it, and which they used very much as
+the Texans and Mexicans do the lasso.
+
+
+NOTE IX.
+
+TURKEY.
+
+The Hungarians still indulge in symbolic cookery. A welcome and honoured
+guest is sure to be regaled with a turkey; while the serving up of a
+sucking-pig, no matter how well roasted, is a hint to the stranger that
+his presence is not agreeable to the family which he visits.
+
+
+NOTE X.
+
+GATYA.
+
+The linen trowsers which the Hungarian peasants wear have the name of
+Gatya. They are a distinguishing feature in the dress of the peasant
+population.
+
+
+NOTE XI.
+
+SZEGENY LEGENY.
+
+The verbal translation of szegeny legeny is "poor fellows"--that is to
+say, _robbers_. The tender regard of the Hungarian peasantry for
+robbers, and the almost endearing name which the people gave them, is in
+itself a proof of misgovernment and the perversion of justice.
+
+
+NOTE XII.
+
+"I EAT HIS SOUL!" AND "I EAT HIS HEART!"
+
+These are phrases of great tenderness, which the lower classes in
+Hungary are in the habit of using, especially when speaking of their
+children, or of those whom they treat as such. Of course the diet would
+not agree with an English stomach.
+
+
+NOTE XIII.
+
+DERESH.
+
+The "Deresh" is a bench on which culprits are whipped. A Hungarian
+freeman is exempt from corporal punishment; but the persons who are in a
+state of villanage are but too frequently exposed to the most brutal
+treatment. Every traveller in the Austrian countries is struck with the
+frequent use of the words "whipping" and "hanging," which seem to be
+standard expressions of an Austrian discourse. These two great nostrums
+for the cure of all the vices that society is heir to, have been
+liberally introduced into all the Crownlands; and it was against the
+spirit and the practice of such abuses that the Magyar party in Hungary
+directed their opposition.
+
+
+END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"The Hungarian's joy is in tears," says the old proverb. And why not?
+Since the features of the parent tribe are handed down from one
+generation to another, there is nothing more natural than that we should
+retain the _historical_ features of our ancestors, viz., the stamp of
+gravity which the events of their time impressed upon their faces. The
+Hungarians of old had good cause for weeping. Other nations have
+recovered from the wounds of the past; and, however sad their popular
+melodies may be (for they sprang from a time of sorrow and sadness), the
+lamentations of the old text have given way to merry words. But the
+lower classes in our country have very little to laugh at, even in
+these days of universal prosperity. Their songs are sad, as they were in
+the days when the crescent shone from the battlements of Buda. For there
+are people who are ignorant of all history but that of their own
+village, and who, consequently, have no idea that there has been any
+change in our country ever since the expulsion of the Turks. The
+peculiar gravity which characterises the Magyars is partly a historical
+reminiscence and partly the result of that gloomy tract of our country
+which is chiefly inhabited by the Magyar population. What traveller can
+traverse our vast plains, and keep his temper? The virgin forest, which
+at one time covered that plain, is gone; the powerful life of Nature is
+fled; the impenetrable foliage which overshadowed this fertile soil has
+fallen under the axe. The many-voiced carol of birds, and the merry
+sports of the greenwood, where are they? The forest land has become a
+heath, but we have little cause for rejoicing at our victory over
+Nature. The inhabitants of other countries see many things to gladden
+their hearts. Houses, trees, hedges, and corn-fields, reminding them of
+the thrift of their ancestors, spur them on to increased activity, and
+inspire them with a desire to fashion the land into a monument of their
+existence. Our Pusztas have nothing of the kind. All is silent and
+desolate, filling the mind with sad thoughts. Many generations passed
+over them without leaving a trace of their existence; and the traveller,
+as he pursues his solitary way across the heath, feels the mournful
+conviction that he too steps onward to the grave, that the plain will
+cover him as a boundless ocean.
+
+It was past noon when Susi, accompanied by the Liptaka, quitted the
+village. They halted near the outer Tsharda, from whence the Liptaka
+returned to Tissaret, while Susi, with a small bundle of provisions
+under her arm, proceeded on the road to Kishlak, where she expected to
+find the Gulyash who was to give her news of Viola. The Tanya of the
+Gulyash was full seven miles distant from Tissaret, and, as the poor
+woman trudged on, she became painfully sensible of the effects of her
+late illness. More than once was she compelled to rest by the road-side,
+where the cold wind stiffened her limbs; and when she looked around on
+the vast heath, she felt overpowered by her own loneliness and the
+stillness around her. She remembered having heard some talk of wolves;
+she thought of her children and of her husband, who at that moment was
+perhaps struggling with fresh dangers; and she hurried on, not because
+she had rested, but because she was restless. Her anxiety increased as
+she felt that her weakness would not allow her to reach her journey's
+end before nightfall. The train of her thoughts was at one time
+interrupted by the quick trotting of a horse: her heart beat quick as
+she looked back, expecting to see Viola riding after her. The horseman
+was Kalman Kishlaki on his journey homewards. Thus disappointed, she
+crept on to the stone cross, which stands on the borders of the Kishlaki
+property. She sat down on the steps, and thought of the weary hearts
+that had shaken off their load of sorrow in looking up to the image of
+Him who came to this world to share our sorrows; and her heavy heart
+became lighter as she remembered that Christ died, not for the rich and
+the powerful, but for the poor, abandoned, and persecuted.
+
+She was about to rise and pursue her journey, when somebody called her
+by her name. She turned round and shuddered, for the person who called
+her was Tzifra. She had never been able to look at Tzifra without a
+shudder. She knew the man. She knew that he was the cause of any cruelty
+which Viola's comrades had ever committed; and, however much she loved
+her husband, she felt uncomfortable, and disgusted, whenever she saw him
+in Tzifra's company. Viola had of late suspected Tzifra, and Susi
+remembered that her husband had often called him his Judas. These
+circumstances will serve to explain the fear with which the poor woman
+beheld the robber, who, leaning on his staff, looked down at her with a
+strange smile, which gave a still more repulsive expression to his
+features. "Where are you bound to?" said he.
+
+"I'm going to see the Gulyash at Kishlak."
+
+"Running after your husband, I dare say? Possibly the Gulyash knows
+where he is. What news is there in your village?"
+
+"You ought to know it," replied Susi. "They tell me you were there with
+my husband?"
+
+"Do you mean to say with Viola? Why, was _he_ in the village?"
+
+"Are you indeed ignorant of that robbery--you know, at the notary's?"
+
+"Ah! I understand they've sacked his house. Well, didn't I say as much?
+When they told me that Viola came to the house, I knew the affair would
+end in a robbery. There isn't the like of Viola in three counties;
+there's no joking with him!"
+
+"Don't talk in this way! I'll never believe that Viola had a hand in
+it."
+
+"All I know is, that I don't know any thing about it--but who can have
+done it?"
+
+"They say you did it."
+
+"They say? Who says so? Is it Peti, the gipsy?"
+
+"I have not seen Peti since he went to Dustbury; but the smith who
+pursued you told me so."
+
+"Whoever says so is mad, and the smith more than any. He'd not live to
+boast of his boldness if he'd dared to run after me. I'd like to know
+what he pretends to have known me by? not my bunda, I hope. Curse me if
+it's dirtier than any body else's! Good bye; it's time for me to be
+off!" And the robber turned into the road which led to Garatsh. As Susi
+looked after him, a carriage passed her with Mr. Catspaw, who was on his
+way to the same place. He overtook Tzifra; the carriage stopped, and
+after a short conversation, the robber jumped on the back seat, and the
+carriage drove off.
+
+Susi was greatly astonished. She walked as fast as she could; but still
+darkness began to set in when she reached the Tanya, where she found the
+Gulyash and Peti.
+
+"Have you seen any thing of Tzifra?" asked the gipsy.
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"Where was he?"
+
+Susi told them of her meeting with the robber. Peti listened with deep
+anxiety, and his features expressed the greatest despair when she told
+him that Mr. Catspaw had taken the robber with him to Garatsh.
+
+"He's dished!" cried he at length. "He's done for! If I don't come in
+time, they'll nab him!"
+
+"For God's sake, what is the matter?" said Susi, trembling.
+
+"I can't, I must be off! Ishtvan will tell you all about it. I'll take
+the shortest road to the St. Vilmosh forest; get your horses, and come
+after me as fast as you can. You know the place. Perhaps we can manage
+to reach it before the justice's men. The Theiss has not run over this
+season; so, for God's sake, Ishtvan, don't spare your horses!" And the
+gipsy started off at the top of his speed.
+
+Susi was at a loss to understand the behaviour of the two men: but
+seeing clearly that some danger threatened her husband, she asked with a
+trembling voice what had happened.
+
+"Nothing for the present. Be of good cheer, Susi," said the Gulyash; "if
+any thing should befall Viola, confound it, I'll hang myself; but I'll
+kill that rascal Tzifra first!"
+
+"But what is it? Oh do, for God's sake! for mercy's sake! tell me!"
+sighed Susi, as they entered the cottage. She sat down by the fire, and
+the Gulyash informed her, with many imprecations at his want of
+foresight, that Viola was in an awkward scrape, if not worse.
+Immediately after the robbery, the details of which came now first to
+the ears of Susi, her husband had come to the Tanya and instructed
+Ishtvan, who was in daily communication with the gang, to direct Peti,
+or any other of his comrades who might seek him, to their usual haunt in
+the forest of St. Vilmosh, where he intended to conceal himself until
+the affair was blown over, and until he could manage to restore the
+papers to Tengelyi. He had also asked the Gulyash to send him provisions
+for the next few days. The Gulyash knew nothing of Tzifra's treachery,
+for Viola had forgotten to inform him of it. Peti, too, had not seen the
+man ever since he had listened to Tzifra's conversation with the Jew;
+and it was therefore but natural that when Tzifra called that afternoon
+and asked for Viola, the Gulyash should have given him a culatsh of wine
+and some meat, and that he should have told him where Viola was to be
+found.
+
+Peti arrived an hour later, and from him he learnt that the secret had
+been entrusted to a traitor. After what Susi had seen, there could be
+no doubt as to Tzifra's intentions, and the poor woman was in despair
+when she thought of her husband's danger. It was now about two hours
+since she met Tzifra. Garatsh was full three miles nearer to the St.
+Vilmosh forest, and there were hussars, horses, and policemen in the
+justice's house. She had no means of reaching Viola's haunt. There was
+no hope for him.
+
+"I wish to God my cart would come! It ought to be here by this time, for
+'tis two hours since I sent it to the village. I'll spoil that fellow's
+tricks if I get my horses in time. Don't grieve, Susi, my soul! these
+judges are not half so quick as you fancy, especially after the
+election. Besides, who knows whether he's at home? Peti told me that the
+lord-lieutenant had sent him to inquire into this business. D--n the
+lord-lieutenant! and d--n me too! Why didn't the devil crush me with his
+thirty-three thousand thunderbolts when I opened my lips to the traitor!
+Now don't be frightened, Susi, my soul! we are sure to be in time. My
+horses are the best in the county; but who the devil would have thought
+that Tzifra is such a scurvy beggar? He's been a robber these thirty
+years and more, and for all that he'll blow upon a pal, d--n me! The
+fellow had scarcely gone, when young Mr. Kalman came and told me of the
+notary having lost his papers, asking me to get them, and to tell him
+where Viola was to be found. He entreated me for mercy's sake, and then
+he cursed me; but I would not tell him; and the other fellow, the dog,
+got it all out of me!"
+
+At this moment they heard the rattling of the cart. Taking his axe and
+bunda, he shouted with joy.
+
+"Holloa! here are my horses!"
+
+The cart, drawn by two stout yellow horses, stopped at the door.
+
+"Come, Susi, take the back seat, and wrap yourself up," said he, helping
+her to mount. "And you may go to the devil!" he added, addressing the
+driver, as he took the reins; "I'll teach you to stop at the pot-house,
+you young cur!"
+
+The horses started off across the plain. The sound of the wheels was
+lost in the distance, and the dogs that had followed it, barking and
+yelping, had come back from what they considered a fruitless chase. But
+Bandi, the driver, stood blocklike in the same place, still staring in
+the direction in which the cart had disappeared. He scratched his head,
+which Ishtvan had touched with rather a rough hand. At length he
+exclaimed, "I hope Ishtvan won't steal Viola's wife!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+
+Traveller in search of justice! doff your shoes when you come to the
+village of Garatsh, not only because Mr. Paul Skinner, the justice,
+hallows the spot by his presence, nor solely in obedience to the old saw
+which bids you do at Rome as the Romans do; but more especially for the
+purpose of donning stout water-boots in their stead, for without them
+you will find considerable difficulty in your progress through the
+place.
+
+The villages of the county of Takshony were miserable, but Garatsh was
+the most wretched of them all. Its ragged roofs and crumbling walls were
+in keeping with the pale and emaciated faces of its inhabitants, each of
+whom seemed to be devoted to suffering from the day of his birth to that
+dark day on which they bore him to the churchyard at the end of the
+village, there to take his first and last rest in this world, under the
+high cross which marks the burial places of the Russniak population. The
+very church was out of repair; for its half-rotten roof gave no
+protection to the walls, which were stayed by poles to prevent their
+falling. The vicarage looked equally poor and neglected, surrounded as
+it was by a pond overgrown with reeds and water plants: in short, the
+place was altogether desolate and wretched.
+
+I am free to confess that this is the gloomiest side of the picture, for
+there were other houses in Garatsh besides the miserable hovels of the
+peasantry. The distinguished families of the Garatsh, Bamer, Andorfy,
+Skinner, and Heaven knows how many more! had successively possessed the
+village and built noble curias, which vied in splendour with one
+another. The most magnificent of them was doubtless the house which
+belonged to our friend Mr. Skinner. It was a noble edifice, with its
+bright green walls and sky-blue columns. Only one third part of the roof
+was covered with shingles; but as Mr. Skinner had carried the election
+and secured his place for the next three years, it was but reasonable to
+expect that the straw on the other part of the house would soon give way
+to a splendid shingle roof. But, straw or shingles--no matter! the dense
+column of smoke which issues from the chimney of the house gives it an
+air of substantial comfort.
+
+It was an hour since Mr. Skinner returned from Dustbury. He left the
+place almost at the same time when Tengelyi left it. The election was
+all but over. When the Cortes understood that there were unqualified
+persons among Bantornyi's voters, they opposed him to a man, and at noon
+Mr. Rety was elected to the shrievalty. Mr. Kriver was the second
+sheriff, for Mr. Edeshy, who held that post, retired from the contest;
+and as the conquered party declined to take the field, the remainder of
+the elections was despatched in less than two hours. The Rety party had
+it all their own way. But the lord-lieutenant, hearing the news of the
+Tissaret robbery, ordered the justice and his clerk to proceed to the
+spot, and to take measures for the capture of the criminal.
+
+His Excellency the lord-lieutenant of the county of Takshony, flattered
+himself with a vain belief that the justice and his clerk, accompanied
+by Pandurs and policemen, had by this time reached Tissaret. The great
+man would have found out his mistake if he had entered Mr. Skinner's
+room; for there he might have seen that pillar of justice seated in
+front of a large oak table, at the other end of which Mr. Kenihazy was
+busily engaged in investigating, not the Tissaret robbery, but the
+interior of an enormous pork pie. The two gentlemen had thought proper
+to yield implicit obedience to his Excellency's orders. They left
+Dustbury without stopping for dinner, but finding it utterly impossible
+to proceed to Tissaret with an empty stomach, they turned off the road
+and made for Garatsh. Besides, they had no men. The Pandurs were at
+Garatsh; the inspector was most probably at St. Vilmosh; and Mr.
+Kenihazy remarked, with equal justice and truth, that it could not in
+fairness be expected of them that they should capture the thief with
+their own hands. Night was approaching, and any reasonable man,
+especially if he be the "_bete noire_" of a whole gang, as was Mr.
+Skinner's case, will, at such a time, rather avoid a robber than seek
+him; and, besides all this, considering that what's done cannot be
+undone, there was no harm in allowing the thief to be at large for a few
+hours longer--nay, more, there was a chance of the said disreputable
+person making away with the stolen property, which was exactly what Mr.
+Skinner wanted, for he had no mind to soil his pure hands by touching
+ill-gotten gains. In short, honest Mr. Skinner had a thousand reasons
+for not going to Tissaret on that day; and if the lord-lieutenant could
+have seen him as he sat in his easy-chair, pipe in mouth, with half a
+dozen empty bottles on the table before him, it would have done the
+great man's heart good to see Justice thus thriving in the person of
+her most distinguished servant.
+
+The house was "replete" with every Hungarian comfort. It was enough to
+make a Magyar's heart leap with joy, for the first condition of comfort
+is unquestionably the not being hampered in your movements. Mr.
+Skinner's room realised this condition to an all but unreasonable
+extent. No bed on earth could be narrower than the one which occupied
+one corner of the apartment, and the chest of drawers, which was equally
+small, was an asylum for any odd things that wanted a place. It was
+heaped with clothes, baskets, hats, and sticks; while a very small
+table, and a still smaller chair and sofa, presented no obstacles to the
+movements of the inmates. The oak table in the middle of the room was
+indeed an exception. It was very large; but then it served for a variety
+of purposes. A man might do as he liked in such a room. There was
+nothing to impede the free use of one's limbs. And the walls were most
+comfortably browned by the smoke, and covered with the pictures of
+Magyar heroes, in bright-coloured attilas. Fine men they were, with
+fabulous moustaches, with their legs, which were bent in with an excess
+of strength, stuck into yellow Tshismen, with calpacs on their heads,
+and the Buzogany[18], or a standard, in their hands: fine men, indeed,
+and most cheerful companions in a winter night. And the flooring of the
+room, which was covered with clay, and the very cobwebs which hung from
+the ceiling, seemed to say, "Don't stand upon ceremony! Make yourself at
+home! Do as you please! We are none the worse for any thing you may do!"
+
+[Footnote 18: See Note I.]
+
+Mr. Skinner was fully alive to the comforts of his home. He leant back
+in his chair, and his soul was lost in happy dreams, such dreams as
+belong only to people who have been re-elected. "We're in!" said he at
+times, with a gentle sneer. "We're in!" he repeated, striking the table
+with his fist. "They'd better mind what they are about!" And he ground
+his teeth. He was brimful of happiness; his joy was so great he would
+fain have thrashed every man, woman, and child in the county to vent it.
+At other moments he was sad; for such is the nature of man, "that
+pendulum between a smile and tear:" his house spoke to him of bygone
+days. This was the table on which, forty-five years ago, immediately
+after his birth, he had been washed for the first--and, as many people
+in the county said, for the last--time in his life. His saddest and his
+brightest moments had been passed at that table, for it was here he had
+learned to read, and it was here he had been initiated into the
+mysteries of card-playing. His dearly beloved wife, too, sat by that
+table when he brought her to his house, and when he got so drunk with
+joy that he could never recollect how and when he got into bed that
+night. That table was the scene of many drinking bouts and heavy
+sentences, of which it still bore the marks in wine and ink. And he
+thought of the seventy florins and forty-five kreutzers which he had
+spent on the election, and of his sweet father, who was a justice before
+him; nor did he forget to think of his dolman, which had been torn by
+the Cortes, and of his wife having, two years ago, lost two of her front
+teeth, but, amidst all these conflicting thoughts, his lips smiled. "We
+are in," said he; "so begone dull care! There are lots of Jews in this
+district," thought he; "and if my sweet father were not dead, he'd be
+justice in my place; and, after all, I got that dolman without paying
+for it, and I'll have another on the same terms; and though my wife has
+lost two teeth, they are after all but front teeth, and there's not a
+woman in Hungary can cook such a mess of Tokany[19] as she does; and,
+taking one thing with another, I am the luckiest dog in three
+counties." Kenihazy, too, was most happy, especially if it be true that
+he is most blessed who is least conscious of his own existence. Mr.
+Kenihazy sat with his elbows on the table, singing his favourite song
+of--
+
+[Footnote 19: See Note II.]
+
+    "The man that does not love Skinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!
+    Devil take him for a sinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!"
+
+It is to be presumed that Kenihazy was equally in love with the melody
+and text of this sublime rhapsody; for he had sung it unceasingly for
+the last half-hour.
+
+"I say, Bandi!" cried the justice, at length.
+
+But Bandi went on with his song, screaming rather louder than before.
+
+"Bandi, I say! don't roar in that way!"
+
+Mr. Kenihazy stared; but his voice grew still more loud.
+
+"He's drunk!" said Mr. Skinner, rising with some difficulty, and walking
+up to and shaking his clerk, who at length raised his head with a
+"Holloa! what's the matter?"
+
+"We're in!" said the judge; for no other thought found a place in his
+head. Upon this, Mr. Kenihazy burst into a laugh so long, so loud, and
+so uproarious, that it outdid the very chiefs whose portraits
+ornamented the walls. They never laughed so loud, even after their
+famous bargain with Swatopluk, who sold them the country of Hungary for
+a white steed.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: See Note III.]
+
+"What are you laughing at?" said Mr. Skinner, with an awful display of
+judicial gravity.
+
+"At them!" responded Mr. Kenihazy, still chuckling. "They wanted to do
+us, and we've done them. Done them brown, eh? We are in!"
+
+"Bravo! we _are_ in!" cried the justice. "The world is to the wise!"
+
+"And to the cunning!" said Kenihazy, tossing off his glass.
+
+"Ay--but--yes, we are in! Look to yourselves, you rascals! You wanted to
+have another judge, eh? Very well; oh, _very_ well: we'll see who has
+the best of it."
+
+"And who was it they wanted to put in my place?" shouted his friend, in
+a generous burst of indignation; "was it not Vincenz Goeroegy? a mere boy,
+who has just left the university?" This was the more criminal in Mr.
+Kenihazy's eyes, as _he_ had never been at any university.
+
+"As for that fellow, Tengelyi, let him take care!" snarled Mr. Skinner.
+"I've long had a mind----"
+
+"Capital thing, isn't it, that he isn't a nobleman now? He's now easier
+_come-at-able_."
+
+"So he is," murmured the justice; "but they've sent us to get his papers
+for him."
+
+"Yes; and when did they send us?--Late at night, in bad weather, when
+honest men are wont to stay at home. Think of those devils of robbers
+that let fly at you from their hiding-places! Did ever a Christian hear
+of such a thing?"
+
+Mr. Skinner replied, with an expression of profound wisdom: "You see,
+Bandi, these gentlemen are ignoramuses on county business: and, to tell
+you a secret, his Excellency, our lord-lieutenant, is not better than
+any of the rest. But no matter; he gives his orders, and I do as I
+please; for every office has its peculiar sphere of action, you know,
+Bandi."
+
+"So it has; but no Christian ought to go out in such a night," said
+Kenihazy, who would have uttered some severe strictures on the
+unbecoming behaviour of the lord-lieutenant, but for the rattling of a
+carriage over the stone pavement of the yard, which attracted their
+attention.
+
+"Who the deuce is this?" said the justice. "I thought nobody knew of my
+being here!"
+
+"Petitioners!" cried Kenihazy. "Petitioners!" said he, filling his
+glass: "they'll come by dozens; for, you see, we are in!"
+
+Mr. Catspaw, who entered the room wrapped up in his bunda, put a stop to
+their conjectures.
+
+"It is you, my friend!" cried Mr. Skinner, making up to and hugging the
+little attorney: "I'm happy you've come. We'll have a game at cards."
+
+"_Servus humillimus!_" cried Kenihazy, who felt that to get up was, for
+him, a thing of greater difficulty than necessity.
+
+"No gambling to-night!" said Mr. Catspaw, as he struggled in Skinner's
+embrace. "We must be off."
+
+"Off! and where are _you_ bound to?"
+
+"Yes, yes! where are _you_ bound to?" hiccoughed Kenihazy. "I won't stir
+a single step. We'll have a game, won't we, Paul?"
+
+"D--n us, so we will!" cried the justice, striving to seize the
+attorney. "If you don't stay, as you ought to do, we'll have the wheels
+of your carriage taken off,--won't we, Bandi?"
+
+"Yes; let us have the wheels, and let him walk home if he likes."
+
+Mr. Catspaw shrugged his shoulders. "I wish you'd waited before getting
+drunk, in honour of the day!" said he.
+
+"You rascal of an attorney! Do you mean to say I'm drunk? Do you mean to
+insinuate that I am not master of myself? Who is first sheriff? Rety.
+Who is second? Kriver and----"
+
+"I am aware of it; but for God's sake be reasonable!"
+
+"And who is clerk?" roared Bandi.
+
+"Kenihazy Andrash[21], Eljen!"
+
+[Footnote 21: See Note IV.]
+
+"Confound your noise!" shouted the attorney.
+
+"Very well, sir. I don't mean to offend you, but--let us be reasonable.
+Where do you wish us to go?"
+
+"To St. Vilmosh!"
+
+"I'm not drunk; and the proof is, that I won't stir from the spot!"
+interposed Mr. Kenihazy.
+
+"What do you wish us to do at St. Vilmosh?"
+
+"Viola is there. We must arrest him to-night, or never; by to-morrow
+morning he will have passed the stolen documents to some one else."
+
+"Very well," said Mr Skinner, with great dignity; "we'll arrest him
+to-morrow."
+
+"But I tell you by that time the papers will be gone!"
+
+"So much the better. Am I to leave my house by night? am I to risk my
+neck to help Mr. Tengelyi to get his papers? Let him go himself, if he
+likes!"
+
+"Yes; let him go, if he likes!" repeated Mr. Kenihazy. The attorney cast
+a despairing look at the meritorious functionaries, and seizing the
+justice by the sleeve, he led him to the window, where they conversed
+long and eagerly together; while Kenihazy recommenced his old song:--
+
+    "The man that does not love Skinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!
+    Devil take him for a sinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!"
+
+"That alters the case entirely," said the justice at length. "I say,
+Bandi, tell the Pandurs to saddle their horses immediately."
+
+"Yes; that alters the case entirely," groaned Kenihazy. "The Pandurs may
+go! D--n them, why shouldn't they?"
+
+"But why did not you say all this at once?" said the justice, who
+appeared much more sober than Mr. Catspaw had hoped he would be.
+
+"Why, you would not have me tell it in the presence of your clerk? Now
+send your Pandurs to St. Vilmosh, and send the inspector word to raise a
+_posse_, to arm them with pitchforks, and to wait for us at the Tsharda,
+close to the forest. As for Kenihazy, he'd better stay where he is.
+He'd be too much in our way."
+
+"You are right. But suppose Tzifra were to cheat us? Suppose he had come
+to get us into a trap? Viola says he will be revenged on me, and Tzifra
+is one of his gang."
+
+"Never fear. There is no necessity for us to go further than we think
+safe; you know I am not fond of bullets. But we can rely upon Tzifra. He
+is in our hands."
+
+Kenihazy returned after a while, and told them that the Pandurs had gone
+off to St. Vilmosh. Mr. Catspaw took his bunda, and said,--"Let us go,
+then!"
+
+"And you too? Are _you_ going?" said the clerk, astonished, when he
+beheld the justice furred and cloaked, and prepared for the journey.
+
+"Yes; but you are to stay."
+
+"But what _can_ you do without me?"
+
+"We are going to make an experiment," said Mr. Skinner, laughing.
+"Farewell! and take care of the house!"
+
+They took their seats in the carriage. Tzifra, who had waited in the
+hall, jumped up behind, and they drove off.
+
+"This is indeed strange!" said Kenihazy.
+
+"What _can_ a judge do without his clerk?" He returned to the room,
+where he continued his potations and his song:--
+
+    "The man that doesn't love Skinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!
+    Devil take him for a sinner, sirs,
+          Haj! Haj! Haj!"
+
+At length his voice was lost in sleep, and nothing but the barking of
+the dogs broke through the deep stillness in and around Mr. Skinner's
+curia.
+
+That worthy was meanwhile in the act of cursing the coachman's zeal,
+who, obedient to Mr. Catspaw's instructions, had urged his horses to a
+mad career; and though Mr. Skinner was very desirous to see Viola
+hanged, still it struck him that to break his own neck first was not
+exactly the way to accomplish that purpose. The jolting of the carriage,
+which brought his head in violent contact with the iron bands of the
+roof, went a great way to confirm him in his opinion.
+
+"D--n the fellow!" cried he. "Why don't you mind the ruts in the road?
+Do you think you've got a cartload of sacks? Gently! confound you!
+gently, I say! I'll knock you on the head next time!"
+
+"Don't be frightened!" said Mr. Catspaw, who suffered as much as his
+companion. "There is not a better coachman in the county. He's my
+lady's coachman."
+
+"Better coachman? I protest he's drunk--dead drunk, I say!"
+
+"Nonsense! He has not had a drop ever since we left Dustbury."
+
+"Confound it!" screamed Mr. Skinner, taking his pipe from his mouth,
+which the last jolt had chucked so far down his throat that he was in
+some danger of swallowing it; "Od's wounds! but this is worse than the
+last judgment. Stop! Stop, I say! I'll get out--"
+
+"Don't!" cried the attorney. "You cannot get out here, we are in the
+very deepest of the mud. Let us go on to the heath, it's dry ground
+there!"
+
+"It's because the pigs have broken the ground," sighed the justice;
+"it's more dangerous still. Here there's at least a chance of falling on
+a soft place. No! I _will_ get out."
+
+"If you do, there is no knowing when we shall come to St. Vilmosh."
+
+"Dear me! no! Stop! we're spilt! Terrem tette, stop! Jantshi, you
+beast!" screamed the justice still louder, while he clung to the
+cushions of the seat, and looked out for a chance of leaping to the
+ground.
+
+"Go on!" cried the attorney, with suppressed laughter. "We've gained the
+heath now! On with you, or the cold of the night will kill us."
+
+"Never mind the cold, if we can but get off with our bones unbroken."
+
+"Yes, but think of my rheumatism! You know how much I suffer from it. It
+makes me shudder to breathe this damp air."
+
+"You're bilious, that's the long and the short of it!" said Mr. Skinner,
+as the horses proceeded at a slow trot. "But mind what I tell you, that
+fellow will break all the bones in my body before we come to St.
+Vilmosh."
+
+"Don't be a coward! You see I am not at all afraid, and yet I am as fond
+of my life as you can be."
+
+"Oh, it's all very well for you to say so. You're not married; but I
+have a wife and four small children----"
+
+"That's the very reason why I ought to love my life five times better
+than you do yours. But, mercy on us! how damp the air is, and how cold
+the wind! And I have forgotten to provide myself with elder flowers! Now
+if I don't have tea and a warm bed at St. Vilmosh, I'm a dead man; and
+you're my murderer, because you won't allow the driver to go on as fast
+as he can."
+
+"Don't be a fool!" said the justice, very composedly, for his curses and
+threats had at length caused Jantshi to proceed at a slow pace. Thus
+they sat for a considerable time, each grunting at the cowardice of his
+companion. In due time they left the heath and turned again into the
+road. The driver cursed the horses, and Mr. Skinner cursed the driver,
+while the attorney bewailed his anticipated illness: in short, we may
+leave the party with the firm conviction that unless they make greater
+haste than they have hitherto done, the Gulyash is sure to reach St.
+Vilmosh long before they can hope to arrive there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+
+The concluding sentence of the last chapter expresses the very hope
+which animated the Gulyash Ishtvan and his companion. It was indeed
+three hours ago since Susi met Tzifra near Garatsh, and Garatsh was at
+least three miles nearer to the forest of St. Vilmosh than Ishtvan's
+Tanya. But it was probable that the judge had not set out immediately;
+and besides, those gentry travel in a carriage, and on a heavy road too,
+while Ishtvan's cart seems to fly over the smooth heath; and, after all,
+the horses of the Gulyash are the best runners in the world.
+
+It was dark when they started. The weak rays of the new moon were
+absorbed by a dense fog, and it required all the instinct of locality
+which characterises the Hungarian herdsmen to guide them over the vast
+plain, which offered scarcely any marks by which a traveller might shape
+his course. A heap of earth, the gigantic beam of a well looming through
+the darkness, the remains of a stack of straw, a ditch, or a few
+distant willows,--such were the only objects which might be discerned,
+and even these were few and far between. But the Gulyash drove his
+horses on, without once stopping to examine the country round him, for
+all the world as if he had been galloping along on a broad smooth road;
+and the very horses seemed resolved to do their best. They tore away as
+though they were running a race with the dragon of the wizard
+student[22], while Ishtvan, flourishing his whip, more in sport than
+because it was wanted, called out to them, "Vertshe ne! Sharga ne! Don't
+they run, the tatoshes![23] They are the best horses in Hungary!"
+
+[Footnote 22: See Note V.]
+
+[Footnote 23: See Note VI.]
+
+Willows and hills, well-beams and straw stacks, passed by them; the
+manes of the horses streamed in the breeze; the Gulyash, with his bunda
+thrown back, and his shirt inflated with the air, sat on the box as if
+he were driving a race with the Spirit of the Storm. The horses galloped
+away as if the soil were burning under their hoofs.
+
+"Fear nothing, Susi!" cried the Gulyash; "we are there before that
+cursed thief of a judge has left his house. Vertshe ne!" And Susi
+sighed, "God grant it!"
+
+"Confound him, if we are too late. But now tell me, Susi, on your soul,
+did you ever ride in this way?"
+
+"Never!" said she.
+
+"I believe you. Sharga ne! Don't be sad, Susi; we've saved the better
+part of the road. At St. Vilmosh we'll call upon the Tshikosh. He'll
+give us a dish of Gulyashush; and if he has not got it, he'll find a
+filly, and kill it for our supper."
+
+Suddenly the horses jumped aside, and stood snorting and pawing.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the Gulyash, seizing his whip. "What is it?
+Sharga! Vertshe! I see!" added he, as, straining his eyes in the
+darkness, he saw a wolf, which had crossed the road, and which stood a
+few yards off. "Poor things! the _vermin_ have frightened them. Never
+mind. Go your way to Kishlak, you confounded beast! where the dogs will
+tear the skin off your cursed bones. I trust Peti has kept out of its
+way; though, after all, there's not much danger. The very wolves won't
+eat an old gipsy. They are a tough race."
+
+Susi's anxiety for Peti's safety was far from yielding to the learned
+remarks of the Gulyash, but she was soon relieved by hearing the gipsy's
+voice. He called out as they overtook him on the road. They stopped,
+and he took his seat on the cart. "We are sure to be in time," said he;
+"the Garatsh road, on which the justice travels, is as heavy as can be."
+
+"I have no hope since I saw the vermin," said Susi, sadly; "they tell me
+it bodes one no good."
+
+"Don't be a fool, Susi!" said the Gulyash. "Have I not seen lots of
+vermin in my life, and I am still here and in luck. What are you afraid
+of? My horses are not even warm."
+
+"Yes; but the cart may break. I am full of fears."
+
+"It won't break, Susi, you see it's not a gentleman's carriage. There is
+a vast difference between a gentleman's carriage and a peasant's cart,
+just as there is between gentlemen and peasants. Your carriage is vast,
+and roomy, and high-wheeled, and cushioned, and painted; in short, it's
+a splendid thing to look at; but take it out on a heavy road, and down
+it breaks with a vengeance! it's full of screws and such tomfoolery, and
+only fit for a smooth road. Now a peasant's cart goes through any thing;
+and mine is a perfect jewel. The wheels are of my own make, and Peti has
+hooped them."
+
+Peti was not quite so confident. "I hope there's no water," said he,
+scratching his head; "we've had some heavy rains, and if the low country
+is full of water----"
+
+"Never mind, Peti, I'm sure it's all in good order; and you Susi, dear,
+don't be afraid! My brother Pishta, who lived on the other side of the
+river, died last week, when he was just about to leave the place. He got
+a passport and a landlord's discharge for the purpose. Those papers are
+of no use to his widow, but they are just the thing for you and Viola,
+for they will help you to get away. I know of a good place about a
+hundred miles from here, where you may earn an honest livelihood. You're
+not fit for the kind of life you are leading. I'll take you to the place
+with my own horses; you have not got much luggage. The great thing is to
+get out of the county; for it's a rum affair such a county, and the best
+of it is, that it is not too large. Don't you think so, Peti?"
+
+But Peti made no reply, not even when Susi, catching at the faint ray of
+hope which fell into the gloom of her life, inquired whether the
+Gulyash's promise was not too good to be realised? The gipsy sat
+motionless, with his eyes staring into the darkness which surrounded
+them. They hurried on in silence, whilst the fog grew dense, and the
+sky blacker than before. No trace was left of either willows, mounds,
+stacks, or well-beams; still they pressed forward until the splashing in
+water of the horses' hoofs stopped their progress.
+
+Peti's fears were but too well founded. The place where they halted was
+under water. The gipsy descended to reconnoitre the extent. As he
+advanced he beheld the plain like a wide lake, of which he could not see
+the end. He retraced his steps and walked to the right, but he found
+that the water stretched in every direction. At length he made his way
+to a dry place, to which he directed the Gulyash.
+
+"Let us go on in this direction," said he, as he took his place in the
+cart; "there is some chance of reaching the forest. Be careful, Ishtvan,
+and keep close to the water, or else you'll lose your way. This here's
+the Yellow Spring."
+
+"Christ save us!" cried Susi. "We are surely too late, and my poor
+husband----"
+
+"No!" said the gipsy, with ill-dissembled concern; "unless the water has
+flooded the Frog's Dyke, we shall find the Black Lake dry, and if so
+we're safe. On with you, Ishtvan!"
+
+"Confound the Theiss!" said the Gulyash, as he whipped his horses on.
+
+"Nonsense; it's not the Theiss. 'Twas but yesterday I saw the river at
+Ret, it's as quiet as a lamb; but this water comes from the new ditch
+which the gentry have made. They make the water mad with their ditches
+and dykes."
+
+"A thousand thunders! there's water _here_!" and he pulled the horses
+back, one of which had slipped and fallen. Susi wrung her hands. Peti
+jumped down and walked through the water. He came back and led the
+horses onwards. "It's not worth stopping for, my beauties," said he,
+addressing the horses; "you'll see some rougher work by and bye if you
+stay with the Gulyash Pishta." They reached the opposite bank, and
+hastened on until they were again stopped by the water. The gipsy wrung
+his hands.
+
+"The Black Lake is brimful. There's not a horse in the world can ford
+it!"
+
+"Stop here!" said Susi. "I'll walk through it!"
+
+"Nonsense, Susi! The lake is full of holes. You are weak. If your foot
+slips you'll never have the strength to get up, and then you are done
+for."
+
+"Hands off! let go my bunda; God will help me! but I cannot leave my
+husband in this last extremity!" and she struggled to get down.
+
+"Now, Susi, be reasonable! What's to become of your children if they
+hang your husband, and you are drowned?"
+
+Susi sat down by the side of the cart. She covered her face with both
+her hands, and wept bitterly.
+
+"Don't be afraid, child!" said the Gulyash; "either I go over or Peti
+does. You see the forest is just before us, and if there's not a road,
+confound it! we'll make one."
+
+"So we will!" cried Peti. "I'll cross the water, though the very devil
+were in it. Let me feel my way a little. Is not that the large tree we
+saw the other day?"
+
+"May be it is, but I can't make it out on account of that confounded
+fog. There are lots of high trees in the forest."
+
+"To the left of the tree, about two hundred yards from it, there is a
+clearing in the wood. On the day I spoke of, we drove through it with
+the cart. Don't you remember?"
+
+"How the deuce shouldn't I remember! There ought to be some reeds to the
+right of the tree."
+
+"So there ought to be! Now you go to the right and I to the left. If I
+can find the clearing, and if that's the tree I spoke of, I'll walk
+through the water; for it's a rising ground from that tree to the other
+bank of the Theiss."
+
+"I'll go with you," said Susi; "my heart beats so fast--there's a murmur
+in my ears--let me go! I'd die with fears if you tell me to remain
+here."
+
+"Susi, my soul, if I can cross the waters, I'll come back and carry you
+on my back. But stay where you are--stay for Viola's sake, if not for
+your own!"
+
+They walked away and were lost in the darkness. Susi stood by the water,
+looking at the forest. "Alas!" sighed she, "I am so near him, and yet I
+cannot go to him!"
+
+The poor woman was right. On the other side of the water, scarcely more
+than a thousand yards from the place where Susi trembled and prayed, we
+find Viola with his comrades, encamped in one of the few oak forests of
+which Hungary can boast. The soil on which this forest stood was
+continually exposed to the overflowing of the Theiss, to the banks of
+which it extended, and by which it was rather divided than confined; for
+another forest of oaks covered an area of several miles on the other
+side of the river. The forest was a noisy place in summer, when there
+was a plentiful harvest of acorns; the grunting of a thousand pigs, and
+the whistling and singing of a hundred Kondashes[24], was loud, beneath
+the thickly woven branches and the deep green foliage; and large fires,
+surrounded by fierce-looking bunda-clad figures, burned amidst the huge
+trunks of the trees. But in winter the forest is deserted; the huts
+which the Kondashes had built were overthrown by the first storms which
+ushered in the severe season. Only one of these huts was still
+inhabited. It was the one which lay farthest from St. Vilmosh, and close
+to the end of the forest. This hut was the favorite retreat of Viola and
+his gang. There was not a road or path for miles around them; and the
+shrubs and trees which surrounded the hut hid it so effectually, that
+even at twenty yards distance it was impossible to discover any trace of
+it. On the other side, towards St. Vilmosh, the forest extended many
+miles, and even the boldest among the county hussars avoided the spot,
+ever since an inspector and two Pandurs had been shot there. Viola was
+justified in fancying himself as safe as a king in his palace; for who
+would betray him? He was sure of Peti, and the Gulyash Ishtvan; and as
+for the other sharers of the secret, he was still more certain of their
+discretion, for they were all equally guilty, and the same punishment
+awaited them.
+
+[Footnote 24: See Note VII.]
+
+The hut, in a corner of which was the robber seated on a log of wood,
+was large, roomy, and well conditioned. A heap of straw, covered with
+bundas, which stood the robbers in place of a bed; a clumsy table, and
+an iron kettle, and various weapons--such were the objects on which the
+fire threw a broad and glaring light. Viola sat lost in deep thought,
+while two of his comrades, the only ones who were present that night,
+stretched their weary limbs on their bundas, as they stared at the
+burning wood and the red flames.
+
+"I say, butcher!" said one of them, "don't you think a bit of meat would
+be just the thing for us?"
+
+The speaker, whom the country had for the last twenty-five years known
+as a freebooter of the worst kind, was a sturdy gray-haired man, while
+the fellow he addressed was young and--as Ratz Andor, for such was the
+elder robber's name, would have it--inexperienced.
+
+"Go to the devil!" replied the young man. "Why do you talk to me of
+meat?"
+
+"Wouldn't you like it? Now, I say, you would not mind having some
+tobacco, would you?"
+
+"Curse you, and begone! Why should you talk of it, since there's neither
+meat nor tobacco!"
+
+"I thought you'd like a bite or a whiff; don't you?"
+
+"You're always joking," said the butcher. "We have not had any grub ever
+so long. I can't stand it. I'd rather be hanged than starved to death."
+
+"Why don't you go for something?" sneered Andor.
+
+"How can I? you know the bees are swarming. Hand me the culatsh, old
+fellow!"
+
+"Take it."
+
+"No, not this! It's full of water. Give me the other creature, hang
+you!"
+
+"I'll see _you_ hanged, my boy, before I give it you. You've already
+more brandy in your head than good sense; and besides, it won't do to
+drink while you're fasting."
+
+"Give me the bottle. I won't be fooled by you. I am my own master."
+
+"You'd better be quiet," said the old robber, seizing the butcher's arm
+with an iron grip.
+
+"I'll pay you out for it, you dog!" cried the butcher, as he sprang to
+his feet and seized his fokosh. "I'll teach you to bid me be quiet!"
+
+Andor, who had watched his movements, rose with equal quickness, and
+seizing the young man's throat, thrust him into a corner.
+
+"You must learn manners, my fine fellow! and if you don't, why you'll be
+stuck like a pig!"
+
+Viola was all this while brooding over his own miseries, and the
+wretched lot of his wife. He knew nothing of the quarrel of his
+comrades, but their fight roused him.
+
+"What is the row?" said he, rising.
+
+"The boy wants brandy, and I want to give him a drubbing."
+
+"Give him brandy, if there is any."
+
+"No!" said Ratz Andor. "He shan't have it. He is more than half drunk as
+it is. He'll bring us into trouble!"
+
+"But I am hungry!" cried the boy, appealing to Viola.
+
+"Why did you come to be a robber? No one told you to come."
+
+"And who told you?"
+
+"My case is different!" said Andor, gloomily. "I am a deserter. I served
+the Emperor for ten years. I tell you, boy, I did my duty in the
+greatest war that ever was; and when we came home from our campaigns and
+they refused to let me go my ways, the devil put it into my head that
+I'd been a soldier overlong. So I flung my musket away, and here I am.
+But, confound me! if I were a butcher's son, as you are, you would not
+find me in the forest; nor would you Viola, take my word for it!"
+
+"I don't care!" said the butcher, unmoved by the old man's words; "a
+robber's life's a merry life. I want lush!"
+
+"Give it him," repeated Viola. "Let him take his fill."
+
+"Why, the fellow _is_ drunk," said Ratz Andor, doggedly. "There never
+was a gang of robbers but it was ruined by drink."
+
+"We are safe for this night; though I trust Peti will come, and bring us
+meat from the Gulyash. The justice is at Dustbury; and as for the
+haiduks, they'd rather go out of our way than cross it."
+
+"That's what you ought never to think," said Andor, shaking his head,
+"Ruin comes upon us when we least expect it. But if you must, you must,"
+continued he, addressing the butcher; "so drink, and go to h--ll!"
+
+The fellow seized the proffered bottle, and the three men were silent.
+
+The two-fold darkness of the night and the fog was still more increased
+by the deep shades of the forest. The wind of autumn whistled among the
+dry leaves, and moaned in the upper air like a deep sigh of unspeakable
+woe. The hoarse croak of the raven broke the stillness at intervals, and
+the birds that lived in the forest awoke and flapped their heavy wings.
+Viola stood in the doorway of the hut. His soul was sorrowful, even
+unto death. The night, the silence, the loneliness of the place, the
+companions of his exile, all contributed to add to his grief. He thought
+of the days of his happiness. When the work in the field was over, when
+the long winter nights came on, he used to sit by his own fireside,
+fondling his boy on his knee, and gazing on Susi, who moved her spindle
+with untiring zeal. What though mists covered the land, hiding the
+manor-house, the huts, the church, and the banks of the Theiss,--he
+cared not. The powers of Nature cannot affect the happiness in man's
+heart: it is man alone who can destroy it. And his happiness was
+destroyed. "I was humble and inoffensive," said he; "and yet they did
+not spare me. I did my duty; indeed, I did more than my duty. I obeyed
+when they commanded; I took my hat off when I met them; I fawned upon
+them like a dog; I would have kissed their feet, to induce them to leave
+Susi and my child alone, to leave my house alone, and yet----" Viola
+remembered again all the insults he had suffered. He recollected how
+they would have forced him to leave his wife in her hour of sorrow; how
+they dragged him through the village; how Skinner gave orders to tie him
+to the whipping-post; how he seized the axe, and turned its edge
+against the head of a fellow-creature; and how the blood filled him with
+horror. He raised his hands to heaven.
+
+"No!" cried he; "may God have mercy on me! but, whatever I may have
+done, I cannot repent it. If I were to live it over again, if I were to
+see them standing round me, and laughing and sneering, and if I were to
+see the axe,--I'd seize it again, and woe to the man that should come
+near me! But you, whom I never did any harm to!--you, who were the cause
+of my ruin!--you, who have caused my wife and children to beg their
+bread!--you, who made me a robber, who hunted me, who compelled me to
+herd with the beasts of the forest!--you, whose doings damn me in this
+world and in the next,--you, attorney! and you, judge! take care of
+yourselves: as surely as there is a God in heaven I'll have my revenge,
+and a bloody revenge too!----"
+
+At that moment there was a rustling in the wood. Viola leaned forward,
+and listened. The noise was as of the approach of men. There was a
+rustling of the dry leaves, a cracking of the branches; the ravens flew
+up from the trees. "Who can it be?" thought Viola. "Peti, perhaps, and
+the Gulyash; but how should they come from the St. Vilmosh side?"
+
+A similar noise of approaching steps was now heard from the other side
+of the forest. "These are the steps of many men," said Viola; "they are
+in search of me." The very next moment he was fully convinced of it, for
+the low murmur of many voices was heard in the stillness of the night.
+Viola, rushing back into the hut, locked the door, and waked the butcher
+by giving him a kick.
+
+"Did I not tell you so?" said the old robber, getting up, and seizing a
+double-barrelled gun; "and there the fellow lies! he's as drunk as
+David's sow."
+
+Ratz Andor was wrong. The poor fellow, who bore his kick with the
+forbearance of an angel, grew quite sober when they told him of the
+approach of the enemy. "Is there no means of escape?" whispered he.
+
+"We are surrounded!" said Viola. "If there are not too many of them, we
+are safe. Are the guns and pistols loaded?"
+
+"They are; four double-barrelled guns, and six pistols. Let them come
+on! we'll give them their supper." We need scarcely remark that it was
+Ratz Andor who said these words.
+
+"Light the lamp. Put it into a corner, that it may not be seen from
+without. Throw ashes on the fire!"
+
+The butcher obeyed tremblingly.
+
+"Now, Ratz, you and I, we'll stand by the two cuttings in the door. You,
+butcher, look to the sides; and if anybody comes up to the house, you'd
+better shoot him. You can have a shot at either side. But don't allow
+any of the rascals to put their guns through the cuttings. Cheer up,
+boy, you are safe enough!"
+
+Viola and Andor, gun in hand, stood by the door, keeping a look out
+through the small cuttings, or loop-holes, by which the walls of the
+building were pierced. The butcher walked to and fro in the background.
+He trembled violently, and vowed reformation if he could only manage to
+escape with his life.
+
+"The birds are roosting!" cried a loud shrill voice, which evidently
+proceeded from Mr. Skinner. "They are there! I see a light in the hut.
+Is it surrounded on all sides?"
+
+Forty or fifty voices, which answered to this call, informed the robbers
+that there was no chance of escape. The butcher knelt down, and made the
+sign of the cross.
+
+"You dog! I'll shoot you!" said Ratz Andor. "Stand up, and be a man.
+Stand by your cutting, and let fly at them!" The butcher obeyed.
+
+"Robbers, I call on you to surrender!" cried Mr. Skinner. "If you refuse
+to surrender on this summons of the county, you are liable to be tried
+by court-martial."
+
+All was silent in the hut, and the justice gave the word of command.
+
+"At them, you rascals! Break the door. At them!"
+
+A rush was made against the door; but before the axes of the assailants
+could touch it, the report of two muskets was heard. Two Pandurs fell;
+the rest retreated; and Ratz Andor shouted from the hut: "Come on!"
+
+At that moment the butcher likewise fired his piece. He too brought down
+one of the judge's men. This frightened the besiegers, who turned and
+fled. They paused for a time. The robbers reloaded their muskets, while
+the besiegers assembled round Mr. Skinner and the inspector. Mr.
+Catspaw, with a modesty which did him infinite credit, kept at a
+distance.
+
+"I don't see how we _can_ catch them," said the inspector, leaning on
+his broad sabre, which had done good service in the insurrection of
+1809, and of which the blade, which bore the mark of "Fringia," could
+not have been in better hands.
+
+"Make another onset, and another and another!" cried the justice,
+stamping his foot. "Don't leave off until you've got them, the rascals,
+and bound them and hanged them!"
+
+"I'll do it, if it can be done!"
+
+"_Can_ be done? There is nothing but _can_ be done when I command!"
+
+"Very well!" said the inspector, angrily. "It won't be _my_ fault if it
+is not done. I'll stick to the mark any day if your men don't turn
+tail."
+
+"If the fellows don't go, they are dogs and cowards! Knock them down,
+and be----"
+
+"Well, sir, all I can say is, you'd better lead them to the charge, and
+knock them down at your liking, I'm not made for that sort of thing."
+
+"No, sir!" said Mr. Skinner, doggedly. "That's not my post. It is my
+duty to superintend and conduct the affair."
+
+"You're a--never mind! Go at them, my men!" shouted the inspector. The
+justice repeated the words of command with a still louder tone; and Mr.
+Catspaw's shrill voice was heard echoing the words from behind a distant
+oak. The inspector, flourishing his sword, and followed by the Pandurs
+and peasants, advanced towards the hut, but they were again fired at
+from within. The report of the muskets was followed by deep groans,
+which showed that the robbers had taken a good aim.
+
+The Pandurs retreated. "On with you! Go on! before they've had time to
+charge! There's no danger now!" and the inspector, followed by a few of
+his boldest men, made another rush at the door. Another discharge! The
+inspector had his left arm broken, and one of the Pandurs was shot
+through the body.
+
+"On! at them!" shouted the leader, nothing daunted; "they've got no
+powder now! On! on!" and, seizing an axe, he advanced again, while his
+men, partly because they believed that the robbers were short of
+ammunition, and partly yielding to the excitement of the combat, loaded
+their pieces and followed him. But musket after musket was fired by the
+robbers inside, and almost each shot took effect. The wailings of the
+wounded, the oaths of the besieged and the besiegers, the reports of the
+muskets, and the glaring flash which accompanied each discharge, were
+made still more fearful and startling by the darkness of the night;
+while the inspector's voice, as he urged his men on, was distinctly
+heard in the midst of the general confusion.
+
+"Give me that piece!" shouted he, flinging his axe, and snatching a
+musket from the hand of a Pandur. "Now that's for you, Viola!" and he
+fired it into the hut.
+
+A scream and a heavy fall was heard. But before the inspector could vent
+his joy in words, the fire was returned from within, and the peasant who
+stood at his side had his skull shivered. "Give me another musket!"
+roared the inspector, but in vain; the Pandurs hastened back to the
+judge, who stood at a safe distance, cursing and urging the combatants
+on. Their leader, finding that he was left to fight the battle alone,
+returned likewise, with his shoulder pierced by a bullet.
+
+"Why, you cursed rascals! how dare you come back? Where's the robber?"
+cried the intrepid judge, flinging down his pipe in a paroxysm of rage.
+"Where is Viola? how dare you come back without him?"
+
+Nobody answered. One of the Pandurs stooped for the pipe, which, strange
+to say, was not broken.
+
+"Knock the ashes out and give it a good cleaning, you rogue! It won't
+draw!" said the justice; and, turning to the others, he proceeded: "Did
+I not order you to bring the robber? to seize him and bind him?"
+
+"Your worship," said one of the men, "we did all that men can do. There
+are four of us killed, and half the rest wounded. They've broken the
+inspector's arm."
+
+"There are at least ten robbers in the hut. The cuttings are black with
+the muzzles of their guns. It's quite impossible to go up."
+
+"Impossible? who dares to say any thing is impossible? I'd like to see
+the man who dares to say it! Impossible? when _I_ say it _is_ possible!
+why you scurvy----"
+
+"He's right!" said the inspector. "If you would take Viola, you must
+have better men than the like of these."
+
+"But I say they shall take him! I'd like to know who is the master, you
+or I?"
+
+"Your worship had better try. I've done my duty, and I'm done for, at
+least for this night. Both my hands are disabled; I am not a match for a
+child in arms."
+
+Mr. Skinner shook his head.
+
+"I was not aware, sir,--it's a pity you are wounded. The wounded must of
+course fall back. As for the rest, let them stand in a line. Well done!
+March! March! Ma----"
+
+The word of command was broken off by another discharge from the hut,
+and the line, which had begun to move, fell back in disorder. As for
+Mr. Skinner, he took refuge behind a tree. He knew that his safety was
+essential to the success of the expedition.
+
+"Forward, you cowards! March! March!" shouted he; but none obeyed.
+
+"March! I say. Will you, or not?" screamed the justice, collaring the
+man who stood next to him.
+
+"No, I will not!" said the man, as he slipped aside.
+
+"You won't. Very well, sir, I'll pay you out for this! What's your
+name?"
+
+"Kovatsh Miksha, a nobleman of St. Vilmosh. I will not go, even to
+please your God!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I did not know you! But who's this fellow?"
+
+"That's my cousin, Andrash. He's a nobleman, and he won't go!"
+
+"Why, where the deuce are the peasants?"
+
+"Shot, or run away!"
+
+"The rascals!" cried the judge; "the cowards! Never mind, I'll make them
+pay for it!"
+
+"I beg your worship's pardon," interposed the inspector; "but my opinion
+is that we had better go home. We have done our duty, and there are only
+fifteen men here. The rest are either dead or run away. We have no
+chance of success. When Viola finds out how few there are of us, and
+that we cannot watch the hut on all sides, he will make his way out into
+the forest."
+
+The justice was on the point of yielding, when Mr. Catspaw approached
+the group. He suggested another scheme. "Put fire to the hut," said he.
+"They will find it too hot to hold them; they will come out; and when
+they do, you shoot them down." His advice was eagerly adopted. The
+inspector was frantic with joy, and a Pandur was at once sent off to
+carry the scheme into effect. The men of St. Vilmosh and the Pandurs
+took their places in the thicket, ready to fire at the robbers; and Mr.
+Skinner was so violent in expressing the pleasure he felt, that he swore
+twice as much as before.
+
+The situation of the robbers was far worse than their assailants
+suspected. The shot, which the inspector had fired through the cutting,
+had pierced the broad chest of Ratz Andor. He lay on his back, groaning,
+and moving his limbs in a pool of blood. The butcher walked to and fro
+with alternate oaths and prayers, and cursing the day of his birth.
+
+Viola was quiet and silent. He felt convinced that his hour had come,
+and he awaited death fearlessly. The thought of his family alone was a
+weight upon his heart. For a moment he thought of flight. There was a
+possibility of escape by breaking through the roof, and escaping from
+the back of the hut. But he looked at his old companion, who lay
+bleeding at his feet, and who had once saved his life. His resolution
+was taken. He could not leave that man in the hour of his agony.
+Immediately afterwards he heard them prepare for another attack, and he
+awaited his fate with firmness and resignation.
+
+"Fire at them!" said Ratz Andor, when he heard the noise outside, "fire
+at them, to the last man!"
+
+"We are short of bullets. There's plenty of powder, but no lead." Ratz
+Andor drew a deep breath.
+
+"A thousand devils! is there no shot?"
+
+"No. There's a gun and two pistols loaded--that's all."
+
+"Give me a pistol!" whispered the robber, holding out his hand to Viola;
+and when his comrade, who understood the purport of the request, handed
+him the weapon, he clutched it with an eager hand, muttering--
+
+"Let them come now! They won't take me alive, I warrant you!"
+
+"I say!" whispered the butcher, pointing to Ratz Andor, "is he dead?"
+
+"No; don't you see him breathing?"
+
+"But he'll die!--don't you think he'll die! I say, Viola, don't you
+think we'd better surrender? Perhaps they'll grant us a pardon."
+
+"A pardon? If they don't shoot us, I'll give you my word of honour they
+will hang us before to-morrow night."
+
+"I don't mean a full pardon," whispered the wretch, as if choking with
+fear; "not to pardon us so that we may go about; but perhaps they'll
+lock us up--say five years, ten years, I would not mind twenty years,
+and whip us every month, and make us starve and work--I would not mind
+it in the least, if they don't hang us. Don't you think, Viola, they
+would pardon me, if I were to beseech them--if I were to go down upon my
+knees, intreating them to spare my life. You see, Viola, I am so young.
+I never killed anybody! I never hit any one to-night!"
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Viola, as he gently disengaged his hand from the
+trembling grasp of his comrade, "don't tell these things to me--tell
+your judges.--But what is this!" cried he, pointing to a corner of the
+hut--"what is that smoke?"
+
+"The hut is on fire!"
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+"Let fly at them! Exterminate them! Kick them back into the fire!"
+shouted Mr. Skinner, outside.
+
+"They have put fire to the hut!" cried Viola, shuddering.
+
+Ratz Andor opened his eyes, and, half leaning on his hands, he looked
+around. "Don't be caught alive;" gasped he, "and, if you can, shoot the
+judge, and die as a man!"
+
+These were the robber's last words; for, raising his pistol, he pressed
+the muzzle to his head. His hot blood fell on Viola's hands.
+
+"Our father!" groaned the butcher, kneeling down--"they'll burn us to
+cinders--which art in heaven--give me the bottle, I'll put it
+out--Heaven help us, it is brandy--it burns like hell--hallowed be thy
+name--Viola, you're the death of us--and forgive us--why did you steal
+the notary's papers?"
+
+At this juncture the miserable man raised the bottle to his lips and
+drank, until, overcome with the combined effects of the liquor and the
+smoke, he fell down by the side of Ratz Andor.
+
+His last words reminded Viola of the papers, which he had forgotten in
+the excitement of the conflict. He was resolved to bury himself amidst
+the burning ruins of the hut. Susi need not then take her children to
+the gallows to show them their father's grave. But, as it was, he felt
+he was compelled to live. His family had received protection at
+Tengelyi's hands. The papers were of the greatest importance for the
+notary. He could not allow them to be burned, nor could he leave the
+world under a suspicion of having ruined his benefactor. It was utterly
+impossible.
+
+The fire and the heat increased in violence and intensity. Viola's hair
+was singed, he could not breathe the hot air, he could not see. In
+another moment his escape from the hut was impossible. He seized the
+papers, opened the door, and rushed out.
+
+Mr. Skinner's party had not for the last few minutes heard any sounds
+proceeding from the interior of the hut. They saw it in flames, and they
+saw that no attempt to leave it was made by the people inside. They felt
+convinced that the robbers had somehow or other effected their escape.
+The report of the pistol, by which Ratz Andor put a term to his
+sufferings, confirmed them in their opinion, for it caused them to
+believe that the explosion was owing to the fire having reached some
+weapon which had been left behind. Even Messrs. Skinner and Catspaw,
+though sorely disappointed, ventured to approach the hut; and so it
+happened that when Viola, gasping, half blind, and all but choked, left
+the hut, holding the papers, wrapped up in a cloak, in his hand, he ran
+into the clutches of these two men.
+
+Mr. Catspaw snatched the papers from him and ran back, while the Pandurs
+hastened to the spot and surrounded Viola. The robber was unarmed; but
+his appearance, his notorious strength, and the terror of his name,
+which every one of his pursuers shouted, as if for the express purpose
+of frightening his fellows, made even the boldest cautious of coming too
+near him; if his hand had held a weapon, if there had been strength in
+his arm, he might have broken through their ranks. But Viola did not
+think of resistance. His agonies, both of body and mind, had overcome
+the iron strength of his frame. He opened his eyes, but he could not
+see. His chest heaved violently; his arms trembled as he raised them to
+find a means of support. In another moment he lay senseless on the
+ground, and his enemies struggled for the honour of binding him. Mr.
+Skinner was obliged to exert the whole of his authority to put a stop to
+the frantic cheers of his followers, and arrangements were made to take
+the prisoner to St. Vilmosh, when low groans and cries for help were
+heard from the burning hut. They shuddered and were silent. Nothing was
+heard but the crackling of the fire and the loud wailing of the wretched
+man inside. At length one of the Pandurs stepped forward.
+
+"I'll try to get him out!" said he.
+
+He advanced.
+
+A fearful explosion put a stop to his progress. The gunpowder, which the
+robbers kept in the hut, caught fire and finished the work of
+destruction. The wailing ceased with the flash of powder, which hurled
+the roof of the hut into the air and strewed the turf with its burning
+fragments. Mr. Skinner's party were horror-struck.
+
+"Bad job that!" said the inspector, who was the first to recover from
+his surprise. "D--n the fellows!"
+
+"Is it all over?" cried the justice, from his place of refuge behind a
+tree.
+
+"Yes, your worship."
+
+"But is there no more powder in the place?"
+
+"It's in the nature of powder," said the inspector, "that it blows up in
+a lump. But your worship need not come here, for our business is done.
+I'll have the robber carried by some of the men."
+
+Viola, who was still in a fainting state, was lifted on the shoulders
+of two strong fellows, and the whole troop proceeded towards St.
+Vilmosh.
+
+"Did you get the papers?" whispered Mr. Skinner to Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"Yes," whispered the attorney; "I've thrown them into the fire."
+
+They turned into the thicket, and the scene of their violence was left
+lonely and desolate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP IV.
+
+
+We will not attempt to describe Susi's feelings while this scene was
+enacting in her immediate neighbourhood. A short time after we left her
+on the banks of the Black Lake, the Gulyash and Peti returned from their
+reconnoitering expedition. They had identified the cutting by the reeds
+and the tree. When they returned, they secured the horses, and prepared
+to cross the water again. Peti led the way. He was followed by the
+Gulyash, who carried Susi on his back. But they had scarcely advanced to
+the middle of the ford, when they were startled by the reports of
+fire-arms and the shouts of the combatants.
+
+"We are too late!" cried Susi; "take me to him, and let me die at his
+feet!"
+
+A second discharge of musketry was heard. Some of the fugitive peasants
+fled in the direction of the lake. The Gulyash and his companions were
+sufficiently near the shore to hear their steps as they ran. The Gulyash
+was strong in hopes.
+
+"Never fear, Susi!" said he; "don't you hear the rascals running away.
+There's not a man of them likes to come to close quarters with Viola."
+
+Peti advanced. They reached the shore. But the affray recommenced in the
+forest. There was firing, shouting, curses, and the howling of the
+wounded.
+
+Susi made a frantic rush from the side of the Gulyash; but the two men
+held her back. She knelt down. Her soul was full of Viola's danger. Did
+she not hear his enemies? Did they not seek his destruction? She would
+have prayed, but she could not pray. She tore her hair in the fulness of
+her despair,--she cursed; a light shone from the wood--a broad glaring
+light! The triumphant shouts of the besiegers left no doubt as to its
+nature and origin. Susi rose, and wrung her hands.
+
+"They have put fire to the hut! they will burn my husband!" screamed
+she. She fell back, and fainted in the gipsy's arms. When she recovered,
+and proceeded to the scene of the contest, all was quiet and still. No
+sound was heard, either of the victors or their prey. The spot was
+covered with splinters and fragments of wood, many of which were still
+burning. Their faint and uncertain light added to the desolate character
+and the gloom of the scene.
+
+Susi was calm. Her boding heart had known the worst long before she came
+to the spot, and when she had reached it she stood in silence, covering
+her eyes with her hands. Peti and the Gulyash stood by her side; but
+neither spoke a word of comfort. They felt that such would have been a
+mockery in that hour and at that place.
+
+"Peti!" said Susi at last, "get a light. There's plenty of wood on the
+ground. I want to look for my husband." Peti sighed, and prepared to
+obey. The Gulyash was far more shocked by the poor woman's calmness than
+by her former violence. Dashing the tears from his eyes, he said,--
+
+"Susi, my soul, go to that knot of trees yonder. Sit down and take your
+rest, while we look for him; that is to say, not for your husband, for
+depend upon it he wasn't here at all, but it's the others we'll look
+for, in case an accident has happened to one of them. Be quiet, Susi,"
+continued he, taking her hand; "I know your husband was not there; I'll
+take my oath on it he was not!"
+
+The poor fellow knew that what he said was an untruth. He knew that the
+fire which Peti was lighting would probably show them Viola's mangled
+corpse amidst the ruins of the building, or else that Viola must be a
+captive in the hands of his bitterest enemies; but gladly would he have
+bartered his hopes of future salvation for one ray of hope to cheer the
+heart of that wretched woman.
+
+"No, Ishtvan," said Susi; "I know all,--I am prepared for the worst. You
+won't find me troublesome when I see him half burned. Alas! I know it is
+better for him to lie dead in my arms, than to be alive and in the power
+of his enemies. Here, at least, his sufferings are ended."
+
+"But why won't you believe me, if I tell you that Viola was not here?
+I'll be cursed if he was! Why the devil will you walk about in the
+smoke, looking for what you are sure not to find? This isn't a place for
+a woman; and if you were suddenly to set your eyes on something nasty
+you'd be the worse for it. Go back, Susi, I'll promise you we'll turn
+every stone in the place."
+
+"I thank you, Ishtvan,--I thank you a thousand times for all you do for
+me," said Susi; "fear nothing: you see I am strong; and whatever may
+meet my eyes, it will but give me certainty, which is the best that can
+happen to me. If my husband be dead, we will bury him here in the
+forest. I shall know the place of his rest, and I can show it to my
+children, and weep with them."
+
+"But I tell you Viola is not here," said the Gulyash. "Just suppose you
+were to see a fellow all scorched and burnt? I'll tell you it's not a
+sight for women. Why, if you were in good health I wouldn't mind it.
+Two years ago, when there was a fire in my Tanya, no less than two of my
+children were burnt to death; and my Lady Kishlaki, when she saw the
+poor things all black and----"
+
+"I am not a My-lady. The like of her have a right to be shocked and to
+faint. I am a robber's wife, you know. I say, old man, if you could know
+what thoughts there have been in this poor head of mine ever since Viola
+became a robber, what dreams mine were when waiting for my husband the
+livelong day, or the long weary night, at home or on the heath; and when
+he did not come what horrible things I have thought of, and felt and
+wailed over,--oh, if you could but know it, as I am sure you can never
+know it, you'd not fear to see me shocked at any thing. The very worst
+that can happen to me is but _one_ kind of misfortune; but I have
+suffered all torments of hell, and for long, long years too!"
+
+The gipsy had meanwhile lighted a fire; and Susi walked over the ground.
+By the door lay the corpse of the St. Vilmosh peasant, who was shot at
+the inspector's side. Several other bodies were found at some distance,
+near the forest. Susi looked at them with intense anxiety; and then
+seizing a torch, she hastened forward, and held it over the ruins of the
+hut.
+
+The sight was such, that even the old Gulyash himself shuddered. The
+fragments of the table still smouldering, muskets and pistols strewed
+about, and the two blackened corpses, presented so repulsive a
+spectacle, that none could have resisted its influence, but those who
+are accustomed to the horrors of war. Susi examined the corpses, and
+said at length:
+
+"He is not here. Neither of them has a silver ring on any of their
+fingers. Viola would never have lost his silver ring. My husband is a
+prisoner!"
+
+"Nonsense! I dare say he----"
+
+"What is this?" said Susi, stooping down and taking a double-barrelled
+gun from the ground; "that's my husband's gun! take it, and keep it for
+his sake."
+
+"I will. Whenever I find him, he'll have his gun."
+
+"May God bless you for your good will!" continued Susi, "to accompany me
+further would put you in danger. Peti will come with me to St. Vilmosh,
+for it is there, I am sure, my husband is."
+
+They separated. The Gulyash returned to his horses, while Susi and Peti
+hastened to St. Vilmosh, where the first burst of excitement at the
+capture of the robbers had by this time subsided. The justice and the
+attorney had gone to bed. The villagers who had taken part in the
+expedition had, some of them, retired to rest; while the others drowned
+their cares and the recollection of their dangers in the bad wine of the
+public-houses. Viola, whom they had put under the shed of the
+council-house, where he was guarded by a chosen body of haiduks and
+peasants, had fallen asleep.
+
+The wretched man awoke to consciousness as they dragged him through the
+forest to St. Vilmosh; and looking round, by the fitful glare of the
+torches which the Pandurs carried, he became sensible of his desperate
+condition. His thoughts returned at once to Tengelyi's papers. When he
+left the burning hut, he was so confused, so blinded, so maddened, that
+he had no idea of what had become of them, or who had taken them from
+him. He questioned his escort; but those whom he asked refused to reply
+to his questions. One man only told him, when he left the hut, the
+persons next to him had been the justice and the attorney; and that one
+of them had indeed snatched a parcel from his hand.
+
+From the moment Viola found himself in the power of his enemies, he made
+no resistance to any thing they did to him. The violence and
+ill-treatment to which they subjected him elicited no complaint from
+his lips. When they came to St. Vilmosh, where they placed him under the
+shed, the justice stepped up and told them to bind him so as to wound
+his hands, to prevent his escape. Viola asked him what had become of the
+papers? But the justice replied, with many oaths, that he had no
+business to ask any questions; and what the devil he meant? Viola saw
+clearly that Mr. Skinner was prepared to deny any knowledge of the
+papers; or else that they must have fallen into the hands of Mr.
+Catspaw, who, from his previous exertions to obtain them, was not likely
+to restore them to the rightful owner.
+
+"For this then did I surrender! for this I am going to be hanged!"
+sighed he, when they left him alone with his sentinels,--"why did I not
+stay in the hut? Why did I not shoot myself, as Ratz Andor did? All is
+over for them; but I must die an infamous death--and for no purpose too!
+I could not save the notary's papers. God cursed me in the hour of my
+birth! Did I not often attempt to return to the paths of honesty? and
+when every means of doing so was taken away from me, did I not do all I
+could to prove my gratitude for the only kindness that was ever shown
+me? Did I not do my best to help the notary? And what has come of it?
+No, God will not allow me to be good and honest; and I must die on the
+gallows! Very well, what must be, must be! a man cannot oppose his
+fate!"
+
+Thoughts like these, joined to that feeling of lassitude which follows
+extreme fatigue, restored Viola to his usual calmness; and a deep sleep
+buried the misfortunes of the day, for a time, in forgetfulness. Peti,
+who, leaving Susi at a distance from the village, proceeded alone to the
+council-house, found him in this condition. He was not allowed to enter
+the yard; for, by the express order of the justice, even the sentinels
+were forbidden to speak to Viola, or to reply to any of his questions.
+But Peti conversed with a sentinel at the gate, whom he told that he was
+just come back from Dustbury. The man, in his turn, told him of the
+capture of Viola, and that the robber was to be brought to Kishlak,
+where the court-martial was to assemble; and likewise, that a horseman
+had been sent to Dustbury to summon old Kishlaki, who was the president
+of the court-martial in this district. The gipsy cast a rueful look at
+the shed where Viola lay on the floor, and turning away, he hastened to
+the place where he had left Susi.
+
+"Have you seen him?" said she, hastening to meet him when he approached.
+
+"I have. He is in the council-house."
+
+"Is he _in_ the house?"
+
+"No!--that is to say, not wholly. No--not in the house. Under the shed,
+you know."
+
+"In the open air!" cried Susi, wringing her hands. "Oh, God! and the
+night is so cold; and he in the open air!"
+
+"No! not in the open air--at least not quite. There's a roof to the
+shed."
+
+"Has he a bunda?" continued Susi. And as she spoke she stripped herself
+of her own wrapper. "Tell me if he has not, for I wish to send him
+this."
+
+"Oh, but he has! He has a large bunda. He is asleep." Susi grasped the
+gipsy's hand.
+
+"Asleep? Did you say asleep? And do they see him sleeping? And you're
+sure they think it is sound, genuine sleep? They do not suspect him of
+pretending to sleep--do they?"
+
+"But why should they suspect him of that?"
+
+"What do they think of it? Can they not see that my husband is innocent?
+Who ever heard of a criminal's sleeping? Speak, Peti--tell me--what do
+they say to it?"
+
+Peti answered that he had not spoken to anybody, but that there were
+some hopes of Viola's escape. He added:
+
+"Early in the morning they mean to take him to Kishlak. If you want to
+speak to him, you must do it there. You can't do it at St. Vilmosh. They
+won't allow anybody to speak to him."
+
+"I know it all," sighed Susi. "At Kishlak they will hold a
+court-martial, and hang him. They do not care for his innocence, nor for
+his quiet conscience, nor for his sleeping more soundly on the hard cold
+ground than they do in their beds! They want his life, and they will
+have it; but come, come! come along to Kishlak. I must see him!"
+
+"You poor woman! You are not able to walk to Kishlak."
+
+"Whom do you mean? Not me? Why should I spare my feet? I shall not want
+them much longer!"
+
+But Peti was obstinate: he would not hear of Susi's walking. He knew the
+smith of the place, who, as a gipsy, was compelled to live at some
+distance from the village. This man willingly offered the loan of his
+horse and cart, and, on Peti's suggestion, he volunteered to drive Susi
+to Kishlak; while Peti himself set off to Tissaret, to inform the notary
+of what had happened, and to bring Viola's children to their father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+
+Mr. Skinner had meanwhile sent an official despatch to Kishlak, in which
+he informed his friend, Kishlaki's steward, of what had happened;
+desiring him, at the same time, to make due preparations for the sitting
+of the court-martial, and the incarceration and execution of the
+prisoner. This letter, which reached Kishlak before break of day, put
+the whole place in commotion. The stout steward, whose fear of all
+exercise, no matter whether mental or bodily, was so great that it was
+said of him, that the only reason why they kept him at Kishlak was
+because he was a living example of the results of high feeding,--even he
+rose with the sun, and put on his best coat with silver buttons. He
+walked about the yard with the carpenter and the butler, who had jointly
+undertaken to build the gallows.
+
+"We must make it comfortable, you know," said he, alluding to the
+reception of the guests; and turning to the carpenter, he added, "Do
+your best to make it high and strong. I trust they'll take care of the
+servants. It's hardly my province, but I'll warrant you the gentlemen
+will not complain of the accommodation. You'd better make a good strong
+wedge in this place, it's there we'll tie him up; and don't let the men
+go out to-day, I'll have them all to witness the execution. It'll do
+them good to see something of the kind. The engine, too, ought to be
+looked after, in case there should be a fire." In this way he went on,
+every now and then wiping his forehead and exclaiming, "Dear me, how hot
+it is! I'm done up with all this trouble, done up, I tell you!" To which
+his companions sighed their assent.
+
+The news of the assembling of the first court-martial under Mr.
+Kishlaki's superintendence, caused a still greater excitement in the
+house. There is no denying that the steward came out strong; indeed such
+was his activity, that whoever saw him was induced to regret that there
+was not a permanent court-martial sitting at Kishlak, in which case that
+corpulent and meritorious person would have figured as an active member
+of society; but after all he was repaid for all his troubles by the
+sense of his personal dignity. That day formed an epoch in his life. It
+was a day to think of, and to talk of, and to count the years by.
+
+Not so Lady Kishlaki. She was anxious, and all but desponding; and when
+the steward told her that the court were to assemble in her house, and
+that the criminal was to be hanged on her own land, she wrung her hands
+as if the greatest misfortune had happened to her.
+
+"Why do they come to us, of all the people in the world? My goodness! is
+not the county large enough? Must they needs hang that robber here,
+under my very nose?"
+
+The steward was far more alive to and sensible of the distinction which
+the event gave to the village.
+
+"Your ladyship forgets," said he, "that my lord, in his quality as the
+late and illustrious sheriff, has been appointed to the post of a
+president of the courts-martial in the district of Tissaret, which, if
+your ladyship will condescend to remember, will satisfy your ladyship
+that the high respect and signal honour----"
+
+"Signal fiddlesticks!" cried Lady Kishlaki. "I'll never dare to walk in
+and out of my own house, if they hang the fellow in my yard."
+
+"Your ladyship is graciously pleased to be mistaken," said the corpulent
+steward. "An impressive example of this kind has an excellent effect
+upon the safety of person and property. I know of a similar case, which
+happened in another county. For a period of not less than two years, I
+assure your ladyship, the county was a scene of incessant depredations,
+robberies, and worse. At length two men were arrested and hanged; and
+from that day there was an end of all murders and robberies. One of the
+parties was quite a stranger to the gang, and as innocent as the unborn
+babe. But they hanged him, and I assure your ladyship the effect was
+marvellous. I am happy we are going to hang a man: it's a blessing to
+the county, a genuine blessing, your ladyship!"
+
+"Nonsense! The robbers never did us any harm."
+
+"No, not exactly; but if your ladyship will condescend to look at the
+bill of the Gulyash, your ladyship will be pleased to find that what
+they have eaten on your ladyship's land amounts to the value of a good
+substantial theft."
+
+"I'd rather lose twenty times the value, than see a man hanged, and on
+my own land too," said Lady Kishlaki, turning away to make due
+arrangements for the reception of her guests; while the steward
+marvelled at his lady's peculiar frame of mind, and her greater fear of
+a dead robber than of a living one. Having pondered on the matter until
+he arrived at that comfortable state of hopeless confusion which is so
+familiar to stout people's minds, he repeated his orders to the lower
+officials, and marched to and fro in the hall, smoking his pipe, and
+awaiting the arrival of the prisoner and the judges. The villagers, too,
+were crowded in front of the gate, where they stood eager, curious, and
+alarmed.
+
+Kishlak is at the distance of a German mile from St. Vilmosh; when the
+waters are high, it takes a man at least three hours to walk from one
+place to the other; but in spite of the distance, Mr. Skinner, his
+clerk, and his prisoners, reached Kishlak first. They were followed by
+Mr. Catspaw, who had gone round by Tissaret. After him came the master
+of the house, and the judges whom he brought from Dustbury. The latter
+party made their appearance in two carriages, of which one was honoured
+by the weight of Kishlaki and Baron Shoskuty, while the second held the
+assessor Zatonyi, and the recorder's substitute, Mr. Voelgyeshy. The
+recorder sent him principally because he knew that the court was in want
+of the services of a notary, the functions of which office were far too
+much beneath the recorder's dignity to allow of his executing them. He
+therefore sent Voelgyeshy, a young man who had just been appointed to
+his office, who was eager to be employed, and whose knowledge of law
+enabled him to assist the court with his advice. Voelgyeshy's appearance
+was by no means agreeable. He was small, sickly, and ill-made, and his
+face was strongly marked with small-pox; but he was a man of great
+learning, and as modest as he was clever. He was a general favourite at
+Dustbury; old Kishlaki, who felt even more shocked than his wife when he
+heard of Viola's capture, and of his being called to preside over the
+court-martial, shared the joy of Baron Shoskuty and the assessor, when
+they were informed of the recorder's intention to send his substitute to
+act as notary. Baron Shoskuty was happy, because he knew that Voelgyeshy
+was a good hand at law; Kishlaki because he was a good hand at cards;
+and the assessor, because the young man would listen to any stories, no
+matter of what length and dullness. When the party arrived, they found
+Messrs. Skinner and Catspaw--"_arcades ambo_; _id est_, blackguards
+both,"--awaiting them. Mr. Catspaw rubbed his hands for joy when he saw
+that none of the members of the court were likely to cross his plans by
+an excess of philanthropy.
+
+The lady of the house, too, hastened to the door to receive her guests,
+and to offer them breakfast, which Mr. Catspaw volunteered to decline
+for himself and partners, saying that it was eleven o'clock, and that
+they must make haste to commence business.
+
+"We cannot possibly get through the case to-day," observed Mr. Kishlaki.
+
+"And why not, _domine spectabilis_? Why not?" asked the assessor.
+"Please to consider that the court-martial must sit till the execution
+is over; and to-morrow I must be at home, for there's the ploughing and
+the potato harvest."
+
+"Of course!" cried Shoskuty. "We are commissioners of courts-martial,
+and a court-martial we are bound to make of it. The culprit is in
+attendance, we are five commissioners; my young friend Voelgyeshy has
+come to assist us. It will take him just ten minutes to write the
+verdict. God forbid," continued he, with a low bow to the lady of the
+house, "God forbid that we should trouble your ladyship longer than we
+can help!"
+
+"No trouble, indeed; no trouble whatever!" cried Lady Kishlaki, with a
+burst of genuine good-natured hospitality; "but I trust you do not mean
+to hang the poor fellow?"
+
+"Of course we do!" laughed the assessor. "I've sat in fifteen
+courts-martial in the course of my life, and we never rose without
+hanging the culprit. Courts-martial are for that sort of thing, you
+know."
+
+Lady Kishlaki had been solicited by Viola's wife to interfere in her
+husband's behalf. The good old lady did all she could for the poor
+woman. She assigned a room to her and the children, and, moved by Susi's
+entreaties, she promised to save Viola's life, if a woman's tongue could
+save it. But the determined tone in which the assessor delivered his
+last sentence, showed her how little hope there was. She replied,
+nevertheless, that Viola was perhaps less guilty than people fancied.
+
+"I most humbly beg your ladyship's pardon," replied Baron Shoskuty, with
+his proverbial politeness; "whether his guilt be greater or lesser, it's
+all the same to us. The only question to ask is, 'Is the prisoner a
+robber or not?' We do not care whether he killed a hundred people, or
+whether he never took human life, whether he stole a million or a
+fourpenny piece; all we ask is; is he a robber? and how was he taken? If
+taken in arms, and in the fact of actual resistance, we hang him, so
+please your ladyship."
+
+"But it does not please my ladyship. You cannot possibly hang the poor
+fellow for a few pence!"
+
+"Nothing more simple," said the assessor, with great unction, "if the
+case come within the jurisdiction of a court-martial. I have seen cases
+in which the man whom we hanged would have been let off with a
+fortnight's confinement by the ordinary courts; but as he fell into our
+hands, we tied him up."
+
+"I am a weak and ignorant woman," retorted Lady Kishlaki, with
+increasing vehemence; "but if I'd been there, I'll warrant you, you
+would not have done it!"
+
+"Of course not! Nothing more natural!" replied Baron Shoskuty, who never
+let an opportunity go by of paying a compliment to a lady; "your
+ladyship is the milk, nay, the cream of human kindness! We are rude and
+uncharitable men. The county has sent us to make an example, and we are
+bound to make one."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Catspaw, who had given unmistakeable signs
+of impatience; "time presses,--hadn't we better begin?"
+
+"If you like," said Kishlaki, greatly confused, "we have to examine the
+witnesses and----"
+
+"We'll soon get the better of the witnesses," said Mr. Skinner. "There
+is no difficulty in the case. We'd get twice through it before dinner
+time."
+
+"Viola is as guilty as anybody ever was!" cried Mr. Catspaw, as he
+walked to the door.
+
+"If he is, it will be shown by the evidence," said a loud sonorous
+voice; "one ought never to pre-judge a case."
+
+Everybody looked at Voelgyeshy, who had spoken the last sentence. The
+attorney walked up to Mr. Skinner and whispered: "I don't like the
+fellow!" But Lady Kishlaki, who had hitherto paid no attention to the
+ill-favoured young man, looked kindly at him.
+
+"You are right," said she; "it's hard that a man should be judged before
+his case has been inquired into. I know you will pity him."
+
+"I am not an assessor, and have no vote," replied Mr. Voelgyeshy, as he
+left the room with the rest of the party. Mr. Kishlaki remained alone
+with his wife.
+
+"Consider, Valentine," said she, taking him by the hand--"consider that
+a sentence of death cannot be pronounced unless the judges are
+unanimous. Every one of you is highly responsible for the death of this
+man."
+
+"I know, my love; and if it depends on me--that is to say, if it is
+possible--I am not bloodthirsty, you know, but----"
+
+"I know you must do your duty; but pray consider that the life of a man,
+if once taken, cannot be restored!"
+
+"I will do all I can!" sighed the old man, cursing the day on which he
+accepted his office; and leaving the room, he followed his colleagues to
+the steward's office, where everything was prepared for the
+accommodation of the court. Servants, and peasants armed with
+pitchforks, were posted at the gate to keep the crowd at a distance.
+Under the shed stood Viola, tied to a post and surrounded by haiduks and
+Pandurs. In the hall were Tzifra, and Jantshy, the glazier, who had been
+summoned as witnesses for the prosecution; and at a distance stood the
+Liptaka and the smith of Tissaret, who volunteered to give evidence for
+the defence.
+
+"God have mercy upon his soul!" said the Liptaka. "I have little hope."
+
+"So have I," said the smith; "and the thing which grieves me most is
+that the two rascals there are going to escape," he added, pointing at
+Tzifra and the Jew.
+
+"I'd like to know who'll hang him!" said an old woman to her neighbour.
+"I trust they'll have a clever hangman! They say people suffer
+dreadfully if the hangman does not know his trade."
+
+"Indeed, I heard them say that there's a gipsy that'll hang him. Mayhap
+it's the sheriff's gipsy. Look there!--there he is. Look how he casts
+his eyes around! Dear me! I'm afraid of him!"
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense, Verush," said an old man; "Peti is Viola's
+friend. It's he that brought the children from Tissaret. Did you not see
+him talking to Viola's wife? Susi would not talk to him in that way, if
+he were the man that is to hang her husband. Not even yourself would
+have done that when your husband was alive. But I say, Verush, you'd not
+occasion for a hangman, eh? You are the woman can worry a man to death
+and be never the worse for it, eh?"
+
+"How dare you say so!" screamed the widow. "Didn't I have a doctor in
+his last illness?"
+
+"Never mind!" said another woman. "Tell me who is going to hang him."
+
+"I don't know," said the man.
+
+"Perhaps they won't hang him. They'll give him a pardon."
+
+"A pardon, indeed!" said the man. "Don't you see it's a court-martial.
+You may whistle for a pardon, if you please."
+
+"What _is_ a court-martial?"
+
+"Why! don't you know? A court-martial is--why it's that the gentlemen
+sit down together and consult, and hang some one. That's as it ought to
+be."
+
+"But suppose no one hangs him?"
+
+"How can you ask such stupid questions? To hang a man you must have him
+first; but who ever heard of a man being sentenced to hanging and let
+off for the want of a hangman?"
+
+"Just so; but suppose it _were_ to happen after all? What then?"
+
+"Hang me if I know! perhaps the gentlemen themselves will hang him, or
+they'll hang themselves with disappointment and vexation."[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: See Note VIII.]
+
+The proceedings of the court commenced meanwhile by the swearing in of
+the judges, the reading of the articles of court-martial, and by Mr.
+Skinner's laying on the table a written form of indictment, or, in
+Hungarian judicial language, the "_species facti_." Mr. Voelgyeshy's
+conduct, while these preliminary forms were being got through, was such
+as to fill the judges with astonishment and disgust. Not only did he
+read the articles with a loud, clear voice, slowly enunciating and
+pronouncing every word, instead of giving merely the heads of the
+various paragraphs; but he also interrupted Mr. Skinner, who wished to
+relieve the dulness of the lecture by a friendly chat with his neighbour
+on the bench, by reminding him that the articles were read for the
+purpose of being listened to. But the disgust of the court was
+infinitely increased when, after the reading of the "_species facti_,"
+and when they were just in the act of sending for the prisoner,
+Voelgyeshy stopped the proceedings by protesting that the "_species
+facti_" was by no means such as to warrant the jurisdiction of a
+court-martial in the present case.
+
+"Not warrant the jurisdiction of a court-martial!" said Mr. Skinner;
+"and how dare you, Mr. Voelgyeshy, dare to say so to _me_--the oldest
+judge of the county? On my word and honour, sir, you come it strong,
+sir!"
+
+"You are mistaken if you misconstrue my words into an intention of
+offering you an insult."
+
+"Intention? Insult? Why, sir, it is an insult! it's a downright,
+root-and-branch, roaring insult, that's what it is!" shouted Mr.
+Skinner; and, turning to the court, he continued:--
+
+"I intreat this praiseworthy court to consider chapter vi. paragraph 8.,
+where it is provided that '_A recital of the facts is to be submitted to
+the court, stating the crime of which the prisoner stands accused, his
+Christian and surname, and his age, the latter to be written with words
+and letters instead of with the signs of numbers, &c. &c._'
+
+"Now look at my report! Does it not state the facts, the crimes, the
+names of the prisoner? does it not state his age, and, you will
+observe, his age according to the instructions? Does this gentleman mean
+to insinuate that I am not able to write a '_species facti_?' that I am
+too stupid to take a man's age down according to instructions? This is
+the worst thing I ever heard of! It's downright pettifogging, that it
+is; and I won't be treated in this way, that I won't, no, not by any
+man, and least of all by you, sir!"
+
+The president and the assessors did their best to calm the fury of the
+worthy magistrate; but if that fury was intended to prevent Voelgyeshy
+from urging his protest, it proved a signal failure, for the young man
+persisted in declaring that he was fully convinced of Mr. Skinner's
+ability to make out a correct statement of the facts, but that this very
+correct and authentic statement of the facts did not show that the
+robber had been overtaken and captured in the course of an
+_uninterrupted pursuit_; "for this," added Mr. Voelgyeshy, "is one of the
+first conditions of a case for a court-martial."
+
+"Not an uninterrupted pursuit!" roared Mr. Skinner; "why, a price has
+been offered for his head; for months he has been hunted through the
+county, and here's this lad wants to deny the uninterrupted pursuit!"
+
+"Just so, _domine spectabilis_!" said the assessor, smiling; "it's the
+worst plea I ever heard of,--_denique_, our friend is young. But let us
+see the culprit."
+
+"And I tell you again," said Voelgyeshy, "that this report does not prove
+an uninterrupted pursuit. Viola's last crime was his theft in the house
+of the notary of Tissaret, and the pursuit was neither instantaneous nor
+uninterrupted."
+
+"If it's not a case for a court-martial," said Kishlaki, eager to escape
+from the discharge of his painful duties, "we had better send it to the
+sessions. For inasmuch----"
+
+"For God's sake, do not say so! What a shame if Viola were to go to the
+sessions! I am sure they'd rob us of the right of court-martial; and it
+would serve us right, if we were to allow such a case to escape us."
+
+"It seems Mr. Voelgyeshy is not aware that courts-martial are held to try
+and execute thieves and robbers," said Mr. Catspaw; "and that in the
+case of any such person being pursued, and making an armed resistance,
+there can be no question as to the jurisdiction of the court."
+
+"I am fully aware of it, sir; but in what manner does this report show
+that Viola is a robber?"
+
+Here the assessor Zatonyi held up his hands.
+
+"How is it shown?" said he; "does not the report set forth that Viola is
+a robber? Don't you see _r-o-b-b-e-r_? If that does not mean robber,
+I'll try myself by court-martial, and hang myself too."
+
+"I beg your pardon," cried Baron Shoskuty, "I will explain the matter to
+Mr. Voelgyeshy. He is young, and wants experience; for such things are
+not to be learnt from books. You see, sir, the articles of
+courts-martial give us long explanations about the cases and individuals
+to which the term of robber applies. These explanations are very good in
+their way; excellent, sir! but, sir, they are not practical. _He_ is a
+robber in Hungary whom public opinion designates as such. _Vox populi,
+vox dei!_ and if such a person resists an arrest, he is _de jure_ tried
+by court-martial, and hanged."
+
+"Merely for resisting the arrest?"
+
+"Yes," said Baron Shoskuty, majestically, "merely for that reason.
+Resistance to the law is criminal, except in the case of noblemen."
+
+"But surely we are not here to discuss law matters," said the assessor.
+"Besides, Mr. Voelgyeshy has no vote. If any of the other gentlemen stick
+to the question, we'll divide, and there's an end of it."
+
+"All this is very well," said Kishlaki, "but I'd like----"
+
+"I say _luce meridiana clarius_! brighter than the light of day. The
+case is within our jurisdiction. But no matter--let us divide."
+
+The result of the division was that the witnesses were called in. The
+examination showed the most astonishing correctness of Tzifra's former
+evidence; every point of which was confirmed by the statements of
+Jantshi, the Jewish glazier. When the witnesses were sent out of court,
+Zatonyi offered his snuff-box to the court, saying:--
+
+"_Duo testes omni exceptione majores._ Two honest witnesses----; why,
+gentlemen, there can be no doubt----"
+
+"Indeed!" sighed Kishlaki, "and they swore to their depositions. When
+that Jew cursed himself as he did, I could not help shuddering. They
+cannot possibly tell us an untruth!"
+
+The justice spat on the floor with joy, protesting that he had never met
+with better witnesses.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said Voelgyeshy; "I, for my part, cannot
+believe a word of the evidence. These witnesses tell us much the same
+story, but then it is too much the same story; in short, my opinion is,
+that it is a got-up story."
+
+"This is too bad! indeed it is!" said Zatonyi, "to doubt the truth of
+the evidence because the witnesses agree in their statement of the
+facts. I never heard of such a thing!"
+
+"Nor I!" cried Shoskuty. "To think that the depositions of the two
+witnesses should be exactly alike, even in the smallest particular, and
+to hear this gentleman speak of got-up stories and the like,--really it
+_is_ too bad. _Denique_, he is an advocate."
+
+"And proud of his profession!" interposed Voelgyeshy. "But still, it is
+my duty to inform the court that the extraordinary harmony in the
+depositions of the two witnesses has convinced me of----"
+
+"If you think so," said Kishlaki, "I think we had better----"
+
+"He does not think so," said Mr. Catspaw, with a forced smile. "It's our
+nature, sir; we cannot help it. We are fond of desperate cases, we dote
+on them. The more desperate a case is, the greater the pleasure it gives
+an advocate to stop or delay the proceedings."
+
+"Mr. Catspaw is mistaken," said Voelgyeshy; "the question is far too
+serious to admit of any joking. But I appeal to you; tell me, is not
+Tzifra notorious for being a thief and a robber?"
+
+"Certainly not!" cried Mr. Skinner. "Janosh St. Vilmoshy--for the court
+ought not to deal in slang and in nicknames--Janosh St. Vilmoshy, I say,
+is an honest man. Ever since he was dismissed from gaol, he has led a
+better life. He has cut Viola and his gang; and, in short, done his best
+to blow upon the prisoner."
+
+"Very well!" said Voelgyeshy; "for the sake of argument we will grant
+that this fellow, Tzifra, or Janosh St. Vilmoshy, or whatever his name
+may be, is an honest man, after having been a robber all his life, and
+after having passed the greater part of it in the county gaol. Now what
+does he depose? Firstly, that Viola informed him of his intention to
+commit the robbery. Now this is incredible, if we are to believe that
+the witness spurned his former associates, and turned to an honest life.
+But let us go on. Why, if this Janosh St. Vilmoshy knew of the intended
+robbery, why did he not step in and prevent it?"
+
+"Yes! yes! this time you are wrong, Skinner," said Kishlaki; "he cannot
+possibly be an honest man."
+
+Mr. Skinner looked confounded. Voelgyeshy went on:--
+
+"In the second instance, the witness declares that on the night of the
+robbery he walked up to the village of Tissaret, when he was startled by
+the report of a gun and by Viola's appearance, who ran past him carrying
+the said gun in his hand. Now why did the witness go to Tissaret? Why
+was he not at Dustbury, to vote at the election? How does it happen that
+no one saw him at Tissaret? and why did he come all the way from
+Dustbury, and at night too, unless he had some business of some kind
+with somebody in the village?"
+
+"Indeed this looks very suspicious, very suspicious,--on my soul it
+does!" said Kishlaki; and the assessor, taking a pinch of snuff,
+declared that their best plan would be to arrest Tzifra too, and to put
+him in irons.
+
+"Very well. Now all I ask is, where are your credible witnesses? You
+ought to have two, you know," said Voelgyeshy, with a great feeling of
+superiority.
+
+"Ah!" said the assessor. "A most judicious remark, on my soul! We cannot
+at present proceed against Tzifra, because we want his evidence."
+
+"But we can never ground a capital sentence on the evidence of such a
+person!"
+
+"You have no vote, sir!" replied Zatonyi; "and we, who have a vote, do
+not ask your advice. Had we not better send for the prisoner?" added
+he, turning to Kishlaki.
+
+Voelgyeshy sighed, and the court had just resolved to send for the
+prisoner, when it was said that two witnesses wished to be examined,
+and, the president having given his permission, the old Liptaka entered
+the apartment. The old woman made no mention of the fact of her having
+seen Viola in Tissaret on the night of the robbery. She protested that
+the prisoner was under such great obligations to the notary, that he
+could not possibly have been guilty of so atrocious a crime; and
+further, that Viola, whose wife was her friend and relative, had many
+weeks ago informed her of a plot to steal the notary's papers, bidding
+her at the same time put the notary on his guard.
+
+"And who did Viola say were they that intended to steal the papers?"
+said Mr. Skinner, with a sneer.
+
+"He did not mention any names, but he spoke of some great people."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"I swear it; it's the truth!" said the old woman. "I've told it on my
+oath, and I would not tell a lie,--no, not for all the treasures on
+earth!"
+
+"Did you give Viola's message to the notary?"
+
+The woman was silent.
+
+"Speak out, my good woman!" said Kishlaki; "you have no cause to fear."
+
+"I know it, sir, and I cannot tell a lie, though I would. I will confess
+that I did not say any thing to the notary, because I was afraid old
+Tengelyi would send Susi away, if he were to know that Viola had entered
+his house."
+
+Messrs. Skinner and Catspaw looked at each other and smiled.
+
+"Is this all you have to say?" asked Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well; you may go."
+
+She was followed by the smith, who deposed that after the report of the
+gun he hastened to the notary's house, and pursued the murderer, whom he
+identified as Tzifra. He swore that the person he had pursued was
+Tzifra, not Viola.
+
+The second witness having been dismissed, and his depositions taken down
+in writing, the two witnesses were called back for the purpose of
+signing the depositions. This done, the court sent for Viola. Mr.
+Skinner meanwhile did his best to discredit the statements of the last
+two witnesses, whose evidence, he protested, was not worth the paper it
+was written on.
+
+"That old hag," said he, "is Viola's kinswoman. Her evidence is quite
+inadmissible; and as for the smith, he is always drunk, especially at
+night, and nothing is more likely than his mistaking Viola for Tzifra."
+
+"Very true," said Kishlaki.
+
+"Nevertheless the evidence is deserving of some consideration,"
+interposed Voelgyeshy, "especially respecting the credit to be placed in
+Tzifra's, or, if Mr. Skinner likes it better, in Mr. St. Vilmoshy's
+statements. The very man who commits the crime has often been found to
+depose against another."
+
+"There is a deal of truth in that," said Kishlaki.
+
+"I say!" cried Zatonyi, "that's a bright idea! We'll hang them both."
+
+"Nonsense, _amice_!" said Shoskuty; "the other man is not before the
+court-martial."
+
+"If you arraign him, you may do so," said the assessor. "I know of a
+precedent. I know of a thief who was just on the point of being turned
+off, when he saw an accomplice among the crowd. He points him out; the
+judge sends his men to arrest him. The fellow runs away, they overtake
+him, and, by G--d! the rascal shows fight. Was it not glorious! They
+take him back and hang him, on the spur of the moment, by the side of
+the other fellow; and the judge put into his report that he had hanged
+two thieves instead of one."
+
+"Devil of a mess he got himself into," said Shoskuty. "Queer notion
+that!"
+
+"Mess? oh yes, he got into a mess; for now-a-days there's not a knave so
+bad but he finds somebody who takes his cause up: and, in short, they
+tell me the judge would have lost his place if he had not resigned, but
+that was all."
+
+"It was a murder!" cried Voelgyeshy--"neither more nor less than a
+murder!"
+
+"My friend," said the assessor, with a pitying glance at Voelgyeshy,
+"_denique_, you don't know the world. However, I do not mean to urge my
+view of the case: all I can say is, it's a pity if we do not hang the
+two. But here's the prisoner!"
+
+The door opened, and Viola entered, chained, and surrounded by armed
+men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+
+The appearance of the prisoner produced a profound sensation in the
+court. Kishlaki felt deep pity for his misfortunes, though he could not
+but admit that his fate was in part merited. Voelgyeshy, who had heard
+enough to convince him that there was no hope of the court pronouncing
+in favor of Viola, shuddered to think that the man whom he saw was
+doomed to die before sunset. Mr. Catspaw showed great uneasiness when he
+heard the rattling of the chains; and Shoskuty, who had never seen the
+robber, was quite as much excited by his curiosity as Mr. Skinner by the
+feelings of ill-dissembled triumph with which he watched the prisoner's
+features and carriage. Zatonyi alone preserved his habitual composure.
+
+"At last you've put your head in the snare, you precious villain!" cried
+Mr. Skinner. "Well, what do you say? Whose turn is it to be hanged?
+Yours or mine, eh?"
+
+The president of the court looked amazed; but Mr. Skinner laughed and
+said:
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware of my former acquaintance with Viola? There's
+a bet between us two, who is to hang first; for that fellow has sworn to
+hang me, if ever I fall into his hands. Is it not so, Viola?"
+
+"No!" said the prisoner, "it's not so. If I swore I would be revenged,
+it is well known that I had good cause for it; I have to thank this
+gentleman for my wretched life and shameful death. But I never vowed to
+hang you!"
+
+"Never mind!" shouted the justice. "You are humble enough now that you
+are in the trap; but I am sure you would have kept your word, if you had
+been able to put your hands upon me. I, too, have sworn an oath, to hang
+you where I find you--now tell me who has the worst of it?"
+
+"I know that all is over with me," replied Viola, fixing his dark eyes
+upon the justice; "there is no one to take my part--I know I must die;
+but it is cruel to insult a dying man."
+
+Voelgyeshy, who was scarcely able to repress his feelings, interfered,
+and protested in Latin that there was a vendetta between the accused and
+one of the judges, and that another judge must be found. But his protest
+had no other effect than an admonition, which the president gave Mr.
+Skinner in very bad Latin, to eschew such light and irrelevant
+conversation; and the court commenced forthwith to examine the prisoner.
+
+Viola replied calmly and simply to the questions which were put to him;
+and at last, as though wearied by the length of the examination, he
+said:
+
+"What is the use of all this questioning? It is a pity the gentlemen
+should lose their time with me. Mr. Skinner has told me that I am to be
+hanged; why, then, should I waste my words in an attempt to save my
+life? I'll confess any thing you like, I don't care what it is; for,
+believe me, if it had not been for my family, I would never have waited
+till this day. I would have hanged myself in the forest, to make an end
+of it, I assure you."
+
+"But how can you possibly confess, when you are ignorant of what you are
+accused of?" said Voelgyeshy. "You stand before righteous judges. Speak
+out, man, honestly and freely, as you would speak to God; for, believe
+me, the judges are by no means agreed upon your sentence."
+
+"Thanks to you for your good will," said the culprit; "but I know there
+is no help. I am a robber; I have been taken in arms; they will hang me.
+They may do it; but let them make haste; and spare me your questions!"
+
+Mr. Catspaw, who showed some uneasiness, interposed, and said:
+
+"If he refuses to confess, we cannot force him: it is expressly set
+forth in the articles, that no violence is to be used to obtain a
+confession. Our best plan is to read the questions to him, and if he
+refuses to answer to them, why it's his own business, not ours."
+
+"No!" said Voelgyeshy; "this man ought to know that his fate does not
+depend on the decision of the worshipful Mr. Paul Skinner; that the
+court are prepared to listen to his defence, and that the verdict will
+be dictated neither by hate nor revenge, but by pure and impartial
+justice. If the prisoner knows all this, which it appears he does not,
+he may possibly be induced to reply to the charges."
+
+He turned to Viola, and continued:
+
+"Speak out, my man. Your life is in the hands of these gentlemen, who
+have to answer for it to God, your judge and theirs. Pray consider that
+unless you speak, there is no hope for you. Think of your family; and,
+tell us plainly, is there any thing you have to say for yourself?"
+
+Kishlaki was deeply moved; Mr. Catspaw cast an angry look at the
+speaker; and Zatonyi yawned.
+
+"I will not speak in my own defence!" said the prisoner.
+
+"Pray consider," urged the young lawyer; "the court will listen to any
+thing you may say. These gentlemen have a painful duty to fulfil; but
+they are far from wishing to take your life. If you can give us any
+excuses, do so, by all means."
+
+"It is provided, in Chapter 6. of the Articles, that the prisoner shall
+not be wheedled into a confession," said Zatonyi, with an expression of
+profound wisdom.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Viola, at length, "may God bless you for your
+kindness, and for your wishing to help me! but, you see, it's all in
+vain. There are, indeed, many things I might say in defence; and when I
+go to my God, who knows all and every thing, I am sure He'll judge me
+leniently; but there is no salvation for me in this world. You see, your
+worships, there is no use of my telling you that, once upon a time, I
+was an honest man, as every man in the village of Tissaret can prove.
+What is the use of my saying that I became a robber not from my own free
+will, but because I was forced to it; that I never harmed any poor man;
+that I never took more from the gentry, in the way of robbing, than what
+was necessary to keep life in my body; and that I never killed any one,
+unless it was in self-defence? Am I the less punishable for saying all
+this? No. Whatever my comrades may have done is scored down to _my_
+account. I am a robber, and a dead man."
+
+"All this may serve to modify the sentence. But what do you mean by
+saying that you were _forced_ to be a robber?"
+
+"Ask his worship, the justice of the district," said the prisoner,
+looking at Mr. Skinner: "he knows what made me a robber." And he
+proceeded to tell the tale of his first crime.
+
+"It's true; it's as true as Gospel," sighed Kishlaki. "I came to
+Tissaret on the day after the thing had happened, when the sheriff told
+me all about it."
+
+"_Nihil ad rem!_" said Zatonyi.
+
+"But what does it avail me?" continued the prisoner, whose pale face
+became flushed as he spoke: "what can it avail me to tell you all the
+revolting cruelties which were practised against me, and which to think
+of gives me pain? Am I the less a robber? Will these things cause you to
+spare me? No; I ought to have suffered the stripes, and kissed the hands
+of my tyrant; or I ought to have left my wife in her darkest hour,
+because nothing would serve my lady but that _I_ should drive her to
+Dustbury. How, then, could I, a good-for-nothing peasant[26], dare to
+love my wife! How could I dare to resist when the justice told them to
+tie me to the whipping-post! But I dared to do it. I was fool enough to
+fancy that I, though a peasant, had a right to remain with my wife; I
+could not understand that a poor man is a dog, which any body may beat
+and kick. Here I am, and you may hang me."
+
+[Footnote 26: See Note IX.]
+
+"I'll tell you what, you'll swing fast enough, my fine fellow!" said
+Zatonyi, whose cynicism was not proof against the prisoner's last words.
+"What, man! hanging's too good for you; that's all I have to say!"
+
+"You see, sir," said Viola, appealing to Voelgyeshy, "you see, I told you
+there is nothing that can excuse me in the eyes of mankind. But there's
+a request I have to address to the court."
+
+Mr. Catspaw trembled, as the prisoner went on.
+
+"When I left the burning hut in which Ratz Andor shot himself, I held
+some papers in my hands, which were stolen from the house of the notary
+of Tissaret."
+
+"So you confess to the robbery?" cried Zatonyi.
+
+"No, sir; I do not. God knows, I am guiltless of that robbery," cried
+Viola, raising his hands to heaven: "but that's no matter. All I say is,
+that I had the papers, and that I took them away with me; and if you
+mean to prove by that that I committed the robbery, you may. I do not
+care: all I say is, that I took the papers with me."
+
+"It's a lie!" murmured Mr. Skinner.
+
+"No; it's not a lie: it's the truth, and nothing but the truth! When I
+left the hut I was blind and unarmed: I held the papers in my hands, and
+I felt some one snatch them away from me--I can take my oath on it!--and
+my senses left me; when I recovered I was bound, and in the hands of the
+Pandurs and peasants. They dragged me to St. Vilmosh. I asked for the
+papers, for they belong to Mr. Tengelyi; and it was for their sake I
+surrendered, because I did not wish them to be burnt; for they are the
+notary's important papers. But I understand that, when I left the hut,
+there was no one by except the justice and Mr. Catspaw; and the justice
+says that I had no papers. I most humbly beseech the court to order the
+justice to give those papers to the rightful owner."
+
+"May the devil take me by ounces if I've seen the least rag of paper!"
+cried Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Sir," said Viola, "I am in your power: you may do with me as you
+please; you may hang me if you like; but, for God's sake! do not deny
+me the papers. I am under great obligations to Mr. Tengelyi. He relieved
+my family in the time of their distress; and I wish to show my gratitude
+by restoring those papers to him. I have come to suffer a disgraceful
+death----"
+
+"You impertinent dog!" cried Mr. Skinner; "how dare you insinuate? how
+dare you say? how dare you---- I am insulted; I insist on the court
+giving me satisfaction."
+
+"I am in the hands of the court," said the prisoner. "Beat me, kick me,
+torture me; but give me the papers!"
+
+"I am sure it's a plot," whispered Mr. Catspaw to the assessor.
+"Tengelyi declares that his diplomas are gone. Who knows but he may be a
+patron of this fellow?"
+
+"Nothing is more likely," replied the assessor.
+
+"What, fellow! what, dog! do you mean to say that I _stole_ the papers?"
+
+"All I say is, that I _had_ the papers in my hands, and that some person
+took them away. I wish the court would please to examine the Pandurs,
+who will tell you that nobody was near me but the justice and Mr.
+Catspaw."
+
+"This is indeed strange," murmured Mr. Kishlaki. Mr. Skinner pushed his
+chair back, and cried,--
+
+"The court cannot possibly suffer one of its members to be accused of
+theft!"
+
+"Yes, too much is too much," said Zatonyi, with a burst of generous
+indignation: "if you do not revoke your words, and if you do not ask
+their worships' pardon, we will send you to the yard and have you
+whipped!"
+
+Viola answered quietly, that he was in their worships' power, but that
+he would repeat what he had said to the last moment of his life; and
+Zatonyi was just about to send the prisoner away to be whipped, when
+Voelgyeshy reminded him in Latin that the Sixth Chapter of the Articles
+made not only prohibition of what the assessor had been pleased to term
+"wheedling," but also of threats and ill-treatment.
+
+Baron Shoskuty remarked, that the young lawyer's explanation of the
+articles was sheer nonsense, for the prisoner would not be under
+restraint, if Mr. Voelgyeshy's commentaries were accepted as law. He
+might call the worshipful magistrates asses; nay, he might even go to
+the length of beating them, without suffering any other punishment than
+being hanged. This able rejoinder induced the judges to re-consider Mr.
+Zatonyi's proposition to inflict corporal punishment on the prisoner,
+and nobody can say what would have come of it, but for the firmness of
+Voelgyeshy, who protested that he would inform the lord-lieutenant and
+the government of any act of violence to which they might subject the
+culprit. This threat had its effect. Baron Shoskuty, indeed, was heard
+to murmur against the impertinence of young men; while Mr. Zatonyi made
+some edifying reflections about sneaking informers: but this was all. No
+further mention was made of the whipping.
+
+While the above conversation was being carried on in a tongue of which
+he could but catch the sounds, and not the meaning, Viola stood quietly
+by, although a lively interest in the words and motions of the speakers
+was expressed in his face. Messrs. Catspaw and Skinner conversed in a
+whisper. At length the attorney turned round and addressed the court:--
+
+"As the prisoner has thought proper to accuse _me_," said he, "it is but
+right that I should be allowed to ask him a few questions. You said I
+was near you when you left the hut, did you not? Now tell me, did you
+see me at the time?"
+
+"No, I did not; I was blind with the smoke and fire in the hut: but the
+peasants told me that the two gentlemen were near me, and I felt
+somebody snatch the papers from my hand."
+
+"Do you mean to say that the smoke in the hut was very dense?"
+
+"I could not see through it; at times the flames were so fierce that
+they nearly blinded me."
+
+"But how did you manage to save the papers?"
+
+"They lay by my side on my bunda. I seized them, and took them out. They
+were wrapped in a blue handkerchief."
+
+"He speaks the truth," said Mr. Catspaw, smiling; "or, rather, he tells
+us what he believes to be the truth. He held something in his hand, when
+he rushed from the hut more like a beast than like a human creature, I
+assure you, my honourable friends. I was not at all sure whether it was
+not a weapon of defence; I snatched it away, and on examination I
+identified it as a most harmless handkerchief, which certainly was
+wrapped round some soft substance. But," continued he, addressing the
+prisoner, "if you fancy you saved the papers, my poor fellow, you are
+much mistaken, indeed you are! My dear Mr. Skinner, pray fetch the
+parcel which we took from Viola at the time of his capture."
+
+Mr. Skinner rose and left the room.
+
+"The papers were in the handkerchief, I'll swear!" said Viola; but his
+astonishment and rage were unbounded when the judge returned with the
+parcel, which, on examination, was found to contain a pair of cotton
+drawers. He knew it was the handkerchief, the same in which he had
+wrapped the papers, and yet they were not there! How could he prove that
+they had been stolen?
+
+"I trust my honourable friends are convinced," said Mr. Catspaw, "that
+the wretched man has no intention of imposing upon the court. I believe,
+indeed nothing can be more probable than that he was possessed of
+Tengelyi's documents; and it is likewise very probable that he intended
+to save those papers; but, according to his own statement, he was half
+blind with the fire and smoke, and instead of the papers he took another
+parcel--some other booty perhaps. Nothing can be more natural----"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" interposed Baron Shoskuty. "_Nemo omnibus!_--you know!
+Awkward mistakes will happen. Perhaps you will be pleased to remember
+the fire in the house of the receiver of revenues in the ---- county.
+The poor man was so bewildered with fear, that all he managed to get out
+of the house was a pair of old boots. The whole of the government money
+was burnt. The visiting justices found the money-box empty--empty, I
+say! All the bank notes were burnt, and nothing was left but a small
+heap of ashes."
+
+"Gentlemen!----" said Viola at length; but Mr. Catspaw interrupted him.
+
+"I implore my honourable friends not to resent any thing this wretched
+creature may say! I am sure he speaks from his conscience; nor is he
+deserving of chastisement. He is a prey to what we lawyers term
+'_Ignorantia invincibilis_!'"
+
+"Of course! of course!" said Baron Shoskuty. "It's a legal remedy, you
+know."
+
+"Gentlemen!" said the prisoner, "I am a poor condemned criminal; but the
+judge and Mr. Catspaw are mighty men. And I am doomed to appear this day
+before God's judgment-seat! What motive should I have for not telling
+you the truth? May I be damned now and for ever,--yes, and may God
+punish my children to the tenth generation,--if the papers were not in
+this very cloth!"
+
+"I told you so!" said Mr. Catspaw, still smiling. "I knew it. This man
+is doting,--'_borne_,' to use a French term. He'd say the same if we
+were to put him on the rack!"
+
+"It is all very natural," said he to the prisoner. "You've made a
+mistake, that's all. Pray be reasonable, and consider, if you had
+brought Mr. Tengelyi's papers from the hut, what reason could I, or Mr.
+Skinner, have for refusing to produce them?"
+
+"Of course!" said Baron Shoskuty. "What reason could these gentlemen
+have? How is it possible to suppose such a thing?"
+
+Viola was silent. He stood lost in deep and gloomy thoughts. At last he
+raised his head, and asked that the attendants might be sent away,
+adding, "I am in chains, and there are no less than six of you. You are
+safe, I assure you."
+
+The room was cleared. Viola looked at Mr. Catspaw, and said:--
+
+"What I have to tell you, will astonish you all, except Mr. Catspaw. I
+never wished to mention it, and I would not now allow the servants to
+hear it, for my wife and children live at Tissaret, and the Retys may
+perhaps be induced to pity the poor orphans. But if it is asked what
+reason the attorney can have for not producing the notary's papers, I
+will simply say that Mr. Catspaw is most likely to know his own mind and
+his own reasons, and good reasons they must be, to induce him to bribe
+somebody to steal the papers,--for, to tell you the truth, it was he who
+planned the robbery."
+
+The attorney trembled.
+
+"Really, this man _is_ malicious!" cried he. "I am curious to know what
+can induce him to accuse an honest man of such a thing?"
+
+"Don't listen to his nonsense!" said Baron Shoskuty.
+
+But Mr. Voelgyeshy insisted on the prisoner's being heard, and Viola told
+them the history of the robbery, from the evening on which he listened
+to the attorney's conversation with Lady Rety, to the night in which he
+seized the Jew in Tengelyi's house, knocked him down, and fled with the
+papers. The only circumstances which he did not mention were, the fact
+of his having been hid in the notary's house when Messrs. Catspaw and
+Skinner pursued him in Tissaret, and his conversations with the Liptaka
+and Peti. Mr. Catspaw listened with a smile of mingled fear and
+contempt; and when Viola ceased speaking, he asked for permission to put
+a few questions to the prisoner.
+
+"Not, indeed," said he, "for the purpose of defending myself or Lady
+Rety against so ridiculous an accusation, but merely to convince this
+fellow of the holes, nay, of the large gaps, in his abominable tissue of
+falsehoods." And turning to Viola, he asked:--
+
+"Did you inform anybody of the conversation which you pretend to have
+overheard between me and Lady Rety?"
+
+"No, I did not."
+
+"Pray consider my question. Is there any one to whom you said that some
+one wished to steal the notary's papers? We ought to know your
+associates. Now, did you not speak to Peti the gipsy, or to that old
+hag, the Liptaka?"
+
+Viola persisted in denying the fact. He was too well aware of the
+disastrous consequences this avowal would have for his friends.
+
+Mr. Catspaw went on.
+
+"Where did you hide at the time we pursued you in Tissaret?"
+
+Viola replied that he was not in Tissaret.
+
+"Do you mean to say you were not in the village?"
+
+"No!"
+
+The attorney sent for the old Liptaka, to whom he read her depositions,
+from which it appeared that the prisoner attempted to inform Tengelyi of
+the intended robbery.
+
+"What do you say to this evidence?" added he.
+
+"That it is true, every word of it. I'll swear to the truth of my
+words!" said she.
+
+"Viola has confessed," said Mr. Catspaw, "that he told you of the
+matter, when hiding in the notary's house, while we pursued him through
+Tissaret. Is there any truth in this statement?"
+
+The Liptaka, feeling convinced that Viola must have confessed as much,
+said it was quite true, but that Tengelyi was ignorant of the prisoner's
+presence. The old woman was sent away, and Mr. Catspaw, turning to the
+court, asked triumphantly:--
+
+"Did you ever hear of such impertinence? The prisoner protests that he
+did not inform anybody of the alleged intended robbery; and the old
+woman swears that Viola did inform her, for the purpose of cautioning
+the notary. Then, again, the old woman did not say any thing to the
+notary, without having any ostensible reason for not doing what she
+alleges she promised to do. The prisoner will have it that he was not in
+Tissaret at the time we pursued him; and the witness--why, gentlemen,
+the witness deposes that the subject in question was mentioned to her at
+that very time. I say, you great fool! if you had time for another batch
+of lies, I would advise you to make out a better story. But let us go
+on. Who told you that the Jew and Tzifra intended to rob the notary?"
+
+"I cannot answer that question," replied Viola.
+
+"Indeed? What a pity! I'd like to know the gentleman who gives you such
+correct information; unless, indeed, you keep a '_familiaris_,'--a
+devil, I mean."
+
+"The only thing I told you was, that I knew of the robbery."
+
+"But how did you know of it?"
+
+"The Jew and Tzifra talked about it in the pot-house near Dustbury."
+
+"Were you present? Did you hear them?"
+
+"No! I had it from a friend."
+
+"I'm sure it was your '_familiaris_,'--your devil, you artful dodger!"
+said Mr. Catspaw, smiling; "but since you knew that the robbery was to
+take place, why did you not inform the justice of it?"
+
+"I was outlawed; a prize was offered for my head."
+
+"Indeed, so it was; but your friend, why did not he inform the proper
+authorities? Was he also _wanted_? and if so, why did he not inform
+Tengelyi, or Mr. Vandory, who I understand has likewise lost his
+papers?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. Perhaps he did not find the notary. At all events,
+he knew that I would prevent the robbery, so he told me of it."
+
+"A very extraordinary thing, this!" said Mr. Catspaw; "for a man to
+apply to a robber with a view to prevent a robbery! And you wanted to
+prevent the robbery, did you not? Now tell me, did you set about it by
+yourself? And what became of your comrade,--I mean the man who told you
+about it? Did he, too, go to Tissaret?"
+
+"There was no occasion for it."
+
+"Still it is very extraordinary that you should not have hunted in
+couples, knowing as you did that there were two men to commit the
+robbery. What a capital thing for you if you could summon your comrades
+to explain it all! For if some went to Tissaret to prevent the robbery,
+there can be no harm in our knowing who your comrade is. He ought to be
+rewarded for his zeal."
+
+"I had no comrade. I was alone!" said Viola.
+
+"Very well, you were alone; let it be so. Whom did you see in the
+notary's house?"
+
+"No one but the Jew; he who is now waiting in the hall."
+
+"Did you see Tzifra?"
+
+"No. The Jew alone was in the house."
+
+"But the Jew swears that it was you who committed the robbery!"
+
+"I don't care. I've said what I've said."
+
+"Is there any thing else you have to say?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Very well. I've done with you," said the attorney, as he rang for the
+servants.
+
+"Take him away," said he, as the haiduks made their appearance. Viola
+turned round and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+
+The contradictory statements of Viola and the Liptaka, and the character
+of improbability which seemed to swim on the very surface of the charge
+against Mr. Catspaw and Lady Rety, convinced the court that the whole of
+Viola's confession was a stupid and malicious attempt to save his life
+by means of another crime,--we quote Mr. Skinner's elegant address to
+his friends. Voelgyeshy himself could not pretend to give a moment's
+belief to so utterly ridiculous a story.
+
+"The business is as clear as daylight," said the assessor, at the close
+of Mr. Skinner's speech. "The culprit makes no denial. All we have to do
+is to make him sign his depositions, to confront him with the witnesses,
+and to pronounce the sentence. It's just two o'clock. The prisoner ought
+to have three hours to say his prayers in, and the sun sets before five.
+My opinion is that we ought to look sharp!"
+
+"I do not see why," said Kishlaki, whose anxiety increased as the
+proceedings drew to a close.
+
+"Why, indeed? Did I not tell you that I must go home to-night? There are
+the potatoes, and the ploughmen, and what not!"
+
+"We ought, indeed, to make haste," cried Baron Shoskuty, who, it
+appeared, cared more for his dinner than for the sentence. "We cannot
+allow our beautiful hostess to wait dinner for us."
+
+"You cannot finish the proceedings to-day!" interposed Voelgyeshy. "The
+prisoner's depositions are of great length. I want at least two hours to
+transcribe them from my notes."
+
+"Nothing of the kind!" cried Mr. Skinner. "After Viola's capture I
+examined him in the presence of Mr. Kenihazy. He has not since thought
+proper to alter or revoke any thing in his former depositions; and
+though I am sure you would do the thing more elegantly and neatly, yet I
+flatter myself that our work will do for the present."
+
+To this Voelgyeshy replied, that though the prisoner had not indeed
+altered or protested against his first depositions, still that he had
+said many things which were not mentioned in the minutes of the first
+examination, and that these additional details ought also to be
+carefully added to the body of the evidence.
+
+"What the deuce do you mean?" said Shoskuty, with a degree of
+astonishment which did honour to his sense of justice--"can you think of
+mentioning that Mr. Catspaw and the sheriff's lady intended to rob the
+notary of his papers?"
+
+"Of course. Any thing the prisoner may have said in court."
+
+"This is truly monstrous!" cried Mr. Skinner.
+
+"You know your duty, but allow me to inform you that I know mine. It is
+yours to judge: it is mine to record the proceedings."
+
+"_Sed rogo, domine spectabilis!_" cried Zatonyi, "is your head turned?
+What on earth are you thinking of?"
+
+"Of my duty," replied Voelgyeshy; "it is my duty, I take it, to make a
+clear and perfect statement of the case."
+
+"But in every case there is a deal of irrelevant matter. Suppose the
+prisoner were to preach us a sermon, or he were to give us the
+prescription of a plaster for corns and bunions, would you state that
+kind of thing?"
+
+"My opinion of the prisoner's statements is, that they are not
+irrelevant."
+
+"But, my dear friend," said the Baron, with the greatest possible
+politeness, "only please to consider that our friend Zatonyi must go
+home to-night on account of his potatoes, which he will be prevented
+from doing if you persist in your intention of taking down all the
+nonsense which the culprit told us. And pray consider, dear sir, that
+Lady Kishlaki's dinner will be spoilt! It's but common politeness to
+make an end of it, and have done."
+
+"The life of a fellow creature is at least quite as much worth as Mr.
+Zatonyi's potatoes; and, as for common politeness, I, for one, care more
+for common fairness."
+
+"I should think so!" muttered Zatonyi.
+
+"But, sir, you are uncommonly stiff-necked!" sighed the Baron.
+
+"Why," said Mr. Kishlaki, nervously, "it strikes me that we had better
+adjourn till to-morrow morning. By that time, I trust, Mr. Voelgyeshy
+will have completed his labours, and Mr. Zatonyi----"
+
+"No! it's utterly impossible! Nobody can be more zealous than I am. I am
+always at sessions, always! but to neglect my household duties for a
+mere whim--an idle fancy----"
+
+"God forbid that you should!" said Kishlaki, kindly. "But since Mr.
+Voelgyeshy tells us that he feels in conscience bound to take down the
+whole of the prisoner's depositions, and since he cannot possibly do it
+in half an hour----"
+
+"Ej Bliktri!" said Zatonyi, angrily; "I've attended a score of
+courts-martial, and in cases too which it would take a common court many
+months to come to the bottom of, and for all that we never wanted more
+than a day for the trial and hanging; and am I to be stopped by this
+case? I never heard of such pretensions as Mr. Voelgyeshy's! It is said
+in the articles that the prisoner is to sign his depositions; that his
+name, age, crime, and the manner of his capture are to be mentioned in
+the said depositions; but it is nowhere said that they must contain any
+nonsense which the prisoner may be pleased to talk; and I ask you, Mr.
+Voelgyeshy, sir! why on earth do you persist in your extraordinary, and,
+let me say, ridiculous conduct?"
+
+"Because I think it requisite for the credibility of the proceedings;
+and besides, you are aware that a suit on the question of noble descent
+is being preferred against the notary of Tissaret. This suit is
+materially affected by Viola's confession, which proves that certain
+papers were feloniously taken from the notary's house."
+
+"It strikes me," exclaimed Mr. Catspaw, "that there are persons who
+insist on my own name, and especially that of my Lady Rety, being
+mentioned in the minutes, and in a highly insulting and offensive
+manner too. Well, be it so! Lady Rety will at least have one advantage,
+that of knowing her friends; for everybody must see that to mention this
+affair is perfectly gratuitous."
+
+"God forbid!" said Baron Shoskuty, "that any thing should be recorded in
+the minutes which might give her ladyship only a moment's uneasiness;
+indeed----"
+
+"_Tot capita, tot sensus_," proceeded the attorney; "but my honourable
+friends must admit that my Lady Rety and your humble servant cannot feel
+pleased with Viola's calumnious statements being sent to his Excellency
+and the government, particularly since the robber's death deprives us of
+all means of proving the falsehood of his statements. And I put it to
+you whether it is becoming and decent in a man of Mr. Voelgyeshy's
+character and position to make the duties of his office serve him as a
+means for his revenge? for we all know that he is among the most zealous
+of Mr. Rety's opponents."
+
+"It's really infamous, that it is!" cried Mr. Skinner.
+
+"I won't suffer it!" growled the assessor.
+
+Shoskuty shook his head, and bewailed the factious spirit of the county,
+which caused certain individuals to take advantage of judicial
+proceedings, for the purpose of annoying their political adversaries.
+
+Mr. Kishlaki, who had his reasons for avoiding any thing in the shape of
+a quarrel with the Rety family, endeavoured to mediate between the
+hostile parties. "I am sure," said he, "Mr. Voelgyeshy has no idea of
+insulting our respected sheriff, though he forgot that his intention
+must necessarily grieve the illustrious family of the Retys. If the
+papers remained in the archives of the county, there could be no harm in
+your recording the whole of the evidence; but as this is not the case, I
+am sure, sir, you cannot wish to annoy one of the greatest families of
+the county; for I take it you must be aware of the truth of Mr.
+Catspaw's argument, that the death of the prisoner deprives the very
+respectable persons whom he has slandered of the means of putting him to
+shame."
+
+"What prevents Mr. Catspaw from preserving the means of defence?" said
+Voelgyeshy, with a flush of generous excitement in his pale cheeks.
+
+The worshipful gentlemen looked amazed, but the lawyer proceeded:
+
+"A single dissentient vote is enough to save the prisoner's life. If Mr.
+Catspaw thinks that Viola's confession is likely to injure him or Lady
+Rety, let him give that vote, and thus preserve the possibility of
+disproving Viola's statements."
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried Mr. Kishlaki, eager to obtain the two objects next to
+his heart, namely, the liberation of the prisoner and the conciliation
+of the Rety family. "Yes, sir; to show my high respect for the sheriff,
+I am ready to give that vote!"
+
+"_Per amorem! Domine spectabilis!_" shrieked Zatonyi; "do you mean to
+say that the fellow is not to be hanged?"
+
+"Shocking! shocking!" sighed Baron Shoskuty, with an appealing look to
+heaven; "the robber is in our hands; our honourable friend Mr. Skinner
+has covered himself with glory, and risked his life, in capturing him;
+he indicts him before a court-martial, and _we_--_we_ discharge the
+fellow! Nobody ever heard of such a thing!"
+
+"I, for one," cried Mr. Skinner, "won't allow you to make a fool of me!
+What the devil! is a man to risk his life for nothing? You won't catch
+me again at this kind of thing, I assure you!"
+
+"Not hang the rascal?" roared Zatonyi. "I've attended scores of
+courts-martial, but I never heard of any thing like it. It's
+prostituting justice! it's protecting crime! it's----"
+
+"Of course; so it is," said Baron Shoskuty; "it's putting a premium on
+robbery! it's a deleterious example!"
+
+"Public safety will go to the dogs!" howled Mr. Skinner; and they all
+spoke at once: "Scandalous!--infamous!--new doctrines!--_fautores
+criminum!_--disgrace!" such were the words which predominated in this
+Babel of angry voices, until Mr. Voelgyeshy at length silenced them. He
+protested what he wanted was not the liberation of the prisoner, but the
+transmission of the prosecution to the ordinary court.
+
+"Of course!" sneered Mr. Zatonyi; "are we not aware of the practice of
+the court? I know of three cases,--I was not present, for if I had been
+I would not have allowed it; but I know of three cases in which the
+prisoners were sent to the courts; and what was the consequence? Why,
+one of them was sentenced to three months', and the second to a year's
+imprisonment; as for the third, they let him off altogether, though I'd
+bet you any thing the fellow was a robber. Don't you think, sir, we are
+so green as all that! The county has the right of court-martial for the
+purpose of using it; and use it we will!"
+
+"I do not think that the courts-martial were granted under the express
+condition that a few people should be hanged every year," said
+Voelgyeshy.
+
+"It appears," said Mr. Catspaw, "that the liberation of the prisoner,
+or, at least, his prosecution in a common court, has been proposed for
+the purpose of favouring the Lady Rety and me. But I feel myself
+authorised to protest, in Lady Rety's name, that neither she nor I can
+consent to the court allowing themselves to be influenced by any private
+feelings in our favour, however flattering those feelings may be to her
+ladyship."
+
+"Mr. Catspaw, sir, you are a gentleman!" said Baron Shoskuty; and the
+question was at once put, whether the prisoner's first depositions
+should be authenticated, or whether it was advisable to make out a new
+relation of the facts, and to adjourn the sentence to the following day.
+Kishlaki advocated the second alternative; but he was overruled by the
+court, and nothing was left to Voelgyeshy but to declare that he would
+not and could not obey the instructions of the court. Kishlaki was
+greatly shocked by this declaration; Zatonyi swore; the Baron rose, and
+shaking his most honourable friend's hand, he entreated him to pardon
+them if their resolution was offensive to him.
+
+"Consider the _homo sum, amice_! consider the _nihil humanum_!--we all
+pay unbounded respect to your principles and talents, but to the
+majority you ought to submit. Consider that every body does so, and I am
+sure you will see----"
+
+But Voelgyeshy protested that he could not, in the present case, _join_
+the decision of the majority, though he acknowledged he had no legal
+remedy against them. That was the reason why he wished to withdraw. His
+firmness, or (as Shoskuty called it) obstinacy, threw the court into
+hopeless confusion, and there is no saying what they would not have
+done, if Mr. Catspaw had not volunteered to discharge the functions of a
+notary.
+
+"Sir, your offer is accepted, gratefully accepted, I say," cried
+Zatonyi. "Mr. Voelgyeshy, who has just entered the service, will in time
+find out that a man is none the worse for doing his duty according to
+the decision of a majority. Leave him alone with his principles! he'll
+soon get tired of them, I'll warrant you!"
+
+"Mr. Voelgyeshy," said the attorney, with a sneer, "has brought the
+matter to this point for the purpose of saving the prisoner's life,--a
+noble and generous feeling, gentlemen, especially in this time of
+general philanthropy,--quite a romantic feeling, I assure you,
+gentlemen. But we, who are older, and, let me say so, tougher, cannot
+imitate his example, though I trust the noble young man gives me credit
+for appreciating his motives. As I told you, I am ready to officiate in
+his place; but I think Mr. Voelgyeshy, seeing that his refusal to act has
+no effect upon us, will not persist in his refusal. Am I right, my
+generous young friend?"
+
+But the generous young friend rose, and pushing his batch of papers to
+Mr. Catspaw, he declared that nothing could induce him to take a part in
+the proceedings, which he went to the length of designating as an act of
+judicial tyranny.
+
+This bold declaration called forth a fresh torrent of abuse.
+
+"Disgraceful!" cried Mr. Skinner.
+
+"It's infamous!" said Zatonyi.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir!" snarled Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Voelgyeshy, when their frantic rage had in a manner
+subsided, "I meant no offence to any of you. Allow me to explain what I
+said."
+
+"Explain? What the devil do you mean to explain, sir?" cried Zatonyi.
+"Do you mean to say, sir, that we are murderers? Are you aware that you
+have no vote? To insult the judges is an infamous act; d--n you, sir,
+you're infamous, sir!"
+
+"Yes!" said the Baron; "let us pass a resolution to that effect."
+
+"Do you mean to do it by court-martial?" asked Voelgyeshy, with a
+scornful smile.
+
+"Yes, sir! In any way, sir! I'm sure _I_ don't care. Whoever insults the
+judges or the court is infamous! That's written law, sir! it's in the
+_corpus juris_. And you'll find it law, sir, and to your cost, sir!"
+
+"It is _ad horribilationem_!" groaned Zatonyi.
+
+"You may, if you please, pass a resolution of infamy against me," said
+Voelgyeshy; "but permit me, not indeed for the sake of those who care for
+nothing except the execution of the prisoner, but out of love and
+respect for your president----"
+
+"_Captatio benevolentiae!_" cried Zatonyi. "Our respected president wants
+no flatteries from the like of you!"
+
+"----direct the attention of the court----"
+
+"The attention of the court wants no direction whatever," said the
+Baron.
+
+"----to the heavy responsibility which rests with every one of you, if
+the present proceedings are brought to a fatal end."
+
+"What, the devil! are the judges to be made responsible? I never in all
+my life----"
+
+"Halljuk! halljuk!" said Kishlaki, who listened with great eagerness.
+
+Voelgyeshy took the articles, and pointed out to the court that their
+safety consisted in the strict legality of their proceedings, and that
+the present case did not come within their jurisdiction.
+
+"_Crassa ignorantia!_" said Zatonyi, contemptuously, "as is but too
+common among the young gentlemen of the present day. Viola's case is a
+court-martial case with a vengeance!"
+
+"But the details----"
+
+"_Crassa ignorantia!_" cried the assessor, raising his voice. "Did he
+not resist the capture? Did he steal Tengelyi's papers because they were
+eatables? which, I admit, would constitute an extenuating circumstance;
+or is he under age, or a lunatic? Or is the gang to which he belongs
+indicted before any court at law?"
+
+Voelgyeshy remarked, that the case was so intricate that it would take
+the court at least three days to sift it.
+
+"Three days, indeed! I'd do away with twenty of these rascals in much
+less time than that!"
+
+"It seems you have forgotten what the prisoner said concerning certain
+accusations----"
+
+"Which have nothing whatever to do with the question at issue," cried
+Baron Shoskuty; "there's no mention of them in the minutes. I mean to
+forget them."
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"Baron Shoskuty is right," said the assessor; "the prisoner's
+nonsensical talk has nothing in common with the _species facti_--it's no
+use mentioning it."
+
+"But what is to become of the completeness of the record?" cried
+Voelgyeshy, angrily.
+
+"It's a stupid formality. See chapter 6. paragraph 5. of the articles,
+where it is provided that the court is at liberty to dispense with the
+forms of the courts at law."
+
+"Yes, we can do as we please, and in the very teeth of all manners of
+forms, too," said the Baron.
+
+"Of course you can hang the prisoner!" shouted Voelgyeshy; "but I protest
+that what you do is an act of violence, not of justice!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, sir!----"
+
+"The members of this court have no right to sit in it!--I appeal to the
+articles!"
+
+"Outrageous!" cried Zatonyi, rising from his chair; "what! are we not
+assessors?--have we not taken our oaths?--are we not----?"
+
+"Are we not lawyers of unblemished character?--men of firmness and
+impartiality?" continued the Baron.
+
+"Turn him out!" roared Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Actio! Actio!" gasped Baron Shoskuty in his turn.
+
+"I protest you are not impartial!" said Voelgyeshy.
+
+"Bliktri!" snarled Zatonyi; "what have the articles to do with
+impartiality?"
+
+"Very true! but suppose impartiality _were_ required," said Shoskuty,
+violently, "suppose it _were_ required, what then? Are we not strictly
+impartial? Which of us has said a single word in favour of the prisoner,
+unless it be you? but, goodness be thanked! you've no vote, sir!"
+
+"I am curious to know how you would manage to prove our want of
+impartiality?" said Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"I'll satisfy your curiosity, sir," said the young lawyer. "As for you,
+you are accused, and it is evidently your interest to do away with the
+accusation and the accuser. Of Mr. Skinner's want of impartiality there
+can be no question. What shall we say of a judge who degrades his
+office to the level of the hangman?"
+
+"Meanness! Impertinence! Turn him out! Actio!" screamed the judges.
+
+"No! You are not impartial! You are thirsting for the prisoner's blood!
+You want his life to shield your own misdeeds! There is vendetta between
+you and the prisoner! But I will not suffer it! I will publish the
+proceedings! I will complain to the lord-lieutenant! I will----"
+
+"Base informer! are you aware of the laws of 1805? Turn him out!" roared
+the court; and Voelgyeshy, finding that nothing could persuade them,
+turned to leave the room, when Mr. Skinner rose and seized him by the
+arm.
+
+"Be off, you miscreant!" roared the valorous judge.
+
+Voelgyeshy pushed him back, and taking his hat, he bowed to the
+president, and withdrew.
+
+The uproar in the justice-room attracted the attention of the people
+outside in no slight degree. The conversation of the haiduks, Pandurs,
+witnesses, and servants gradually ceased, and every one listened to the
+noise of angry voices in the justice-room. The Liptaka sat close by the
+door listening to the dispute, and from time to time she would turn to
+the smith and inform him that Viola's case was very bad; "for," said
+she, "if the gentlemen get out of temper with each other, they always
+manage to make a poor body suffer for it:" a remark to which the smith
+did not fail to respond with deep sighs.
+
+Viola alone paid no attention to the quarrels of his judges. Surrounded
+by a troop of armed men, he leaned against one of the wooden pillars of
+the hall, looking towards the gate where his wife and children stood.
+All the robber's thoughts were of them. When the door opened, and
+Voelgyeshy entered the hall, Viola turned round, for he thought they had
+sent for him to read his sentence. He longed for it; for the Pandurs had
+told him that, after hearing it, he would be allowed to speak to his
+wife. Calling to Voelgyeshy, as the latter approached, he said: "Is it
+over?"
+
+"Not quite," answered the lawyer.
+
+"But why do you leave them?"
+
+"I have no vote. I cannot be of any use to you."
+
+"I thought so," said Viola, with a bitter smile. "God bless you for
+having given yourself all this trouble for the sake of a poor man; but,
+if you will show me pity, tell them to allow my wife to come to me.
+There she stands, by the gate; there she stands, with her children!
+They've pushed her back: they will not let her speak to me! All I want
+is to have her with me. You see I am chained and closely watched, and
+in a few hours I shall be a dead man. What harm can there be in
+lessening the anguish of my poor, wretched wife!"
+
+Voelgyeshy said nothing; but he walked precipitately up to the place
+where Susi stood, took her by the hand, and led her to Viola's arms. The
+wretched people did not speak: they wept, and trembled; the little boy
+took and kissed his father's hand, sore as it was with the weight of the
+chain: and the large tear-drops rolled over the robber's pale face.
+
+The burst of generous indignation in which the members of the court had
+for a time indulged was, meanwhile, subsiding. Mr. Catspaw, seated in
+Voelgyeshy's place, arranged that gentleman's papers and notes to his own
+liking; and though Mr. Skinner still continued to vent his spleen in
+frequent and indecent exclamations against the young lawyer's
+impertinence, it was found that none of the other members of the court
+sympathised with his protracted irascibility. Baron Shoskuty and the
+assessor Zatonyi talked of their dinner and other important matters. Mr.
+Kishlaki alone seemed distressed and nervous.
+
+Viola was at length summoned before the court to sign his depositions.
+When they were read to him, he observed that they contained none of his
+statements about Tengelyi's papers; but upon Mr. Catspaw informing him
+that he was merely required to testify to the correctness of those
+things which _were_ stated, and that the other parts of his confession
+would be taken down separately, he made no further objections, but
+signed his name, to the immoderate satisfaction of the cunning attorney.
+
+Nothing was now wanting but the sentence. The assessor yawned fearfully,
+offered his snuff-box to everybody, and protested that he had never had
+so troublesome a sitting. Baron Shoskuty consulted his watch (for the
+twentieth time, at least), and informed the court that it was past three
+o'clock, and that the want of his dinner had given him a headache:
+_denique_, (to use his own words,) "there was no time to be lost."
+Acting up to this hint, Mr. Catspaw made a short _resume_ of the facts;
+and concluded by protesting that there could be no doubt about the
+sentence of capital punishment. Mr. Skinner said the same. Mr. Zatonyi
+laughed, and swore that Miss Lydia Languish herself could not find
+another verdict!--an opinion upon which the Baron commented at great
+length, for the purpose of finally adopting it. Mr. Kishlaki alone sat
+silent and anxious, turning to each of the judges with a sigh as each
+recorded his sentence; until, at length, he pretended to fall into a fit
+of profound meditation.
+
+"Really," said Baron Shoskuty, at length, producing his watch to add to
+the strength of his arguments, "I must ask my honourable friend's pardon
+for disturbing him in his reflections on the enormity of the crime; but
+really we ought not to abuse Lady Kishlaki's patience."
+
+"You are right," said the president, greatly relieved; "quite right, my
+dear sir: let us adjourn till to-morrow morning. This confounded
+execution cannot possibly take place to-day."
+
+"Oh! why should it not?" asked Zatonyi, indignantly. "Did I not tell you
+that I must go home? My potatoes----"
+
+"We are bound to grant the prisoner at least three hours," said the
+president; "and it's quite dark at five o'clock. You would not hang him
+by candlelight, would you?"
+
+"My honourable friend is quite right," cried Shoskuty. "We ought to have
+a game at tarok after all this trouble. Besides, I owe the gentlemen
+their revenge for the pagat. But why should we not pass the sentence
+to-night, and have it executed at an early hour to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Because," said Mr. Kishlaki, nervously,--"because the decision rests
+with me; and--because--I must own--that I have not yet made up my mind."
+
+"_Domine spectabilis!_" cried Zatonyi, clasping his hands. "You, at your
+time of life! You, who have served the county so many years, you have
+not made up your mind? I've attended a score of courts-martial, and _I_
+always made up my mind in less than a second. What would your enemies
+say, if they knew it?"
+
+Mr. Skinner, too, expressed his scorn of such weakness of mind in the
+strongest terms; still Kishlaki would not be persuaded either to absolve
+or to condemn the prisoner. He entreated his friends to wait till the
+morrow. But his request was obstinately opposed by Mr. Catspaw, who knew
+the man he had to deal with, and who was aware that Kishlaki would not
+be able to resist the entreaties of his wife and son, and the reasonings
+of Voelgyeshy, if he was allowed to appear in their presence before he
+had recorded his decision.
+
+"I am sure," pleaded the attorney, "it cannot matter to us whether you
+deliver your judgment to-day or to-morrow; but my wish is, that there
+should be an end to the business. I wish it for the prisoner's sake.
+After the sentence he will be at liberty to talk to his wife, to
+prepare for death, and to make any arrangements he has to make. But if
+it is really inconvenient, of course we cannot pretend that the
+prisoner's wishes should be consulted in preference to yours."
+
+Zatonyi, seeing the effect which these words had upon Kishlaki, remarked
+that Viola was indeed a great criminal, whose agony ought in strict
+justice to be prolonged _ad infinitum_; but that some consideration was
+due to humanity, for he could not, he said, believe that any man in his
+senses could for a moment doubt of the nature of the sentence, which his
+honourable friend wished to delay. To this Mr. Catspaw replied, that
+their worthy president could not have any such intention, and that he
+(Mr. Catspaw) would never have dared to insinuate any such thing; but
+that no one could be more fully aware than he (Mr. Catspaw) was, of the
+solemn duty by which every judge was bound to disregard his own feelings
+and passions; and that he (Mr. Catspaw) was convinced that his worthy
+friend, Mr. Kishlaki, would eventually prove himself deserving of the
+confidence of the county. And Baron Shoskuty gave them a homily on the
+beauty of humane feelings, which, he said, imperatively demanded that
+Viola should be sentenced off hand. And it was said, that it was
+necessary to make an example, and that kindness to the wicked is cruelty
+to the good. And Mr. Skinner told fearful tales of the enormities of
+which Viola and his comrades had been guilty, and would be guilty,
+unless a wholesome fear of courts-martial were propagated among the
+people; till the poor old man, attacked on all sides, and unable to make
+head against a torrent of arguments, which he had always been taught to
+consider as irrefutable, was at length reduced to submission to the will
+of his more crafty colleagues. With a deep sigh, he confirmed their
+verdict.
+
+"God sees my heart," said he, raising his eyes to heaven. "I know not
+what I would give to spare the life of this man! but I cannot violate my
+duty."
+
+Mr. Catspaw commenced at once to draw up the sentence, while his friends
+strove hard to dispel the gloom which settled on Kishlaki's face; when
+the door was suddenly thrown open, and Susi, with a child in her arms,
+rushed into the room, followed by two haiduks, who vainly strove to
+detain her.
+
+"Pity!" cried the wretched woman, throwing herself at Kishlaki's feet.
+"Pity, sir! oh sir, don't kill my husband!"
+
+Kishlaki would have raised her, but she resisted.
+
+"No! no!" sobbed she; "let us kneel! let my child kneel! Come Pishta,
+come, kiss this gentleman's hands! it is he who has to judge of your
+father's life! Entreat him! pray to him, Pishta!"
+
+"I pray, sir, do not kill my father!" sobbed the little boy.
+
+"Did I ever--what impertinence!" cried Mr. Skinner. "This worshipful
+court does not kill anybody!"
+
+"No, God forbid!" said the poor woman; "do not mind the child's asking
+you not to kill his father. He does not know what he says. He is the son
+of a poor peasant; he has no education. I know I too talk wildly,
+but----"
+
+"My good woman," said Kishlaki, "my duties as a judge are painful, but
+imperative and----"
+
+"Oh, I do not ask the court to absolve him from all punishment. No! I do
+not mean to say that. Punish him severely, cruelly, no matter how, only
+don't kill him!--Oh! pardon me for saying the word. Oh, pardon me! Send
+Viola to gaol for many years, for ever, if it must be so; but do spare
+his life! Perhaps he has told you that he cares not for death--he is
+fond of talking in this way--but don't believe what he said! When he
+said it, he had not seen his children; but now he has kissed little
+Pishta, I am sure he will not say so; and the baby too smiled at him as
+he stood in his chains. Oh! if you could but see the baby, and if you
+could hear it calling its father with its small sweet voice, you'd never
+believe Viola when he says he wishes to die!"
+
+"D--n your squeaking!" growled Mr. Skinner, "and d--n the blockhead that
+let her come in! Be off, I say! Your husband's a dead man; if he's
+afraid of death, why so much the better!"
+
+"Did I say he was afraid of death?" sighed poor Susi. "I told you a lie!
+Viola longs for death! Death is no punishment for him! If you want to
+punish him, you must lock him up! He's often told me he would rather die
+than live in a prison!"
+
+Kishlaki looked at her with streaming eyes. Shoskuty produced his watch.
+
+"Oh! sir, I know you will send him to prison! What is death to him? It's
+but the pain of a moment; but we are the sufferers. I have two
+children--this boy and the other child, which the Liptaka has in her
+arms--the Liptaka, I mean the old woman at the door; and what am I to do
+if their father is hanged?"
+
+Zatonyi remarked, very judiciously, that it made no difference to the
+children whether their father was hanged or sent to prison for life.
+
+"Oh! but it does, sir. It may make no difference to your worships, but
+it does to us. I know he will be of good behaviour. I will walk to
+Vienna, I will crawl on my hands and knees after the king until he
+pardons my husband; and if he will not pardon him, I shall at least be
+allowed to see him in prison; I can show him the children, and how they
+have grown! I can bring him something to eat and to put on--oh! for
+pity's sake, send him to prison! It's a heaven for me; but death is
+fearful!"
+
+"Fearful, indeed! It's half-past three!" sighed Shoskuty.
+
+"Now do be quiet," said Zatonyi, taking a pinch of snuff. "Besides, it's
+too late. We've passed the sentence."
+
+"The sentence! The sentence of death!" shrieked Susi.
+
+"It's at your service," sneered Mr. Skinner, pointing to a paper which
+was just being folded up by Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"But suppose it is bad--it is faulty," muttered the woman. "Suppose I
+say it's wrong--for death is not a punishment to Viola--it's _I_ that am
+punished!"
+
+"It's done, and can't be undone," said Zatonyi; "don't bore us with your
+useless lamentations."
+
+"It wants but a quarter to four," said the Baron. "I wonder whether this
+scene is to last any longer?"
+
+"But I pray," said Susi, shuddering; "it's but a sheet of paper. If you
+take another, and write some other words upon it, you can allow Viola to
+live."
+
+"Oh indeed! Why should we not? Be off, we've had trouble enough on your
+account! Mr. Catspaw won't write another sentence to please you."
+
+"Not to please me; but because it's a question of life and death."
+
+"My good woman," sighed Kishlaki, wiping his eyes, "we have no power to
+alter the sentence!"
+
+"No power? No----"
+
+"It is impossible!" said Zatonyi.
+
+The poor woman shrieked and fell on the floor. She was taken away; and
+the sentence was read to Viola.
+
+As the judges left the room, Shoskuty said to Zatonyi:--
+
+"God be thanked that it is over!"
+
+"God be thanked, indeed! I've never heard of such a court-martial----"
+
+"_Denique_, if the president is a donkey," remarked Shoskuty.
+
+"Yes; a man who weeps at the mere squeaking of a woman!" said Mr.
+Skinner, as he joined the two worthies; "unless we all dun him he won't
+allow the execution to take place."
+
+"It's four o'clock now, and I'll bet you any thing the dinner is spoilt;
+and the roast meats used to be excellent!" said the Baron, with a deep
+sigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+On his way from the justice-room to the house, Voelgyeshy met Kalman and
+young Rety's servant, Janosh; the former of whom held an open letter in
+his hand: and his stamping, his unequal paces, and the sudden manner in
+which he would turn upon his companion, showed that he was labouring
+under a strong excitement. At some distance a groom was walking two
+horses, whose appearance showed that their riders had paid more
+attention to time than to the health of their beasts.
+
+Voelgyeshy was not in a temper to seek the society of others; and
+observing that young Kishlaki did not see him, he turned and walked to
+the house. But Kalman, whose attention was directed to him by a few
+words from the hussar, rushed after him, and cried--
+
+"Is it over?"
+
+The violence with which these words were pronounced, startled Voelgyeshy.
+He stood still and said:
+
+"Yes, it is over! They had settled the matter before they commenced the
+sitting. But that farce--or sitting, if you like--continues still."
+
+"But what are you doing here? Are you not a member of the court?"
+
+"I have a seat, but no vote; and I left them because----" Voelgyeshy
+paused, and added: "We had better not talk of these things here. Let us
+go to your room, where I'll tell you all; besides, I have a request to
+make of you."
+
+"I say, Janosh!" cried Kalman. "Go to my servant and get something to
+drink. My groom will take care of your horse."
+
+"No, no, young gentleman!" said the old man, shaking his head; "my horse
+is number one, and I'm number two. Meat after corn, sir, that's the way
+we did it in our time; and, besides, you see I've brought my master's
+own horse. He's a jewel, and I wouldn't trust him with that lad for any
+thing."
+
+"Do as you please, Janosh; but when the horse is provided for, I must
+see you."
+
+When the two young men had entered the house, Kalman turned to
+Voelgyeshy, and said,--"Now tell me why, in the name of all that is
+reasonable, did you leave the court?"
+
+"Because I would not be a party to a murder! because I scorned to be a
+tool in their hands--because I would not lend my hand to their knavish
+and diabolical designs!"
+
+"My dear friend, you're out of temper! How can you talk of such things
+when my father is one of the parties concerned? I am sure _he_ would
+never be guilty of any knavery."
+
+"That was _my_ opinion. Believe me no one _can_ respect your father more
+than I do. He's a good and blessed man! I have always said so, and I say
+so now; but your father is weak, and his weakness neutralises the best
+feelings of his heart. The wickedness and folly of this world are not at
+the doors of the wicked and foolish alone, but also at the doors of
+those honest and good men, whose weakness and laziness,--let me say
+whose _gentility_,--cause them to suffer what they have the power to
+prevent. The wicked are powerful, not because of their numbers and
+strength, but because they are reckless, energetic, and daring; while
+the good and honest are weak, and though they would scorn to act, they
+are not ashamed at conniving at any meanness which they may set
+a-going."
+
+"I agree with you," said Kalman, "and I fear the remark applies in a
+manner to my father; but, abuse them as you like, only tell me what has
+happened!"
+
+Voelgyeshy gave him a short account of the transaction, and Kalman
+listened with evident distress.
+
+"Never!" cried he, when Voelgyeshy concluded his tale; "impossible! They
+cannot condemn a fellow-creature in that manner. My father will never
+consent to it!"
+
+"He will consent--indeed, I am sure he has already given his consent.
+The question was decided when it was resolved that Viola's confession
+respecting Tengelyi's papers should not be mentioned in the records."
+
+"Confound it!" cried Kalman "And that letter which they sent me from
+Tissaret. I must save him in spite of a hundred courts-martial!"
+
+"Did they send you a letter? Did the sheriff perhaps?"
+
+"No; but you know Akosh is wounded--Etelka writes in his name. Read the
+letter."
+
+Voelgyeshy took the paper and read as follows:--
+
+      "Tengelyi's papers are of the greatest importance.
+      There is reason to believe that my brother's
+      happiness, that the happiness of all of us, is
+      concerned in your recovering them. Viola did not
+      commit the robbery. Whatever he may have confessed on
+      this subject, it is all true. He has acted far more
+      nobly than any one else can do--it is horrible to
+      think that he is to suffer death for his generous
+      conduct. Certain persons will move heaven and earth to
+      obtain a verdict against him, for his death removes
+      the only witness in the case of the papers. I entreat
+      you to save him! it is the first favour I ever asked
+      of you; and the very generous manner in which you took
+      Tengelyi's part at the election, gives me hope that it
+      will not be the last.
+
+      "ETELKA."
+
+"You see, I am bound to save him! I'd forfeit my life to save him! I'm
+bound to do it," cried Kalman.
+
+"There is some signal villany going on," said the lawyer; "this letter
+shows that my suspicions are but too well founded."
+
+"What in ----'s name are we to do! By Jove I'll go down and tell Catspaw
+that he is a rascal, and a dirty thief, and----"
+
+"Not so fast!" said Voelgyeshy, stopping the impetuous young man in his
+way to the door. "If you make a scene, you will spoil all. It strikes me
+that that fellow Catspaw is but the tool of others, a dirty tool, I
+grant you, but still a tool; and, unless I am very much mistaken, there
+are some people mixed up in this affair, whom it would not be wise in
+you, and much less in Akosh and Etelka, to involve in a criminal
+prosecution."
+
+"Yes; but I say, let me go down! A single vote can save him, and my
+father----"
+
+At that moment Janosh entered the room, and informed them that the
+sitting was over, and that Viola was sentenced to death.
+
+"Confound me!" cried Kalman; "confound my being away from home this
+morning! I was aware that our Gulyash is a friend of Viola's! I believed
+that he would be able to get the papers; so I talked to him last night,
+but he told me he had not seen any thing of the robber. I returned last
+night, and early this morning I left for our Puszta to see our Tshikosh.
+Nothing was known of Viola's capture when I started. The Puszta is more
+than eleven miles from here; and when I had rested my horse, and indeed
+when I was on my way home, confound it! I got this letter."
+
+"Yes, sir!" said Janosh; "I had no idea that your worship had gone to
+the Puszta. I've been up and down the county in every direction, and all
+to no purpose, until some one told me you had taken that way."
+
+"I know it's not your fault, Janosh. It's that cursed fate of mine! If
+I had been at home, no harm would have come to Viola; but what am I to
+do now that the sentence----"
+
+"After all, what does it signify?" said the hussar, stroking his
+moustache.
+
+"You know what's in the letter. They ask me to save him; and what can I
+do now that he's condemned?"
+
+"If your worship will do a kind thing for the love of Miss Etelka--I beg
+your pardon--for the love of my young master; and if your worship will
+save Viola----"
+
+"'If!' and 'will!' I'd give my life if I _could_ do it."
+
+"Oh, then we need not care for such a bit of a sentence. Only think,
+sir, what should we do for ropes if every man were hanged whom they
+condemn in Hungary?"
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware," said Voelgyeshy, "that there's a
+court-martial in the case. In a common court----"
+
+"Of course, of course!" said Janosh; and, turning to young Kishlaki, he
+whispered, "Do not let us mention these things before strangers."
+
+"Don't mind Mr. Voelgyeshy," said Kalman. "He knows all about it; and
+he'd help us if he could."
+
+"So I would," said the lawyer.
+
+"That alters the matter entirely. The worshipful gentlemen do not like
+us to put our fingers into their pie; and when they wish to hang a
+fellow, they are apt to be unreasonable if he escapes. They are fond of
+being hard upon the like of me."
+
+"But what is it you mean to do?"
+
+"I myself hardly know. I want to reconnoitre the place; but shoot me if
+I don't find a means to set him free! They won't hang him to-night;
+there's plenty of time to think about it. Mr. Kalman is at home here;
+that's half the battle. Your cellars are full of wine; we've lots of
+money, keys, ropes, and a horse. Hej!" added he, laughing; "did you ever
+hear of the adventures of the famous Baron Trenck?"
+
+"Thanks, old Janosh!" cried Kalman, shaking his hand; "do as you please
+in the house! manage it all your own way, and throw the blame upon me!"
+
+"Very well! very well indeed!" said the hussar, twisting his moustache;
+"old Janosh isn't half so dull as people fancy, and, _terrem tette_! an
+old soldier has had capital schooling in these things. But you must go
+to dinner, for unless you do, they'll fancy we are mustering our
+forces, as indeed we are. I'll reconnoitre the place."
+
+"I'm your sworn friend to the end of my life!" said Kalman, as he left
+the room with Voelgyeshy.
+
+"Don't mention it," muttered the old soldier; "a man who has served the
+emperor so many years, and who has fought in the battle of Aspern, and
+in France, such a man wants none of your gratitude, especially since I
+have my own master. But I dare say Master Kalman would like to oblige
+our young lady. Very well, I'm agreeable; that's all I can say. He's a
+fine young fellow, and almost as good a horseman as my own master, which
+is saying a great deal, for he had the benefit of _my_ schooling."
+Muttering these and other things, Janosh marched to the steward's house,
+where he met Peti the gipsy.
+
+We need hardly say that Lady Kishlaki's dinner was as dull and gloomy as
+any dinner can be. Voelgyeshy and Kalman were thoughtful and silent. The
+lady of the house did not press her guests to eat; nor did she ask them
+to excuse the bad cooking, although almost every dish stood in need of a
+thousand apologies. Mr. Kishlaki, who remarked his wife's altered
+manner, and who justly interpreted the looks of reproach which she cast
+upon him, sat staring at his plate with so anxious and careworn a face,
+that Voelgyeshy would gladly have spoken to him but for the presence of
+Messrs. Skinner and Kenihazy, who, to do them justice, strove hard but
+unsuccessfully to amuse their host. Baron Shoskuty's compliments, and
+Mr. Zatonyi's anecdotes, were equally lost on their gloomy and
+dispirited audience; and everybody felt relieved when the dinner was
+over. Kalman, in particular, could hardly bridle his impatience; the
+moment Lady Kishlaki rose from the table, he left the room with
+Voelgyeshy.
+
+"How are we getting on, Janosh?" asked Kalman, when he saw the old
+hussar, who was smoking his pipe in the hall.
+
+"Pretty well, sir; let us go to your room, and I'll tell you all about
+it."
+
+"Do you think we can possibly save him?" asked Kalman, as they entered
+his apartments.
+
+"Why not?" said Janosh. "The commander of the fortress has it all his
+own way. Any man whom he will allow to get out, why that man gets
+out--that's all."
+
+"But how will you do it?"
+
+"The curate of Tissaret is here," whispered the hussar. "When he saw
+that Viola was bound to a post, and in the open air, and in November,
+too, with but an armful of straw for him to lie on; and his poor wife
+and children shivering and shaking by his side;--and I tell you, sir,
+fine children they are, as fine as any you can see; but, as I told you,
+when the curate saw them, he said it was a shame, and he would not stand
+it, and the law was that the prisoner ought not to be kept in the open
+air at this time of the year. Says I to myself, when the curate
+sermonised them, says I, 'That's as lucky a thing as can be!' for, to
+tell you the truth, I had my doubts about our getting him off, if they'd
+keep him in that cursed shed. The great donkeys have put four lamps
+round him, seeing they wish to watch every one of his movements. But, of
+course, I didn't say a word about it. I only told the steward that there
+was no harm in what the curate said; for, after all, it is a safe thing
+to have your prisoner locked up and provided for."
+
+"But what for?" asked Kalman, impatiently; "of what use can it be to us,
+if they lock Viola up?"
+
+"Locking your prisoner up is a capital thing in its way," said the
+hussar. "When your prisoner is by himself, where no one sees him, he can
+do as he likes, and there are few things he will not do. But if he is
+watched by half-a-dozen men and more, let him be ever so stout a man, it
+cows him down. At the least of his motions, he's got a dozen hands upon
+him, and he's laughed at to boot. But if they put Viola into the
+chaff-loft, which I understand they think of doing, they may whistle for
+him, that's all."
+
+"But how the deuce will you do it?" asked Voelgyeshy, whose temper was
+not proof to the old soldier's circumstantial explanations.
+
+"In this way, your worship," whispered the old hussar, in a still lower
+voice: "the chaff-loft is next to the steward's house, and there's a
+door between the granary and the steward's loft, isn't there?"
+
+"Yes, so there is. What next?" said Kalman.
+
+"As I said before, there's a door from the granary to the steward's
+loft--(I'd not like that door, at all, if the corn were mine)--but
+that's neither here nor there; it serves the steward's purpose, I dare
+say, and at present it serves ours."
+
+"Go on, man!" cried Kalman.
+
+"The key of the granary," continued the hussar, "is in your lady
+mother's hands, and it's you who'll get it for us?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's all we want. To-night, when they are all asleep, we go to the
+granary, walk through the door to the steward's loft, and from thence to
+the chaff-loft. That loft is, as it were, glued to the house; the
+wood-work consists of thin planks. Peti, the gipsy, knows it to a
+nicety. We remove a couple of planks, put a ladder through the hole, and
+Viola gets up by it, and out by the door of the granary. Once in the
+open air, he's saved. Peti is gone after your worship's Gulyash, who is
+to send his horse. I tell you, sir, they may whistle for him when Viola
+has once got a horse between his legs!"
+
+Kalman clapped his hands with joy, and Voelgyeshy himself commended the
+arrangement and its details; but he remarked that there were a thousand
+chances for or against its execution.
+
+"Never mind," said Janosh; "if you put Viola into that loft, and the key
+of the granary into my hands, I'll be hanged if we don't do them!
+There's no window to the loft, consequently no one can look in from
+without; and when they're once asleep, we have it all to ourselves."
+
+"But what will you do with the sentinels? And besides, there's the
+steward close by you. He's likely to hear the noise, and to alarm the
+house."
+
+"I'll pocket the sentinels," said the hussar, contemptuously. "The
+inspector is a-bed with his wounds; if you make the justice and that
+fellow Kenihazy drunk, to prevent them from going their rounds,--and
+nothing is more easy than to make _them_ drunk,--and if you do your duty
+as a landlord to the sentinels, and make them drunk, too, I do not care
+for the steward's noise. But I don't think he'll make any. When he's
+once in bed, it's no small matter will get him out of it. The key is the
+great thing, and Viola must be put into the chaff-loft."
+
+"If that's all," cried Kalman, "you need not care!" and, accompanied by
+Voelgyeshy, he returned to the dining-room, where they found Vandory, the
+curate of Tissaret, who had informed the court of his request, and who
+was just in the act of replying with great warmth to the objections of
+Zatonyi and Baron Shoskuty. The assessor appealed to the ancient custom
+of keeping culprits under the sentence of a court-martial in the open
+air; Baron Shoskuty protested that it was wrong to abuse Lady Kishlaki's
+hospitality for the benefit of so arrant a knave as Viola undoubtedly
+was; but the curate's request was so energetically supported by Kalman's
+father and mother, that the interference of the two young men seemed
+likely to do more harm than good.
+
+"I do not, indeed, see the necessity of placing the prisoner in a room,"
+remarked Mr. Catspaw, very politely. "The provision in the articles is
+confined to the winter months, and I dare say that Viola ought, by this
+time, to be accustomed to the night air."
+
+"Never mind his catching a cold in his throat," cried Mr. Skinner;
+"to-morrow morning we'll give him a choke."
+
+"None of your jokes, sir," said Mr. Catspaw, who remarked the
+unfavourable impression which the justice's words made on the company.
+"This is no laughing matter," continued he, with a deep sigh. "As I
+said, I do not indeed think it necessary, and I protest it is not even
+legal to give the prisoner houseroom: but if it can relieve our dear
+hostess's tender mind, I will not oppose Mr. Vandory's request, provided
+always that the place be safe, that the windows have bars, and the door
+bolts and locks, and that sentinels are duly placed before it."
+
+"If your worships please," said the steward, who had followed Vandory
+into the room; "I know of a place with no window at all."
+
+"Ay, the cellar!" said Zatonyi. "Yes, that's right. It struck me from
+the first that was the place."
+
+"No! not by any means!" protested the steward; "there's lots of wine in
+the cellar, my master's property, and entrusted to my care. Nobody is
+imprisoned in the cellar, if I have my will! But there's the chaff-loft
+at your service; it has a lock and a key, and no window; and if you put
+a sentinel before the door, the prisoner is as safe as any state
+prisoner at Munkatsh."
+
+Vandory, and especially Lady Kishlaki, resisted this proposal because no
+fire could be lighted in the place; but on Kalman's protesting that
+nothing could be more futile than this objection, the resolution was
+carried by acclamation, and Messrs. Skinner, Kenihazy, and Catspaw
+accompanied Vandory to the steward's house, for the purpose of
+inspecting the place, and witnessing the removal of the prisoner.
+Voelgyeshy and Kalman followed at a distance.
+
+"Be careful!" said the lawyer. "Did you remark Catspaw's stare, when you
+told them Viola could do without a fire?"
+
+"Yes, I did. I see it's no good to be too clever. But I'll make up for
+it. I'll object to the room--I'll----"
+
+"Worse and worse!" said Voelgyeshy. "Leave them alone, and believe me, if
+that loft is the worst place in the house, they'll put him there, and
+nowhere else."
+
+The truth of Voelgyeshy's words was borne out by the event. Mr. Catspaw
+indeed made some curious inquiries about the solidity of the building,
+but he was quickly put down by the steward, who replied with great
+dignity, that Mr. Kishlaki, his master, was not in the habit of
+constructing his houses of mud. The attorney, thus rebuked, turned away,
+and the place was forthwith furnished with a table, a stool, and a heap
+of straw.
+
+Mr. Kishlaki, pretending to suffer from a headache, retired to his room,
+whither his wife followed him. Zatonyi and the Baron walked in the
+drawing-room, and laughed at the ridiculous sentimentality of their
+host, at Vandory's still more ridiculous philanthropy, and at
+Voelgyeshy's impertinence. They interrupted this charitable conversation
+at times with deep sighs, and longing looks at the card-tables; for they
+waited for Messrs. Catspaw and Skinner.
+
+While his guests were thus employed, Mr. Kishlaki sat in his room,
+leaning his head in his hand, and so entirely given up to thought, that
+his pipe went out without his being aware of it.
+
+"Treshi, my soul!" said he at length, turning to his wife, "Treshi, I am
+a wretch!"
+
+Lady Kishlaki sighed, and her husband went on.
+
+"I know, Treshi, you will not love me as you used to do, and it's the
+same with Kalman. When you see me you'll think: he might have saved the
+poor fellow's life, and he wouldn't do it!"
+
+Lady Kishlaki said a few words of comfort; but the old man shook his
+head, and continued:
+
+"No, Treshi! that man's life was in my hands, and I killed him. His
+blood is on my soul."
+
+The good woman's heart yielded to the sincerity of his sorrow, and
+instead of reproaching him, as she intended, she sought to comfort him,
+by protesting that the responsibility, if there was any, lay equally
+with the other judges. "Besides," added she, "how frequently have you
+not sat in a common court, without feeling remorse and sorrow!"
+
+"Oh, that's a very different thing," replied Kishlaki. "In a common
+court a man is allowed to vote after his conscience, and the sentence is
+found by a majority. There is no idea of the life of the prisoner
+depending upon a single vote; the sentence is sent to the upper court,
+and to the king's government, and if it is executed, I need not reproach
+myself with being the _sole_ cause of the prisoner's death. But to think
+that nothing was wanted to-day but my single simple word of 'non
+content;' that I did not say the word, and that it was I who killed that
+fellow,--goodness gracious! it breaks my heart. I hate myself, and I
+feel that others cannot love me."
+
+"But if that is your view of the case," said his wife, with tears in her
+eyes; "why, for God's sake, did you vote as you did?"
+
+"Why, indeed?" cried Kishlaki, pacing the room in a state of great
+excitement; "because I am a poor weak fool; because I was afraid of them
+when they told me my conduct was ridiculous; because Mr. Catspaw, and
+the whole lot of them, called out, that the Retys would never forgive me
+if Viola's depositions were taken down; and because I thought of
+Kalman's love to Etelka. And Voelgyeshy walked away and left me by
+myself----"
+
+"I cannot think that the Retys should be guilty of such infamous
+conduct----"
+
+"Nor I! I am sure it's a trick of Catspaw's; and it tricks me out of my
+reputation, name, and peace of mind."
+
+"Do not say so!" cried Lady Kishlaki. "Who will dare to attack your
+reputation?"
+
+"Who? Everybody! Perhaps Voelgyeshy is right. On consideration, it
+strikes me that the protocol was irregular; and if so, who's to be
+blamed for it? I, the president of the court. But I wouldn't mind that!
+I would not mind it in the least, if they called me a dunce, and a
+cullion, and a zany, and what not--but to step from my door, and to see
+the wretched man hanging on my own ground, whom I might have saved, and
+to think of his wife and his children, how they clasped my knees, and
+begged for his life--oh, I'm undone!"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Kalman, who entered the room at that moment. "It's in
+your power to release Viola."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Kishlaki; "and still the subject is too serious for
+jokes. But it's impossible."
+
+"There's a legal impossibility, if you like," replied the young man;
+"for in law, I take it, it is thought impossible for two witnesses to
+tell lies, though one witness may, and for a judge to be a party against
+the culprit. But, thank heaven! there are other expedients."
+
+"No appeal is possible from a court-martial," sighed Kishlaki.
+
+"But still there is an appeal, and we'll make it. It's an appeal to the
+future!"
+
+"What does he say? I cannot understand it," said the old man.
+
+"But _I_ do!" cried Lady Kishlaki. "You have planned his escape, have
+you not?"
+
+"I have, my dear mother. When he is once at large, we will make an
+appeal; and if the worst come to the worst, he'll come before God's
+judgment-seat at the end of his life. God will re-consider this day's
+proceedings, and the sentence. But I know that the law cannot now do any
+thing for him: indeed, the law may possibly condemn the step I am about
+to take; but I don't care for it. My conscience tells me that what I do
+is right; and if the Skinners and Catspaws are _in_ the law, why it's an
+honour to be out of it."
+
+Lady Kishlaki doted on her son; and her joy at his bold and manly speech
+passed all bounds.
+
+"You are right," said she, with that peculiar tone which marks a proud
+and a happy woman: "you are right to scorn the law which would force us
+to hang that wretched man on our own ground. Save his life; and may God
+bless you for making your mother happy!"
+
+Mr. Kishlaki, too, seemed relieved when he understood that there was a
+means of saving Viola's life; but he soon fell back into his
+characteristic irresolution.
+
+"Take care," said he. "I cannot see how----"
+
+"Leave him alone to manage it," cried Lady Kishlaki. "The moment I heard
+him speak, I knew that his young mind, fertile in expedients,----"
+
+"There you are mistaken, my sweet mother!" said Kalman, smiling. "That
+young mind which, fertile in expedients, found the means for Viola's
+flight, belongs not to me, but to old Janosh." And he proceeded to
+detail the manner in which they hoped to effect their purpose.
+
+"This, then, was the reason why you would not allow Viola to be put into
+a better place!" said his mother. "I thought you cruel and
+inconsiderate."
+
+"And you wronged me," cried Kalman, gaily: "but, to make up for it, you
+must assist us. I want the keys of the cellar and granary; for, in
+Hungary, there's no getting on without the two. Will you trust me with
+them?"
+
+"With all my heart!" said Lady Kishlaki, handing him the keys. "Spare me
+not; let them do as they please. Give the haiduks Tokay, if it must be;
+but do save that poor man!"
+
+Mr. Kishlaki walked, meanwhile, to and fro in a terrible state of
+excitement. His wife followed him; and, placing her hand on his
+shoulder, she asked: "What is the matter with you?"
+
+"I think of the confounded scrape into which my weakness has brought me.
+It was in my power to save that man: I might have done it orderly and
+legally; and what's the consequence? My only son is compelled to step
+in, and get himself into trouble, perhaps he will destroy the brightest
+hopes of his life, and I am not even allowed to ask him to desist."
+
+"My dear father!" cried Kalman; "how can I possibly destroy my hopes by
+saving the life of a fellow-creature?"
+
+"Who knows what the Retys will do when they learn that it was you who
+saved Viola? You are aware of Lady Rety's vindictive character. I am
+sure she hates you for what you did for Tengelyi."
+
+"It does not signify,", replied Kalman, quietly. "I ask no favour at the
+hands of Rety or his haughty lady; and as for Etelka, I trust this
+letter will convince you that she, at least, will not owe me any grudge
+for what I mean to do." Saying which, he produced the letter which
+Janosh had brought him.
+
+"She is an angelic creature; she is, indeed!" said Lady Kishlaki,
+looking over her husband's shoulder, as he read the letter. "You are
+right, my son. You're in duty bound to save Viola."
+
+"It's the first letter I ever had from Etelka," cried Kalman. "If she
+asked me to commit a crime, I'd do it with the greatest pleasure; and
+this----"
+
+"God forbid that I should oppose it!" said the old man. "Your motives
+are good and generous; but still, what you intend doing is a crime
+according to law. If you should be detected, I tremble to think of the
+consequences!"
+
+"Our success is certain," said Kalman. "Nothing can be more easy than to
+make the haiduks drunk. To keep them sober would be a far more difficult
+task. There's a door, of which I have the key. Nothing can be more
+simple."
+
+"But suppose they were to know of it? Suppose they were to indict you?"
+
+"Indict _me_?" cried Kalman, laughing. "My dear father, are you not
+aware that, to proceed against me, they must have the consent of the
+quorum? How will they ever get it?" And, pocketing the keys, he left the
+room.
+
+"A generous lad!" said his mother. "How can Etelka help being fond of
+him?"
+
+"Capital plan!" sighed Kishlaki; "capital plan, if it remains a secret.
+It's indeed a generous action; but it's criminal, my love; it's against
+the laws."
+
+"Do not worry yourself with these thoughts."
+
+"And to think that I had it in my power to prevent it!"
+
+"Never mind. Viola is saved; that's enough for all intents and
+purposes."
+
+"A cruel law, this," sighed Kishlaki. "I wonder what stuff the man was
+made of who first proposed it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IX
+
+
+To make people reasonable is a difficult thing at all times; but there
+are cases in which it is not less difficult to make them unreasonable.
+Kalman Kishlaki was doomed to learn the truth of this maxim, for all his
+endeavours to induce Mr. Skinner to drink away the niggardly allowance
+of sense with which Nature had provided that individual, proved
+abortive. As for Mr. Catspaw, we need not mention _him_, for he was one
+of those wretches who are always sober. To intoxicate _him_ was a thing
+that Kalman never dreamed of. The other guests, not even excepting Baron
+Shoskuty, answered without any invitations, and as it were
+spontaneously, to the wishes of their young host; the judge alone stood
+unshaken, like a sturdy rock in a troubled sea. Mr. Skinner was one of
+the deepest drinkers in the county; he was not indeed a stranger to the
+condition in which Kalman wished to see him; but the presence of
+Voelgyeshy, whom he hated, the admonitions of Mr. Catspaw, and above all
+his honest ambition to add fresh honours to his former trophies, made
+him proof against any quantity of wine which Kalman induced him to
+take.
+
+"You'd like to make me drunk, now, wouldn't you?" said he, tossing off a
+large tumbler of red wine. "Don't be ridiculous, my fine fellow! who
+ever saw _me_ drunk?"
+
+"_I_ have," smiled Mr. Kenihazy from his place at the card-table; "I've
+seen you as drunk as David's sow!"
+
+"Who did?" cried Mr. Skinner.
+
+Zatonyi, who, leaning on his elbows, watched Mr. Catspaw shuffling the
+cards, raised his head at the sound of the judge's shrill voice, and
+observed that, after all, the day's business was neatly done.
+
+"This is my sixteenth case," added he; "and, somehow or other, we always
+managed to do for somebody."
+
+"_Nihil ad rem!_" cried Mr. Skinner; "it's this man I want to ask."
+
+"_Nihil ad rem_, indeed!" hiccoughed Zatonyi, "are not we in
+court-martial assembled? It is provided that the court shall sit until
+the sentence has been executed."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! it's nothing _ad rem_, I tell you! I want to ask
+Kenihazy!"
+
+"Oh, fiddlesticks! eh?" cried the assessor, striking the table with his
+fist, "when I say--eh, what did I want to say? yes, that's it, that's no
+fiddlesticks! Consider, _domine spectabilis_, to whom you're speaking,
+and where you are; I say, sir, lie prostrate in the face of the sanctity
+of the place; for, sir, this is a court-martial!"
+
+Mr. Skinner became more and more impatient.
+
+Kalman, who hoped that a quarrel between them would serve his purposes
+better than the heaviest Tokay, nodded approvingly to Zatonyi, who went
+on, to the great annoyance of Mr. Skinner, though doubtless very much to
+his own satisfaction.
+
+"This is not a place for your frivolous jokes, sir--frivolous, I say,
+sir; and make the most of it, if you please! Up to the criminal's
+execution, we sit as a court-martial--all the time, sir, without
+intermission, without--fiddlesticks! It is provided in the articles,
+chapter four thousand five hundred and twenty-four, that we are to eat
+in court-martial, sir, and we play at Tarok in court-martial, sir, and
+we----"
+
+"Cease your row!" snarled the justice.
+
+"I will make a row! And I must make a row, and I'm entitled to make a
+row, and I'd like to see the man who'd prevent me from making a row!
+I'm as much of an assessor as any man in the county!"
+
+The Baron had meanwhile studied his cards. He was prepared to come out
+strong, and he urged them to continue the game; but neither Mr. Skinner
+nor Kenihazy would listen to him, for Kalman did his utmost to excite
+them still more. Mr. Skinner fancied he saw a sneer on Voelgyeshy's lips,
+which he could not ascribe to any thing but the doubts which it was
+evident that hated person entertained of his assertion, that he, Paul
+Skinner, would drink three glasses to Mr. Kenihazy's one, and remain
+sober into the bargain.
+
+"Don't boast!" said Kalman. "I'll never believe you."
+
+"You won't?"
+
+"No, indeed! I'll back Kenihazy against anybody."
+
+"You will, will you? I say two cows to my greyhound."
+
+"Done! Your greyhound is mangy; but I don't care. I am sure to win."
+
+"Done, I say! Hand us the glasses."
+
+Kalman could scarcely repress a smile of triumph, while Mr. Catspaw
+moved heaven and earth to prevent the bet; but Kenihazy laughed, and
+emptied his glass, the valorous judge followed his lead with three
+glasses, and the game was continued, though rather more noisily than
+before.
+
+While Kalman was thus occupied in settling the masters, Janosh imitated
+his example with signal success in the servants' hall; indeed so
+strenuous were his attacks upon the general sobriety, that scarcely one
+of the haiduks and peasants was left to whom an impartial observer would
+have awarded the laurels of abstinence.
+
+A deep silence prevailed in the prisoner's room, at the door of which
+two of the least intoxicated among the haiduks were placed. Vandory had
+passed above an hour in the cell, attempting to administer the comforts
+of religion to the condemned criminal; and when he left, Susi came to
+take her last leave of her husband, for, according to Mr. Skinner's
+express orders, she was forbidden to remain later than nine o'clock.
+
+Both Viola and Susi were fearfully anxious and disturbed in their minds.
+Viola had often thought of the death which awaited him. From the moment
+of his capture in the St. Vilmosh forest, he knew that his doom was
+fixed. He made no excuses to the judges, he gave them no fair words; not
+from pride, but because he knew that neither prayers nor promises could
+avail him. And what, after all, is death but the loss of life? And was
+his life of those which a man would grieve to lose? There were his wife
+and children--but was it not likely that they would be happier, or at
+least quieter, _after_ the misfortune in whose anticipation they passed
+their days? Of what good could _he_ be to his wife? Was he not the cause
+of her misery? of her homeless beggary? Of what use could _he_ be to his
+children? Was not his name a stigma on their lives? Could he hope, could
+he pray for any thing for them, except that they might be as unlike
+their father as possible?
+
+"When I am gone," thought he, "who knows but people may forget that I
+ever lived? My wife, too, will, perhaps, forget that accursed creature,
+whose life filled hers with shame and sorrow. My children will have
+other names; they will go to another place, and all will be well and
+good. I have but one duty, and that is to die."
+
+His tranquillity of mind was disturbed by the plan of escape which
+Janosh communicated to him. The old soldier was, indeed, resolved to
+delay that communication till the last moment, lest Susi's excitement
+and joy should attract the attention and awaken the suspicions of the
+justice and his myrmidons. But when he entered the room which had been
+assigned to Susi and her children; when he saw the pale woman nursing
+the youngest child in her arms, and utterly lost in the gloom of her
+despair; when Pishta, with his eyes red with weeping, came up to him,
+asking him to comfort his mother, and when the infant awoke, and smiled
+at him, the old hussar was not proof against so much love and so much
+sorrow; and when Susi, kissing the child, exclaimed, "The poor little
+thing knows not how soon it will be an orphan!" he wept, and cried out,
+"No, no, Susi! this here child is as little likely to become an orphan
+as you are likely to be a widow!" And it was only by her look of utter
+amazement that he became conscious of what he had said.
+
+There were now no means of keeping the secret. Little Pishta was sent
+away, and Janosh told her in a whisper of all that they intended to do.
+
+"You see," added he, "we've thought of everything. Don't fret, now; in a
+few hours, when the gentlemen and the keepers are asleep, (and they are
+settled, I tell you,) you'll see your husband at large, and on
+horseback, too. It's no use being sad, and it's no use despairing--that
+is to say--yes! I mean you ought to despair; you ought to be sad; come,
+wail and pray, and ask for mercy! else they'll smell a rat. I am an old
+fool, and ought to know better than to tell you, for if you cannot
+impose upon them, it's all over with us."
+
+Susi whispered some questions to Janosh, to which he answered in the
+same subdued tone of voice; adding,
+
+"Give me your child, that I may look at it, and dance it on my knee.
+What a sweet child it is!" said he, his whole face radiant with smiles;
+"I never saw a prettier child: and it laughs, too, and at me! No, my
+fine fellow, we won't let your father come to harm. Ej, Susi, I wish to
+goodness I had a child like this!"
+
+"My children will love you as their second father," said she, with a
+happy and grateful look.
+
+"Yes, as their _second_ father," said the old man, sighing; "but it must
+be a fine thing to be loved as a real father. I say, Susi, I've often
+thought why God hasn't given _me_ children. You'll say it's because I
+have no wife. That's true. But why haven't I got a wife? If they had not
+sent me to the wars, I'd be a grandfather by this time; and, believe me,
+I'd give my silver medal and my cross for such children as yours. I'd
+give them both for a single child! Well, God's will be done. Perhaps I
+have no children because if I had I'd not be so fond of other people's.
+Young children are all equally beautiful; there's no difference between
+them. They are fresh and lively, like river trout; but in course of time
+one half of them turn out to be frogs, and worse."
+
+Janosh saw that Pishta came back with Vandory to call his mother to
+Viola. Imploring her not to betray the secret, he walked away, fearful
+lest Susi should want the strength to dissemble her thoughts. His
+anxiety on this head was perfectly gratuitous. The good news, which Susi
+communicated to her husband, filled them both with unspeakable dismay.
+Whoever could have seen Viola would have thought that his stout heart
+was at last overcome with the fear of death. Need we marvel at this? Was
+not life powerful within him, trembling in every nerve, throbbing in
+every vein? Was not his wife by his side? Could he forget his children,
+whom his death might drive to ruin and, possibly, to crime? Viola had
+long wished to change his mode of life. He was now at liberty to do so.
+The brother of the Gulyash was dead. The poor man died at the moment
+when he was preparing to take his wife and three children to another
+county, where a place as Gulyash was promised to him. The papers and
+passports which were necessary for this purpose were in the hands of
+old Ishtvan, who had promised to take Viola to the place. There, above a
+hundred miles from the scene of his misfortunes, in a lonely tanya,
+where nobody knew him or cared to know him, could he not hope to live
+happily, peacefully, and contentedly? But did not that happiness hang on
+a slender thread, indeed? Were there not a hundred chances between him
+and its attainment? A whim of the justice's, a different position of the
+sentinels, the noise of a falling plank, could snatch the cup of life
+and liberty from his lips, and cast him back into the valley of the
+shadow of death.
+
+He was in this state of mind when Mr. Skinner made his appearance in the
+cell. He was accompanied by Mr. Catspaw and the steward, for his
+_umbra_, Kenihazy, was in a state which rendered him unfit to be company
+to any one, even to Mr. Skinner. The change in Viola's manner was too
+striking to escape the attention of either the attorney or the steward.
+The justice perambulated the cell with a show of great dignity, and a
+futile attempt to examine into the condition of the walls. He poked his
+stick into the straw which served Viola for a lair; when the steward
+walked up to him, and whispered that the robber had lost all his former
+boldness.
+
+"Indeed!" cried Mr. Skinner, with a shrill laugh. "I say, Viola,
+where's your pluck? Where's your impertinence, man? Ain't you going to
+die game, eh, Viola?"
+
+"Sir," said the robber, biting his lips, "the step which I am preparing
+to take is bitter, and, I will own it, I feel for my family. What is to
+become of them?"
+
+"Your family? Oh! your wife! Never mind; _I'll_ protect her."
+
+Viola looked daggers at the man; but he curbed his temper and was
+silent.
+
+"And as for your children," continued the justice in a bantering tone,
+"they're very fine children, are they not?--eh? Well, they'll grow up,
+and come to be hanged--eh? But what's the use of this palaver? I say,
+Susi, be off! You've had plenty of time for your gossip; and I say,
+Viola, make your will and all that sort of thing."
+
+The prisoner, deeply sensible of his precarious position, embraced his
+trembling wife: but Susi would not leave him; she clung to him in all
+the madness of sorrow.
+
+"I say! you've had time enough to howl and lament!" cried the justice.
+"Make an end of it, and be off!" And suiting the action to the word, he
+seized Susi by her dress, and led her to the door. Mr. Catspaw and the
+steward followed her; but the justice stayed behind, gloating over the
+sufferings of the prisoner. At length he laughed, and said,--"I say,
+Viola, who's the man that's in at the death? Who'll swing? I said I'd do
+it, and you see I'm as good as my word!" And turning on his heels, he
+left the room, and locked the door.
+
+Two of the soberest men were placed in the hall to watch that door; but
+even they, thanks to the endeavours of Janosh, were not sober enough for
+Mr. Catspaw, who was just in the act of lamenting that, in consequence
+of their host's excessive liberality, there was not a man in the house
+but was drunk, when he was interrupted by Mr. Skinner.
+
+"Who is drunk? What is drunk?" said the worthy justice, turning fiercely
+upon the attorney. "I say, sir, nobody's drunk here--no one was drunk
+here--no one will be drunk--and indeed no one can be drunk! That's what
+_I_ say, sir! Who dares to contradict me?"
+
+"Don't be a fool!" whispered the attorney; "who the devil said any thing
+of _you_? But look at these fellows! they're roaring drunk."
+
+"D--n you, he's right!--Confound you, you _are_ roaring drunk! Blast me,
+I'll have you hanged! If that robber escapes, one of you shall swing in
+his place! I say, fellows, look sharp! It's truly disgusting,"
+continued the sapient justice, "that men _will_ get drunk--drown their
+reason in wine, for all the world like so many beasts."
+
+The sentinels vowed, as usual, that they had not had a drop ever so
+long, and that the prisoner should not escape though he were the very
+devil; but Mr. Catspaw, alike distrustful of their vigilance and
+sobriety, insisted on seeing the door double-locked, and on taking away
+the key. Mr. Skinner protested against this encroachment on the duties
+of his office. He knew that the attorney suspected him of being less
+sober than he might have been, and this suspicion rendered him the more
+obstinate. He pocketed the key and sought his bed-room, denouncing drink
+and drunkards in the true temperance meeting style.
+
+The inmates of Kishlak manor-house followed his example. The judges, the
+sentinels at the gate and round the house, the steward, and all retired
+to rest; and although Susi watched, though Kalman paced his own room
+with all the impatience of his age, and though old Kishlaki himself, for
+the first time since many years, courted sleep in vain, yet the house
+and its environs were hushed and silent. Stillness reigned in the
+prisoner's cell; the sentinels at the door stood gaping, and waiting for
+the hour of their relief. The night was cold, and though they did their
+best to keep the cold out, or at least out of their stomachs, they
+shivered and complained of the chilly night air. Janosh, who seemed to
+like the cold and darkness, had meanwhile met Peti, who held Viola's
+horse at the further end of the garden. The gipsy brought a crowbar and
+all other tools which they wanted for their purpose; he told the hussar
+that the Gulyash Ishtvan had promised to bring his cart and horses to
+the threshing-floor, in order to take away Susi and her children. The
+old soldier was greatly pleased with this good news. He tied the horse
+to the garden gate, and told the gipsy to conceal himself somewhere near
+the loft. This done, he went to look after the sentinels, whom, to his
+great disgust, he found still awake.
+
+"Is it not ten o'clock?" asked one of them, when Janosh came up.
+
+"Of course it is!" said his comrade. "I'd rather do any robot service
+than this cold kind of work. It's too much for a soldier, and it's far
+too much for me. My comrade here was in the wars; he tells me they never
+force soldiers to play the sentinel so long as we must."
+
+"Who can help it?" said the other man. "It's by order, you know."
+
+"Oh, indeed! It's easy enough, I dare say, to give an order; go and
+come! stand still! be starved with hunger and cold!--nothing's more easy
+than play the devil with a poor fellow, while they are stretching their
+limbs in their warm beds. At least they ought to give us something to
+eat, or some brandy; I'm sure I was never so cold in all my born days!"
+
+"Don't get sulky!" said Janosh. "I'll tell you what I'll do for you.
+Master Kalman has given me a bottle of brandy to drink his health.
+Suppose I go for it. It's nearly full."
+
+He went away and told Kalman how matters stood. When he returned, he
+brought them a bottle of Sliwowiza and a loaf of bread.
+
+"You see," said he, "that's the way things go on when there's no proper
+officer. If the judge or any of the other gentlemen had been in the
+army, they would have made some provision for you, and got some one to
+relieve you, but as it is----"
+
+"Why, I do hope and trust they will relieve us!" cried one of the men.
+
+"Blessed are those that put their trust in the Lord," retorted Janosh,
+laughing; "I'd be happy to know who is to relieve you? Why, man, they're
+all asleep!"
+
+"Give me the bottle! I'm as cold as ice!" said the other man, shaking
+his head, while his comrade stood drowsily leaning on his musket.
+
+Janosh handed him the bottle, and assured the two men that there was no
+chance of their being relieved from their duty, and that nothing was
+more likely than their falling asleep about daybreak, the very time when
+the justice would go his rounds,--in which case he (Janosh) had no
+ambition to be in their skins. The bottle went from hand to hand, to
+keep them awake, as Janosh said, until the poor fellows swore that they
+would not stand it any longer, and that, come what may, they must sleep.
+
+"Very well!" said Janosh; "I've been in the wars, you know! I'm used to
+the service. You see I'm not at all sleepy. You may go to the shed and
+lie on the straw, and when I'm tired I'll wake you. A little sleep will
+do you good; and by the time the justice turns out you'll be all right."
+
+His offer was readily accepted. The two men walked off, and their loud
+snoring soon informed Janosh that there was now no obstacle to the
+execution of his plans. Leaving the musket behind, he walked to the
+shed, where he assured himself of the firm and sound sleep of the two
+sentinels; and, having done this, he hastened to the loft, where Peti
+and Kalman waited for him. Janosh pulled off his boots, (there was no
+occasion for the gipsy's following his example,) and, having lighted a
+lamp, he crept up the stairs to the top of the house. Kalman kept watch
+by the lower door. Wrapped up in his cloak, he listened with a beating
+heart, lest something might interfere with the success of their scheme.
+
+Something of the kind was likely to happen. Kalman was scarcely at his
+post when he heard the sound of steps approaching from the house in
+which the judges slept. The young man stepped aside to escape being
+discovered, and he had already begun to blame himself for failing to
+"settle" Mr. Skinner sufficiently, when he saw that the person who
+approached the place, holding a lamp in one hand and a cudgel in the
+other, was not Skinner, but Mr. Catspaw, the attorney. Kalman raised his
+hand, and was preparing to rush forward, with a view of "doing for" the
+lawyer by knocking him down; when, luckily for the attorney, it struck
+him that that delicate operation could not be performed without some
+noise, and, consequently, not without hazarding the success of the
+enterprise. Mr. Catspaw was therefore allowed to pass on, which that
+worthy man did with the utmost unconcern. But his peaceful and happy
+state of mind was changed to utter disgust, confusion, and dismay,
+when, on reaching the door of Viola's cell, he found that there were no
+sentinels to guard the prisoner.
+
+"Confound it!" muttered he, "they're after no good in this house. That
+young fellow Kalman has made them all drunk--Skinner, the sentinels, the
+servants, and all. They would like Viola to escape. They tried it this
+morning, and as it was no go, they mean to do it by brute force.
+Confound them! I'll go back and wake some of the men,--I'll remain here
+and watch the door,--what the devil am I to do? That fellow must be got
+out of the way! If the case is tried in a common court, he'll say enough
+to implicate me in the matter; and goodness knows what may come of it!
+There are some who hate me!----" And the attorney was about to return to
+the lower parts of the house, when his attention was attracted by an
+extraordinary noise, which seemed to come from the prisoner's cell. The
+noise resembled that of the breaking of planks. He crept to the door and
+listened. There was the creaking and the sound of the raising of planks;
+and immediately afterwards there was a sound of some heavy object being
+carefully lowered into the cell.
+
+"They are breaking through the ceiling!" cried the attorney; "d--n them!
+I'll stop them yet!" and, in defiance of his usual prudence, he
+attempted, though unsuccessfully, to open the door. He cursed Skinner
+for pocketing the key. Peti and Janosh, who were at work on the upper
+loft, had provided themselves with a ladder, which they lowered into the
+cell, the noise of which operation was distinctly heard by Kalman, and,
+indeed, by the sentinels in the shed, whom it awaked, though not
+sufficiently to induce them to get up, which, considering the quantity
+of liquor they had drunk, was by no means an easy matter. But if the
+noise was lost upon them, it was not lost upon the steward; on the
+contrary, so effectually did it tell upon him, that he fell into an
+agony of fear and despair.
+
+That worthy servant of the Kishlakis had never donned his nightcap with
+so proud and happy a feeling as on that night. The great condescension
+of the members of the court, nor even excepting the Baron, for all that
+he was a magnate; the important duties which he had to perform, such as
+the guarding of the prisoner, the construction of the gallows, and other
+arrangements which required ability and tact, and which brought out his
+"_savoir faire_," gave him still stronger feelings of his own importance
+than those which usually pervaded his unwieldy frame. He gloried in
+himself, and lay awake, magnifying and exalting his own name.
+
+"I'm born for better things," said he. "I was never meant for farming.
+To look after the manure, and the planting, and the ploughing and
+threshing,--curse it! it's slow work, and I am too good for it! I ought
+to be a lawyer. Providence created me expressly for that profession!
+Wouldn't I get on in that line! I might come to be a sheriff, and an
+assessor of the high court, and indeed a lord-lieutenant, and a magnate
+of the empire! For what place is too high for a Hungarian lawyer?"
+
+Such were the stout man's thoughts. His imagination borrowed a glow from
+his cups, (for he, too, had drunk deep), and the cares of his fancied
+honours and dignities kept him awake, in spite of the fatigues of the
+day, and, indeed, in spite of his own endeavours to go to sleep. He, to
+whom it was an easy matter to talk a whole party to sleep, now vainly
+exerted his skill upon himself. He tried every means; he occupied
+himself with figures and accounts. But the figures danced in a wild
+maze, and, somehow or other, the accounts would not tally. He opened his
+eyes, and looked around. The dying glare of his candle threw a dim light
+on the objects in the room, filling it with gaunt and shadowy forms. He
+shuddered, and extinguished the candle; but the darkness made matters
+worse. His thoughts _would_ run on robberies and murders. The greatest
+brigand in the county, a man sentenced to death, was a prisoner in his
+house. Who knows what Viola's friends were about? Perhaps they were
+numerous. Perhaps they were formidable and fierce. Nothing was more
+natural than that they should attack the house, and liberate their
+captain. And if so, what was to become of the poor steward, who had so
+jealously watched lest he might escape, and who had protested, yes, and
+in the presence of at least a hundred people, every one of whom might
+have told the robbers of it, that Viola must needs be hanged? That
+thought made him shake in his bed. And besides, was not his door wide
+open? Did he not keep it open ever since he was afraid of apoplexy? What
+was to prevent the outlaws from entering his room, and hanging him on
+his bed-post? Nothing; for the haiduk, whose duty it was to sleep on the
+threshold, had been taken away to join the watch on Viola.
+
+The poor steward's alarm had come to its _acme_, when he heard the noise
+of steps in the loft over his head. He sat up in his bed. He heard the
+steps very distinctly, and immediately afterwards he heard the creaking
+and breaking of the planks. Yes! the most dreaded event had come to
+pass. The robbers were at their work of death and destruction! They
+were burning the house, and cutting the throats of all the inmates!
+"Gracious God!" groaned he, clasping his hands. What _could_ he do? He
+might lock the door! There was a singing in his ear, his heart beat
+irregularly, his breath failed him, his face was covered with sweat, and
+his limbs trembled,--all these were symptoms of an apoplectic fit. "If I
+lock the door, I am utterly lost!" thought he; "for no one can come to
+my assistance!" He hid his head under the blankets. But the noise grew
+louder, and he fancied somebody was breaking through the wall of the
+room next to his. Perhaps there were not less than a hundred robbers;
+perhaps they were bent upon torturing him! Unless the door was locked,
+there was no possibility of screaming for help; for he knew the first
+thing they intended to do was to gag him. But then, he was in a
+perspiration; the room was icy cold: to get up and stand on the cold
+floor was literally courting a fit of apoplexy. But when he heard Mr.
+Catspaw hallooing, his fear got the better of all other considerations.
+He jumped out of bed, wrapped himself up in a blanket, and ran to the
+door. But what can equal his horror when he heard the door of the
+corridor turning on its hinges, and when quick steps approached him! He
+dropped the blanket because it interfered with his movements, and
+seized the key, when the door was flung open. Before him stood a small
+man, wrapped in a bunda.
+
+There is a tide in the affairs of a coward in which fear makes him a
+hero. Such a moment had come for the steward. Furious as a stag at bay,
+reckless as a man who sees certain death before him, merciless as one to
+whom no mercy is given, senseless, maddened, frenzied, he rushed upon
+the new comer, and in the very next moment Mr. Catspaw measured his
+length on the ground, and roared for help.
+
+"Murder!" screamed the attorney.
+
+"Assassin!" bawled the steward, throttling his adversary with his left
+hand while he punched the wretched man's head with his right.
+
+"He is mad!" groaned Mr. Catspaw, grasping the steward's ears, and
+returning the blows; and thus they would have passed _un vilain quart
+d'heure_, had not the noise of their combat roused the watch, who rushed
+to the field of battle, and separated the champions. Lights were
+brought, and the two worthies stood bleeding from their respective noses
+and mouths, as they gaped and stared at one another.
+
+"Was it you, sir, who wanted to steal my money?" said the steward.
+
+"He's mad!" cried the attorney: "lock him up; for he's raving mad! Be
+quick about it; the prisoner is making his escape!"
+
+They seized the steward, pushed him into his room, and locked the door.
+The poor man stood, for a moment, paralysed with an excess of fear,
+fury, and fatigue; but the cold reminded him of his danger, viz., of
+being struck with apoplexy. He crept into his bed, pondering on the
+deceit and cruelty of this wicked world.
+
+Mr. Catspaw and the servants hastened to the cell. They forced the door
+open, and found that the robber had fled, as it is but natural to
+suppose, if we consider the length of time the attorney spent in the
+embrace or, more properly speaking, under the fists of the steward. For,
+when Mr. Catspaw raised his first shout, Viola had reached the upper
+loft, from whence he leaped down stairs, and out of the house. Kalman
+locked the door of the loft, and hastened to inform Susi of the success
+of their plan, and to conduct her to the back-door of the garden, which
+they had scarcely entered, when the fleet steps of a horse, at the top
+of its speed, informed them of Viola's safety. Susi kissed Kalman's
+hand, and hastened away; while he, with the happy consciousness of a
+good deed, hastened to the steward's house, where he found nothing but
+clamour and confusion. Masters, servants, Pandurs, and peasants, with
+torches, candles, and lamps, ran in every direction, hallooing and
+screaming. Every one took his turn at the cell; and everybody declared,
+what everybody was aware of, that the prisoner had escaped through the
+ceiling; and everybody gave his advice, which nobody followed, and
+orders, which nobody obeyed. Not one of them could be induced to go in
+pursuit of the robber; and all Mr. Catspaw had for his watchfulness was
+a battered face and the loss of a couple of teeth. Nor was it until
+daybreak that they all and each became aware of the fact that they had
+neglected to pursue the robber; and, as it was not likely that Viola
+would come back of his own free will, they returned to their respective
+beds, with the exception of Kenihazy, whom--_nec ardor civium, nec frons
+instantis tyranni_--neither the shaking of the haiduks nor Skinner's
+imprecations could induce to leave his bed, and who was not, therefore,
+under the necessity of returning to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. X.
+
+
+Nothing is more painful to a man of quick and ardent feelings than to be
+compelled to inactivity, as was the case with young Rety while the
+events which we have sought to record were passing around him. His
+feverish anxiety, his petulance, and his obstinacy exceeded all bounds;
+he would certainly have left his room, and taken an active part in
+Viola's liberation, had not Etelka informed him of Vilma's anxiety for
+his safety, and her urgent entreaties that he should not leave his room
+without the permission either of Vandory or the doctor. Etelka felt her
+brother's accident more painfully than any other member of the family,
+not for his sake alone, but also for Vilma's; for she was aware how much
+the poor girl would have to suffer in consequence. It is, therefore, no
+wonder that Etelka was sad and dispirited when she retired to her
+chamber on the evening of the election-day. There was a gloom on her
+mind which she could not dispel. She knew too much of her step-mother to
+believe she would ever consent to her brother's marriage with Vilma;
+and as for her father, he had scarcely a will of his own. It was but
+natural to suppose that he would do all in his power to change his son's
+mind, partly in obedience to Lady Rety's behests, and partly because he
+hated Tengelyi. And Akosh! how could _he_ yield, when even the delay of
+a few days brought dishonour on the woman he loved? The least Etelka
+expected was a grievous domestic quarrel; the worst, a breach between
+father and son.
+
+Her thoughts were bitter; but they were qualified by at least one soft
+and kind feeling. She admired the generous manner in which Kalman
+protected Tengelyi. The young man's behaviour was as intrepid as
+disinterested. He was aware of the grudge which the sheriff bore
+Tengelyi; and he must have known that his words in the notary's behalf
+were so many barriers between him and Etelka. He knew it all, and yet he
+had spoken; and Etelka, who was convinced of his love, admired him the
+more for his reckless daring and his generous self-denial. Wrapped up in
+these thoughts, she retired to rest, though restless; and, when she
+dropped off to sleep, she was roused by the rattling of a carriage from
+her dreams of the election, robbers, her brother's pale face, and
+Kalman's bold attitude and looks of defiance. She sat up in her bed,
+and listened. A quick step was heard on the stairs and in the corridor.
+The door of the next room opened, and shut. The new comer was Mr.
+Catspaw, who, after Viola's capture, returned with the notary's papers
+to Tissaret; and whose apartments, as has been already stated, were next
+to Etelka's chamber, from which nothing divided them but a thin brick
+wall. Etelka (as, indeed, on a former occasion, her maid) heard every
+one of the attorney's movements. "Where can he have come from?" thought
+she, as she prepared to lie down again; when her attention was attracted
+by the attorney's voice. To judge from the noise he made, he was
+arranging some papers.
+
+"Here they are!" said he; "here are the notary's diplomas! Well, sir,
+who'll prove your descent? And here are the papers which Lady Rety
+wants. Right, quite right!--I'll put them in a drawer, and lock them up!
+I'll have my own price for them, won't I? that's all!"
+
+He locked the drawer and walked about the room. Etelka had great
+difficulty in catching his words; but she understood that they referred
+to some piece of knavery, when suddenly her attention was attracted by
+other steps in the corridor. The door opened again, and Mr. Catspaw
+said, in his usual shrill voice:
+
+"Victory! my lady! The day is ours! Viola is a prisoner. He fought to
+the last; but we burned his hut, and smoked him out. The papers are in
+my hands."
+
+"Where are they?" said another voice, which Etelka knew as her
+step-mother's.
+
+"I burned them, the moment I could lay my hands on them. They'll not
+give us any more trouble. They were all in a parcel, and Tengelyi's
+papers too, which your ladyship was so anxious to have."
+
+"For God's sake don't speak so loud!" said Lady Rety. "Etelka returned
+last night with her father, and if she is awake she will hear every
+word." Upon which Mr. Catspaw continued the conversation in a whisper,
+which effectually prevented Etelka from catching the thread of their
+discourse. When Lady Rety left the attorney's room, Etelka made vain
+endeavours to sleep; at the break of day she hastened to inform her
+brother of the events of the night. He induced her to write to Kalman,
+and old Janosh received orders to take the letter to Kishlak. That day
+passed in a painful uncertainty, which was but partly relieved when, on
+the following morning, Janosh returned from his expedition. Viola was
+saved; but what were Akosh and Etelka to do? They felt convinced that
+Vandory's papers were stolen in consequence of their parents', or at
+least their step-mother's, commands. Could there be any truth in the
+statement (which Kalman communicated to Akosh) that these papers had
+some relation to their father's elder brother, who had left their
+grandfather's house when a boy, and that Vandory was the guardian of the
+family secrets? But why all this mystery? Why did he not--why does he
+not explain it? Suppose their unfortunate uncle were alive, and somebody
+wished to deprive him of his property, was it to be expected that
+Vandory would be a party to so vile a transaction? And if that
+supposition is false, what papers can the curate possibly possess, that
+should tempt Lady Rety to commit a crime to obtain them? There were
+mysteries and uncertainties on every side. The papers, and with them
+Tengelyi's diplomas, had not been destroyed. Etelka knew that the
+attorney had locked them up; his having told Lady Rety that they were
+burnt, proved that he wished to keep and to use them for his own ends.
+How could Akosh obtain possession of those papers? Was it judicious to
+speak to Mr. Catspaw? But the wily attorney was sure to deny all
+knowledge of them, and to destroy or remove them at the very first
+opportunity. And how could Akosh force him to restore the stolen
+property? Not by threats of exposure, unless he wished to attack his
+parents likewise. Akosh was a prey to the most painful indecision. "What
+can we do?" cried he; "are we to suffer the rascal to rob Tengelyi of
+his rights? Are we to stand by and let him ruin that good man; or shall
+we, who are Rety's children, accuse our own parents?"
+
+"Our best plan is to do nothing at all--at least for the present," said
+Etelka. "All we can do is to watch him. He'll not destroy the papers
+immediately, or employ them for any bad purpose; and though it is
+against my principles, I mean, for once, to yield to a woman's
+curiosity, and listen to all that happens in his room. There's always
+time for extreme measures."
+
+"I am fond of seeing my way clearly," replied her brother. "We ought not
+to listen or play the spy. These people are too deep for us, and I'll
+promise you he will take good care that you hear nothing. Indeed, all
+you heard that night was owing to his not being aware of your presence.
+Our best plan is to speak to our father."
+
+"And spoil all! It's the surest way to destroy the papers. Whether he
+is privy to the affair or not, it's all the same; the papers, will
+disappear the moment he or anybody suspects _us_ of being in the
+secret."
+
+"You are right," said Akosh; "we are compelled to be patient and to
+dissemble."
+
+"Now be careful!" replied Etelka, preparing to leave the room. "I hear
+my father's footsteps in the hall. He is sure to talk of Vilma;
+therefore pray keep your temper and your counsel!"
+
+And, kissing her father's hands (whom she met at the door), Miss Rety
+withdrew.
+
+Father and son met as antagonists, and their instincts taught them an
+increase of that polite reserve which usually characterised their
+intercourse. After the necessary inquiries after his son's health, both
+were for a while silent, till at length the sheriff, with a violent
+effort, launched into the debate.
+
+"My son," said he, with a smile, which in him meant only that he was at
+a loss what expression to give to his features; "I ought to scold you
+for your late adventures, not only because they induced you to withdraw
+your influence at the election (thank goodness! we managed to do without
+you), but also for endangering your life. Consider what a father's
+feelings must be when his son behaves like you."
+
+"My dear father," replied Akosh, his voice trembling with emotion, "I am
+happy you have broached the affair. That matter must be settled, and the
+sooner the better."
+
+The sheriff was by no means pleased with the eagerness with which Akosh
+snatched at his words.
+
+"I am at your service," he said; "but I would advise you to wait before
+we come to an _eclaircissement_. Leave it till another day. You are
+excited, and perhaps suffering."
+
+"No, father," replied Akosh, "I cannot wait when my honour is concerned.
+You know I love Vilma."
+
+The sheriff smiled, and Akosh continued, with a blush:--
+
+"You need not fear my giving you a homily on my love and Vilma's
+virtues. I intend nothing of the kind; but you are aware of the
+imprudent step which Tengelyi's obstinacy induced me to take. He would
+not allow me to visit his house and see his daughter."
+
+"Tengelyi is a sensible man; at least, in a great many respects."
+
+"That may be. I, for one, will not contradict you, nor do I mean to
+argue the question whether it is reasonable to ask a man to do
+impossible things, or whether it shows good sense to oppose a strong and
+honourable feeling, and to drive it, by that very opposition, to secrecy
+and other steps of a questionable nature. I say I will not argue that
+point. You know all that has happened. You know that Vilma's reputation
+is at stake, and that I owe her satisfaction----"
+
+"I know nothing of the kind!" said the sheriff. "My dear son, you make
+mountains of mole-hills. I must confess, how Vilma's reputation can have
+suffered is a thing which passes my comprehension. I grant that the
+business does not reflect much credit on the Tengelyi family, nor,
+indeed, on Mrs. Tengelyi; but as for the young woman, why, she is turned
+seventeen!"
+
+Akosh sickened at these words, and the tone in which they were spoken;
+but he conquered his feelings, and went on:--
+
+"This is no laughing matter, father. Vilma's reputation cannot but
+suffer; and if I could have doubted it, I'm sure what my mother said of
+her in this very room would have enlightened my mind on the subject.
+There is but one remedy for this, and as I have long intended to marry
+Vilma, I am now resolved to do so without delay. What I ask for is your
+consent, my father."
+
+Mr. Rety was one of those men who abhor plain questions, because they
+require plain answers. The manner in which his son put to him one of
+these objectionable questions, and in so important a matter, too,
+overwhelmed him with confusion. He muttered something about the dangers
+of brusquing any business, and that it was impossible for him to make up
+his mind in a moment, or to give a decision on a subject of the bearings
+of which he knew so little.
+
+"As for me," replied Akosh, "my resolution is firmly fixed. But if you
+wish to examine the bearings of the question, I trust you will not
+forget that Vilma cannot possibly make her appearance any where, unless
+it be as my betrothed; and that it is cruel in us to prolong, though
+only for a day, the painful position into which I have brought her
+family."
+
+"My son," said Rety, with a show of great sympathy, "no one can admire
+your delicacy more than I do! I promise you that you may rely on my
+effectual co-operation in any thing we can do to indemnify the Tengelyis
+for your inconsiderate rashness."
+
+"Which means that you give your consent!" cried Akosh, seizing his
+father's hand.
+
+Rety proceeded: "I am prepared to go any lengths to indemnify Tengelyi.
+We are rich, and, if you think proper, I have no objection, I assure
+you, not the least objection, to grant him a certain quantity of land,
+and to provide for Vilma in such a manner that----"
+
+Akosh dropped his father's hand.
+
+"Are you aware, sir," cried he, "that I love Vilma? That I love her more
+than any thing in this world? That she loves me? and that I'd rather die
+than leave her?"
+
+The sheriff looked wretchedly confused. Akosh proceeded in a more
+subdued tone:--
+
+"Do not fancy that I come to you for assistance. My late mother's
+property is in my hands; it will suffice to keep me and my wife. I leave
+you to do as you please with your property. All I ask is your blessing,
+which I _do_ trust you will not refuse me."
+
+The sheriff was not without feeling, and the words of his son touched
+his heart. He was, however, at that time of life in which our principles
+(which usually emanate from and correspond with our interests) prevail
+against the softer feelings of humanity, which are so strong in a young
+and ardent heart; and even if this had not been the case, he would not
+have dared to grant Akosh's request. Lady Rety's influence over him
+precluded the mere idea of consent. His reply, therefore, consisted of a
+variety of those common-place phrases which men are wont to adduce in
+argument against passions of which they cannot fathom the depth. But his
+reasonings, however specious, made no impression upon Akosh, who would
+not even consent to delay, in spite of his father's solemn promise that
+he was prepared to sanction his son's choice in a year, if Akosh would
+but follow his advice, and go on his travels.
+
+"You are unreasonable, indeed you are, my dear son!" said the sheriff,
+at length, while Akosh paced the room in a state of great excitement.
+"You ought to consider what you are about. You ought to consider that
+your passion is likely to be your ruin. You must own that I am a good
+father, an indulgent father. I never opposed any of your wishes, or even
+whims. Your politics are opposed to mine; still you see I respect them,
+trusting that time will at length cure you, as it does so many others.
+My greatest wish was, that you should contract a suitable alliance:
+indeed, I know several young ladies that would have pleased me, but I
+have not urged you. I left you to yourself. I scorned to influence your
+choice. I think it but just that in the present instance you should
+yield to _my_ will. Consider that there is no stepping back if you once
+step forward."
+
+"I have left nothing unconsidered," replied Akosh. "My mind is made up.
+Vilma is all I care for in the world."
+
+"The world! And do _you_ know what the world is? Do you know what you
+will care for when you are past thirty? At your time of life people are
+mad for love and a cottage. But, believe me, there are other things in
+this world to wish and to struggle for, and to possess. A youth is
+amorous, but a man is ambitious. When love has ceased to yield us
+happiness, we turn to the world, and would fain exult in the respect and
+obedience of the many."
+
+Akosh smiled and shook his head.
+
+"You are sceptical now, but I know your time will come. You are
+generous. You are free from egotism and selfishness: but, after all, you
+are human. The expression of our features may vary; but we are all
+formed of the same clay, and our feelings and instincts are very much
+the same, however varying their expression may be. Your time will come.
+There will be a day in which your soul will yearn for honours and
+distinctions. There will be hours in which you will regret that your
+talents have been left to rust in the back kitchen; and you will curse
+your folly, which excluded you from the only career in which a man can
+feel real happiness."
+
+"I cannot believe it! But suppose such were the case; suppose that I
+were to wake to ambition; who tells me that, in following your advice, I
+can satisfy that ambition? Thousands of hands are stretched forth to
+grasp those apples of Tantalus, but whose thirst did they ever slake?
+Was there ever a man, who strove for distinction, who did not come to
+despise that which he had gained?"
+
+"Some there are, indeed," said the sheriff; "but they grasp at more than
+they can reach."
+
+"But who tells you that this is not to be my case? I have never wished
+for greatness; but if I were to enter the lists, I know that I should
+struggle for an object which millions have striven for in vain. To be
+the great man of a county; to be the master of a poor few thousands; to
+carry my head high like the reeds of the morass, surrounded by the
+rottenness to which I owe my elevation; to bow and bend like a reed, so
+that my weakness may not appear from my resistance: no, father, that is
+not an object to devote one's life to, and yet, could I possibly aspire
+to any thing else?"
+
+"Why should you not?" replied the sheriff, with great eagerness, for he
+rejoiced in the turn of the conversation, though smarting under his
+son's words, which pictured his own condition in very unattractive
+colours. "Why should you not? A young man of your class may aspire to
+the highest honours. I admit that the path is thorny, and indeed you
+would be obliged to make it straight through the county; but you are
+young, and you have the means to begin where others end. At the end of
+three years I intend to resign my place in your favour, and when you
+have once obtained the shrievalty you can aspire to any thing. I trust I
+shall live to see you as a _judex curiae_."
+
+"But, my dear father," said Akosh, with a smile, "even if the career you
+trace out for me were to my mind, even if I would condescend to barter
+my opinions for office, and to come to the mountain because the mountain
+will not come to me--why, in the name of all that is reasonable, cannot
+I do all this with Vilma, as well as without her?"
+
+The sheriff looked up with the greatest amazement expressed in his
+countenance.
+
+"Are you not aware _where_ it is you live?" said he. "Don't you know
+that nothing is to be got in this country, unless by means of family
+influence? Personal merit is a cypher; it multiplies your value if your
+position be added to it as number one; or do you think I could ever have
+come to be a sheriff if I had married a woman of ignoble descent?"
+
+"Is it not enough that _I_ am of a noble house?"
+
+"Of course," replied Rety, with deplorable rashness; "if the wife of
+your choice were any other but Vilma--any other but the daughter of a
+village notary! I am no tufthunter. If you like, you may marry into a
+merchant's family--or, really I do not care, take the daughter of a
+proselyte from Judaism--any thing of the kind will do. I am by no means
+a tufthunter, my dear Akosh; I am _not_ prejudiced, whatever people may
+say to the contrary--no! I know too well that nobody ever saw the blood
+which runs in the veins of the Retys. Take any girl you like, so that
+she has plenty of money; it will set you upon your legs, my boy. Your
+sister, you know, is coheiress with you, not with _my_ will, I assure
+you; but if your wife is not rich, you'll have only one half of what I
+possess, and----"
+
+"My dear father," cried Akosh, "do not let us pursue this subject any
+further. It's of no use; I have made up my mind. If my heart alone were
+concerned, I would sacrifice all my hopes of happiness for your sake;
+but my honour, and Vilma's present and future happiness, are at stake,
+and nothing can shake my resolution. I beg, I entreat, do not refuse me
+your consent! do not compel me to take the most important step of my
+life without your permission and your blessing!"
+
+"Consider, my son," urged Rety, "consider what your grandfather and
+father did to raise our family to its present position! Are the
+struggles of half-a-century to be sacrificed to your passion? to a whim
+of the moment? Consider that you deprive my house of its peace; for,
+believe me, my wife and Vilma can never meet as friends; and my wife
+tells me that she would sooner leave the house than consent to this
+cursed marriage. Think of your sister, for she too is likely to be
+ruined by your obstinacy. What gentleman would be kin to a village
+notary?"
+
+The sheriff would probably have urged a variety of other reasons upon
+the consideration of his son, but the door opened, and Lady Rety entered
+the room. Rety's arguments were not likely to have any effect upon his
+son; nor was it probable that Akosh could ever persuade his father, that
+a man who had the full enjoyment of his reasoning faculties could prefer
+the daughter of a poor village notary to the seductive charms of a
+shrievalty; but still Akosh loved his father, and the sheriff's warmth
+and sincerity touched his heart. But when his step-mother entered, and
+(as usual) took the lead in the discussion, her commanding tone and
+supercilious manner turned the young man's blood to gall, and his every
+word betrayed his scorn and disgust of the woman, whom he knew to be an
+accessory of a crime.
+
+"I presume you have talked to Akosh," said Lady Rety, addressing her
+husband. "Pray what has he to say for himself?"
+
+"Yes, I did mention the matter--and Akosh said he would--that is to say,
+just at present--that he----"
+
+"That he will never resign Vilma," cried Akosh, "neither now nor ever;
+that's what he says!"
+
+"Oh, very well!" replied Lady Rety, with an angry look at her son. "You
+are mistaken, if you believe, sir, that _we_ can ever be brought to
+consent to this marriage."
+
+"As for your ladyship, I never reckoned on your consent; but----"
+
+"Nor will your father give his. I am sure my husband has never given you
+reason to suppose----"
+
+"Perhaps not!" said Akosh. "But since my father loves me, I have no
+reason to suppose that his will is unchangeable."
+
+"It _is_ unchangeable!" cried Lady Rety, violently. "I say it _is_
+unchangeable! Am I right, Rety?"
+
+The sheriff nodded his head in token of assent.
+
+"No, never!" continued Lady Rety. "Neither he nor I will ever sanction
+this folly!"
+
+"If that's the case," said the young man, with a look of contempt, "I
+shall be forced to do my duty as an honourable man without my father's
+consent; I shall be forced to leave a house which, it appears, is so
+completely monopolised by others, that there's no room left for me!"
+
+"And which place does the young gentleman intend to honour with his
+presence?" sneered Lady Rety. "Does he propose to reside on the domains
+of his lady-love?"
+
+"There's no occasion for it!" replied Akosh, trembling with excitement.
+"My mother's property will suffice for me now that she is dead. If she
+were alive, I'd not be forced to leave my father's house in this
+manner!"
+
+"Ungrateful wretch!" screamed Lady Rety; "do you reproach me with my
+condescension? I was born a Baroness of Andorhazy, and nothing compelled
+_me_ to marry a common-place nobleman! I am sure _I_ was not honoured
+by the alliance! No, it was _I_ who honoured your family! And as for
+your mother's property, you shan't have it! You are not of age. You have
+no right to claim it!"
+
+"I shall be of age in about six weeks."
+
+"And I say no! and no! and no! I scorn the match! I won't stand the
+disgrace--the infamy! Your father will disown you! curse you! I say I
+will not allow you to disgrace the name which _I_ bear!"
+
+Akosh would have spoken, but she continued:--
+
+"I will not suffer it! What? is the daughter of a village notary to
+become my daughter-in-law! A woman without a name! a woman with scarcely
+a rag to her back! a woman I despise!"
+
+"My lady!" cried Akosh.
+
+"Yes, a dishonourable woman! Your mistress before she was your wife;
+a----"
+
+The cup was full. Akosh, in a frenzy of passion, rushed forward to
+attack his step-mother, but the sheriff caught his arm as it descended.
+
+"How dare you?" screamed the young man; "how dare _you_ say so! _you_,
+the accomplice of robbers and thieves! _You_, who are indeed the
+disgrace of our house! Why woman, if I were to speak, I could send you
+to gaol, to your fellows!"
+
+His words were so many thunders in Lady Rety's ear. She stood deadly
+pale, trembling, with downcast eyes--a picture of guilt and misery.
+There is no saying what the sheriff might not have done but for
+Vandory's entrance, which put a stop to all further explanations. When
+the curate entered, Lady Rety seized her husband's hand and led him out
+of the room. Akosh, still exhausted with his illness, and fearfully
+excited, flung himself on the sofa, and wept.
+
+A short time afterwards the sheriff's servant brought a note, in which
+Rety asked his son to leave the house at his earliest convenience. The
+curate offered to effect a compromise, but Akosh insisted on going
+immediately. He took a hurried leave of Etelka, and accompanied Vandory,
+who had offered him shelter under his own roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XI.
+
+
+The majority of mankind are more or less eloquent on the subject of the
+wounds which love inflicts on the human heart, while they most unjustly
+forget that if love makes wounds, he also heals them, and that his
+sorrows and pains are as nothing in comparison to the joys he gives us,
+by rendering us (for the time) insensible to the other griefs that flesh
+is heir to. This healing and protecting power of love relieved young
+Rety from the sorrows that would otherwise have beset his mind, and
+caused him to triumph over griefs which might have borne down a stouter
+heart than his.
+
+Vandory introduced his young guest to his house; and this done, he
+hastened to Tengelyi. The notary was just returned from a journey to
+some distant place, where he had been consulting a legal friend of his.
+He was preparing to set out again for Kishlak, to talk to Viola, when he
+was informed of the prisoner's escape. This news deprived him of all
+hopes of profiting from Viola's confession; and the disappointment was
+the more painful from the fact of its strengthening his suspicions of
+the Rety family. Vandory's conversation did much to calm his mind, and
+the two friends had a long debate on the situation of affairs, and the
+danger which threatened Vilma's reputation, in the course of which the
+curate put great stress on the fact that young Rety's love to Vilma was
+the cause of his banishment from his father's house. Tengelyi was at
+length induced to promise that he would not oppose his daughter's
+attachment to Akosh; and when Vandory hastened away, and returned
+accompanied by the trembling lover, the notary gave him a kind and even
+hearty welcome, and, by way of a practical demonstration of the old
+proverb, "the least said, the soonest mended," he led young Rety to his
+daughter. Having thus far yielded to the influence of his wise and
+judicious friend, he returned to Vandory, saying, as if to excuse his
+own weakness,
+
+"After all, what can we do? They love one another; and fate, it appears,
+wills their union."
+
+"I've often told you so, but you would not believe me."
+
+"I was not always convinced of it; I wished for an older husband for my
+daughter, for a man equal to her in rank and position; but fate has
+willed it otherwise. And, after all, Akosh is thoroughly good and
+honourable. He will protect my boy,--poor little fellow! he has lost
+caste, and is now no better than a '_villain_.' My daughter's reputation
+would have been lost, for we all know Lady Rety's malice: but this
+marriage will set all right again. In short, it were folly to oppose it,
+however hostile my principles are to alliances of this kind."
+
+Thus the notary. And love, which but a few days ago had endangered the
+tranquillity and peace of his house, served now to make it brighter and
+gladder than ever. But the inmates of the manor-house of Tissaret were a
+prey to grief and vexation of spirit.
+
+Immediately after the stormy scene in Akosh's room, Lady Rety conducted
+her husband to her own apartments, where she told him the secret of the
+recent events, to which she added Mr. Catspaw's account of what had
+happened during the trial of Viola. The sheriff was shocked and alarmed,
+though far less than his wily wife had been led to expect. He left her
+to think the matter over in his study. Lady Rety remained alone, a prey
+to the bitterest feelings. She thought of what Akosh had said, and of
+the sacrifices which she pretended to have made for that young man's
+benefit.
+
+"What," thought she, "what did I slave for? Why did I put my head into
+the snares of that hateful attorney? Why, indeed? Was it not to raise
+this family, and to secure a large fortune to that young fool, who now
+turns against me?"
+
+She sobbed and clasped her hands.
+
+"My life," continued she, "has been _one_ long struggle, a continued
+sacrifice of my feelings to objects which escaped from my grasp. The man
+I loved was poor. I felt that my heart yearned for better things than
+the insipid happiness of a good housewife. I married Rety because his
+fortune and his position gave me a promise of rank, splendour, and
+distinction. And what is it I have come to be?--I am a sheriff's lady,
+the wife of a man who has neither talents nor energy which could raise
+him to a higher position. Well, I was resigned. I sought another basis
+for my happiness. I thought of raising Rety's children to that lofty
+position which their father wanted the strength to reach, or even to
+covet. What are these children to me? They are not my own children. They
+have not sprung from my blood. But they bear my name; and though they
+hate me, their step-mother, still they could not prevent me from
+profiting by the position into which I wished to force them. All my
+endeavours were directed to that end. And now! now! I have lost all!
+All my plans, all the struggles of so many years are in vain, and only
+because Akosh is in love with Vilma! There's nothing too high for him,
+and he--he turns his back on me, on the world, on splendour and wealth;
+and all for the notary's daughter. Confusion! and I cannot even revenge
+myself on him!"
+
+And Lady Rety racked her inventive mind to find a means to cross her
+son's plans; but she sickened at the thought that the notary, whom she
+hated because she could not despise him, was likely to triumph over her.
+She was lost in these painful thoughts, when Mr. Catspaw entered her
+room. Lady Rety asked him what the sheriff was doing.
+
+"He is rather excited," said the attorney, seating himself
+unceremoniously, and with a freedom of manner which was by no means in
+keeping with his usual respectful politeness. "Your ladyship can have no
+idea of his state of mind. Indeed he has gone to the length of abusing
+me--the poor sheriff! But who the deuce can help it? It's a dirty
+business, and in his position too----"
+
+There was something in Mr. Catspaw's voice and manner which struck Lady
+Rety, and which made by no means an agreeable impression upon her.
+
+"You are merry, sir," said she; "though really I cannot understand what
+there is to laugh at?"
+
+"But I can!" replied Mr. Catspaw. "The man who is in at the death, and
+after a hard run too, has a right to be merry."
+
+"But we are not in at the death!" retorted Lady Rety; "Viola is at
+large, and we are suspected."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed the attorney, with a loud burst of laughter.
+"Viola's escape is nothing to us. Is he not sentenced to death? Is he
+not aware that he cannot appear against us, without bringing his own
+skin to market? or do you think that the robber will come to be hanged,
+merely for the pleasure of giving evidence against you and me? And as
+for any one suspecting us, why it's sheer nonsense! The thing is too bad
+for anybody to believe it!"
+
+"You would change your opinion if you could hear what Akosh says. I am
+afraid he knows more than is good for him and for us."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! Stuff and nonsense!" cried the attorney. "What can _he_
+know? I dare say he has smelled a rat, but that's all. But I'll dodge
+him, madam; I'll dodge him!"
+
+"You are determined to see the bright side of things," said Lady Rety,
+amazed; for usually it was the worthy attorney's habit rather to
+increase than to lessen the difficulties of a question.
+
+"Why should I not?" answered Mr. Catspaw, as he leaned over towards her.
+"Have I not devoted my whole life to your family? And have I not braved
+all dangers? And now that the time of my reward is come, what can
+prevent me from enjoying myself?"
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" said Lady Rety, with a stare.
+
+"Oh, my dear, good, clever lady, you know to a nicety what I mean! How
+can you help it?" cried the attorney in a bantering tone, as he seized
+her hand. "Why should you pretend to make sport of your humble servant?
+What was your promise? Whenever I could lay my hands on Vandory's
+papers, I was to have a grant of land as a reward for my faithful
+services,--_propter fidelia servitia_. You know it was mentioned on the
+day of the canvass. Your ladyship must remember it; we were in the
+garden----"
+
+"Yes, yes! I know all about it."
+
+"And what were your ladyship's words on that memorable occasion?"
+
+"I said, My dear Catspaw, on the day you produce those papers, we will
+transfer the land."
+
+"Oh, your ladyship, I too remember those words which bound me to you
+with chains of gold. Here, in my heart, they are written in golden
+letters, and----"
+
+"Why do you remind me of that promise? Do you doubt me, sir?"
+
+"Not I, indeed!" cried Mr. Catspaw, as he pressed her hand. "No! I am
+sure you mean to stand by what you said. It's the very reason, you know,
+why I am come to consult you about the draft of the document. Your
+ladyship will understand, that in the preamble some mention must be made
+of my merits and my natural modesty----"
+
+"_C'est une vertu que vous cachez avec soin!_" said Lady Rety,
+sarcastically. "Well, sir, I agree to an enumeration of your
+transcendent merits. Leave it to me! I will take care that the document
+is drawn up; but I trust the affair is not pressing."
+
+"Who knows?" replied the attorney, with a sigh. "We are all of us
+mortal, and----"
+
+"I hope that _I_ do not look like a dying woman!" retorted Lady Rety,
+with an impatient shrug of her shoulders.
+
+"God forbid, that I, your devoted servant, should live to mourn your
+loss! But, after all, who can be sure of to-morrow? and am I, whose only
+hope lies in your promise, to risk my all, and perhaps lose it?"
+
+Lady Rety overcame the disgust she felt at Mr. Catspaw's impertinence.
+She replied that the suspicion which attached to them must necessarily
+increase, if such a reward were given to the attorney at this particular
+time.
+
+"It is much safer to wait," added she, in a confidential tone. "You see
+the affair must blow over: but to satisfy your mind, I repeat my
+promise; and depend upon it, my dear Mr. Catspaw, you'll find me as good
+as my word!"
+
+The attorney kissed her hand in a transport of joy.
+
+"A proud man indeed I am!" said he; "for where is so distinguished a
+lady to be found as my gracious mistress? so careful, so clever, and so
+businesslike a lady! And your ladyship is right: there are few
+solicitors who get through their work as I do; and in the other point
+too you are right, indeed you are! A cession of land, at this particular
+time, might possibly get us into a scrape. The truth of the matter is, I
+thought so too. I intended to point it out to you, but your ladyship's
+sagacity puts me to the blush. What I wished to direct your attention to
+is, that there is another way to vent your generous liberality, and to
+keep the affair quite snug and secret. My plan is a most simple one.
+Your ladyship need only persuade my gracious master, the sheriff, to
+sign five bills of ten thousand florins each, of course with convenient
+terms for payment, say from six to six months. After that----"
+
+"This is a bad joke!" said Lady Rety, staring at Mr. Catspaw in wild
+amazement. "Fifty thousand florins in Austrian money----"
+
+"I was never more serious in my life. Please to consider that----"
+
+"But it's thrice the value of the grant I promised you!"
+
+"A fair valuation of the land would perhaps amount to a higher figure.
+Besides, your ladyship must see that the affair was more troublesome and
+dangerous than I was led to suppose; then there's the loss of my
+reputation, for Viola's evidence does go for something against me; and,
+besides, I have paid the Jew a large sum, and I know he'll be at me
+again, for, to tell you the truth, I believe that Jew has some idea of
+your ladyship's being mixed up in the affair; and considering all this,
+it is but fair----"
+
+"Do you really mean to say you expect me to satisfy your impertinent
+demand?" said Lady Rety, boiling with rage; "do you think me and my
+husband so foolish as that? What! are we to get into debt for your
+sake?"
+
+Her violence made no impression on the attorney, who replied with the
+utmost coolness:
+
+"I'm sure, your ladyship, you are so clever, and so businesslike and
+generous, that----"
+
+"No, sir, no!" screamed Lady Rety. "Don't you rely upon my generosity,
+or folly, if you please! Indeed, Mr. Catspaw, I'm happy to know you at
+last! I'm proud to understand what was at the bottom of your zeal!"
+
+"Your ladyship does me too much honour!" said Mr. Catspaw, with his
+grating voice; "and it's a pity that you should endanger your precious
+health by the violence of your gratitude. But this generous burst of
+passion adds to my conviction that your ladyship will joyfully embrace
+my proposals."
+
+"Your proposals, indeed!" cried the lady. "You are an impertinent
+scoundrel, sir! I'd like to see the man that can force _me_ to any
+thing! The very fulfilment of my promise depends upon my own free will.
+Where are your witnesses, sir? Where's your judge? No, sir! You have
+nothing to rely upon except my generosity, particularly since you
+neglected to fulfil the very first condition of our bargain. Where _are_
+those papers, sir? for all _I_ know they may be at Vandory's, or
+somebody else's; and you, sir, how dare you ask me for money on the
+wretched plea of your having burnt them!"
+
+"Nothing is so easy for me as to satisfy your ladyship on that point,"
+retorted the attorney, with a sneer. "The papers are still in my hands.
+You are welcome to see them any time you like."
+
+Lady Rety stood trembling, speechless, and stunned. At length she
+muttered,--
+
+"You forget, sir! You told me you'd thrown them into the fire."
+
+"I'm fully aware of it!" sneered Mr. Catspaw, "And not only did I tell
+you I'd burnt the papers, but for a moment I had that insane intention.
+Thank goodness! I did not carry it into execution."
+
+"But why did you not give me the papers?" said Lady Rety, with so
+trembling a voice that it was clear she knew the attorney's motives.
+
+"Why did I not give them to _you_? Can your ladyship dare to ask me such
+a question? But I'll tell you. I did not do it, because, having devoted
+my life to yourself and your family, I had no mind to be cast aside like
+a used-up tool. I kept the papers, because I would not trust to your
+generosity, and because I thought it was better to be safe than to be a
+fool."
+
+"Do let us talk it quietly over. Suppose I _was_ violent just now! are
+we not old friends? and have you not spoiled me?" said Lady Rety,
+forcing a smile. "The papers are in your hands: they are your property;
+and nothing can be more fair than your wish to sell them. But your
+demand of fifty thousand florins is utterly inadmissible."
+
+"I would not take one penny less than that," replied Mr. Catspaw, with
+great composure. "Papers for the possession of which a lady of your
+ladyship's rank and condition condescends to such deeds as we enacted
+together, I say, such papers must be worth their weight in gold."
+
+"Beast!" growled Lady Rety, as she walked to and fro in the room.--"My
+friend," said she, turning to her antagonist, "please to consider my
+position. You know I have not one fourth part of the money in my
+possession; and the bills, to be valid, must have my husband's
+signature. How can I induce him to consent to so great a sacrifice?"
+
+"I know your ladyship's power too well! Nothing can be easier for you
+than to induce the sheriff to sign the bills. Everybody knows how
+irresistible your ladyship is!"
+
+Lady Rety made no reply to this cutting speech; but she turned, to hide
+the tears which bedewed her cheeks. The attorney walked to the window,
+and drew figures on the panes. After a long pause, the lady mustered up
+her resolution; and, boldly confronting the lawyer, she asked: "Do you
+really mean to stand by your demand?"
+
+"I do, indeed," replied Mr. Catspaw.
+
+"You will not let me have the papers under fifty thousand florins?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Very well, sir; keep them!" said Lady Rety, with a loud laugh: "keep
+them, sir! make the most of them! What do I care about Akosh's fortune
+now, since he _will_ marry the notary's daughter! and it was for his
+sake alone I wanted those cursed papers."
+
+"Am I to make the most of them? Am I, indeed?" said Mr. Catspaw,
+somewhat startled by the sudden turn of the debate.
+
+"Of course you are!" said Lady Rety. "I declare it's quite amusing! To
+think that I should have forgotten that I have no reason whatever to
+care for them since the young gentleman told me his mind! And as for
+you, my dear sir, indeed it grieves me, but your conduct of this evening
+will certainly induce me to re-consider my promise,--about the grant,
+you know."
+
+"Nothing more natural. The papers have possibly lost their former value
+in your ladyship's eyes; nothing can be more natural, woman's heart is
+so changeable! but, in my eyes, they retain much of their original
+value. That value, madam," said Mr. Catspaw, seizing the lady's hand,
+and affectionately pressing it, "is enhanced by the _manner_ in which we
+became possessed of them."
+
+"_We?_ Mr. Catspaw! What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"What I mean is clear enough," retorted he, still squeezing her hand.
+"Viola has accused your ladyship of theft, and of being a partner to a
+robbery. No matter! Viola is a robber: no man in his senses will believe
+a word he says. But suppose another witness were to come into court,
+say, for instance, _I_ were to appear against your ladyship, say I were
+to give evidence fully corroborating the robber's statements; and
+suppose, in confirmation of my evidence, I were to produce the papers we
+stole, the contents of which would prove, beyond the possibility of a
+doubt, that you, and only you, could have an interest in their
+abstraction,--what then? My humble opinion is, the affair would make
+some stir in the county."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Lady Rety. "I do not fear your threats; knowing, as I
+do, that you cannot ruin me without ruining yourself."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that! We are not exactly in the same position. I'm
+not interested in the papers; but your ladyship is. I am a poor lawyer;
+and suppose I were to come into court, declaring that I devoted my life
+to the service of your house, that my zeal got the better of my duty,
+and that I assisted your ladyship in the theft; but that, repentant and
+conscience-stricken, I come to accuse myself, and to give the stolen
+property up to the court,--is there not a deal of pathos in such an
+account? Can it fail to touch the hearts of the judges?"
+
+"Demon!" gasped Lady Rety, as she flung herself on the sofa, and covered
+her face with her hands.
+
+The attorney proceeded:--
+
+"The business will give me a good reputation, and some profit, too.
+Akosh would do any thing to get Tengelyi's papers. Perhaps he is open to
+a negotiation; and Vandory, too, (he delights in repentant sinners,)
+will take my part. But as for your ladyship----"
+
+"Devil! cease to torment me!" screamed the lady, clasping her hands.
+
+"The sheriff's lady in gaol!--it's an ugly thing. The sheriff's
+influence no doubt would go for something to make the punishment short
+and mild; they would give you, say, six months, or three months; but
+still,--you have been in gaol, and,--for thieving in company with a Jew.
+Besides, there are the cross-examinations, the evidence----"
+
+"Catspaw!" screamed Lady Rety, with the bound of a wounded panther, "No!
+you cannot do that!"
+
+"I can and I will do it, unless I have the bills on Friday next."
+
+"You shall have them!"
+
+"Five bills of ten thousand florins each, and signed by the sheriff."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The bills to be payable from six to six months."
+
+"I know it all. For pity's sake, leave me!" cried she, with a dying
+voice.
+
+"You shall have the papers the day you give me the bills," added the
+attorney, seizing his hat. "Good night, my lady!" And he left the room.
+
+The noise of his steps had scarcely ceased to sound in the hall, when
+the door of the hall stove opened, and Peti's curly head appeared in the
+gap. The gipsy was Mr. Rety's stove-heater; and, in the present
+instance, he had crept through the chimney to Lady Rety's apartments,
+where he had listened to her conversation with Mr. Catspaw. He was just
+about to leave the place, when he met Janosh.
+
+"Dear me! what's the matter?" cried the hussar. "Your face is all soot
+and ashes, man!"
+
+"No wonder it is!" said the gipsy, wiping his face with the sleeve of
+his shirt. "You know I am always at that dirty work."
+
+"At it again, man! Make large fires in this house! Give them a taste of
+hell! I am going to join my master. I've packed my things, and I've done
+with this house, d--n it!"
+
+"Are you, too, going?"
+
+"With a vengeance, my boy!" replied Janosh. "I've eaten the sheriff's
+bread, and I never dreamt I should ever leave his house without saying
+'God bless you!' But that's the way they've sent my master about his
+business. Good night!"
+
+The hussar hastened away. Peti took his bunda, crept to the garden, and
+disappeared in the darkness of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XII.
+
+
+On the following day the sheriff's house resumed its usual tranquil
+appearance. Mr. Rety, indeed, looked dispirited and gloomy, and Etelka
+was less cheerful than usual. Lady Rety, too, looked pale; but whatever
+her feelings were, she kept them under command; and when Mr. Catspaw
+made his appearance, she received him with a smile, which had lost
+nothing of its former graciousness. Lady Rety's temper, however violent,
+was never allowed to interfere with her plans: Mr. Catspaw knew this. He
+was too familiar with the lady's character to confide in the treacherous
+tranquillity of her appearance, especially since her maid had told him
+that her mistress had not gone to bed that night; that she walked to and
+fro, and showed other signs of restlessness; and that early in the
+morning she shut the windows of her room with such violence that she
+broke several panes of glass, which were symptoms--as Mr. Catspaw sagely
+observed--of an unsettled and disturbed mind. He watched her closely,
+though unsuccessfully; and none but the chamber-maid knew that Lady
+Rety, instead of sending the broken windows to the Jewish glazier, had
+ordered that man to come to her room; and that, strange to say, although
+the lady remained in the room while the Jew was at work, she never once
+raised her voice for the purposes of correction and abuse. But as Lady
+Rety complained of headache and fever, the chamber-maid was justified in
+finding a reason for this extraordinary mildness in the weak state of
+her health.
+
+On the third day, however, she was so far restored, that she could
+accompany her husband and Etelka on a visit to Dustbury. Mr. Catspaw
+alone remained at home. He was anxious and restless; indeed he would
+gladly have accompanied the family, for he could not believe in his own
+safety unless he had his eye on Lady Rety. And that she should go to
+Dustbury of all places!
+
+"This woman," said Mr. Catspaw, "would do any thing to injure me. I'm
+sure she has settled a plan of revenge in her mind; I'm quite sure of
+it! her seeming kindness makes it clear beyond the possibility of a
+doubt. What can it be? I would not mind it if she were to abuse me or
+swear at me; but I don't like her present manner,--indeed I don't like
+it," said Mr. Catspaw, emphatically, as if to convince himself of the
+very dangerous nature of Lady Rety's intentions. He thought of all and
+any thing she might, could, or would do; but there was nothing he could
+think of by which she could ruin him with safety to herself.
+
+"But is it not possible for her to sacrifice her safety to her
+vindictiveness?" said the attorney; "and if she does, who is the victim?
+I? It was I who took an active part in the theft. How am I to prove her
+guilt? Viola knows all about it; but Viola is not likely to show his
+face again. The county is too hot to hold him. As for the Jew, he'll be
+as false to me as he is to everybody else; and when once accused, who
+will believe me if I accuse the sheriff's wife? I must needs make
+friends," exclaimed the amiable attorney; "everybody hates me; and the
+cleverest man cannot stand the attacks of numbers. But what am I to do?"
+
+After a careful examination of his position, it appeared to him that
+there were two ways of providing for unforeseen contingencies. The first
+was to ingratiate himself with Lady Rety by preventing young Rety's
+marriage; the second, to creep into that young man's favour. The thing
+was difficult, but it could be done. After receiving the bills, he could
+easily retain a few of Vandory's papers. Lady Rety had never seen them:
+she could not, therefore, suspect any thing. At a later period he (the
+attorney) thought of presenting those letters and Tengelyi's papers to
+Akosh, telling him how they were obtained, and what share Lady Rety had
+in the transaction. Akosh was sure to keep the secret; and, as for Lady
+Rety, it was not likely that she would accuse Mr. Catspaw, if she knew
+that her own son was prepared to give evidence against her.
+
+His resolution once taken, he commenced with his usual energy to carry
+it out; and being informed that the notary was out walking with Vandory
+and Akosh, and that Mrs. Tengelyi and Vilma were alone, he hastened to
+the notary's house, studying his part as he walked along, and comforting
+himself with the reflection, that, however ill they might receive him,
+they were but women he would have to contend with, he knocked softly at
+the door.
+
+Mrs. Ershebet and Vilma were at work in the notary's room. They were not
+a little startled by the attorney's appearance; and Mrs. Ershebet's tone
+was none of the kindest, when she asked him why and what he came for?
+but he managed to reply, with the utmost coolness, that he wished to pay
+his respects to Mr. Tengelyi and his family; and, suiting the action to
+the word, he took a chair, and waited to be spoken to.
+
+His quiet assurance confounded Mrs. Ershebet. Mr. Catspaw knew it would,
+and, knowing this, he had prudently timed his visit so as not to meet
+Mr. Tengelyi. He suspected that the notary would not give him time to
+say all the kind words which were to make his peace with the family. The
+attorney's misgivings on that head showed his astounding sagacity; for,
+indeed, nothing was more likely than that the notary, regardless of his
+exordiums, would rush into _medias res_ by kicking him out of doors.
+
+Mrs. Ershebet spoke reluctantly, but she spoke. Their conversation was
+of the weather, the crops, and other things; and when Vilma left the
+room, the attorney turned to Mrs. Tengelyi, and drawing his chair to her
+table, said:--
+
+"I am happy the dear girl is gone! I want to speak to you about a
+subject which concerns your family, and especially your angel Vilma. I
+know I can open my heart to you, for you are as clever as you are kind."
+
+This flattering speech, and the tone of confidential adulation in which
+it was spoken, told less strongly upon Mrs. Tengelyi than Mr. Catspaw
+expected it would. But she concealed her disgust; and hoping to learn
+something about her husband's papers, she intreated the attorney to
+speak.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Ershebet," continued that learned man, with a grotesque
+whine, "permit me again to address you with the words which at one time
+were so dear to my heart, and whose sound still fills my soul with the
+reminiscences of youth!"
+
+"Sir!" said Mrs. Tengelyi, angrily, "the less you remind me of the past
+the better; and, moreover, you know, that at that time too----"
+
+"Do you think I can have forgotten," sighed Mr. Catspaw, "that when,
+many years ago, I offered you my heart and my hand, you rejected me with
+contempt, and that you preferred Tengelyi and poverty to Catspaw and
+tranquil happiness? But, oh! what agonies might have been spared to us
+if my respected Ershebet had been less blindly devoted to Tengelyi's
+shining talents, which after all cannot keep the pot boiling."
+
+"If you _have_ something to say, say it, sir! or if you must needs
+mention my husband, do it with proper respect, and consider to whom you
+are speaking!"
+
+"God forbid!" said the attorney, humbly, "that I should say or think any
+offence to Mr. Tengelyi! No! I respect him above all men; and though he
+wounded my heart, for it is he who robbed me of my hopes of happiness,
+of my hopes of possessing you--and----"
+
+"Enough!" replied Mrs. Ershebet, with a look of contempt. "I think we
+know each other. You have given us so many proofs of your love and
+respect, that we can dispense with your protestations."
+
+The attorney sighed.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "I grieve to find you a victim to the very delusion which
+enthrals Mr. Tengelyi's mind. You too believe that I am the cause, or at
+least the promoter, of the lamentable Dustbury quarrel. Very well! I
+submit. The future will show how greatly you wrong me!"
+
+"Heaven grant that it be so!" sighed Mrs. Tengelyi; "and whatever cause
+we may have to complain of you, you can rely on my sincere gratitude, if
+you exert yourself in behalf of my children."
+
+"No thanks! my dearest Mrs. Ershebet, no thanks!" said the attorney,
+with increasing warmth. "My heart's best wish is to show you that I am
+still faithful to the love of my youth. If I can prove this, I am amply
+rewarded; and I believe there is now an opportunity to convince you of
+my constancy."
+
+Mrs. Tengelyi was astonished, and more than half frightened; but she
+replied that she had no doubt that Mr. Catspaw's position and influence
+could be beneficially exerted in behalf of her family.
+
+"Do not suppose that my influence is so great as people say it is. They
+say that my word is law in Mr. Rety's house. The sheriff and his wife's
+doings are put down as mine. They have the benefit of the obloquy which
+falls on me, but I have the vexation and the enmities which ought to be
+their share. God knows, things would be far different if I had my will.
+But--never mind! I _have_ some influence in Rety's house, and perhaps I
+can exert it to your advantage. Mr. Tengelyi, I understand, has been
+summoned to show cause why he should not be considered as being in a
+state of _villanage_?"
+
+The coolness with which this question was asked by the very man whom she
+considered as the prime mover of her husband's troubles, surprised Mrs.
+Tengelyi to such an extent that she was unable to make any reply.
+
+"And I learn," continued the attorney, "that the papers, by means of
+which he expected to prove his noble descent have been feloniously
+abstracted from these premises?"
+
+"If anybody ought to know, it is you!" cried Mrs. Tengelyi, with utter
+disgust.
+
+"I understand you," said Mr. Catspaw, with a placid smile; "and I am
+free to confess that I feel hurt that I, of all men, should be suspected
+of such a thing. Even if such an action were not repugnant to my
+feelings, I cannot understand what hopes of profit or advantage it could
+possibly hold out to me. I have no claims on Mr. Tengelyi. His rights or
+wrongs have no influence on my fortunes or interests. To suppose that I
+should be guilty of the gratuitous perpetration of such a crime is
+simply absurd."
+
+"I cannot dispute with you; but, from what my husband says, and from
+what we have heard of Viola's depositions, it appears----"
+
+"But, dearest Mrs. Ershebet, if this were the case, can you think that I
+would have dared to come to your house? Why it were the greatest piece
+of impertinence,--and of folly" (added he, seeing that the former
+supposition seemed by no means unlikely to Mrs. Tengelyi,) "and, indeed,
+of madness, if, after so much danger and risk for the purpose of
+wronging Mr. Tengelyi, I would now exert myself for his advantage."
+
+"As yet we have no proofs of your wish to do any such thing," dryly
+remarked Mrs. Tengelyi.
+
+"Heaven knows," said Mr. Catspaw, with a pious look to the
+ceiling,--"Heaven knows, madam, how unjustly you treat me! If you could
+but know what I did to prevent the person--but no matter! I intend to
+give you proofs of my friendship, and to gain the esteem even of Mr.
+Tengelyi, your respected husband."
+
+"God grant it! As far as in us lies, you may rely on our gratitude."
+
+"No gratitude! Do not mention it! What I want is your friendship. The
+papers," added the attorney, looking cautiously round, and drawing his
+chair to Mrs. Tengelyi's side, "I say, are the papers such that they
+give full and satisfactory proofs of your husband's noble descent?"
+
+"Of course they do. What of that?"
+
+"Indeed, indeed!" said Mr. Catspaw, abstractedly. "Important matter!
+Valuable papers! What baptism is in the kingdom of Heaven, that is noble
+descent in the kingdom of Hungary. I understand your grief now, and
+especially when I think what is to become of your little boy!----"
+
+"For God's sake, cease to torment me! If you know what has become of
+them----"
+
+"But tell me," said Mr. Catspaw, "have you lost _all_ your papers? Are
+none of the documents left?"
+
+"None!" sighed Mrs. Tengelyi. "They were tied in a parcel, and they are
+all gone. But if you know where they are, I pray, I entreat you to tell
+me. If I have ever offended you, pray consider that my children, at
+least, are innocent of any grudges you may think you owe me!"
+
+Mr. Catspaw had some difficulty to conceal the joy he felt at the effect
+of his words.
+
+"Alas!" said he, with a sigh, "if it were my own case--believe me,
+dearest Mrs. Ershebet, if I only knew where the papers are, I'd walk a
+thousand miles to restore them to you!"
+
+"Do you mean to say that you do _not_ know where they are?" cried Mrs.
+Tengelyi, with amazement.
+
+"How should I? Do but consider the matter. What Viola says is a mere
+invention. Let me ask you again: what are those documents to _me_, that
+I should commit a felony for them?"
+
+"But in what way do you propose to assist my children, if you cannot
+help us to prove our nobility?"
+
+"But who tells you that I do not mean to assist you in recovering your
+nobility?" retorted the attorney, with a smile. "As for papers and
+documents, never mind them! We can do without them."
+
+Mrs. Tengelyi stared at him, but he went on:--
+
+"My dearest Mrs. Ershebet, we live in Hungary, you know, though I am
+afraid you are wofully ignorant of the doings and dealings of Hungarian
+life. Who ever heard of nobility being obtained and proved by documents
+only? Fancy, if every man enjoying the privileges of a nobleman were to
+be asked for his parchments! I assure you such a proceeding would make
+greater havoc amongst us than the battle of Mohatsh.[27] Don't you see,
+my dear madam, that there is a better and simpler way to prove noble
+descent, viz., by _usus_. Of late they have called it prescription, but
+that word does not embrace the idea in all its bearings; for
+prescription is, after all, a kind of law, and where there's law there's
+no occasion for _usus_; nay, it is a peculiarity of the _usus_ that it
+presupposes something which is not, and has not been, and never can be
+founded on law. For instance, you have a large field, and I am your
+neighbour. I encroach on your field, and plough a small piece away every
+season. At length you bring an action against me. Very well. I prove
+that I was in the '_usus_:' that I have always ploughed and reaped to a
+certain point--say a stone, or tree, or any thing you like. Very well.
+You say it's a bad habit of mine, and that the field belongs to you. But
+it's all of no use: I've the _usus_ on my side, and if you go on with
+your action you're a fool, that's all. Or say, you and I are joint
+proprietors of a farm. I keep sheep, and you don't. At last you take it
+into your head to keep sheep. But I say, 'No, you shall not!' And why?
+Because I've the _usus_ for me!"
+
+[Footnote 27: See Note X.]
+
+"But of what use is all this in our case?"
+
+"This is the use. As you can get any thing by _usus_, so you can get the
+privileges of nobility by it also."
+
+"I cannot understand this," said Mrs. Tengelyi.
+
+"And yet it is as clear as daylight. I say A. or B. has not a rag of
+paper to prove his nobility with; nay, more: he himself is aware that
+his family are not noble; but he has friends in the county, who have
+kept the tax-gatherer from his door. Now suppose somebody questions his
+noble descent; what a horrid thing would it be for the poor man if he
+were compelled to prove how, and why, and when his ancestors were
+ennobled! No, he simply shows that he never paid any taxes, and he is at
+once established as a nobleman; especially if he can prove that he has
+attended an election, where he thrashed somebody, or where somebody
+thrashed him; for, if there's a thrashing in the case, I'd like to see
+the man who would dare to doubt the _usus_. I remember the case of a
+party against whom they brought an action of that kind, and who proved
+that his grandfather was repeatedly sent to gaol for horse-stealing,
+without having ever been subjected to corporal punishment. Very well.
+The _usus_ was proved, that's all. Believe me, you are sadly mistaken if
+you fancy that you want documents to prove your noble descent. There are
+many counties in which hundreds of _villains_ are admitted to the
+franchise by the parties in office, merely for the purpose of carrying a
+contested election. All you want for the purpose is a friend and----"
+
+"Alas! we have no friends!" sighed Mrs. Tengelyi.
+
+"No, but you have, my dear madam!" cried Mr. Catspaw, nodding his head
+with great energy; "I say, madam, you have friends who would do any
+thing to be of service to you! who would hire a score of witnesses to
+swear that Mr. Tengelyi is descended _recta via_ from a count's family.
+Even Mr. Rety----"
+
+"I am sure _he_ will oppose us to the last."
+
+"You are mistaken. When he once sees what interest I take in you, he too
+will be eager to stop the recorder's process against your husband. I
+assure you, Mr. Rety is a dear good gentlemanly man; and if we could but
+remove the cause of this disagreeable quarrel, dear me! I don't see why
+they shouldn't be as they were at the German university.--I speak of
+your husband and Mr. Rety, madam."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"The cause of the quarrel, you know, is young Rety's love to that dear
+girl, Vilma. If means could be found to arrange that business, I am sure
+we'd go on smoothly and comfortably."
+
+"I am afraid you are not aware, sir," said Mrs. Tengelyi, to whom these
+words gave a clue to the attorney's intentions, "that it is no use
+trying to remove that cause of the quarrel. Akosh has made a formal
+offer; Vilma loves him, and he has our consent. If the sacrifice of my
+daughter's happiness is the only thing you have to propose----"
+
+"But who thinks of sacrificing the poor girl's happiness?" said Mr.
+Catspaw, reproachfully. "What man can desire the dear angel's happiness
+more than I do? But I say, are her affections irrevocably fixed on the
+sheriff's son?"
+
+Mrs. Tengelyi would have spoken, but the attorney interrupted her.
+
+"A great name and a large fortune are capital things! indeed they are;
+and I, of all men, ought to know it. It's a fine thing to have your
+daughter living in a large house, and driving about in a
+carriage-and-four; but is this happiness? Why, you yourself are the best
+proof that it is not. You might have married a wealthy man, who would
+have led you a comfortable life; but you preferred Tengelyi----"
+
+"If you think," cried Mrs. Ershebet, angrily, "that we accepted the
+offer only because Akosh is rich, you are very much mistaken, I assure
+you! On the contrary, we wish he were of our own condition in life."
+
+"Just so; exactly, my dear Mrs. Ershebet! If I had a daughter of my own,
+I'd never give her to my betters. It is true such gentlemen are enabled
+to introduce their ladies to all the enjoyments of life, enjoyments,
+too, which are quite out of the question in the humble paths of an easy,
+comfortable competence, of honourable poverty, if you like the term.
+They can surround them with splendour, luxury, and Heaven knows what.
+But as for real love, dearest Mrs. Ershebet, real love, as you and I
+understand it, flies from the glittering snares of a monied alliance!"
+
+"Akosh is an exception. He adores Vilma."
+
+"Of course he does! nothing more natural. Whom does he not adore! His
+heart is so full of sentiment. But you see, dearest Mrs. Ershebet, it's
+a strange thing, a peculiar thing, indeed, my dear madam, this very
+adoration is--what is it, after all? You kneel down, raise your hands,
+are transported, enraptured, and all that sort of thing; and when
+you've done with your prayer, you get up, and go your way. That's
+adoration, madam."
+
+"No, sir!" said Mrs. Tengelyi, firing up; "I know Akosh! I respect him!
+I would never have promised him my daughter's hand, if I had doubted his
+honour."
+
+"Madam, I respect you for respecting Akosh; on my word, I do. He's the
+best, the most honourable of gentlemen, though I say it, who ought not
+to say it, because I'm his friend. If he were my own son, I couldn't
+like him better than I do. Who would quarrel with him for being
+excitable, and less constant in love than we old people would like to
+see young gentlemen? You see, dearest Mrs. Ershebet, it is not just, it
+is not fair, to ask that kind of thing of a young gentleman of Mr.
+Rety's station."
+
+"But I do ask it!" protested Mrs. Tengelyi. "I give him my daughter; and
+I have a right to ask----"
+
+"Not an impossibility, I trust!" said Mr. Catspaw, with a smile. "If
+Akosh were of our own standing in society, your wish to monopolise him
+would be natural; but in the higher spheres of life such a desire is
+perfectly ridiculous. What would the world say, if a gentleman of his
+rank were to confine his attentions to his lady!"
+
+"I trust you do not insinuate any thing disreputable against Akosh----"
+
+"Disreputable? No; indeed not! He has some mistresses; but----"
+
+"Mistresses!" screamed Mrs. Tengelyi.
+
+"Well! and what of that?"
+
+"What, indeed!" cried Mrs. Tengelyi, utterly forgetful of who it was, to
+whom she spoke. "If he were capable of having but one mistress, now that
+he has told my daughter, at least a hundred times, that he loves her
+alone, why it were infamous, despicable,----"
+
+"But I assure you it is wrong to attach any importance to that kind of
+thing!"
+
+"But I do! Rather than permit such doings----"
+
+"My dear, good Mrs. Ershebet," whispered the attorney, drawing still
+closer to her; "I know your views of life; and, as your friend and
+sincere well-wisher, I feel bound to express my opinion that Akosh will
+never be what you expect him to be. He is a young gentleman of great
+talents, of energy, hot temper, business habits; he is all that, and
+more; but he is neither faithful nor constant in love. If you desire a
+constant son-in-law," he added, seizing her hand, "I can tell you of
+one."
+
+Mrs. Tengelyi looked at him in hopeless bewilderment.
+
+"Yes, dearest Mrs. Ershebet!" continued Mr. Catspaw, with increasing
+pathos; "I know a man of tried constancy, of unbounded devotion! a man,
+indeed, who cannot vie with Akosh in splendour, but in whose arms Vilma
+is sure to find that tranquil happiness whose value she knows so well
+how to appreciate. I, madam,--I am ready to take young Rety's place!"
+
+"You, Mr. Catspaw!" cried Mrs. Ershebet, holding up her hands.
+
+"Why not?" said the good man, brimful of kindness. "I am not quite the
+boy I was when I proposed for you; but I'm not an old man, eh? I am a
+man in the prime of life, a man of substance, dear Ershebet. What I
+offer is more than a competence. I've a hundred and fifty thousand
+florins, if I have a penny. If Vilma marries me, there will be no more
+questioning about Tengelyi's nobility; indeed, the Retys would be happy
+to make me a handsome cession of land. And as for that little affair
+with Akosh, you know I am by far too sensible and indulgent----"
+
+While he was engaged in enumerating the advantages of an alliance
+between him and Vilma, the attorney had neglected to watch Mrs.
+Tengelyi's features, and to mark the unmistakeable expression of scorn
+and disgust which they bore. He was not, therefore, at all prepared for
+the scene which ensued, when the insulted mother rose and told him to
+leave the house instantly. He would have spoken, explained, excused
+himself, and what not! but Mrs. Tengelyi would not allow him to speak,
+and, to make bad worse, the door opened at this very critical moment,
+and Tengelyi entered the room.
+
+"What do you want here?" said the notary, with an awful frown.
+
+Mrs. Ershebet cut off the attorney's reply by a circumstantial account
+of Mr. Catspaw's proposal, in the course of which she commented on that
+worthy gentleman's behaviour in severe and, indeed, pungent terms.
+
+"Be off! and never again dare to show your impudent face in my house!"
+said the notary, in reply to Mr. Catspaw's offer; but that gentleman,
+who, on seeing the notary, had expected no less than that the latter
+would assault him on the spot, was misled by this seeming moderation. He
+thought it a duty he owed to himself to make the best of so favourable
+an opportunity, and launching forth into protestations of his unlimited
+friendship for the Tengelyi family, he was just in the act of venting
+his admiration and love of the notary, when the latter addressed him
+very unceremoniously,--
+
+"Get out, sir! If you don't, I'll kick you!"
+
+"But, sir, please to give me a moment's hearing! Indeed, sir, this is
+not the way you ought to treat my offer! If Vilma----"
+
+"Don't presume to mention her, you miscreant!" cried Mr. Tengelyi.
+"_You_ my daughter's husband? You!--a robber, a thief?"
+
+The noise of the altercation brought Vilma and the Liptaka into the
+room, and the passers-by in the street stopped at the window and
+listened. Mr. Catspaw was of opinion that the presence of so many
+witnesses would prevent the notary from proceeding to acts of bodily
+violence; and, moreover, he was aware that his dignity would not allow
+him to submit to Tengelyi's insulting language. To talk big was not only
+safe, but prudent.
+
+"This is too bad!" screamed he. "I'll make you repent it, sir!"
+
+"Repent it?" shouted Tengelyi.
+
+"Yes, repent it, if you please, my dear notary! Perhaps you are not
+aware that you are not a nobleman?"
+
+"Reptile! dost thou dare to remind me of thy villany?" cried the notary,
+raising his stick, in spite of the endeavours of his wife and daughter,
+who sought to restrain him.
+
+"Though I condescend to propose for your daughter, you ought not to
+forget the difference between your rank and mine!"
+
+"It's the difference between an honest man and a rascal!" cried
+Tengelyi, still struggling to disengage his arm from the grasp of Mrs.
+Ershebet.
+
+Mr. Catspaw saw clearly that the delay of another minute would prove
+dangerous. He retreated, and reached the door just when Tengelyi, whose
+fury brooked no restraint, broke from those who held him, and rushed in
+pursuit of him.
+
+"God knows but I'll be the death of that fellow!" said the notary, as he
+returned to his house, accompanied by Vandory and Akosh, who luckily met
+him as he was running after the attorney. Exhausted with his passion, he
+flung himself on a chair; and though his wife, Vandory, and Akosh
+assured him that Mr. Catspaw was beneath an honest man's notice, a
+considerable time elapsed before he regained his usual equanimity. The
+witnesses of the scene, too, were greatly excited and interested; and a
+report was spread, by some, that Mr. Catspaw had been beaten and
+kicked, and by others, that Tengelyi would have killed the attorney, but
+for the flight of the latter.
+
+While these and sundry other rumours on the subject of his danger were
+spreading in Tissaret, the worthy Mr. Catspaw reached his apartments in
+safety, though by no means in an enviable mood.
+
+"What a confounded fool I've made of myself!" said he. "Propose for the
+girl, indeed! curse me, I'm a victim to that silly attachment of mine
+for the Retys. Would they have given me a penny more for marrying her?
+No. They cannot help giving me fifty thousand florins, but they won't
+give me a farthing more. And even if I were to prevent young Rety's
+marriage, his ungrateful mother would never forgive me. She'll never get
+over those money matters. Curse her! She'd skin a flint! But who the
+deuce could have thought that the woman wouldn't let me speak, and that
+Tengelyi would come home? And he insulted me!--publicly!--before
+everybody did he insult me, and I cannot even retaliate upon him! I dare
+not offend that puppy Akosh; for, after all, I don't see what I can do,
+except giving him Tengelyi's documents, and a few of Vandory's letters.
+It's a good plan, and it will protect me against being prosecuted. But
+before doing this I must have the bills in my pocket."
+
+But even this resolution did not quite conquer Mr. Catspaw's
+apprehensions; for did not Akosh hate him? and might not the young man
+institute proceedings against him? No! he would bind Akosh by his word
+of honour,--these young men are so full of prejudice! "And besides, he
+cannot inform against me, without dishonouring his own name. His
+mother-in-law is too much mixed up with the affair," muttered the
+attorney, as he lighted a candle and sat down to examine Vandory's
+papers.
+
+It was almost eleven o'clock when he finished his labours. He took a few
+of the letters, put them in an envelope, and placed them in a secret
+corner of his desk. His examination of the letters had satisfied him
+that the Retys could not think of braving the publicity of a court of
+justice. This discovery put him into the best of tempers.
+
+"Capital!" said he, rubbing his hands; "in a few days I shall have fifty
+thousand florins, and by communicating the affair to Akosh, I can foil
+any plans of revenge which this woman may have against me. I'm worth two
+hundred thousand florins! At last I know what I've lived for!" And he
+prepared to lock the door. He turned the key and tried the door, but it
+remained open. He tried it again, but without success. Mr. Catspaw shook
+his head. Something must be the matter with the lock. He thought of
+bolting the door; but the bolt would not move.
+
+"What the deuce can be the matter?" said he, after another unsuccessful
+attempt.
+
+He recollected that since Akosh, Etelka, and the Retys were gone, he was
+quite alone in that part of the house; and so much had his mind of late
+been occupied with robbers and robberies, that he became uneasy at the
+thought of passing the night alone and with open doors; and while he
+thought of it, it struck him that something moved in the stove. He
+approached it and listened.
+
+"I am a fool!" said he at last; "if I can't lock the door, it's because
+the lock's used up; and as for the bolt, why I've never moved it. It
+ought to be rusty by this time!" He went to bed, still thinking of the
+most profitable plan of investing his money, when a slight noise
+interrupted his train of agreeable thoughts. Steps were heard on the
+stairs. They were soft and cautious, like the steps of one who wishes to
+escape detection. Mr. Catspaw heard them distinctly. They approached
+from the stairs, and crept along the corridor to his room. He was just
+about to leave his bed when the door was softly opened, and a man,
+wrapped up in a bunda, entered the room.
+
+"_Viola!_" said Mr. Catspaw, with a trembling voice, for the shout which
+he wished to raise died in his throat. His hair stood on end; his jaws
+shook.
+
+"It's well you know me!" said the outlaw, as he advanced to the
+attorney's bed. "If you call for help, you are a dead man! Besides, it's
+no use calling; nobody will hear you."
+
+"I won't call! I won't make a noise!" said Mr. Catspaw, while an ashy
+paleness spread over his features. "I know you are the last man to hurt
+me, good Mr. Viola! Do you come for money? I am a poor man, but you are
+welcome to all I have. No thanks! I am happy to oblige you!"
+
+"_I_ am the last man to hurt you!" said the robber, giving the attorney
+a look which made his blood creep. "Am I indeed? Don't you think bygones
+are bygones with me! Not your agony, not all the blood in your veins,
+can pay me for what you've done to me and mine!"
+
+"You are mistaken, my dear sir; indeed you are----;" the attorney cast a
+despairing look around him; "I am not----"
+
+"Who?" said Viola, sternly. "Who was it made me a robber? Who was it
+that drove me forth, like a beast of the forest, while my wife and
+children were cast as beggars on the world? Say it was not you! Say it
+was not you who wrote my doom! Say it was not you who would have drunk
+my blood! Say it is not you who are my curse and my enemy!----"
+
+"I'll give you my all,--I'll give you all I have! I've a couple of
+hundreds of Mr. Rety's money too, and you are welcome to them, though I
+shall have to refund them, and----"
+
+"I don't want your money!" said Viola, scornfully. "I want the papers
+you stole from the notary."
+
+"The papers?" said the attorney, with a look of profound astonishment;
+"what papers does it please you to mean, my dear Mr. Viola?"
+
+"I mean the papers which you took away when they bound me. If you don't
+give them up this minute, you'll never rise from this bed."
+
+The robber's tone showed Mr. Catspaw that it was dangerous to trifle
+with him. He replied,--
+
+"Yes, I had them! You are right, I took them from you; but I lament to
+say I was rash enough to burn them on the spot. That's the truth of it.
+I would not tell you a lie, no! not for the world; for you know all and
+everything."
+
+"If so, tell your lies to others. I know that you keep the papers in
+this room, and that you've offered them to Lady Rety for fifty thousand
+florins."
+
+"Who can have told you that?" cried Mr. Catspaw, as a suspicion flashed
+through his mind that Viola might possibly be hired by Lady Rety; "who?
+who?"
+
+"Never you mind who it was?" said Viola, dryly; "if you think your life
+of less value than fifty thousand florins, I'll show you in an instant
+how little _I_ care for it."
+
+"But do tell me!" cried the attorney, "do tell me who told you that the
+papers are in my room?--who has sent you?"
+
+"Silence!" and the robber flung his bunda back; "get up! give me the
+papers, unless----"
+
+Mr. Catspaw rose and walked to his desk. Viola stood quietly by,
+watching him.
+
+The attorney's hands trembled as he produced the papers. They were in
+two bundles, and among them were some letters of Tengelyi's, which the
+Jew had abstracted with the rest.
+
+"Here they are!" said Mr. Catspaw, with a hoarse voice; "you know their
+value. Ask whatever you please----"
+
+"I don't want your money, keep it!" said the robber, advancing to seize
+the packet; when the attorney recollected that he kept a loaded pistol
+in the desk.
+
+Yielding to an impulse of mad despair, he seized it and presented it at
+Viola.
+
+The robber's eyes shot fire as he saw the weapon. He made a rush; the
+attorney fell, and the pistol was in Viola's hands.
+
+That movement sealed Mr. Catspaw's doom. Viola was not cruel. He had an
+instinctive aversion to the shedding of blood. If Mr. Catspaw had given
+up the papers without resistance, he would have been safe; but the
+treachery of the action and the struggle inflamed the robber's wilder
+passions.
+
+"Pity!" screamed Mr. Catspaw, as Viola seized him by the throat.
+
+"Did you pity _me_ when Susi begged for grace, when you wrote my
+death-warrant?"
+
+The attorney's face grew black, his eyes started from his head; but his
+despair gave him strength. When he saw the robber's knife descending, he
+caught it in his hands.
+
+There was a noise in the house. Steps were heard. The attorney's cries
+had roused the servants.
+
+Viola made a violent movement. Again, and again, and again was the broad
+steel buried in the breast of his victim. Then, seizing the papers with
+his bloody hands, he rushed from the room and reached the yard, where
+he was met by the coachman and another servant. They pursued him.
+
+He crossed the meadow, and disappeared in the thicket which covers the
+banks of the Theiss.
+
+When the domestics entered the attorney's room they found him dying.
+There were no traces of a robbery. The wretched man's watch and purse
+lay on the bed.
+
+"Robbers! Murderers!" cried the cook, who was the first to enter.
+"Follow him!"
+
+"Send for the doctor!"
+
+"No, send for the curate!"
+
+All was noise and confusion. Two of the men raised the attorney and laid
+him on the bed.
+
+"Follow him!" gasped Mr. Catspaw, "Follow! My papers!"
+
+"What papers?" said the cook.
+
+"Tengelyi----" groaned the dying man.
+
+His lips moved, but his voice was lost in a hoarse rattle.
+
+"I've caught him!" cried a haiduk from the corridor, as he dragged
+Jantshi, the Jewish glazier, into the room.
+
+"That's the rascal!" said the haiduk. "That's him. He was hid in the
+chimney!"
+
+"Oh, the villain!" cried the cook, pushing the reluctant Jew to Mr.
+Catspaw's bed. "I say, your worship, that's the man!"
+
+The attorney shook his head. His lips moved, but no sound was heard.
+
+"But, sir, I'm sure it's he!" said the cook. "Give us a nod, sir!"
+
+Again Mr. Catspaw shook his head. He seized the cook by the hand; he
+would have spoken, but it was in vain. With a convulsive motion of his
+body he stared round, and, falling back, breathed his last.
+
+"I'd like to know what he meant?" said the cook, when they had bound the
+prisoner and locked him up in the cellar; "when I showed him the Jew, he
+shook his head."
+
+"His last word," cried Mrs. Kata Cizmeasz, the female cook of the
+servant's hall, wiping her eyes, less from sorrow for Mr. Catspaw's
+death, than because she thought it was proper that women should weep on
+such occasions; "his last word was _Tengelyi_."
+
+"Hold your silly tongue!" said the cook, with dignity; "it's blasphemous
+to say such a thing of Mr. Tengelyi!"
+
+"Really," reiterated Mrs. Kata Cizmeasz, "it struck me that he said
+'Tengelyi;' and when he could not speak, poor dear, he moved his lips,
+for all the world, as if to say 'Tengelyi' over again. When my poor
+husband, God rest his soul! was dying of the dropsy, he didn't speak by
+the day; but I looked at his mouth, and understood what he meant to say.
+'Go away! Come here! Give me some water!' Any thing he'd like. I knew it
+all!" And she wiped her eyes.
+
+"Bless that woman!" said the cook, appealing to the crowd of servants,
+"She'll be after accusing the notary of the murder. Did I ever!"
+
+"Bless yourself!" retorted Mrs. Kata; "all I say is, that the attorney
+said 'Tengelyi' when we asked him who had done it? He said it with a
+clear voice. I heard it quite distinctly, and I'll take my oath on it!"
+
+"Never mind! Who knows what he meant?"
+
+"I am sure _I_ don't; all I say is, that the attorney----"
+
+"Very well; leave it to the judge. Depend upon it, he'll come to know
+the truth of it, and you'll see that I'm in the right in saying as I do,
+that the Jew is the murderer," said the cook, angrily; and, turning to
+the two servants, he added, "Lock the door, and send for the judge!
+Hands off! is the word in a place where a robbery or a murder has been
+committed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. XIII.
+
+
+After Mr. Catspaw had left the notary's house on that fatal night,
+Tengelyi's family, including Akosh and Vandory, settled peacefully down
+in Mrs. Ershebet's room, while the notary himself was engaged in writing
+letters. He was determined to recover his rights; and, thinking that
+some of his father's old friends might possibly assist him in
+establishing his title, he was about to appeal to them to support him in
+his present extremity.
+
+While thus employed, his attention was roused by a slight knock at the
+window. He got up, opened it, and looked out; but as nothing was visible
+in the darkness, he was just about to return to his work, when a letter
+was flung into the room. The notary was astonished; but his
+astonishment increased when, after unfolding the crumpled-up and soiled
+despatch, he read the following lines:--
+
+      "I am a man who owes you a large debt of gratitude. I
+      am accused of having stolen papers from your house,
+      but this is a base and false accusation. The Jew, whom
+      the sheriff's attorney bribed, was the thief. I took
+      them from the Jew; however, the story is too long to
+      tell. Meet me at the lime-tree, just by the ferry, at
+      eleven o'clock; but not earlier. If it cost my life, I
+      will put the papers in your hands before midnight!
+
+      "I entreat you, in the name of God, to come, and fear
+      no harm! You have taken my wife and children under
+      your roof, and I would give my life to serve you or
+      any of your family. If you do not come, I know not
+      what to do with the papers: I dare not enter the
+      village; I must cross the Theiss this very night. Let
+      me implore you to keep the meeting secret, and come
+      alone. The county has set a price on my head; and if
+      they get the least hint of my whereabouts, I am a dead
+      man. I am in your hands.
+
+      "VIOLA."
+
+The perusal of these lines was no easy task to the notary. "What shall I
+do?" said he. "If I do not follow the robber's advice, the papers will
+most probably be irrecoverably lost. If Viola leaves the county, he will
+take good care not to come back again; and he will destroy them if it be
+only in order that they should not be proofs against him. On the other
+hand, if it should be found out that I, a member of the law, and an
+honest man, had clandestine meetings with a robber, without delivering
+him up to justice, what a dreadful light it would place me in!" Spiteful
+things had already been said by his enemies, because he had taken
+Viola's wife and children into his house. Another man would most likely
+have thought it his duty and interest to go to the appointed place,
+though not alone, to arrest Viola, and thus at once to obtain his
+papers: but this proceeding would not accord with Tengelyi's
+disposition; he was incapable of such an act, whatever might have been
+its advantages.
+
+Yet there were but those two alternatives. What to do he knew not. He
+paced the room, agitated by mingled feelings of duty and patriotism.
+
+First he would yield to the robber's request; then, again, he would not.
+Thus he continued resolving and wavering, till Mrs. Ershebet called him
+to supper.
+
+The notary's absence and confusion during supper astonished and
+perplexed his family.
+
+He burnt the letter after deciphering its contents, lest it should fall
+into other hands.
+
+After supper was over, Vandory and Akosh took their leave. Mr. Tengelyi
+wished his wife and daughter good night; and, under the pretence of
+business, he hastened to his study. When alone, he gave himself up to a
+full contemplation of his situation. He resolved to see the robber.
+"Inform against Viola? No, no; such a mean unmanly act I would not be
+guilty of! And how could I be so unjust to my wife and children as not
+to embrace this opportunity of establishing my rights? If he has my
+papers, so much the better! if not, then at least I shall have the
+satisfaction of knowing that I have neglected nothing to regain my
+property. It is not likely that this meeting should ever be known. What
+have I to fear if my conscience is unsullied?"
+
+The clock was on the stroke of eleven, when the notary crept from his
+house into the garden. When he gained the open field adjoining the
+house, he struck off to the left, and in a few minutes he reached the
+path leading to the Theiss. It was a thorough November night. Not a star
+or even a drifting cloud could be seen; and so dark was it, that it
+required all the notary's care and knowledge of the way to carry him on
+without accident. The village was hushed in sleep, and he reached the
+spot without meeting any one.
+
+In summer this place was one of the prettiest anywhere about. The
+lime-tree was of gigantic growth, and its wide-spreading branches
+afforded a delicious shade. The grass around it was of the freshest and
+purest green, and when other grass-plots were scorched up by the July
+sun, this place seemed to be fresher and greener than ever. Three sides
+of the meadow were hedged in and surrounded with bushes; on the unfenced
+side stood a few old trunks of trees, dropping their bare branches into
+the yellow Theiss, that washed their withered roots.
+
+Mr. Tengelyi had spent many an hour under that tree with his friend,
+who, on such occasions, would exclaim that no spot was so charming as
+the banks of the Theiss; and that if the Turk's Hill were not there, the
+lime-tree alone would make Tissaret a beautiful place to live in.
+
+Now this spot looks mournful and forsaken. The beautiful green plot is
+covered with sere and yellow leaves, and the night winds howl through
+the unclad branches of the noble linden; while the swelling waves of the
+Theiss lash its sombre banks.
+
+The notary, wrapped in his bunda, walked dejectedly up and down; at
+times he stood still and listened. On a sudden he heard a rustling in
+the bush, but seeing no one near, he thought it a delusion, and
+continued walking, but now and then turning to look at the ferryman's
+hut, which was about two hundred yards distant, and in the kitchen of
+which a large fire sent its glaring and flickering shadows dancing on
+the black landscape.
+
+It was half-past eleven, and yet Viola came not. Could he have changed
+his mind, or had any thing happened to prevent him? Perhaps he was
+scared by the hue and cry which had been raised after him.
+
+Suddenly a cry of murder rang through the air. It came nearer.
+
+"Good God!" cried the notary; "can it be that Viola is taken?" And to
+escape being seen in this questionable place, and at such a time, too,
+he hastened back to the village.
+
+A few minutes after the notary's departure, Viola broke through the
+hedge. A parcel of papers was in his hand. One moment he stood
+still--one moment he cast an anxious and half-desponding look around
+him. But the man whom he sought was not there. The avenger of blood was
+at his heels. He leapt down the bank, stepped into a boat which lay hid
+among the willows; and the lusty strokes of his oars were drowned in the
+shouts of his pursuers.
+
+"Here he is! That's the place he went in! At him, boys!" cried they, as
+they rushed into the open space. But here they were at fault. They had
+lost the track of him they were pursuing. Their clamours roused the old
+ferryman in his hut. Ferko, the coachman, who led the crowd of servants
+and peasants from the house, approached, and the ferryman, coming up,
+asked what was the matter, and whether some one had stolen a horse.
+
+"No, no!" cried the coachman. "Our attorney has been killed, and we have
+pursued the murderer to this spot. We saw him a minute ago. He's hid in
+the bush, here; help us to find him. He must be here!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on us! What, the attorney killed! Well, after all
+there's not much harm done. But you are far out if you think to find him
+here. He is in the village by this time! A few minutes before we heard
+the row here, a man walked very fast by our house to the village. You
+heard the footsteps, Andresh, didn't you?"
+
+"That's him! that's him! Quick! Go after him!" shouted the coachman;
+and, without waiting to hear the young man's reply, he darted off
+precisely in the same direction which the notary had taken on his way
+home.
+
+"He is not here! He has made for the village, it's plain enough!" said
+the ferryman, as he with difficulty hobbled after the party.
+
+As the hounds follow the scent, so the coachman and his companions
+followed the foot-marks. "What's this?" exclaimed Ferko, stooping to
+pick up a stick which lay on the ground. "It's a stick; a gentleman's
+walking-stick, too. It's a tshakany[28]; no doubt the robber has stolen
+it somewhere!"
+
+[Footnote 28: See Note XI.]
+
+They traced the foot-marks up to the hedge of the notary's garden. The
+coachman walked round it.
+
+"The devil take it!" cried he; "the foot-marks end here."
+
+The others snatched the lantern from his hand, and eagerly looked for a
+continuation of the foot-marks.
+
+It was no use; the track which had continued up to that point was lost.
+They were again at fault.
+
+"Surely the earth can't have swallowed him!" said the ferryman.
+
+"Perhaps he's hid on the other side of the hedge," said the coachman:
+"stay here; I'll jump over and see."
+
+"No, no! don't do that!" cried the ferryman, pulling Ferko back; "that's
+the way to get a knock on the head. What does it matter to us if the
+attorney is killed? For my part, I wished him to the devil last summer;
+he won't come down upon me now for a hundred and fifty florins a year!"
+
+But the coachman, though not stimulated to follow Viola from any love to
+Catspaw, paid no attention to this advice, and bounded over the fence.
+
+He returned soon afterwards, declaring that all trace of the robber was
+lost; and they were just about to return home, when the ferryman's son
+came running to inform them that he had discovered some fresh foot-marks
+on the garden path. They all ran to the garden gate, which was open, and
+found the continuation of the foot-marks which they had so suddenly and
+mysteriously lost. They were distinctly traced up to the very door of
+the house.
+
+"He is in the notary's house, or perhaps he is in the shed," said Ferko,
+in the tone of a man who, when he has came to a certain point, will
+hazard all. "Let us enter."
+
+"What!" said the ferryman, seizing him by the coat; "you don't think of
+looking in Mr. Tengelyi's house for a murderer, do you?"
+
+"And why not?" retorted Ferko.
+
+"Don't you know it would not be the first time robbers have been in this
+house? It's here young Mr. Akosh was shot at!"
+
+"But you forget," answered the ferryman, "that this house is a
+nobleman's!"
+
+"What do we care for that? We are in search of Viola. Moreover, did we
+not ransack the house with the justice at our head?"
+
+"That's different," said the ferryman; "they were gentlemen,--we are
+not. They would kick us out of doors."
+
+"Well, we'll see about that. I am Lady Rety's coachman, and have the
+honour of wearing her livery. I should like to see the notary kick me!"
+
+And Ferko tore himself from the grasp of the ferryman, and rushed into
+the house, accompanied by the men who came from the Castle.
+
+The old man remained outside, heartily praying that the servants of the
+place would seize Ferko and his companions, and give them a thorough
+whipping.
+
+However bold the coachman might have felt in entering the house, he was
+penitent and abashed when Mr. Tengelyi, who had only just come in, and
+had not had time to throw off his bunda, stepped out of his room, and
+said, in a commanding voice, "What do you want here?"
+
+For a moment they stood speechless; but when, gradually regaining
+confidence, Ferko told the notary that Mr. Catspaw had been murdered,
+and that they had traced the robber's footsteps up to his door, Mr.
+Tengelyi became much distressed. He thought of Viola's letter, and could
+not doubt for a moment that the outlaw had perpetrated this dreadful act
+to gain possession of the papers. Perhaps he was, though unconsciously,
+the cause of the murder. This thought made the notary shudder. The
+coachman and his companions remarked the effect their news produced upon
+him, and looked amazed at each other, while Tengelyi stood motionless,
+with the candle trembling in his hand. By degrees he regained his
+self-possession, and began to inquire how the murder was committed?
+when? and where?
+
+"We followed the robber to the banks of the Theiss, where we suddenly
+lost him," said the coachman, casting occasional glances at the notary's
+boots, which were covered with mud, and at his companions; "from there
+we have traced his footsteps to your house."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the ferryman, stepping forward; "we have found
+foot-marks leading to this place, it is true; but whether they are the
+robber's marks or not, I cannot say. And you know I said we ought not to
+enter this house, that it was a nobleman's curia, but----"
+
+"You are mad!" said the notary, with indignation. "If you think a
+murderer is secreted in my house, search, and leave no corner
+unexamined!"
+
+The inmates became alarmed by the noise; and Ershebet and Vilma got up
+and hastily dressed themselves; while the notary, with a lantern in his
+hand, led the way into every room and nook of his house, until they were
+convinced that the robber was not there.
+
+"Did you see," said Ferko to the ferryman, holding him back; "did you
+see how he trembled when I mentioned the murder of the attorney?"
+
+"Of course I did. Do you think I am blind?"
+
+"And his boots too were up to the ankles in mud," continued Ferko.
+
+"That's no wonder, in such weather as this," answered the ferryman;
+"ours are nearly up to the knees in mud."
+
+"By God! If I had not known him these ten years, I would----"
+
+"You don't mean to say that you suspect the notary of the murder of
+Catspaw, do you?" demanded the ferryman, with warmth.
+
+"If nobody else had been in the house, upon my soul I'd believe it!"
+
+"You are a fool, Ferko!" exclaimed the old man, turning round in the
+direction of the Castle, whither all the others repaired in silence.
+
+During the search Mr. Tengelyi had been summoned in great haste to the
+Castle.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES TO VOL. II.
+
+
+NOTE I.
+
+BUZOGANY.
+
+Among the characteristic weapons of the ancient Hungarians was the
+buzogany, a short staff, with a heavy knob of precious metal at the end.
+The buzogany is a symbol of command, and as such it is still found in
+the hands of the Indian Rajahs. In Hungary, it was usually hung by the
+side of the sabre. It still denotes military rank and authority. The
+lower classes have a similar weapon, the tshakany; a long stick, with a
+square piece of iron at one end, and a hook at the other. The fokosh is
+a stick, armed with an axe and spike. The tshakany and fokosh are
+dangerous weapons in the hands of the Hungarian herdsmen.
+
+
+NOTE II.
+
+TOKANY.
+
+Tokany is pork roasted with spices and scented herbs.
+
+
+NOTE III.
+
+SWATOPLUK.
+
+Swatopluk was a king of the Czechian empire in the days of Arpad, who
+first brought his warriors into the kingdom of Hungary. When Arpad
+approached the confines of the country, he sent ambassadors to
+Swatopluk, to ask him for grass from the Hungarian heaths, and for water
+from the Danube (a variation of the demand of "earth and water" of
+classic reminiscence); and in return he offered the Czechish king a
+white steed with a purple bridle. Swatopluk, who had no idea of the
+Oriental meaning of the demand, readily accepted the horse, and provided
+Arpad's ambassadors with a plentiful supply of hay and water. Upon this
+the Hungarians advanced on the great heath between the Danube and the
+Theiss (A.D. 889). Swatopluk would have opposed them, but they offered
+him battle, and routed his army. The king of the Czechs was glad to make
+his escape on the very horse which he had accepted in exchange for his
+kingdom.
+
+Grotesque illustrations of this transaction are frequently to be met
+with in ancient Hungarian houses. The legend under the pictures
+expresses Swatopluk's astonishment and wonder at the sight of the white
+horse, for, as king of a pedestrian nation, he is profoundly ignorant of
+horses and horsemanship. He questions the Hungarian ambassadors, whether
+the horse is likely to bite, and what food will please this wonderful
+animal; and on the reply that the horse is in the habit of eating
+_oats_, the king replies, "By my troth, a dainty beast! Nothing will
+please him but my own food!" The Slowaks, in Upper Hungary, are
+descendants of the conquered race, and still addicted to the historical
+diet of Swatopluk, the prince, who sold a kingdom for a horse.
+
+
+NOTE IV.
+
+HUNGARIAN NAMES.
+
+In all Hungarian names the Christian name is put after the family name,
+as, Kossuth Lajosh, Lewis Kossuth; Teleky Shandor, Alexander Teleky;
+Gorove Ishtvan, Stephen Gorove.
+
+
+NOTE V.
+
+WIZARD STUDENT.
+
+The legend of Faustus has a natural foundation in the creative
+superstition of darker ages. Hungary, too, has its wizard student, and
+one who need not blush to be ranged with Faustus, Albertus Magnus,
+Michael Scott, and Friar Bacon, for his power was and is great. The
+wizard student is possessor of a dragon, which carries him through the
+air. He has an absolute control over hailstones and thunderbolts. He is
+an impertinent fellow, fond of mischief, of pretty women, and milk. It
+is therefore but natural that the women in the Hungarian villages should
+offer him jars of milk, to engage his goodwill and to prevent his
+devastating their harvests with hail and lightning.
+
+
+NOTE VI.
+
+TATOSH.
+
+This name belongs originally to the priests of the ancient Hungarians,
+and it is still given to soothsayers. Their characteristic feature is,
+that they are white-livered and gifted with second sight. But the name
+of Tatosh is likewise given to the magic steed of the Hungarian legend.
+The Tatosh is jet black, and so extraordinarily quick-footed that he
+will gallop on the sea without dipping his hoofs into the water. He is
+attached and faithful to his master, with whom he converses, and whom he
+surpasses in understanding.
+
+
+NOTE VII.
+
+KONDASH.
+
+This word stands for Kanaz, or keeper of swine.
+
+
+NOTE VIII.
+
+SCARCITY OF HANGMEN.
+
+Almost all the smaller Hungarian towns and boroughs had (before the
+Revolution) the right of judging and executing the persons who were
+within their jurisdiction. Capital executions were frequent, as is
+always the case when the power over life and death is given into the
+hands of small and close corporations; but still, though a large number
+of people were hanged each year, the executions which fell to the share
+of each individual town and borough were few and far between. In cases
+of this kind the poorer communities were frequently at a loss to find an
+executioner; for they could not afford to maintain one merely for the
+chance of employing him once or twice every three years.
+
+The greatest difficulty was usually experienced in a case of
+_Statarium_; for if the sentence was not executed within a certain time,
+it was annulled, and the prisoner came within the jurisdiction of the
+common courts. There was, therefore, no time left to send for an
+executioner to one of the larger towns; and it was a common occurrence
+that a gipsy was induced, by threats and promises of reward, to
+discharge the odious functions of an executioner.
+
+Justice _in a fix_ was the more prone to appeal to the help of the
+Bohemian population, from the vagrant habits of the gipsies, which
+prevented the man who volunteered as a hangman suffering from the odium
+which would have fallen to the share of a resident of the place, and
+from the fact that the extreme jealousy of the wealthier corporations
+made it by no means an easy matter to borrow a hangman. It is on record
+that the inhabitants of Kesmarkt, in the Zips, sent an envoy to the
+magistrates of the city of Lutshau to ask for the loan of their hangman,
+a request to which their worships gave an indignant refusal. "For," said
+they to the negotiator, "tell your masters we keep our hangman _for
+ourselves and for our children_, but not for the people of Kesmarkt!"
+
+
+NOTE IX.
+
+HASZONTALAN PARASZT.
+
+The phrase of "good-for-nothing peasant" was, at one time, frequently
+used by the privileged classes. M. Kossuth's party succeeded in turning
+the odium of that phrase against those who employed it.
+
+
+NOTE X.
+
+BATTLE OF MOHATSH.
+
+The city of Mohatsh, in Lower Hungary, was the scene of a terrible
+battle between the Hungarians and the Turks. Solyman the Magnificent
+succeeded his father Selymus on the Ottoman throne in the year 1520.
+After quelling an insurrection in Syria, and establishing his power in
+Egypt, he resolved to turn his arms against the Christian nations. His
+great-grandfather had endeavoured, without success, to obtain possession
+of Belgrade,--a city in which were deposited most of the trophies taken
+by the Hungarians in their wars with the Turks. The Sultan, having
+rapidly moved his army towards the frontiers, arrived in Servia before
+the Hungarians were even aware of his approach.
+
+At this period the Hungarian power had greatly declined. The throne was
+occupied by Louis II., a young and feeble sovereign, who had no means of
+raising an army sufficient to contend against his powerful and ambitious
+enemy. "His nobility," says the quaint historian Knolles, "in whose
+hands rested the wealth of his kingdom, promised much, but performed,
+indeed, nothing. Huniades, with his hardy soldiers,--the scourge and
+terror of the Turks,--were dead long before; so was Matthias, that
+fortunate warrior: after whom succeeded others given to all pleasure and
+ease, to whose example the people, fashioning themselves, forgot their
+wonted valour."
+
+Belgrade fell almost without resistance.
+
+Solyman, having gained his immediate object, broke up his army, returned
+to Constantinople, and employed himself in fitting out a fleet for the
+conquest of Rhodes, which he also effected towards the end of the year
+1522. Having devoted the three following years to the organisation of a
+large army, he resumed his designs against Hungary, taking advantage of
+the distracted state of Europe in consequence of the Italian campaign of
+Francis I. against Charles V.
+
+The inroad of the Turks was sudden in the extreme. Before Louis had any
+knowledge of the intentions of Solyman, a Turkish army of two hundred
+thousand men had crossed the frontiers of Hungary. When the young
+monarch learned the peril to which his kingdom was exposed, he addressed
+applications for assistance to most of the Christian princes; but
+without success. He summoned the prelates and nobles of Hungary to his
+aid. They obeyed the call with great readiness; but the troops which
+they brought into the field were ill-appointed and inexperienced. They
+had been accustomed to triumph over the Turks, and therefore treated the
+coming danger with haughty contempt. Archbishop Tomoreus, in particular,
+who had had a few slight skirmishes with the Turks, boasted of his own
+prowess; and assured the army, in a sermon which he delivered, that the
+infidels were doomed to destruction.
+
+The king's troops amounted to five-and-twenty thousand men, horse and
+foot. His old officers foresaw the result of a conflict which was about
+to be undertaken with such inadequate means, and they advised the king
+to withdraw from the scene of danger. They insisted on his retiring to
+the Castle of Buda. But to this proceeding the army objected; and
+declared that, unless they were led by their sovereign, they would not
+fight. Whereupon the king advanced with his army, and encamped at
+Mohatsh, at a short distance from the Turkish vanguard.
+
+A body of Transylvanian horsemen having been expected to join the king,
+it was debated whether he should not defer giving battle until the
+arrival of a force so essential for his support against the enemy. The
+impetuosity of the Archbishop, however, unfortunately decided the
+councils of the day, and preparations were made for the encounter.
+
+The vanguard of the Turks consisted of twenty thousand horsemen, which
+were divided into four squadrons, and which harassed the king's troops
+by skirmishes. So closely did they watch the Hungarian army, that no man
+could attempt to water his horse in the Danube. They were compelled to
+resort to digging ditches within the confines of the camp. In the mean
+time, Solyman arrived at Mohatsh with the main body of his army. The
+Archbishop Tomoreus arranged the order of the battle. He stationed the
+cavaliers at intervals among the infantry, fearing that the Turks might
+crush his line by flank marches, unless it were extended as far as
+possible. A small force was left in charge of the tents, which were
+surrounded with waggons chained together; and, next them, a chosen body
+of horse was placed in reserve, for the purpose of protecting the
+king's person, in case any disaster should occur.
+
+It is said that the gunners employed on the Turkish side, being, for the
+most part, Christians, purposely pointed the artillery so high, that
+their fire was altogether harmless. Nevertheless, at the first onset,
+the Hungarians were completely routed by the superior number of their
+antagonists. Tomoreus was among the first victims of that fatal day. His
+followers displayed their usual gallantry, but perished, in this unequal
+conflict, one after another; and, the horsemen once trampled down and
+killed, the camp remained open to the assault of the enemy. The garrison
+was too weak to make any defence, and the reserve force was called in to
+assist them. The king, seeing his army overthrown, and his guard engaged
+in a fatal conflict with the enemy, took to flight; but his horse,
+scared by the turmoil of the conflict, bore him into a deep morass, in
+which he was drowned. Solyman marched up to Buda, which he took by
+assault.
+
+
+NOTE XI.
+
+For the meaning of Tshakany, see Note I.
+
+
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW,
+New-street-Square.
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY.
+
+VOL. III.
+
+
+
+
+THE VILLAGE NOTARY.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+If my readers had ever seen the inmates of the Castle of Tissaret, they
+would not be astonished to find that, after the first shock of the
+sudden death of Mr. Catspaw had worn off, the matter was thought of, and
+commented on, with utter indifference. The order and quiet of the Castle
+was quite restored, and the servants sat talking of the murder round a
+blazing fire in the kitchen. But although some of them were in the
+attorney's room almost immediately after the deed was perpetrated,
+nobody knew any thing about it. Everybody's statement differed. They sat
+talking until daybreak, and yet they were no wiser than when they began.
+They rose and separated with opinions as various as those entertained of
+Hannibal's passage across the Alps.
+
+The greatest incoherence, however, was in the dying man's own statement.
+When they asked him who had done the deed, he distinctly mentioned the
+name of Tengelyi. But Mrs. Cizmeasz, who was an honest and
+truth-speaking woman, insisted on its being a request to see the notary,
+and protested that it had nothing to do with the murder.
+
+Mr. Tengelyi had hastened to the Castle on the night of the murder, and
+on hearing that the dying man's last word was his name, he grew pale and
+agitated. This did not fail to produce its effects upon the observers.
+
+As soon as he had caused the door of the room, in which the corpse of
+the attorney lay, to be sealed up, he left the Castle.
+
+Mr. Skinner did not arrive before the next morning, though he had been
+repeatedly sent for during the night.
+
+When his carriage at length drove up to the door, the cook ran out
+exclaiming, "Our attorney is murdered, sir!"
+
+"Poor man!" said Mrs. Cizmeasz; "his last words were----"
+
+"But we have found the murderer," said the cook with great joy.
+
+"_I_ found him!" cried the haiduk.
+
+"Yes, in the chimney!" bawled the kitchen-maid.
+
+"He got off!" cried Mrs. Cizmeasz, in a shrill voice.
+
+"Yes, yes, we have him! It's the Jew--the glazier, sir; you know him,"
+said the cook, who wished to be an important personage in the affair.
+
+"He has made his escape," said the coachman, coming forward; "we
+followed him to the Theiss, when----"
+
+"He is in the cellar," bawled the foot-boy; "I have bound him hand and
+foot!"
+
+"Yes, sir," resumed the coachman, "we ran at his heels until we came to
+the thicket----"
+
+"The door is duly sealed, sir, and I have the Jew under lock and key,"
+said the cook, with dignity.
+
+"It wasn't the Jew!" screamed Mrs. Kata.
+
+"It was the Jew, sure enough!" said the cook.
+
+"If it was the Jew, why did Mr. Catspaw shake his head?" urged the lady,
+shaking her head, in imitation of the attorney.
+
+The dispute grew hot, and the clamour became deafening. Mrs. Cizmeasz
+protested that it was not the Jew, and the others swore it was the Jew.
+
+"Are you people all gone mad?" thundered the justice, in the midst of
+the confusion; "it is impossible to hear oneself speak in such a Babel
+as this!"
+
+In an instant the clamour ceased. Mrs. Cizmeasz fluttered and muttered
+still, and, turning to the person next to her, in whom she hoped to find
+a more patient listener, she declared, still shaking her head, that was
+the way in which Mr. Catspaw had shaken his when the Jew was brought
+before him.
+
+"My dear friend!" said the justice at length to the cook, "is it not
+possible to get some breakfast?--it's bitterly cold!"
+
+"Certainly, sir," answered the cook; "if you will go to my warm room,
+I'll get it as soon as possible." After a few minutes, some brandy and
+bread were brought until coffee was ready.
+
+Mrs. Cizmeasz went fretting and grumbling to her room, leaving the
+kitchen-maid to prepare the breakfast.
+
+The cook was happy. He had the justice now all to himself, and was
+busily engaged in explaining his own conviction of the murder, and in
+trying to persuade Mr. Skinner to believe the same. According to his
+opinion, there could be no doubt that the murder had been committed by
+the Jew, who, on hearing the approach of footsteps, had hid himself in
+the chimney, which also accounted for his not stealing any thing.
+
+"The thing is too plain," added he; "a person with the smallest particle
+of sense could see through it; every murderer, when found in the act,
+hides himself behind the door, in a cupboard, or squeezes himself up a
+chimney! Oh, I have read of such stories over and over again. That silly
+woman fancies she is very wise, but she knows nothing about it."
+
+"You are quite right," said the justice, in a fit of abstraction, and
+filling his glass for the third time; "you are quite right, the matter
+is very clear. As clear as can be."
+
+"Did I not say so?" rejoined Mr. Kenihazy; nodding his head with great
+satisfaction.
+
+"What did you say?" asked the justice, who wished to remind Mr. Kenihazy
+that he had had great difficulty in rousing him from sleep.
+
+"I said that the man who had done this was certainly a great scoundrel."
+
+"I remember you did say so; but I never should have thought this Jew had
+such audacity. Poor Catspaw! he was a very good man."
+
+"And what a hand he was at tarok, the other day!" said Kenihazy; "twice
+he bagged the _Jew_; and with five taroks he won Zatonyi's _ultimo_. And
+now this Jew!"
+
+"But the rascal denies it all!" said the cook, entering with the coffee.
+"Suppose you can't succeed in making him confess?"
+
+"Succeed!" said the justice, casting a contemptuous look at the cook.
+"Not succeed with a miserable Jew! I have done twenty years' service in
+the county, and never failed in any thing I wished to accomplish!"
+
+"Yes, sir, everybody knows that," replied the cook, with great humility;
+"but Hebrews are sometimes very stubborn."
+
+"Well, if he won't confess, he'll squeak!" said Mr. Skinner, pushing his
+empty coffee-cup aside.
+
+"He will have Skinner before him, a haiduk in the rear, and me at the
+table; we'll show you sport, my boy!" said Mr. Kenihazy, with great
+glee. "And once in the midst of us, he'll confess, I'll answer for it."
+
+The breakfast was over; and Kenihazy, wondering how any one could have
+the bad taste to drink coffee when such delicious wine and brandy could
+be got in Hungary, drank off a glass of brandy to wash the coffee down.
+
+The justice rose and lighted his pipe, which he had laid aside during
+breakfast. He stalked up and down the room, trying the condition of his
+voice. He ordered the haiduks to be ready, and the prisoner to be
+brought before him at once.
+
+The cook, to whom these orders were given, very curious to see the
+examination of the Jew, lost no time in executing the justice's mandate.
+
+Mr. Kenihazy sat mending some pens; and his face was radiant with joy at
+having picked up a piece of coarse paper, on which he thought to take
+down the evidence, and by this means save the better paper allowed him
+by the county.
+
+Mr. Skinner's manner of treating persons whom he suspected, was simple
+in the extreme. His inquisitorial powers vented themselves in abuse,
+imprecations, and kicks. Peti, the gipsy, and the treatment which he
+received at the justice's hands on the Turk's Hill, are by no means an
+unfavourable specimen of that worthy functionary's summary mode of
+dealing with the lowly and unprotected; and in the present instance, the
+poor Jew learned to his cost, that the worthy magistrate's jokes had
+lost nothing of their pungency, and that his kicks retained their
+pristine vigour. But if the justice was violent, the Jew was stubborn.
+Neither Mr. Skinner's stunning rejoinders, nor the striking arguments of
+the haiduk, whose stick played no mean part in court, could convince the
+culprit of the propriety of making (as Mr. Kenihazy said) "a clean
+breast of it." Nothing can equal Mr. Skinner's disgust and fury. He
+stamped and swore--as indeed he always did--but to no purpose.
+
+"Dog!" cried he; "I'll have you thrown into the wolf-pit. I'll have you
+killed!" And kicking the Jew, he sent him staggering and stammering out
+his innocence against the wall. "Innocent!" cried the justice, with a
+savage laugh, "Does that fellow look as if he were innocent?"
+
+Mr. Kenihazy and the cook stood laughing at the culprit, while the big
+tears ran down his cheek from his one eye.
+
+There was nothing, however, in the Jew's appearance that could impress
+one with an idea of his innocence. His red hair, matted and wet from the
+damp of the cellar, hung longer and straighter down his forehead than
+usual. His dress and beard were in great filth and disorder. His ugly
+features were wild and haggard from the pain of his bonds, and the
+ill-treatment he had received from the justice and Mr. Kenihazy; in
+short, he looked like one of the coarse woodcuts of Cain in the
+story-books.
+
+"I am innocent--I am not guilty!" blubbered the Jew. "I implore you! I
+intreat you, Mr. Skinner, and Mr. Kenihazy, and Mister Cook, who knows
+well----"
+
+"Yes; I know you, you villain!" said the cook. "You have always robbed
+me when I employed you----"
+
+"Oh, I humbly entreat you! Oh, no, I never cheated any one!" sobbed the
+Jew. "The panes of glass in the saloon were very dear, and I----"
+
+"You dirty dog!" cried the justice. "You want to shift the question, do
+you? I ask you again, and for the last time, why you murdered the
+attorney?"
+
+"I did not kill him," answered the Jew, sobbing; "what should I have
+killed him for? He was my best friend; and if he were living now, he
+would not see me used thus."
+
+"Very possible, if you had not killed him!" quoth Paul Skinner.
+
+"I never killed him," persisted the Jew. "When Mister Cook took me to
+the attorney, and asked him if I had stabbed him, he shook his head, you
+know he did, Mister Cook."
+
+"That's true!" said the other, turning to the justice. "When I took the
+knave to the bed-side, and asked the attorney if he had done it, he
+shook his head."
+
+"But who knows? Perhaps he didn't understand me, or he had lost his
+senses, or he was so disgusted!"
+
+"Oh, no!" said the prisoner, eagerly. "He hadn't lost his senses, or he
+wouldn't have shaken his head twice again afterwards, when you asked
+him if I had stabbed him."
+
+"That's what Mrs. Cizmeasz said, I'm sure," said Mr. Kenihazy.
+
+"Yes," said the Jew; "Mrs. Cook and everybody in the house were in the
+room, and saw how poor dear Mr. Catspaw shook his head when I was
+brought in. He did nothing but shake his head while I was in the room."
+
+"Call the cook!" said Mr. Skinner, recollecting her extraordinary and
+energetic behaviour on his arrival.
+
+"It's a great pity," protested the cook, "that your worship should
+fatigue yourself with the gibberish of that woman, who is as blind as a
+bat in the matter. It was the Jew, and nobody but the Jew, that
+committed the murder."
+
+"I know all that," said the justice, with dignity; "but it's necessary
+to observe certain forms." And again he desired the haiduk to call the
+cook.
+
+Catharine Cismeasz, or Mrs. Kata, as she was usually called, (for who,
+as she often and justly remarked, will give a poor widow her due? and
+even her Christian name is shortened, as if she were a mere
+kitchen-maid),--Mrs. Kata, I say, had meanwhile addressed her own
+partizans, to whom she complained of the stupidity of the judge, who
+would not condescend to listen to a reasonable woman. "I am sure," said
+she, "that fellow, the cook, will lead him astray; he's a treacherous
+knave, so he is, and he's always getting my lady out of temper with
+everybody; and I'm sure, sirs, he'll say it was the Jew, and yet he's as
+innocent as an unborn babe, for when they took him to Mr. Catspaw's bed,
+he----"
+
+Here she was interrupted by a haiduk, who informed her that she was
+wanted; whereupon her complaint was suddenly changed into high praise
+and admiration of the justice, who, she said, was a proper man indeed.
+
+After Mrs. Cizmeasz had spent a short time in dressing her head and
+making herself spruce before a piece of glass which hung at the window,
+she set off, with great consequence, to see the justice; declaring, at
+the same time, that the truth should and would now be known.
+
+She had never been in a court of justice. When Mr. Skinner asked her
+what her name and occupation were, two things she thought the whole
+world knew, she became much embarrassed; and when the judge inquired her
+age, the cook could not refrain from tittering. "Forty-two," said she,
+in so low a voice that it could scarcely be heard. And when the justice
+warned her, in a very solemn manner, to speak the truth, for that what
+she was about to say would all be taken down, and that, if she deviated
+from the truth, a severe punishment would be inflicted upon her, she was
+induced to believe that the whole was planned and got up by the cook to
+pique her. In order, therefore, to thwart him, and in reply to Mr.
+Skinner's exhortation, she said she really could not say exactly how old
+she was, as she had lost the certificate of her birth; but she believed
+she was younger than forty-two. The cook and Mr. Kenihazy laughed
+outright; and the justice assured her, with a smile, that he was not
+particular about the truth on that point, but he hoped she would be more
+accurate in her evidence; upon which she took the opportunity of
+assuring him that she always gave people to understand she was older
+than she really was.
+
+The questions, Whether she had known Mr. Catspaw? If she had ever seen
+the culprit before? What she knew of him? &c. &c. put Mrs. Cizmeasz in
+better spirits, and indemnified her for the disagreeable impression
+which the first part of the examination had made on her mind.
+
+She was one of those women who will neither hide in the earth nor wrap
+in a napkin the loquacious talent with which Nature has endowed them.
+
+Mrs. Cizmeasz had, all her life, talked with ease from morning till
+night; and it could not be expected that now, perhaps for the first time
+in her life that she spoke from duty, she should stint her hearers,
+especially since Mr. Skinner had particularly cautioned her to tell all
+she knew.
+
+Mrs. Cizmeasz had a powerful memory at times, and, on this occasion,
+remembered everything. She told where she had formerly lived; how she
+had come to the Castle; what had happened since her first quarrel with
+the cook; how the Jew (pointing to him) had stolen a florin and
+twenty-four kreutzers from her when she sent him to the Debrezin fair to
+buy twelve yards of calico: in short, the good woman left nothing untold
+that she could remember.
+
+At length the justice jumped up, and paced the room in a state of great
+perplexity; and the clerk, who did not mean to write a book, laid his
+pen aside. The cook cast a triumphant glance first at the justice, and
+then at Mr. Kenihazy; as much as to say, "There, was I not right? Did I
+not say it was no use to examine this woman?"
+
+Paul Skinner could restrain his impatience no longer; he exclaimed,
+"What, in the name of God, woman, do you mean by all this? Do you take
+me to be your confessor, or your fool, that you pester me with your d--d
+history?"
+
+"I humbly beg your pardon," said Mrs. Kata, greatly astonished that any
+one should not take an interest in what she had related; "but your
+worship told me to tell everything and forget nothing, and that it would
+all be written down, because a man's life depended upon it----"
+
+"That you should forget nothing relating to the murder, were my words."
+
+"Exactly," resumed the lady; "but when you ask me about my name and
+occupation, and I answer that I am a widow, I must also mention my
+husband, and how long we lived together, and I assure you, your worship,
+we were very happy together, and when he died, and of what he died,
+and----"
+
+"Well, well," interposed the justice, heartily wishing her eloquence
+anywhere but there; "now tell us, in a word, is it true that when the
+cook took the Jew to the death-bed of Mr. Catspaw, he shook his head?"
+
+"It is true, your worship," answered she, with a glance of defiance at
+the cook; "he did shake his head; if your worship could only have seen
+_how_ he shook his head! Since I stood at the death-bed of my
+husband--poor man! God rest his soul, he was a cook----"
+
+"Yes, we know all about it," said the justice, interrupting her; "he
+died of dropsy. But tell us, young woman, is it true that my poor
+friend, Mr. Catspaw, shook his head the second time when the cook asked
+him?"
+
+"He did shake his head! Your worship cannot think how he shook his head!
+for all the world like my poor dead husband! God rest him! The last
+fourteen days I never left him, day or night----"
+
+"Who knows," observed the cook, "but perhaps he shook it with disgust?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Cizmeasz, "my husband shaking with disgust? My
+husband was happy to the last moment. He lost his speech, poor man; he
+understood no one but me, and whatever he wished----"
+
+"Who the devil speaks of your husband?" interposed the justice; "God
+give him peace! he must have had little in this world. The question is,
+whether Mr. Catspaw was in his senses or not when he shook his head?"
+
+"Out of his senses!" said Mrs. Cizmeasz. "I beg your worship's pardon,
+nobody can say that but such a fool as----" here she darted a look at
+the cook that left no doubt of its meaning--"he who doesn't understand
+a man unless he speaks. When the water came into my husband's breast he
+couldn't speak, but I understood him to the last; and he used to throw
+such sweet melancholy looks at me, as if he would say, 'Thank you, my
+sweet dove!'"
+
+But here she came back to the point, seeing the justice get very
+impatient. "How could poor Mr. Catspaw be wandering in his mind when he
+answered questions which were put to him?"
+
+"He spoke? and what did he say?" inquired the justice, very eagerly.
+
+"He didn't say much, it is true, but it was distinct," answered the
+woman. "Everybody in the room heard him say 'Tengelyi,' when he was
+asked who had stabbed him; and then the rattles came into his throat."
+
+"Tengelyi?" cried the justice and Kenihazy, in utter astonishment. "Most
+extraordinary!"
+
+"Why does your worship listen to such nonsense?" interposed the cook,
+impatiently; "this woman would bring her father to the gallows!"
+
+"Nonsense, is it?" cried Mrs. Cizmeasz; "then why does the justice
+listen to it, and why does Mr. Kenihazy write it down? Well, I don't
+care! I don't want to speak; if I had not been asked I would have said
+nothing; I never would have spoken to any one about it."
+
+Mr. Skinner shouted at the top of his voice that she must not confound
+the evidence, but tell him if her memory was quite clear--if she was
+quite sure that Mr. Catspaw had mentioned the name of Tengelyi?
+
+"Why should I not remember!" cried she, amidst a clamour of voices. "The
+attorney spoke as well as we do now. Everybody was in the room, and
+everybody heard him say, 'Tengelyi.'"
+
+"Nobody heard it!" shouted the cook, in spite of all admonitions to keep
+silence. "When did he say it? What reason could he have for saying it? I
+say----"
+
+"When did he say it? When you took the Jew to his bed-side, and asked
+him if that was the man who had murdered him," screamed Mrs. Cizmeasz,
+getting into a generous passion; "first he shook his head, and----"
+
+"It's not true!" bawled the cook, trying to drown her voice. "It's a
+lie! He first said Tengelyi, and afterwards shook his head."
+
+"I say he first shook his head, and then said Tengelyi; and everybody
+who speaks the truth will say so too!" screamed the other.
+
+"It's a lie, I say! and everybody that says it is a liar, though he
+swore it a thousand times!" shouted the cook, in a voice of thunder, and
+darting looks of the fiercest lightning at Mrs. Cizmeasz.
+
+"I'll call the whole house to prove it," said Mrs. Kata, with a face as
+red as scarlet.
+
+At length the justice interfered, and said, "To set this matter right,
+we must have another examination of witnesses."
+
+While the haiduk was absent to call all the people together who had
+witnessed the last moments of Mr. Catspaw, the two cooks were engrossed
+in dispute, and Mr. Skinner warned Mr. Kenihazy to take particular
+notice of that part of the woman's evidence relating to the attorney's
+last words.
+
+The messenger found the remainder of the witnesses jabbering away all
+together in the kitchen. He brought them at once to the justice; but
+never was a man more deceived than Mr. Skinner was when he thought to
+remove the veil from the mystery by the multiplicity of witnesses.
+
+He had now got six instead of two. The steward and boots took Mrs.
+Kata's part; the kitchen-maid and scullery-maid that of the man cook;
+the cooks were equally backed. For a quarter of an hour after the
+witnesses had entered the room the noise and confusion were pitiable. At
+length the justice, shrugging his shoulders impatiently, said, "It
+doesn't signify a jot whether he shook his head before or afterwards.
+The principal thing is, that the attorney was distinctly heard to
+pronounce the name of Tengelyi. On that much depends. I hope you have
+taken that down?" inquired he, turning to Mr. Kenihazy, who nodded in
+the affirmative, without raising his head from the paper.
+
+The contending parties looked at each other with astonishment. Mrs. Kata
+Cizmeasz, who had not the least intention of throwing suspicion on the
+notary, and who simply wished to prove her assertion that the attorney
+first shook his head and afterwards said "Tengelyi!" was now horrified
+at the justice's words. The cook alone had the presence of mind to
+remind Mr. Skinner that he had not corroborated this assertion, and also
+deposed that the dying man had certainly mentioned Tengelyi, but not
+when it was a question of his murderer. Everybody affirmed this with a
+nod, but particularly Mrs. Kata, who, when she saw the consequences of
+her evidence, burst into tears, and, sobbing, said, "I am a poor lone
+widow, and Mister Cook must know better than I do. I was so terrified
+when I saw the bleeding breast of Mr. Catspaw that I knew not what I
+did, or what I saw, or what I heard."
+
+As the unfortunate witnesses endeavoured to retract what they had said,
+the justice was induced to assure them that everything they had said had
+been taken down: "And," added he, "if any of the witnesses endeavour to
+revoke or explain away what they have said in their evidence against
+Tengelyi, they shall see and feel the consequences of telling lies in a
+court of justice!"
+
+Mrs. Kata, under the shock of these words, shrunk terrified into a
+corner of the room.
+
+The cook, who had a profound veneration for the notary, was much
+afflicted, and, in spite of his respect for a justice, he could not
+suppress his indignation. "I cannot see, sir," said he, "what cause you
+can find in the evidence to suspect Mr. Tengelyi."
+
+"What cause?" rejoined the justice, darting a look of wrath at the cook.
+"What cause? That's a question on which your decision will not be
+required. Moreover, I think it cause enough, when this woman and two
+other witnesses affirm that the dying man (the simple assertion of a
+dying man is worth a thousand oaths of another person) named Tengelyi as
+his murderer."
+
+"I did not say that," sighed Mrs. Kata, stepping forward; "I only said
+that the attorney shook his head, and then said 'Tengelyi.' I never
+thought these words could throw suspicion on the notary."
+
+"It's quite certain," said the cook, who, being a freeman, felt himself
+insulted by the manner in which the justice had spoken to him,--"every
+man can have his suspicions if he likes; but when it's a question of
+murder, I think it a great shame that the mere prattle of a silly woman
+should throw suspicion on a man of Tengelyi's respectability."
+
+"But did you not say yourself that Mr. Catspaw mentioned the notary?"
+said the justice, in a cutting tone. "Moreover, it's well known that Mr.
+Catspaw and the notary have been enemies all their life, and it is
+thought that the notary has not behaved to him as he ought to have done.
+Even yesterday they had a violent dispute; and who knows but what the
+attorney had to repent it in his last moments? And what is still more
+suspicious is, that they quarrelled again yesterday evening. The cook
+himself has said so. Make a note of that!" said the justice, turning to
+Mr. Kenihazy.
+
+The cook could not deny this; and Mrs. Kata, thinking to benefit the
+notary, and make amends for her former imprudence, related the quarrel
+of the previous evening, with the addition of all the scandal and
+tittle-tattle of the village.
+
+"Most strange! most suspicious!" exclaimed the justice, turning to Mr.
+Kenihazy; "that my friend should be found murdered in his bed the very
+night on which he had had a deadly quarrel with the notary. This woman's
+evidence proves beyond a doubt that my friend died by the notary's hand.
+I hope you have taken down every word," said he, still addressing his
+clerk.
+
+The cook wished to speak; but, finding the justice would not listen to
+him, he said to Mr. Kenihazy, in a subdued voice, "If the Jew didn't do
+it, what business had he in the chimney?"
+
+Mr. Skinner, instead of replying to the cook, addressed the Jew: "Who
+has bribed you to this horrid act? Who are your accomplices, you scurvy
+hound? For it's you who struck the blow, you vagabond!" continued the
+justice. "Confess this instant! Say who employed you to murder the
+attorney! If you are candid, and tell everything, you may do yourself
+some good; but if you hesitate, I'll----" Here he raised his hand in
+such a way as made the Jew instinctively throw his arm over his head to
+protect it; and no doubt he would have suited the blow to the attitude,
+had not a carriage at that instant driven up to the door.
+
+The arrival of the sheriff and his family changed the scene at the
+Castle entirely.
+
+Mr. and Lady Rety proceeded directly from the carriage to the room where
+the witnesses were examined. The justice gave them the full details of
+the murder, the news of which had reached them during the night. The
+sheriff and his wife seemed much afflicted.
+
+"It is atrocious!" exclaimed Lady Rety, when the justice had finished,
+"that such a murder should take place in my house, and under the eyes
+and ears of so many people!"
+
+"My poor wife is quite overwhelmed!" said the sheriff; "she had a
+presentiment of something dreadful all day yesterday; I never saw her so
+excited and feverish in my life!"
+
+"Do not talk so," said Lady Rety, whose lip was pale and quivering;
+"people will take me for a lunatic. I only felt indisposed, as, indeed,
+I do to-day."
+
+The justice endeavoured to condole with her ladyship, while Dr. Sherer
+hastened to feel her pulse; but the Jew, whose eye encountered Lady
+Rety's, looked at her with a glance full of meaning.
+
+"It's quite certain," remarked the sheriff, "that he who committed the
+crime is well acquainted with the ways of the house, but, what is most
+strange, nothing is stolen!"
+
+"We are not quite sure of that yet," said the justice; "the servants say
+that they found Mr. Catspaw's watch and pocket-book in his room. I
+should have had a closer search of the premises; but as Mr. Catspaw was
+your attorney, I thought it probable that he had in his possession
+papers and documents which you would not like interfered with, and I
+therefore resolved to seal the door, and wait your decision."
+
+"You did quite right, sir," interposed Lady Rety; "Mr. Catspaw had in
+his possession many documents and law papers belonging to me. I'll go
+myself and look after them."
+
+"My lady!" exclaimed the doctor, "you would not think of such a thing in
+your present delicate state of health?"
+
+"It is my pleasure to do it," said the lady.
+
+"Your ladyship had better not go," interposed the cook, with humility;
+"the body is in the room, and----"
+
+"The body?" said Lady Rety, striving to suppress a shudder; "you must
+take it away. I know better than any one else where the attorney kept
+my papers, and I cannot be easy until I have satisfied myself that they
+are safe."
+
+In obedience to her ladyship's commands, Dr. Sherer and Mr. Kenihazy
+left the room with some servants. Lady Rety was in deep thought, when
+Mr. Skinner, who stood just by her, said, "Thank God! we have at least
+the man who committed the deed in our hands;" and, dragging the Jew
+forward, he continued: "We found this fellow in the chimney immediately
+after the act was perpetrated."
+
+"What, Jantshi the glazier!" exclaimed Lady Rety; "impossible! Mr.
+Catspaw was his best friend, and----"
+
+"My love!" interposed the sheriff, "that doesn't prove any thing;
+unfortunately, there are many instances wherein men have committed the
+vilest acts against their benefactors."
+
+"There can be no doubt," said the justice, "that this Jew is the
+instrument of some vile person."
+
+Lady Rety turned ghastly pale at these words, and Mr. Rety and the
+justice asked at the same moment if she was ill; but, instead of
+answering them, she inquired if the Jew had confessed his crime.
+
+"No!" replied the justice; "not exactly confessed; but that doesn't
+signify. This fellow is devilish stiff-necked, but I'll bring it out of
+him. Moreover, the circumstances are of such a nature, that not a doubt
+can be entertained that----" Then he went on to relate, with great
+self-satisfaction, his suspicions against Tengelyi.
+
+The effect Mr. Skinner's information had upon the sheriff and his wife
+was extraordinary. "No!" said he, shaking his head; "one cannot think
+him capable of such a thing!" while Lady Rety, who was now more
+composed, remarked that "One could not say what a man of the notary's
+passionate character would not do, with such feelings of hatred as had
+always existed between him and the attorney."
+
+"Oh, we shall soon know all about it!" said the justice, with
+self-complacency. "I would bring it out of this fellow if he were twice
+the vagabond he is."
+
+Here the culprit fixed his eye upon Lady Rety, and said, in a
+threatening tone of voice, "If I am to be dealt with in this way, I'll
+confess everything."
+
+"Dealt with, you rascal!" said Mr. Skinner; "if you don't speak out the
+truth freely, the haiduk shall deal his stick across your head!"
+
+"Your ladyship has known me a long time," said Jantshi, in a
+supplicating tone; "I have always been an industrious and honest man.
+But the justice treats me like a dog; from behind, the haiduk strikes
+me; in front, the justice kicks me and pulls my beard; rather than bear
+it any longer, I don't care who the devil I accuse!"
+
+Lady Rety beckoned Mr. Skinner to the window, where she whispered to him
+that she thought the culprit was innocent, and that it would be well to
+treat him leniently: whereupon the justice swore that the Jew was a
+liar, and that he had treated him as kindly as possible. "These Retys
+are a strange family; the young ones protect the Bohemians, and the old
+ones defend the Jews," said the justice to himself. "If things are to go
+on in this way, there'll be no use for a minister of justice."
+
+By this time the body was removed, and Lady Rety proceeded to the
+attorney's room, accompanied by the justice. Everything was in the same
+state as when found by the servants immediately after the murder, with
+the exception of the bed, which they had covered. The pool of blood on
+the side of the apartment, with the bloody knife lying beside it,
+presented an appalling sight on entering the room, and the lady stood
+for a moment aghast at the threshold. Mr. Rety and the justice remarked
+her terror, and advised her by all means to go away.
+
+"Do not distress yourselves; it is only a womanly weakness," answered
+she. "It will soon be over. Mr. Catspaw was our faithful servant, and I
+cannot bring myself to believe in his untimely end!" And forcing herself
+forward, as if by a violent effort, she picked her way through the
+papers and articles lying on the floor, to the drawers; she then went to
+the box where the attorney kept all his law papers, but was equally
+unsuccessful in finding the much-desired documents. A few letters lay
+there, which it will be remembered had been put aside by the attorney
+before the murder.
+
+Lady Rety was well aware that these letters were only a small part of
+the Vandory papers, and in hopes to find the remainder, she searched
+with the greatest care and patience. Still all was in vain; and she
+began to believe that the attorney had burned the other papers, and only
+kept these few letters, which, as the perusal of one of them showed her,
+were sufficient to force the bills from her, when her husband's
+conversation with Mr. Skinner attracted her attention.
+
+"Exactly as I said!" exclaimed the latter; "the letters which we found
+on the floor, besmeared with blood, were directed to Tengelyi; and of
+those two notes there on the table, one is directed to you and the
+other to Tengelyi. And here I have found at my feet a bill covered with
+blood. It's in the notary's handwriting: 'Books for Vilma, eight
+florins; dress for Elizabeth, ten florins,'" said the justice, throwing
+the bill down with a laugh.
+
+"It cannot be denied," said the sheriff, looking more closely at the
+bill, "that this is the notary's writing; but how came it here?"
+
+"That could easily be accounted for by the evidence given in the
+examination."
+
+"Impossible! utterly impossible!" said the sheriff, who happened to be
+too honest a man to believe Mr. Tengelyi capable of the crime imputed to
+him. "You surely do not, Mr. Skinner, seriously suspect the notary? You
+know he is not a favourite of mine; but I assure you he is the last of
+all my acquaintance whom I should suspect."
+
+Lady Rety, who had attentively listened to this conversation, understood
+at once the nature of the case. She knew that Catspaw had possession of
+the papers which had been stolen from Tengelyi's house, and it seemed
+but natural that some of the documents should have been lost in the
+hurry and confusion of the scuffle which evidently had preceded Mr.
+Catspaw's assassination. But what puzzled her was, that some
+unimportant letters, bearing the notary's address, had been found, and
+this circumstance drew her suspicions upon Tengelyi, as either the
+perpetrator of, or accessory to the crime. Her suspicions were confirmed
+by the fact that no trace of blood was found on Jantshi's hands, face,
+or clothes. "If," thought she, "Tengelyi has regained possession of his
+documents, the best way to neutralise them is to accuse him of the
+murder; for he cannot in that case produce them, without proving his own
+guilt." Led on by this idea, she protested that the case ought to be
+strictly examined, and that she was convinced that the Jew was innocent
+of the murder. "Perhaps," added she, "the rascal meant to steal; but
+since there are no traces of blood on him, it is utterly impossible for
+him to have committed the murder. You see the room is full of blood!"
+
+"Examine as much as you like!" said the sheriff, who was so irritated by
+the thought that the best friend of his youth should be accused, that he
+forgot his usual politeness to his wife, "Yes, we will examine! I myself
+will examine, and refute, this very day, the base calumny against
+Tengelyi!"
+
+"I am astonished at your unusual warmth!" said Lady Rety, with a soft
+but bitter tone, as she walked with her husband to the cook's room;
+"you were not wont to defend Mr. Tengelyi in this manner."
+
+"Defend him?" answered the sheriff, firmly. "I think we have done this
+man a great injustice: he was once my friend; he has lived in my house
+as part of myself; and, taking all in all, he never did a wrong thing
+against me, and yet he is the man on whom this horrid crime is sought to
+be fixed."
+
+Lady Rety saw, from the humour her husband was in, that it was best to
+say as little as possible on the subject then, and merely remarked that,
+at present, it was not a charge against Tengelyi, but only a
+"supposition;" and, for her part, she hoped those suspicions would prove
+unfounded. Upon this Mr. Rety remarked, dryly, that she would certainly
+see her wish realised.
+
+Mr. Sherer and Mr. Kenihazy had returned from the inquest, and were
+walking up and down the room debating on the largeness of the wound,
+which the surgeon had pronounced to be mortal, because he had heard that
+a poor Jew had inflicted it; whereas, if a rich man had been supposed to
+have inflicted it, he would have declared that it was not mortal, and
+that death had been caused by apoplexy, or some other illness.
+
+The Jew still stood in the same place in the room which he had from the
+first occupied, with the haiduk by his side, in anxious expectation of
+the moment when the examination would be adjourned.
+
+Lady Rety summoned all the servants together, and desired them to relate
+to her, with the greatest care and attention, everything they knew
+respecting Catspaw's death.
+
+Mrs. Cizmeasz said, in a timid voice, that she could not deny that she
+fancied she understood the attorney mentioned the name of Tengelyi when
+the cook questioned him about his murderer; but she supposed it was all
+a mistake; for that she was a poor silly woman, and never understood any
+thing properly. The testimony of the butler and boots was much the same,
+as was indeed the evidence of all the others: they adhered to their
+former statement, that the attorney shook his head when the Jew was
+brought; and everybody admitted that a violent quarrel had taken place
+on the evening of the murder between the attorney and Mr. Tengelyi, and
+that the notary had driven him out of his house with a stick.
+
+"But the Jew must know all," said the sheriff, who had been walking up
+and down the room in deep thought. "He was found in the chimney; he
+cannot deny that; he must at least have heard everything that passed.
+Rascal!" said he, turning to the culprit, "what did you want there?"
+
+"You came to steal, did you not?" said Lady Rety, with evident emotion;
+"deny it if you dare! It was for that purpose the false keys were to be
+used, which were found upon you!"
+
+The Jew, perceiving that suspicion rested on the notary as well as on
+himself, caught at Lady Rety's hint, and, throwing himself on his knees,
+confessed that he only came to steal. "Miss Etelka has many precious
+jewels," said he, entreatingly. "I saw them on her when I was repairing
+the windows the other day. I am a very poor and unfortunate man; and I
+thought to myself, if I could get some of them, it would help me. I knew
+Miss Etelka was not at home, and I tried to steal them. I hope your
+ladyship will have compassion on me, I will never do so again; I will
+ever be an honest man from this time."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" interposed the justice, with a sneer; "I dare say you'd
+like to be mistaken for a thief; you think that would save your neck:
+but it won't do! it's too evident that you at least had a part in the
+murder."
+
+"Oh, I entreat you," cried the Jew, still on his knees, "I am innocent
+of the murder. Mr. Catspaw said so, for he shook his head when I was
+brought to him; and how was it possible for a weak man like me to kill a
+strong man like Mr. Catspaw?"
+
+"Jew!" said Mr. Skinner, sarcastically, "that story won't do; you must
+find another plea: this is the first time in my life I have heard of Mr.
+Catspaw's strength."
+
+"And was it likely," continued the Jew, imploringly, "that I should have
+gone without a weapon if I had any intention of committing murder?"
+
+"We found a large carving-knife in the chimney," interposed the cook.
+
+"I swear I know nothing about it," cried Jantshi; "somebody in the house
+must have put it there and forgotten to remove it."
+
+"Yes, we know very well it belongs to the house," said the cook; "you
+stole it the day before yesterday."
+
+"Oh, indeed, Mister Cook, I did not; and was the knife which you saw
+bloody? And should I not be bloody if I had killed the attorney?"
+
+Here the steward remarked that "Jews were great conjurors. One of their
+tribe came to the house a day or two ago," continued he, "and made us
+all sign our names on a piece of paper, and in the twinkling of an eye
+he made them disappear again. And who knows but what this Jew has
+learnt the art from him; and all the world knows, that nobody is so
+expert at getting out blood stains as Jews."
+
+This reasoning of the steward impressed nobody but the servants.
+
+"Considering the quantity of blood the attorney lost," said Lady Rety,
+"it's quite incomprehensive to me how the murderer should escape without
+staining his clothes. However," said she, turning to the Jew, "if you
+did not participate in the actual deed, at least you know everything
+that passed; you must know the murderer!"
+
+"I heard everything," said Jantshi, sighing; "I heard everything from
+the beginning to the end, and I shudder still when I think of it!--I
+wanted to jump out to help the poor man, but I was so frightened; and
+then I thought, too, if any thing dreadful should happen, and I should
+be found there; and then I became so frightened that I had no power to
+move."
+
+"Well, what did you hear?" inquired Lady Rety, encouragingly; "you
+surely must know whether it was Tengelyi, as the justice suspects, or
+not? Now sit down and tell us all about it," said she, meeting at the
+same moment the glance which her husband cast at her when she mentioned
+Tengelyi.
+
+"If you think," said the sheriff, turning to the Jew, "to exculpate
+yourself by cunningly involving an innocent man, you shall find yourself
+mistaken; you may say what you will, the strongest suspicion must always
+remain attached to you."
+
+The Jew was too cunning to make any reply, and merely said that "he
+could not tell who the murderer was, as he spoke in a suppressed voice;
+but," said he, "I heard Tengelyi mentioned several times, and I heard
+papers demanded, and the murderer took papers away with him; but as I
+said before, I don't know who he was; those who followed him ought to
+know."
+
+Ferko, the coachman, who had hitherto been a quiet listener, was now
+asked to give a circumstantial account of what he knew. There are people
+who are very eager to do any thing but their duty: Ferko was one of
+them. When the house was first alarmed by the attorney's assassination,
+Ferko was the first to leave his stables and to pursue the murderer,
+accompanied by the servants, who showed no less zeal than himself. But
+when the pursuit led to a very different result from what he had
+expected, and when, instead of taking the robber, he followed the track
+to Tengelyi's house, where he saw the notary, his zeal vanished, and it
+struck him that not to have seen any thing was by far the most prudent
+way of managing the matter. Perhaps he suspected the notary; but he was
+not inclined to endanger his own safety by giving evidence against a man
+whose rank in life was so far above his own. He resolved to give no
+evidence against Tengelyi; and as this resolution was unconditionally
+approved of by his best friend, to wit, by Peti the gipsy, he stated, in
+reply to the sheriff's questions, that he had pursued the robber to the
+banks of the Theiss, where he had lost his track. Afterwards, he and his
+friends had proceeded to the notary to inform him of what had happened.
+
+This account would have been quite satisfactory, but for the evidence of
+the servant who had accompanied the coachman on his expedition; and who,
+merely for the sake of varying the lesser features of the evidence,
+stated that they had picked up a stick on the field, and that the said
+stick was in the ferryman's possession. That person was called in and
+examined: the result was, that all the unfavourable circumstances which
+spoke against Tengelyi were gradually elicited from the trio, in spite
+of the obstinate defence which they made of the notary's innocence.
+
+"But where is the stick you talk of?" said Mr. Skinner, with evident
+satisfaction at the turn which the examination took.
+
+"With your worship's permission," replied the ferryman--"that is to say,
+begging your worship's pardon--that is to say, I hope your worship will
+excuse me, we found the stick in the middle of the road, on our way from
+the Theiss to the notary's. We all saw it as it lay on the ground."
+
+"Where is it?" asked Mr. Skinner, sharply.
+
+"Please your worship, I have left it in the kitchen, for I could not
+presume to come to your worship with a stick."
+
+"Bring it here instantly!" cried the justice. The ferryman left the
+room, and returned with a black stick with a brass fokosh at the end.
+Everybody was startled. Mr. Skinner took the stick and showed it to the
+sheriff, who clasped his hands in utter amazement.
+
+Lady Rety whispered to the clerk, and the cook cried instinctively, "I
+know that stick! It belongs to the notary."
+
+"You are both to be sworn," said Mr. Skinner to the ferryman and the
+coachman, "that this is the stick which you found last night." And,
+turning to the sheriff, he added, "I told you so! The matter is as plain
+as can be."
+
+"It is clear beyond the possibility of a doubt," said Lady Rety, seizing
+the fokosh in her turn. "I have always seen that stick with Tengelyi;
+and here are his initials, 'J. T.' It is shocking!"
+
+"I really don't know," said Rety, with great emotion; "there are many
+things against Tengelyi, but the impression on my mind is----"
+
+"But consider, sir!" cried Mr. Skinner; "only please to consider!
+Tengelyi quarrels with Catspaw, and says he'll have his revenge. Catspaw
+is murdered that very night, and when dying he says that Tengelyi is his
+murderer. The Jew, who I now believe came merely for the purpose of
+thieving, hears that Catspaw is asked to give up Tengelyi's papers. The
+coachman pursues the murderer after the deed. The track is lost for a
+moment. They find it again, and follow it to the notary's house, whom
+they see at midnight in his usual dress, covered with dirt and violently
+agitated. Letters are found in Mr. Catspaw's room addressed to Tengelyi;
+and, besides, here is the notary's stick! What do you say to that?"
+
+"Nothing!" replied the sheriff, shaking his head; "but all this cannot
+convince me. I have known Tengelyi these----"
+
+"Indeed!" said Lady Rety, with a sneer. "It strikes me that you and the
+notary are mighty good friends."
+
+"I am not his friend; but I will never believe him guilty of such a
+deed."
+
+"I will furnish you with other proofs!" said Mr. Skinner. "I will go at
+once to his house, and examine him and his family."
+
+"But, sir, have you considered that----" said the sheriff. But his wife
+interrupted him by telling Skinner to make haste, lest the notary might
+remove the traces of the crime.
+
+"But Tengelyi is a nobleman!" protested Rety.
+
+"He says he is a nobleman!" put in Lady Rety. "And it has been decided
+in the Assembly that he is to be treated as not noble, until he proves
+that he is. Go at once!" added she, turning to Skinner, "for if you were
+to bring him here, it would create such excitement. After all, he may be
+innocent."
+
+The justice and his clerk kissed her hand, and left the room. When they
+were gone, the sheriff seized his wife's hand, saying, "Do you really
+think Tengelyi is capable of such a deed?"
+
+"And why not?" said she, looking her husband full in the face.
+
+"You know Tengelyi's life, you know his character, his----"
+
+"All I know of him is that he is my enemy!" retorted Lady Rety; "and I
+shall never forget that, I assure you!" Saying which she left the room.
+
+Rety's heart shrunk within him when the soul of his wife was thus
+brought before him in all its native ugliness. He shuddered to think
+that he had hitherto obeyed the dictates of this heartless woman, and he
+hastened away to protect the notary from the ill-treatment to which he
+was convinced Mr. Skinner would subject him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+
+Though ignorant of the suspicion which had been cast upon him, Tengelyi
+passed the night in sorrow and remorse. He was convinced that the deed
+of blood was done by Viola's hand; and his soul trembled within him as
+he thought that, instead of preventing the crime, he had actually gone
+to meet the robber on the banks of the Theiss. He felt degraded and
+wretched by this strange complicity. After a sleepless night, he rose
+with the day, and hastened to Vandory, who was still in happy ignorance
+of what had happened.
+
+"Shocking!" cried the curate, when Tengelyi had finished his narrative
+of the late events: "to think that he should be summoned to appear
+before God in the very midst of his sins, and without having one moment
+left for repentance!"
+
+"Shocking, indeed!" said the notary; "but is not mine the fault? Am I
+not a partner in this crime? I all but knew that Catspaw had possession
+of my papers. I ought to have known that Viola could not wrest them
+from him without taking his life. And what did I do? Instead of
+preventing the deed, I obeyed the summons of the outlaw. I waited for
+him, to receive the booty from hands reeking with the blood of his
+victim!"
+
+"Viola's deed is horrible. I understand your feelings. But, tell me,
+what could you have done to prevent him?"
+
+"My duty. I ought to have informed against him. I ought to have arrested
+him."
+
+"No," said Vandory. "How could you think of arresting a man who relies
+upon your honour? Besides, to arrest Viola, means to deliver him up to
+the hangman."
+
+Tengelyi was about to reply, when the Liptaka rushed into the room.
+
+"Mr. Tengelyi, sir! For God's sake, do come home! Do, sir!" cried the
+old woman.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Vandory and Tengelyi at once; for the manner
+of the Liptaka impressed them with the idea that some accident of a
+fearful nature must have happened.
+
+"Oh, gracious! The justice and the clerk!" gasped the Liptaka.
+
+"Do tell us, good woman; what _has_ happened?" said Vandory. "Why should
+not the justice come to the notary's house? Is the event so very
+extraordinary?"
+
+"Oh, sir! but if you knew what he comes for! He says, the notary--you,
+Mr. Tengelyi, sir!--have murdered the attorney--confound the
+fellow!--and he's come with the clerk and the haiduk; and he's at it! He
+questions everybody in the house."
+
+Though used to misfortune, though prepared to meet injustice at every
+step, Tengelyi was, for a moment, overwhelmed with grief and amazement.
+
+"This is too bad!" said he, with a tremulous voice. "I was prepared for
+any misfortune; but I was not prepared to hear myself accused of a
+crime! Yes; I am not prepared to answer a justice, and to plead in my
+defence, when the crime laid to my charge is murder!"
+
+"It is impossible!" said Vandory, seizing his hat. "You are mistaken, my
+good woman. There's some mistake, I'm sure."
+
+"I thought so too, sir," said the Liptaka: "that was my opinion, when
+the justice told Mrs. Tengelyi that the notary was accused of a heinous
+crime, and that he came to examine him. I fancied the villain was merely
+joking; but when they called the maid, and the man, and the neighbours,
+and examined them severally,--when they did that, sir, I understood
+that the rascal pretended to believe in what he said. And he would have
+questioned Mrs. Tengelyi; but she told him she was a nobleman's wife,
+and was not bound to answer questions. Oh! and the justice,--don't be
+shocked, sirs!--he said the notary was not a nobleman; and, if she
+wouldn't reply, he'd make her! Oh! but when he said that, I ran away to
+call the notary; for it's he that is learned in the law, and he'll make
+the justice repent his impertinence!"
+
+"You see, the affair is beautifully got up," said Tengelyi, with a
+bitter smile. "They have robbed me of my proofs of noble descent, and
+now they are at liberty to do with me as they please."
+
+"But----" said Vandory.
+
+"Come along!" cried the Liptaka. "The sheriff, too, is there! He came
+when I ran away!"
+
+"Come," said Tengelyi, with increased bitterness. "Come; we are safe
+now. You know my dear friend Rety has come to protect me in my hour of
+trouble."
+
+Matters were indeed in a sad state in the notary's house. Mrs. Ershebet
+insisted on her privilege; and nothing could induce her to reply to the
+questions which the justice put to her; but the whole of the other
+evidence, which was taken down, went against the notary. The neighbours
+proved the quarrel, and the forcible expulsion of Mr. Catspaw from his
+house; and one of them quoted Tengelyi's words, that the fellow (viz.,
+Mr. Catspaw) should die from his hands. The maid deposed that her master
+had left the house late at night; the stick was at once identified as
+the notary's property: in short, all the circumstances of the case were
+so suspicious, that the sheriff, who assisted in the proceedings, and
+who sought to modify Mr. Skinner's violence, though convinced of
+Tengelyi's innocence, could not but admit that there was a strong case
+against the notary.
+
+When Tengelyi entered the room, Mrs. Ershebet rushed up, and embraced
+him, with sobs and tears.
+
+"Be comforted," said the notary. "This is not our first persecution, nor
+is it the last. If God be with us, who can prevail against us!"
+
+His grave and dignified manner affected the sheriff; who, walking up,
+addressed his former friend, and assured him that no persecution was
+intended by the justice's proceedings.
+
+"Circumstances," said he, "will, at times, force the best of us to clear
+themselves of suspicion by an explanation of their conduct; and in the
+present instance, I am sure, nothing can be easier to Mr. Tengelyi."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said the notary, dryly, "and I am sure, if your will
+had been done, these people would have treated me as they would wish to
+be treated in a similar case, and, indeed, as any honest man has a right
+to be treated. Allow me now to ask Mr. Skinner what the circumstances
+are that have created a suspicion of my having murdered Mr. Catspaw, for
+I understand that is the charge which they bring against me?"
+
+"We'll satisfy you to your heart's content, sir!" cried the justice, who
+was in the habit of speaking in the name of the firm. All his
+professional sayings were delivered under the authority of Skinner and
+Co. He then proceeded at once to give a clear, and, strange to say,
+comprehensive summary of the evidence, which he concluded by repeating
+the chief points of the charge.
+
+"Considering," said he, "that the said Mr. Catspaw was murdered by some
+person or persons unknown;--considering that no robbery was committed,
+and that no feasible grounds can be found why anybody should have
+committed that murder;--considering that the said Tengelyi's hate
+against the said Catspaw is a matter of vulgar talk and notoriety, in
+evidence of which we need but adduce the yesterday's scene, in which the
+said Tengelyi is proved to have threatened to kill the said
+Catspaw;--considering that the said Catspaw was unjustly and maliciously
+accused of having possessed himself of certain papers and documents the
+alleged property of the said Tengelyi, the which circumstance goes far
+to establish the presumption of an interested motive in the case of the
+said Tengelyi;--considering that the crime was committed at midnight, at
+a time when the said Tengelyi, against his usual habits and custom, was
+from home, and considering that sundry persons who went in pursuit of
+the robber came to the house of the said Tengelyi, where they found him
+(_i. e._ the said Tengelyi) in a dress spotted with mud;--and, lastly,
+considering that certain articles which were found in the room where the
+crime was committed, and a stick which was picked up on the road which
+the alleged murderer took, have been identified as belonging to the said
+Tengelyi, there can be no doubt that there are grave reasons to suspect
+the said Tengelyi of being guilty of the said murder."
+
+"Well, sir!" continued Mr. Skinner, after delivering this address, which
+bore a striking resemblance to the preamble of a sentence of a
+Hungarian court, "Well, sir! what have you to say to this?"
+
+The notary was silent.
+
+"Don't be confused, sir!" said Mr. Skinner; "please to speak the truth,
+sir. You see our questions are put with the utmost politeness."
+
+"Don't give him an answer!" cried Mrs. Ershebet, passionately. "Thank
+God, no one has as yet proved that we are not noble! They cannot force
+you to answer!"
+
+"I _will_ speak!" cried the notary; "I'd reply to the basest of mortals
+if he were to charge me with so foul a deed!"
+
+"You see, madam, your husband does think us worthy of a reply," said the
+justice: "don't be afraid; let him speak! I'm sure he'll give us the
+most satisfactory explanations."
+
+"I can indeed give you the most satisfactory explanations, sir," replied
+the notary, who, after adverting to the fact that his late suspicions of
+Mr. Catspaw were now proved to be well founded, proceeded to state the
+contents of Viola's letter, and the steps which it induced him to take.
+
+Mr. Skinner listened with a sly and incredulous smile.
+
+"But, sir," said he, "how could you endanger your precious life by
+doing the robber's will? Mind, you say you were unarmed; and we know but
+too well that you were alone, and at night too! Would any man of sense
+wish to meet the greatest robber in the county under such
+circumstances?"
+
+"I never did Viola any harm, and I had not therefore any reason to fear
+him, when I learnt from his letter that he regarded me with feelings of
+gratitude; after all, what could I do? I wished to have my papers, and I
+availed myself of the only opportunity that offered."
+
+"Will you have the goodness to show us that letter?" asked the justice;
+"I'd like to see the robber's autograph."
+
+"The writer of the letter intreated me to burn it," replied Tengelyi,
+"and I have burnt it."
+
+"That's a pity! Perhaps you've shown the letter to some one. We want two
+witnesses, you know!"
+
+"I informed my friend Vandory early this morning."
+
+"Oh! ah! I understand,--yes, early this morning!--about the time when I
+came to the village and commenced examining the witnesses, eh? Is that
+all you have to say?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"From your hesitating manner I take it that you knew of the murderer's
+intentions."
+
+"You have no right, sir," cried Tengelyi, "to construe any of my words
+in that sense!"
+
+"Sir!" retorted the justice, "it's mere folly to deny the fact. You
+admit that you had reason to suppose that Mr. Catspaw was possessed of
+your papers; and, supposing there ever existed a letter of Viola's to
+you, you must have known that the robber intended to obtain the papers
+by means of a crime."
+
+"Is this all?--no! more is behind!" continued Mr. Skinner, after a
+pause. "Your own confession proves that you were not only privy to the
+murder, but that you acted the part of one who stimulates and instigates
+the murderer. It is quite clear that Viola had no interest in the
+papers, nor would he have risked his life for them unless an artificial
+interest was created in his mind. And whose advantage did that
+artificial interest tend to? whose interests did it serve to
+promote?--Yours, and only yours!"
+
+Tengelyi would have answered; but Mr. Skinner continued, with great
+pathos:
+
+"And who is it that is guilty of so heinous a crime?--a notary! a man
+whose duty it is to prosecute the breakers of the law, and who imposes
+upon the county and the sheriff by making his house a den for thieves
+and robbers! This case," added Mr. Skinner, turning to Kenihazy, "is
+beyond our jurisdiction. It is our duty to send the prisoner to the
+county gaol, to prevent his being liberated by Viola and his other
+comrades."
+
+The sheriff, who watched the case with great interest, interposed, and
+offered to be bail for the notary's appearance; but Mr. Skinner thought
+he had shown his respect to Mr. Rety more than sufficiently by eschewing
+the low abuse and the curses with which it was his habit to give vent to
+his feelings on similar occasions. He refused to accept bail; "For,"
+said he, "I would not accept it even if Mr. Tengelyi's nobility had
+never been doubted; the privilege of nobility cannot protect a man in
+the present case. The associates of robbers----"
+
+"How dare you call _me_ an associate of robbers?" exclaimed Tengelyi,
+his fury getting the better of his discretion; "How dare you, sir? You,
+of whom it is known that you are a receiver of stolen goods!"
+
+What the notary said was, more than any thing else, calculated to wound
+the feelings of the worthy Mr. Skinner, and a sharper sting was given to
+the reproach by the fact of its being thrown at the magistrate's head in
+the presence of the sheriff and of a numerous audience. There certainly
+had been cases in which the owners of stolen cattle had accidentally
+found their property in Mr. Skinner's stables; but when, after leaving
+the place in confusion and dismay, they returned with a witness, the
+cattle, somehow or other, had disappeared. Accidents of this kind are
+not the less disagreeable from their not being unheard of; and Mr.
+Skinner's rage, in the present instance, passed all bounds.
+
+"Do you ask me how I dare to call you an associate of robbers?" cried
+he. "You'll find, to your cost, that I dare more than that. I'll _treat_
+you as an associate of robbers. I'll have you put in irons, sir; for
+everybody knows that some time ago, when we hunted Viola in the village,
+the robber found an asylum in your house! Ay, you may stare! And when I
+wished to search it, your wife had the impertinence to put in a
+protest!"
+
+"How dare you utter this calumny?" said the notary, with increasing
+violence. "I sheltered Viola's family because they were in distress; but
+I never saw the robber. Come, Ershebet; was Viola ever in our house?"
+
+Mrs. Ershebet, who was equally ignorant of what Vilma and the Liptaka
+did on that occasion, affirmed that Viola had never entered the house;
+but the justice sneered, and forced the old woman, Liptaka, to repeat
+the statement which she had made before the court-martial.
+
+"It's but too true, sir," said she. "While they were hunting after Viola
+in the village, he was hid in the house. I hid him in the back room
+behind the casks; but neither the notary nor Mrs. Tengelyi was aware of
+it. And I told the gentlemen of the court that I was too frightened to
+tell the notary what Viola desired me to tell him, namely, that he ought
+to look to his papers. Heaven knows but a great misfortune might have
+been prevented, if I had done as I was bid!"
+
+"I'd be a fool to believe you!" said the justice. "How could you take
+the robber to the back room unless some one knew of it?"
+
+"Some one did know of it, but neither the notary knew of it, nor his
+wife, for she was in bed at the time. Miss Vilma and I were sitting up
+when Viola came to the house. We were sitting up with Susi, when we
+heard the noise in the street. I went out and found Viola. The place was
+surrounded, and there was no escape. I knew they'd hang him if they
+could take him, so I entreated Miss Vilma to allow me to take him in.
+She was moved to pity, and gave her permission. That's the long and the
+short of it. If it was wrong to hide him--very well! You may do with me
+as you please. I am an old woman, and I'm the only criminal in this
+business."
+
+"Never mind, you old beldame!" cried Mr. Skinner, angrily. "We'll clear
+our accounts with you one of these fine days. We must now examine Miss
+Vilma, since it appears that all the inmates of this house are leagued
+against the law!" and, turning to Mrs. Ershebet, he said, "Call your
+daughter!"
+
+"Never!" said Mrs. Tengelyi. "My daughter is the betrothed bride of
+Akosh Rety; who will dare to offend her? To think that my own Vilma
+should be examined for all the world like a common culprit!" said the
+good woman: but Tengelyi asked her to fetch her daughter.
+
+"But, my dear Jonas, how can you think----"
+
+"Go to your room and call your daughter!" repeated Tengelyi. "I am
+convinced that the Liptaka tells an untruth. My daughter has never kept
+any thing secret from me."
+
+Mrs. Ershebet left the room, and returned with Vilma. The power of
+beauty is irresistible; even Mr. Skinner, in spite of his innate
+vulgarity, lost half of his impertinence when Miss Tengelyi appeared
+before him. He said it was necessary that a few questions should be put
+to her, but that he was ready to wait, if she thought it inconvenient to
+answer them now.
+
+"Go on!" said Tengelyi, dryly. "Speak, Vilma. Tell us, is it true that
+Viola was hid in our house at the time they pursued him through the
+village?"
+
+"Father!" cried Vilma; and her pale face became suddenly flushed.
+
+"Fear nothing, my love! You've always been my good, my dear child. You
+were always open and candid. Tell us, now, is it true that Viola was in
+our house, and with your permission, too?"
+
+Vilma stood silent and trembling. Mr. Skinner pitied her, when he saw
+the effect the question produced on the poor girl.
+
+"Dearest Vilma, I intreat you to have no fear!" continued Tengelyi. "I
+know very well it's a vile calumny. I know you would never have done
+such a thing without my consent, or, at least, without informing me of
+it after it was done. You see, Vilma, dear, this woman--God knows I do
+not deserve it at her hands!--tries to clear herself by saying that it
+was with your permission she hid Viola in my house."
+
+Vilma's fear yielded to the impression that a confession on her part was
+necessary to justify her old friend. She wept, and confirmed the
+statements of the Liptaka.
+
+"Pardon me, dearest father!" added she; "I am the cause of this
+misfortune. I asked the Liptaka to hide Viola in this house, and I asked
+her to keep the matter secret from you, for I knew you would be angry
+with us, because they say Viola is a great criminal; though it is but
+natural that I did my best to save the wretched man from certain death."
+
+"Gammon!" muttered Mr. Skinner. Kenihazy fetched sundry deep sighs; and
+Rety remarked that he thought Vilma's evidence consistent and credible.
+
+Tengelyi stood lost in speechless agony. Vilma was silent, but the looks
+which she cast upon her father expressed unutterable despair. Vandory
+alone broke through the solemn silence; and, seizing the hand of his
+friend, he entreated him not to yield to his grief.
+
+"Fear nothing!" said Tengelyi, gloomily. "Since I have come to
+this--since my own daughter tells me the truth only when examined by a
+judge--since it is so--there is nothing to startle; nothing is left to
+amaze me! It is enough!" continued he, with a deep sigh, turning to the
+justice. "Let us make an end of it. You know all you can wish to know.
+You know that everything speaks against me. I see no reason why you
+should trouble yourself any more with me. Give me two hours' time to
+arrange my affairs, and, if you please, have my house watched in the
+meantime."
+
+"Of course, if _you_ have said all you have to say, there is no reason
+for further ceremony. I'll have the carriage ready in two hours. You had
+better take all the things you want for your stay in Dustbury, which, I
+am afraid, will be longer than you seem to anticipate."
+
+"I will accompany him!" cried Mrs. Ershebet, weeping; "I will not leave
+my husband in his trouble."
+
+"My dear Ershebet," said the notary, "I must insist on your remaining
+where you are. I am accused, and I must prepare my defence, and for that
+purpose I ought to be alone."
+
+Mrs. Ershebet wept still more; but Mr. Skinner remarked that he was not
+sure whether the regulations of the prison would allow the prisoner to
+communicate with his family. Having said this, he left the room with
+Kenihazy, thereby conferring a substantial benefit, not only on the
+notary and his family, but also upon himself, for he had scarcely left
+the house when Akosh Rety arrived in a state of fearful excitement.
+
+"For God's sake, tell me what _has_ happened?" cried he, as he rushed
+into the room.
+
+"My dear Akosh!" cried Mrs. Ershebet, taking his hand, "we are lost. Our
+name is dishonoured. My husband is accused of murder. They are going to
+take him to the county gaol."
+
+"And I am the cause of my father's ruin!" cried Vilma. "Save him, Akosh;
+if you ever loved me, save him!" And the wretched girl fell fainting to
+the ground.
+
+They took her away. The notary looked after them in silence; and,
+turning to Vandory, said: "Be a father to them when I am gone!"
+
+Rety, the sheriff, though deeply moved, was a silent spectator of this
+scene; for the cold politeness with which Tengelyi deprecated his
+interference whenever he attempted to advocate his cause, prevented him
+from expressing his sympathy. He now came up to the notary and assured
+him, with a trembling voice, that, come what might, he would use the
+whole of his influence to extricate his former friend from his present
+painful position.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Tengelyi, coldly, as he turned to the speaker.
+"I must confess I was not aware that we were still honoured by your
+presence under my roof. I thought you had accompanied Mr. Skinner; for,
+as I take it, the transaction which excited your interest is now over.
+Everything is in the best order, and the crime, it appears, is fully
+brought home to me."
+
+"Tengelyi," said the sheriff, with deep emotion, "do not treat me
+unjustly. What brought me to this house, was my wish to assist you by my
+presence, and to induce Skinner to treat you with kindness and
+moderation."
+
+"If that was your intention," retorted Tengelyi, "it would have been
+wise not to have used your influence for the election to that post of a
+man whom the presence of his chief does not prevent from abusing the
+powers of his office."
+
+The sheriff was confused.
+
+"I will not argue that point with you," said he; "but what I wish to
+assure you of is, that, however circumstances may speak against you, I
+still am convinced of your innocence. I assure you, you can rely upon
+me!"
+
+"Sir!" said the notary, "there was a time when I did place my trust in
+my friends; but they have since been kind enough to convince me that
+friendship is far too pure and lofty to descend to this poor world of
+ours, I shall shortly be called upon to appear before my judges; and if
+you, sir, think you have strength enough to forget the friendship which
+you have hitherto shown me, it will give me pleasure to see you on the
+bench. Pardon me, if I leave you, I have but two hours to myself, and I
+wish to spend them with my wife and daughter."
+
+And, bowing low to the sheriff, Tengelyi seized Vandory's hand and led
+him from the room. Rety sighed, and left the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+
+The notary's position was critical, his future doubtful, and his
+separation from his family painful in proportion. Tengelyi wanted all
+his strength of mind to speak words of consolation and hope to his
+weeping family. The despair of his daughter in particular filled his
+heart with the deepest, bitterest grief.
+
+"Do not weep, dear girl!" said he, embracing poor Vilma, whose pallid
+face showed more than her tears what agonies she felt. "You know your
+father is innocent. Things will clear up, and I shall be allowed to
+return to you. Won't you be my good, happy girl, when I come back!"
+
+"Oh, father!" cried Vilma, "to think that you should go to prison, to be
+confined with those wicked people though but for a day, though but for
+an hour! And to think that I am the cause of it, dear father, it drives
+me mad!"
+
+"You, my daughter? What makes you think that your confession of Viola
+having been hid in the house can do any thing to make my case worse
+than it is?"
+
+"Father!" said she, sadly, "don't talk to me in that way! I am
+undeserving of your love. Will they not say you were aware of Viola's
+being in the house, and that you wished to deny it? And even if this
+were not so, are not all our misfortunes owing to our having taken in
+Susi and her children? And that was _my_ doing!"
+
+"And since _that_ is the cause of your misfortune," interposed Vandory,
+"I am sure God will not abandon you in your trials. His ways are indeed
+unaccountable; but I never heard of a good action having led a man to
+utter ruin!"
+
+Tengelyi sighed, but Vilma felt comforted; and even Mrs. Ershebet's sobs
+ceased when the curate told her that this unjust accusation was possibly
+the means to defeat their enemies, and to lead to the recovery of the
+documents. The notary added to the comfort of his wife by assuring her
+that his incarceration was not likely to continue for any length of
+time, and that Vandory would be their friend and adviser during his
+absence.
+
+Again Mrs. Ershebet entreated him to allow her and Vilma to accompany
+him to Dustbury; but the notary felt that he wanted all his strength for
+the moment in which he must cross the threshold of the prison; and,
+with Vandory's assistance, he prevailed upon his wife to desist, at
+least for the present.
+
+"If my captivity were indeed to be of long duration," said he, "I would
+of course send for you. But in the first days I must devote myself
+exclusively to an examination of my position, and of my means of
+defence. Voelgyeshy is an honest man. I intend to retain him as my
+counsel; and Akosh, I know, will find means of informing me how you are
+going on. Where is Akosh?"
+
+Mrs. Ershebet replied, that he had left the room with the sheriff; and
+Tengelyi turned to arrange his papers and books, when the young man
+entered. He looked excited, and his eyes showed traces of tears.
+
+"Have you spoken to your father?" cried Mrs. Ershebet.
+
+"I have!" replied young Rety, with a trembling voice.
+
+"And what does he say?" asked Ershebet and Vandory at once.
+
+"Nothing but what is beautiful and edifying, I assure you!" said Akosh.
+"He wept; indeed he did! He embraced me! He called me his dear son! He
+told me he was convinced of Tengelyi's innocence; and his heart bled to
+think that so honest a man, and his old friend too, should be in such an
+awkward position; and Heaven knows what he said besides! He pleaded
+Tengelyi's cause admirably; but the end of it was that he refused to
+comply with my request. He said that fellow Skinner would not take bail,
+and he could not force him. In short, he said there was nothing to be
+done. But then, you know, he told us his _heart_ was bleeding; can we
+ask for more?"
+
+"I could have told you so!" said Tengelyi, quietly.
+
+"No! no! You could not!" cried Akosh, passionately. "If an angel from
+heaven had told me that my father would reply to my entreaties in _this_
+manner, by Heaven I would not have believed it! Oh! you cannot know how
+I implored him. I wept! I knelt to him! I reminded him of my poor
+mother! I told him, if he had ever loved me, if ever he wished to call
+me his son, if he would not make me curse fate for having made him my
+father, he should grant me this one, this poor request! And he refused
+to grant it!"
+
+Vandory felt hurt at the manner in which Akosh spoke of his father. He
+said:--
+
+"Who knows whether he was not justified in saying that he _could_ not
+comply with your request?"
+
+But Akosh replied with increased bitterness:--
+
+"Do you really think Skinner would have dared to resist my father if he
+had insisted on putting in bail for Tengelyi, or, at least, on having
+him confined in our own house? Oh, indeed, and what was His Excellency,
+the lord-lieutenant, likely to say to such an infraction of the rules?
+And perhaps the illustrious Cortes would not be pleased with his
+protecting the notary! Such are the reasons which induced my father to
+stifle his better feelings, and to spurn me, his only son, who wept at
+his feet!"
+
+"Who knows," said Vandory, "how painfully he felt it that he was
+compelled to refuse you?"
+
+"No matter!" said Akosh. "When I left the house, I saw Kenihazy busy
+with the carriage. We have not much time left; it were a shame to lose
+that time in a dispute about my father's character." And, turning to
+Tengelyi, he added, "Will you allow me to accompany you to Dustbury?"
+
+The notary repeated to him what he had already stated to the other
+members of his family. He entreated him to bring him news of Mrs.
+Ershebet and Vilma; "and," added he, with a smile, "to recommend them
+to your protection is unnecessary!"
+
+"All I wish is, I had a better right to protect them. I wish Vilma were
+my wife. What my father would not do for his son, he might perhaps be
+induced to do for the honour of his name."
+
+"I understand you!" said Tengelyi; "but, thank God! I want no protection
+to prove my innocence. I have nothing I can leave my daughter but an
+honest name; and until the honour of that name is restored, I cannot
+consent to your marriage."
+
+Akosh would have replied; but the carriage, which drove up that moment,
+diverted his thoughts into another channel. Tengelyi embraced his wife
+and daughter, seized his bunda, and stepped into the carriage, which
+Rety had sent, to the great vexation of Mr. Skinner, who intended to
+convey the notary in a peasant's cart. Mr. Kenihazy seated himself
+beside the prisoner, two haiduks occupied the rumble, and the
+unfortunate notary thanked heaven when the carriage drove off, and
+withdrew him from the gaze of his despairing family.
+
+The county gaol at Dustbury was, in those days, free from the prevailing
+epidemic of philanthropical innovations, which a certain set of
+political empirics are so zealous in spreading. The ancient national
+system of Austrio-Hungarian prison discipline was still in full glory;
+but as coming events cast their shadows before, so this venerable and
+time-honoured system was every now and then attacked by the maudlin and
+squeamish sentimentality of modern reformers. Nay more, a committee was
+appointed to inquire into the condition of the prisons and their inmates
+in the county of Takshony; and though the keeper of Dustbury gaol
+allowed each prisoner on the day of the inquest full two pints of
+brandy; though they were ordered to play at cards, and be merry, the
+gentlemen of the committee insisted on giving a libellous account of
+Captain Karvay's mode of treating his prisoners. The established prison
+discipline suffered a still ruder shock, when, in the gaol of a
+neighbouring county, no fewer than six prisoners were dull enough to
+permit their feet to be frozen by the cold; and though the county
+magistrates gave them the full benefit of their attention, though their
+feet were amputated with a handsaw, though only one of the patients
+survived, and though such things were known to have frequently happened
+without any one being the worse for it, yet (so great is human
+perversity) a cry of indignation was got up against the worshipful
+magistrates of the said county, for all the world as if those honourable
+gentlemen had _made_ the cold.
+
+And besides, at the very time that the prisoners' feet were frozen in
+the lower gaol, there were no fewer than eighty prisoners confined in
+one room in the upper part of the building; and these eighty men, though
+they disagreed and fought on the slightest provocation, were still
+unanimous in their complaints of excessive heat. This circumstance shows
+that malicious persons will complain of any thing, if they can but hope
+to bring their betters into trouble. But the committee of inquiry could
+not continue for ever, and the cry of indignation became hoarse from its
+very excess. The new instructions, which government was weak enough to
+publish during this crisis, were put on the shelf, and Mr. Karvay
+returned to his Austrio-Hungarian management, of which the excellence
+was clearly proved by the yearly increasing number of its
+_pupils_--pupils, we say, for what is a prison but an academy for
+grown-up boys and girls?
+
+The council-houses in Hungary serve likewise the purposes of county
+gaols. The council-chambers, the court, and the prison are under one
+roof. This system has its merits on account of its compactness. The
+council-houses, which, though not exactly _built_ by the nobility, are
+built for their exclusive _use_ (always excepting the prisons, of which
+the nobility leave a small part to the peasantry,) are not only used
+for quarter sessions and the like; no, they are also made to serve
+purposes of a more social nature.
+
+The hall, for example, with its green table, resounds in the morning
+with the shrill tones of Hungarian eloquence, or it is hushed by the
+gravity (it is well known that this inestimable quality is greatly aided
+by the smoking of strong tobacco) with which sentences of death are
+passed, and criminals sent off to instant execution. But whatever want
+of measure and order a man may detect in the debate of the morning, he
+will find it brought to its level in the ball of the evening, when a
+hundred couples move to the sounds of harps and violins. Among the
+miscellaneous uses to which the county-house is put, one of the most
+important is that it serves as a place of rendezvous for the assessors
+and other officials. They meet in every room, and show a wonderful
+activity in conversation, and a no less wonderful energy in smoking
+their pipes, which pursuits are notoriously conducive to despatch and
+accuracy in business. The Hungarian nobility resemble the Romans in more
+than one respect. That classic people had an innate desire to pass their
+time in the forum; the Hungarian assessor exults in his council-house.
+In it he passes his life. It is here he works, eats, smokes, sleeps,
+and gambles. In the county of Takshony, this laudable custom was of
+course in a high state of perfection. It is therefore but natural that
+Mr. Skinner should have left Tengelyi's house only to proceed to the
+council-house at Dustbury, where he spread the news and surrounded
+himself with a chosen body of his friends, who, with him, were eagerly
+looking for the arrival of the prisoner. We find them in the recorder's
+office, where Mr. Shaskay condoled with the assessor Zatonyi about the
+depravity of the world; while James Bantornyi, holding the recorder by
+the button, informed that worthy magistrate of all the forms and
+observances of the English trial by jury; and an Austrian captain, who
+spent his half-pay at Dustbury, held forth at the further end of the
+room, assuring some of the older assessors that this shocking increase
+of crime was solely owing to the flagitious mildness of the penal laws,
+a proposition to which his hearers gave their unconditional assent by
+sundry deep sighs and significant exclamations against the scandalous
+scarcity of capital executions and the jeopardy into which this
+ill-advised leniency put the lives and limbs of the well-clad and
+bean-fed among the Takshony population. Voelgyeshy, though generally
+averse to large assemblies, had joined and indeed scandalised the
+party, by protesting his conviction of Tengelyi's innocence.
+
+Mr. Kenihazy's arrival, and the news that he had safely conveyed the
+prisoner to Dustbury, drew the attention of the several groups in the
+room to the worthy clerk, who gloried in the excitement which his
+presence produced.
+
+"Heavy roads," said he, wiping the perspiration from his forehead.
+"Heavy roads, I assure you, gentlemen! I'd never have thought that we
+should have had so much trouble."
+
+"So he did trouble you!" said Mr. Skinner. "Very well. I thought as
+much. You are so late, I am sure something came in your way."
+
+"Came in my way with a vengeance!" said Mr. Kenihazy. "Luckily, I had
+the two haiduks. I could never have done without them."
+
+"What the devil! Did the notary fight? Did they endeavour to rescue
+him?"
+
+"No! not exactly!" said Mr. Kenihazy, reluctantly; for the general
+interest these questions excited made him loth to disappoint his
+audience, "we fell asleep on the road. They are doing something to the
+bridges. We were forced to leave the dyke. The carriage was almost
+swamped in the mud; and, as I told you, if the haiduks had not been
+with me, and if I and the notary had not put our shoulders to the
+wheels, bless me, we shouldn't have been here till to-morrow morning; in
+which case the brigand would have attempted to rob me of my prisoner.
+But I'd like to have seen them, that's all!" added he, shaking his fist;
+"I'd have taught them manners, dirty knaves as they are!"
+
+This explanation of Mr. Kenihazy's late arrival was far too commonplace
+to satisfy the worshipful gentlemen; but still the principal interest
+remained concentrated on Tengelyi, and half-a-dozen voices asked at
+once:
+
+"How did the notary behave?"
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"Did he make any ill-natured remarks?"
+
+"He did not do any thing," replied Mr. Kenihazy; "how could he? since
+the sheriff ordered me to treat him with the greatest leniency!"
+
+Everybody was astonished, and the recorder exclaimed:
+
+"Are you sure that the sheriff gave such an order?"
+
+"Of course he did. I never saw him more energetic in my life than when
+he told me that he was convinced of Mr. Tengelyi's innocence--yes,
+innocence was the word!--and that we ought to avoid any thing which
+could possibly make his position more painful."
+
+"Strange!" cried Shaskay, shaking his head.
+
+"_I_ thought it strange; but as the sheriff told me that to offend the
+prisoner was as much as an offence to himself----"
+
+"It's quite natural! quite! you know," cried Mr. Skinner, when he saw
+and cursed his clerk for the effect which those words had on the
+company, but particularly on the recorder. "It's quite natural, you
+know. His son is in love with the notary's daughter; and now that
+Tengelyi has got himself into trouble, the sheriff must do something in
+the way of taking his part, for there is no saying what that hot-headed
+fellow Akosh would not do. But _I_ am the man who knows the sheriff's
+real sentiments. Lady Rety told me to use all due diligence and severity
+in the trial of the offender, who has murdered her most faithful
+servant; and we know, gentlemen, that the sheriff never differs in
+opinion with his lady."
+
+"If that is the case, I have been wrong in what I did," said Mr.
+Kenihazy, scratching his head; "after what the sheriff told me, I did
+not even offer to bind his hands and feet--indeed, I have treated him
+with great politeness. I wanted to converse with him, but he made no
+reply to what I said."
+
+"Conscience! it's all conscience!" groaned Mr. Shaskay.
+
+"That's what I thought when he refused to smoke a pipe, though I offered
+it over and over again."
+
+"You might have let it alone, sir," said Mr. Zatonyi, with great
+severity. "In your relations with prisoners, your behaviour ought to be
+dignified, grave, and majestic: to show them that there is some
+difference between you and a vagabond."
+
+"Never mind, Bandi," said Mr. Skinner, when he saw that his clerk
+smarted under the reproof, "never mind; you're over polite, you know.
+Tell them to send the prisoner up. We'll be grave enough, I warrant
+you!"
+
+Mr. Kenihazy left the room; and a few minutes afterwards Tengelyi
+entered with an escort of four haiduks. Voelgyeshy accompanied him. That
+gentleman had left the company, when he heard of the notary's arrival:
+he had gone to confer with him. The notary's face was serious, and his
+behaviour had that dignity, gravity, and majesty which the assessor
+advised Kenihazy to practise in his relations with culprits.
+
+"How devilishly proud the fellow is!" whispered Mr. Skinner to Mr.
+Zatonyi: "but never mind; we'll get it out of him in no time."
+
+"So we would if the sheriff did not protect him!" sighed Zatonyi.
+
+The formal surrender of the prisoner was made, and Tengelyi expected
+every moment that they would take him to his prison; when Captain Karvay
+asked the recorder what kind of a chain the notary was to have.
+
+Simple as this question was, it seemed to puzzle the magistrate, who was
+at length heard to say, that it would be better to wait for the
+sheriff's arrival, before any thing was decided on the point.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Mr. Skinner; "give him a chain of eight or ten pounds,
+and have done with it."
+
+Before the recorder could make an answer, Voelgyeshy interfered, saying,
+"that to chain the prisoner was useless and therefore illegal. No
+attempt had been made to escape."
+
+"It strikes me," said Zatonyi, "that Mr. Voelgyeshy is the advocate of
+every criminal."
+
+"No, not of every one," replied Voelgyeshy; "but I am proud to plead the
+cause of those of whose innocence I am convinced; and it is for this
+reason I have asked Mr. Tengelyi to put his case into my hands."
+
+"Have we then the honour of seeing in you the advocate of Tengelyi?"
+said Mr. Skinner, with a sneer.
+
+"_Desperatarum causarum advocatus!_" whispered Zatonyi. "If Viola had
+not escaped, you might have seen a practical illustration of the results
+of your defence."
+
+"Whatever result my pleadings may have, does not depend upon me,"
+retorted Voelgyeshy. "All I say is, that I mean to do my duty to my
+client, and I know that our respected sheriff will take my part against
+you."
+
+These last words told upon the recorder; and, after a short
+consultation, it was resolved to lock the notary up without chaining
+him.
+
+Messrs. Karvay and Skinner were utterly disgusted with this resolution.
+The gallant captain complained of the unfairness of the court, who made
+him responsible for the safe keeping of the prisoner, and who yet
+refused to sanction the necessary measures of precaution. But a
+sheriff's influence is great, particularly immediately after the
+election; and all Mr. Karvay gained by his demurrer was a hint from
+Shaskay, to the effect that it was far easier to keep a prisoner in gaol
+than to confine certain people to the field of battle; and the homeric
+laughter which followed this sally drowned his voice, when he rejoined
+that great caution ought to be used with any deposits in a
+council-house, since certain monies, though wanting feet and though kept
+in irons, had been known to vanish under the hands of certain people.
+This brilliant repartee was utterly lost, and nothing was left to the
+gallant gentleman but to protest that it was not his fault, if he was
+unable to obey the sheriff's orders respecting the treatment of the
+prisoner; for since they would not allow him to chain the notary, his
+only way was to put him into the vaults.
+
+This proposal filled the mind of Voelgyeshy with horror, not indeed
+because the vaults of the Dustbury prison have any resemblance to those
+mediaeval chambers of horror which the managers of provincial theatres
+expose to the horrified gaze of a sentimental public. No! The cellars of
+the Dustbury prison, though by no means eligible residences, were not
+half so bad as the most comfortable of the lath and canvass dungeons to
+which we have alluded. The door of these vaults, which opened into the
+yard, led you to twelve steps, and by means of these into a passage,
+lined with a score or so of barred doors. The whole arrangement was
+simple, safe, and useful. There are none of the paraphernalia of a
+romantic keep, no iron hooks, no trap-doors, no water-jars; on the
+contrary, if the prisoners have any money, they can get wine and brandy,
+and as much as they like, too. The Dustbury prisons are strangers to the
+nervous tread of pale and haggard men. It is true that the number of
+prisoners prevents walking; but there is a deal of merry society; there
+is smoking, idleness, swearing, singing, in short, there is all a
+Hungarian can desire. This shows that the lower prisons of Dustbury are
+very satisfactory places, at least for those for whom they were built.
+There were, indeed, some witnesses and a few culprits, who, though
+uninured to prison life and averse to its gaieties, were compelled to a
+protracted stay in these places, and who had the presumption to
+complain. But of what? Of nothing at all! there was no reason to fear
+that the gaoler would let them die of thirst, for on rainy days there
+was an abundant supply of water, which came in by the windows, and which
+was retained in its own reservoir on the floor of the prison. But they
+complained of the badness of the air, (and indeed the air _was_ bad, at
+least it seemed so to those who were not used to it), which might
+perhaps have been the cause of the prevalence of scurvy and typhus
+fever.
+
+Such places are unquestionably very disagreeable, for the prevailing
+prejudice forces magistrates and guardians to dispense medicines to each
+of the sick prisoners. And medicines are fearfully expensive! But this
+motive was scarcely powerful enough to induce the Cortes of the county
+of Takshony to build new prisons; for the gentlemen of the sessions
+adopted certain remedial measures against long druggists' bills. The
+prisoners were treated by a homoeopathic practitioner, and this measure
+reduced the charge for medicines to a very low figure indeed. The
+construction of a new prison cannot therefore be ascribed to pecuniary
+motives. No! it was simply owing to the impossibility of confining more
+than a certain number of people within a prison of certain dimensions;
+and though one half of the culprits were always allowed to go at large
+on bail, yet the county was at length compelled to provide for the
+accommodation of a greater number of its erring sons. The new prison was
+built on the best plan, and fitted with all modern improvements. It
+contained eight good-sized rooms and a hall. Each of the eight rooms was
+inhabited by from twenty-five to forty, and the hall by from fifty to
+eighty prisoners. But, strange to say, the sanitary condition of the
+inmates of the new prison was as bad as that of the sojourners in the
+old vaults, and this extraordinary circumstance fully justified the
+opinion of some of the older assessors, that the frequency and virulence
+of disease had nothing whatever to do with the locality.
+
+Such was the state of the gaol in which the people of Takshony confined
+above five hundred prisoners; and it is therefore but natural that
+Voelgyeshy should shudder at the thought of Tengelyi being confined in
+the same room with the other criminals. Four small rooms were set apart
+for the reception of prisoners of a better class; and Voelgyeshy insisted
+on his client's right to have one of those rooms.
+
+"What next?" cried Zatonyi, laughing. "Did I ever! A village notary and
+a private room in a prison! It's too good, you know!"
+
+"I say!" cried Mr. James Bantornyi; "Mr. Voelgyeshy is right! Every
+prisoner ought to be locked up by himself, that's what the English call
+solitary confinement: each cell has got a bed, a wooden chair, a table
+to do your work on, and a Bible, or a crucifix if you are a Catholic.
+It's the best plan I ever heard of! I've seen it in England. Did any of
+you ever read the second report? I mean the Second Report on Prison
+Discipline?"
+
+"Nonsense! I wish you'd hold your peace with your English
+tom-fooleries!" said Zatonyi. "We are in Hungary, sir!"
+
+"But I say," rejoined James, "there is not a severer punishment than
+solitary confinement. Auburni's system, of which I saw the working at
+Bridewell, is nothing compared to it!"
+
+"Of course! of course!" laughed Zatonyi; "you'll come to advise us to
+give our prisoners coffee, and sugar, and rice, as I understand people
+do in America. But now tell me, how can you confine each prisoner by
+himself, when there are five hundred prisoners and thirty-three wards?
+There's no room, my dear fellow; that's all."
+
+"And why is there no room?" cried the Austrian captain, passionately.
+"Because, instead of hanging people, as our fathers did before us, we go
+to the expense of locking them up for so many months or years. If I had
+my way, I'd make room for you! Fifty stripes and the gallows! There's a
+cure for you; and all the rest is d--d nonsense!"
+
+"I should have no objection to Tengelyi's having a separate room," said
+the recorder; "but really there is none. The four cells which are set
+apart for solitary confinement are taken."
+
+"Then there _are_ some rooms devoted to that purpose, are there?" cried
+Mr. James Bantornyi, eagerly. "Oh, very well! Did I not always tell you
+we'd come to imitate England? Solitary confinement is introduced for
+four prisoners! A beginning being once made, I have no doubt but the
+rest will follow."
+
+"You are right!" said the recorder, in a mortal fear lest it should be
+his lot to have a description of the Milbank prison. "But, after all,
+who can help that we have but four rooms, and that they are all taken?"
+
+"Taken? By whom are they taken?" inquired Mr. James, who took a
+praiseworthy interest in prisons and their inmates.
+
+"One of them is retained by the baron," said Captain Karvay. "It's now
+three years since the poor gentleman was sent to prison, and I'll swear
+to it he's innocent."
+
+"Is he indeed?"
+
+"Nothing more certain!" said the gallant captain. "He's a capital
+fellow, but a little violent, you know: and it may have happened that he
+has ordered his servant to beat a man; indeed, I don't know, but perhaps
+he did it himself. It's what everybody does, you know, and nobody minds
+it. But the baron had ill luck. Thirty years ago, he knocked one of his
+servants on the head, and the fellow died in consequence of the blow. A
+prosecution was commenced and carried on, and while it was being
+carried on it was all but forgotten; when, as ill luck would have it,
+the poor baron chanced to get himself into a fresh scrape. He is fond of
+his garden. The peasants stole his fruit and flowers. So he swore the
+first whom he could lay his hand on should have forty stripes. It was a
+vow, you know. And what happened? The very next morning a young chap was
+caught stealing cherries. Of course the baron could not think of
+breaking his vow. The young fellow was not quite ten years of age; he
+could not stand forty blows, and he died before the thing was fairly
+over. There was another row, and the county magistrates could not but
+sentence the baron to be confined for six months; the upper court
+cancelled the judgment, and gave the poor man four years! Only fancy!
+and he's seventy years old. It's an atrocious cruelty, you know, to send
+such a man to prison, and for four years too!"
+
+"Yes, I remember," said James Bantornyi. "I heard it talked about when I
+returned from England. But I thought he had got over it. Some time ago I
+saw him on his estate."
+
+"Why," replied the recorder, "if we were not to give him a run now and
+then, his manager would play the devil with his crops and cattle."
+
+"The second room," continued the captain, "is inhabited by an attorney:
+he was sent here for forgery. And in the third room lives an engineer,
+who is likewise accused of forging bank-notes."
+
+"And did it ever strike you," asked Mr. James, with great anxiety; "did
+it ever strike you that solitary confinement exerts a salutary influence
+on the prisoners?"
+
+"It certainly does. Ever since the baron has lived with us, he's grown
+fat; he never complains of any thing except of his ill luck at cards,
+and that he cannot get any wine which is strong enough for him. He's
+blunted, you know."
+
+"Wine and cards are not fit agents to carry out the purposes of solitary
+confinement: but, after all, the English too have, of late, relaxed the
+former rigour of their system. But how do the others go on?"
+
+"The attorney acts as middleman between the borrowers and lenders of
+money, and the engineer is always writing and sketching. I suppose you
+saw his last _quodlibet_ with the sheriff's portrait, and the autographs
+of all the magistrates, and with a few bank-notes mixed up with them. It
+was remarkably well done, especially the notes."
+
+"Capital!" said James. "Occupation is the life of prison discipline. It
+improves the criminals, you know."
+
+Voelgyeshy, who had scarcely kept his impatience within bounds,
+interrupted this conversation.
+
+"One of the cells is untenanted," said he; "why don't you put Tengelyi
+in that?"
+
+"Impossible!" said the captain, dryly. "The worshipful magistrates have
+resolved that one of the rooms must be kept empty, to provide for an
+emergency."
+
+"But is not this an emergency?" asked Voelgyeshy.
+
+"I don't care whether it is or not!" said the captain, twisting his
+moustache. "All I say is, that the worshipful magistrates have
+instructed me to keep that room empty. I have my orders, sir. Besides,
+we cannot put the notary into that room to please anybody; for Lady Rety
+has used it as a larder these three years, and she keeps the key."
+
+Still Voelgyeshy persisted; but the recorder interfered, saying, that the
+mildness which the sheriff had recommended could not, by any means, be
+carried to the bursting open and disarranging the larder of the
+sheriff's wife. And when Voelgyeshy told them that, at least, an
+arrangement might be made by confining two of the three prisoners in
+one room, and assigning one of their cells to his client, his proposal
+excited a violent storm of indignation.
+
+"I wish you may get it!" cried Captain Karvay. "I wonder what the baron
+would say if I were to force somebody upon him! And I don't know what he
+would say if I were to tell him it was to make room for a village
+notary."
+
+But the decision of the affair was, as usual, brought about by Mr.
+Skinner's energy. That great lawyer protested that he could not think of
+fighting or squabbling for such a self-evident point; that Mr. Voelgyeshy
+had a right to defend the notary as much as he pleased; but that the
+worshipful magistrates had an equal right not to care for Mr. Voelgyeshy
+or his defence.
+
+The matter being thus settled to the satisfaction of all but the
+notary's counsel, the recorder said to Karvay: "But you'll put him
+somewhere where the crowd is not too great!"
+
+"Of course. I'll send him to No. 20.,--as sweet a room as you'd like to
+see, and with but five people in it. There's the old receiver; a
+murderer; a man confined for horse-stealing; and two children convicted
+of arson."
+
+"Very good," said the recorder. "Whatever he wants, he must have; for
+the sheriff wishes us to treat him kindly."
+
+With a heavy heart did Voelgyeshy follow the captain to the hall, where
+Tengelyi was awaiting the close of the discussion.
+
+"It's rather strange that they should leave me without chains," said the
+notary, as they descended the steps to the vaults. "I am in the power of
+these people; and, I assure you, they'll give me a taste of what they
+can do."
+
+"I'll make an end of it!" cried the advocate. "I'll go and talk to the
+sheriff. He cannot mean----"
+
+"He does not mean any thing!" said Tengelyi, with bitterness. "It's a
+pity that you should trouble yourself; not only because you'll lose your
+labour, but also because, in my position, a man gets blunted to smaller
+sufferings."
+
+"But the additional straw which----"
+
+"I am no camel, my dear sir.--Stop here. I will not allow you to
+accompany me farther." And, turning round, the notary followed his
+gaoler.
+
+Voelgyeshy left the place sadly and reluctantly. At some distance from
+the council-house he met Kalman Kishlaki, who had just come from
+Tissaret to inquire for Tengelyi. The news of the notary's confinement
+in the vaults struck young Kishlaki with angry surprise. He hastened to
+the place where he had left his horse; and, without giving the poor
+beast time to rest, he rode back to Tissaret to appeal to Akosh, and,
+through him, to the sheriff.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+
+The last rays of the setting sun shed their brightness on the roofs of
+Dustbury, when Tengelyi entered his prison. As he paused on the fatal
+threshold, his heart ached within him, to think that this was his
+farewell to the free light and air of heaven. The prison was dark. The
+dirty panes of glass in the windows, the rough paper which, pasted over
+the frames, supplied the want of them in more than one place, added to
+strong bars of iron which protected the windows, created a dim twilight
+even in the midst of the gladness and brightness of day; but to those
+who entered the place in the afternoon, as Tengelyi did, it appeared as
+dark as night, until their eyes became accustomed to the darkness. This
+circumstance, and the murky and fetid air which he breathed, unnerved
+Tengelyi so much, that he paid no attention to the words of comfort
+which the turnkey addressed to him. That meritorious functionary, who
+gloried in the military rank of a corporal, considered every new
+prisoner in the light of a fresh source of income to himself; and his
+politeness to the notary was not only unbounded, but even troublesome.
+He bustled about the prison; selected the most comfortable place for the
+new comer; deposited the notary's luggage in what he called a snug
+corner; and exhorted the other prisoners, rather energetically, to be
+civil and polite to their guest. He asked Tengelyi whether he had any
+commands for the night. The notary asked for some bedding.
+
+"We'll find it for you," said the corporal. "Of course I must borrow it
+from some other man; and I don't know what he'll want for it a day; but
+if you'll pay the damage, we'll find it for you, that's all."
+
+Upon the notary declaring that he was willing to do so, the corporal
+continued: "We find you every thing for your money. You can have meat,
+brandy, wine, whatever you like, if you've got some money. I say," added
+he, in an under tone; "it would make matters pleasant if you were to
+send for a drop for these chaps. When they get a new companion, they
+want to drink his health, you know; and these here fellows are
+dreadfully put out, because they've been disturbed in their places. You
+ought to make things pleasant, you know; for they _will_ be mischievous
+unless you do."
+
+The notary declared his readiness to "make things pleasant," as the
+corporal called it.
+
+"I say!" cried that person; "this gentleman is a real gentleman, and
+nothing but a gentleman. He means to give you wine and brandy to drink
+his health in; so don't trouble him!"
+
+Saying which, and while several voices expressed their joy, the corporal
+left the cell and locked the door. Tengelyi sat down on his luggage, and
+leaning his face on his hand, he gave himself up to his gloomy thoughts;
+but he had scarcely done so, when a voice from the other side of the
+place disturbed him.
+
+"Don't be sad, comrade!" croaked the voice. "This cursed cellar is
+awfully cold. If you're once sad, you're done for!"
+
+The place was so dark that Tengelyi could not distinguish the speaker's
+form; but the cracked voice, and the gasping and coughing of the man,
+showed him to be old and decrepit.
+
+"What's the use of being mum?" continued the voice. "Take it easy!
+People who live together ought to be cronies! Besides, we are much
+better off here than you or anybody would think--ain't we, boys?"
+
+"Yes! yes!" replied two voices, which evidently proceeded from a man and
+a boy.
+
+"We're snug and comfortable! There are some drawbacks, you know. My
+poor Imri here has a whipping on every quarter day, and Pishta is going
+to lose his head--that's all. It's a bore, you know."
+
+"What the devil makes you talk of it?" said the man's voice, trembling.
+
+"Never you mind! Who knows but you'll get off for all that? Why, you
+were not even twenty when you did for that Slowak; by the same token,
+you were a jackass to kill that fellow of all others for the miserable
+booty of ninepence which you found in his pockets. As for me, I've twice
+been under sentence of death, and you see I'm none the worse for it. But
+if they _will_ chop your head off, why, it's some comfort to think that
+they hanged your father before you. Never mind, boy, you're as likely to
+dance on my grave as I am on yours! When a man has lived up to
+ninety-three years----"
+
+"Three and ninety years!" sighed the notary, with a shudder.
+
+"Three and ninety years!" continued the old man, with his usual cough.
+"It's a good old age, you know; and fifty-four years of that time I've
+lived in gaol, and I'm none the worse for it; if the Lord keeps me
+alive, they'll discharge me on St. Stephen's day that's coming."
+
+"Fifty-four years?" cried the notary.
+
+"Ay! it's a good long time, ain't it? I've been in gaol for stealing
+horses and other cattle, and I was a party to a murder. Twice they
+locked me up for arson, but, d--n me, I had no hand in it in either
+case; and this time I'm caged because people _will_ have it that I was
+the head man in the Pasht robbery--you know three men happened to be
+killed on the occasion. Never mind, I'm to be a free man on St.
+Stephen's day; and, after all, though _I_ say it who should not, their
+worships were not far out when they brought that business home to me!"
+
+"I say, father, you're an out-and-outer!" said the boyish voice. "Come,
+tell us of the Jew that lost his life!"
+
+"Tell you, indeed, you abortion!" said the old man. "Don't you hear me
+coughing. Ask Pishta! he'll tell you how he diddled that Slowak."
+
+"D--n Pishta! he doesn't tell stories half so well as you do, father; it
+gives one an appetite for the business to hear you."
+
+"Never mind, lad! you'll have your share of it, I warrant you!" laughed
+the old man. "The devil shall take me by ounces, if you don't kill a man
+before you've got a beard to your chin."
+
+"I'll kill any one! I'll drink blood! Let me once get out of this place,
+and you'll see!"
+
+"Will you, indeed! You'll get the shakes before you do it, my boy."
+
+"Drat the shakes! I'd wish you to see me at work. I'm not the coward I
+was when they brought me here. Wasn't I a fine fellow, father? A knife
+made me _funky_. But your fine stories have set me up. I can't help
+dreaming of the old Jew whom they hanged in the forest. Let me once get
+an axe in my hand! I shan't use it for woodcutting, that's all."
+
+"Bravo!" cried the old man. "You're a bold fellow, you are! By the bye,
+what's the other chap about?"
+
+"He's asleep!"
+
+"Is he? then box his ears, and wake him!"
+
+And turning to Tengelyi, he added, "That boy Imri is a whapper, sir; but
+the other chap's a scurvy rat!"
+
+A loud wailing cry, and the entreaties of the other child, showed that
+Imri had obeyed his patron's command; and though the notary was resolved
+not to enter into any conversation with his fellow-prisoners, that cry
+of pain overcame his resolution.
+
+"Why don't you let the poor boy sleep?" said he.
+
+"You leave my children alone, sir!" said the old robber, rather
+fiercely. "They ought to fight. It does them good, you know. Makes them
+hard, sir, as hard as nails! That little fellow, Imri, is a whapper,
+sir. That boy'll do me honour, that boy will; but that sleepy cove in
+the corner will never come to any thing. I've given them a year's
+schooling, sir, and that's why I ought to know them."
+
+"You would do better to think of your death-bed, old man. You are
+driving these children to ruin."
+
+"Ruin be d--d! I'll make men of them. I'll give them reason to be
+grateful to their worships for locking them up with me. I'll give them a
+bit of education, you know."
+
+At this moment the turnkey opened the outer gate of the prison, and
+brought a large lamp, which he placed in the hall, so as to economise
+its light for three of the cells. The reddish glare of the lamp showed
+the notary the place to which his misfortune, and the malice of his
+enemies, had brought him. It was a perfect hell of sweating walls,
+half-rotten straw, filth, chains, and iron bars. The old prisoner, to
+whom Tengelyi had spoken, squatted in a corner, with his head leaning on
+his knees, so as to conceal his features. But in the intervals of the
+conversation, he raised his head, and showed a countenance on which the
+crimes of nearly a century had set their mark. His was one of those
+faces which, once seen, are always remembered, and the very turnkey felt
+some awe when he approached him. His white beard, which covered the
+lower half of his face, the thin long silvery locks which descended to
+his shoulders, and his sunken eyes and temples, showed that he had
+reached an age which few men attain, and the sight of which is wont to
+fill us with respect, or at least with pity. It was not so in the case
+of this man. The keen look of his eyes under his bushy eyebrows
+impressed you with a conviction that this patriarch of the prison,
+though he might want the power, did not lack the will to commit any
+crime; and when his trembling and shrivelled hands were stretched forth
+towards you, it was not pity, but a feeling of comfort you had in
+thinking, that these hands had lost the strength to grasp the dagger or
+aim the blow.
+
+At the old man's feet lay a boy of fourteen, with a withered and oldish
+face. His cheeks were pale, his forehead wrinkled, and his eyes dull and
+glazed, except when the old man called him by his name, or stroked his
+hair with a trembling hand. It was then that some feeling was expressed
+in that haggard face. It was then that the boy's eyes gleamed in wild
+exultation. It was the yearning of the human heart for kindness, and its
+gratitude even to the depraved. The other boy, whose wailings induced
+Tengelyi to speak, had crept up to the iron railings of the door, and
+there he stood gazing at the light of the lamp. When the flame burnt
+clear and bright, the boy clapped his hands and laughed; but when it
+burnt low, he said he was sure the lamp was neglected, and that it would
+go out, as it did the other day.
+
+"If I could but creep through the bars!" sighed he. "If they'd only let
+me trim it! I'd give it a large wick and plenty of oil; and I'd make it
+burn with a red flame, and a yellow flame, and a blue flame! Look, look!
+what a bright jet of fire! Grow! grow little flame! rise to the
+house-top, and shine over the town and warm it! Oh, see how splendid!"
+And the poor lad pressed his glowing face to the iron bars. "Oh! if
+they'd but let me touch it!"
+
+"It's no go, my boy!" cried the young murderer from the furthest corner
+of the cell; "they won't allow you to set the prison on fire, as you did
+the other day. Get away from the bars, you little rascal; if you don't,
+I'll drag you away by the hair!"
+
+"Bravo, Pishta! Give it him!" said the old man; "he all but killed us
+with his smoke. You see he's mad!"
+
+Pishta got up and seized the boy; but Tengelyi interfered, and asked how
+the child could have set the prison on fire.
+
+"That boy! There never was such a boy! He used to ask me by the hour for
+my steel and flint; and when he once had it, there was no getting it
+away from him. He would strike fire, and when he made the sparks fly he
+laughed and screamed like mad. And one night he prigged a piece of
+tinder and lighted it, and put it in the old cove's straw."
+
+"Pull his ears for him, Pishta!" cried the old man. Even Tengelyi's
+interference would not have saved the lad from being beaten, had not the
+appearance of the turnkey, with some bottles of wine and brandy, engaged
+the attention of the prisoners.
+
+"Give us the brandy, Imri; and I say, Pishta, take a bottle and let that
+nasty toad alone, since the man who treats us wishes to protect him. Let
+him stare at the flame to the end of time; only look sharp that he
+doesn't claw your tinder. Will you not take a drop, sir?" added the old
+man, addressing Tengelyi. The notary's refusal astonished him quite as
+much as the cleanliness and neatness of his dress and appearance.
+
+"If you don't care, I'm sure _I_ don't!" said he; and, turning to his
+comrades, he added, in a whisper: "Leave him alone, for after all he
+pays for our brandy. To-morrow morning we'll make him send for some
+more. He's our cellar, you know! Drink, Imri, my boy! Stick to the
+brandy. You look rather queer about the eyes; but never mind, you'll get
+used to it, and you're a whapper for all that."
+
+Thanks to the old man's calculations on his future generosity, Tengelyi
+was left to his reflections. The prison presented a scene of uproarious
+hilarity, which, at length subsiding, gave place to the deep and heavy
+breathing of its drunken inmates, when the door again opened and
+admitted a man, who, laying a mattress, a pillow, and a blanket at
+Tengelyi's feet, introduced himself as Gatzi the Vagabond, a former
+inmate of the cell, though at present a kitchen prisoner[29] of the
+recorder's. Having thus informed Mr. Tengelyi of his state and station,
+both in the world and in the prison of Dustbury, he produced a small
+basket with eatables, adding that they were sent by Mr. Voelgyeshy, who
+wished the notary to be patient, for that he was sure to have his own
+private room next day. "And," added Gatzi, "I'll make you a bed fit for
+a king to sleep on. I've just made the recorder's bed, and he is
+particular, you know."
+
+[Footnote 29: See Note I.]
+
+Tengelyi, who had not broken his fast since the previous day, took some
+meat and bread, and invited the new comer to fall to.
+
+"Thank you!" said Gatzi the Vagabond. "I've eaten as much as I can eat.
+The recorder had no end of things for supper. I waited at table, and
+minded my own business, I can assure you. But you don't take any wine! I
+hope it's good; and it's I myself fetched it at the inn, and the
+landlord knows he can't do me, for if he did I'd go to the Lion next
+time, that's all."
+
+"Try it!" said Tengelyi. "As for me, I do not mean to take any."
+
+"I humbly thank you!" said the prisoner, seizing the bottle. "Ah,
+well-a-day, what wine! Bless me, if you'd give me such wine every day,
+I'd never wish to leave this place."
+
+"It strikes me you are pretty well reconciled to your captivity."
+
+"Oh I'm far more comfortable than I might be. I've been a servant ever
+since I was a boy; and now I'm a kitchen-prisoner. Dear me! there's no
+difference between the two; and when the weather's bad, and I sit by the
+kitchen-fire thinking how they used to set me to work, both in winter
+and in summer, it strikes me that I'm better off than I ever was. I've
+got plenty to eat, a warm jacket, and a few kreutzers now and then for
+an extra service. The haiduks don't bully me--in short, it's the very
+place for a poor fellow like myself."
+
+"But what of liberty? Would you not like to be free and unfettered?"
+
+"These chains of mine _are_ troublesome; yes, so they are, especially
+when I've to change my boots. You can't believe how awkward they are at
+times, though they are lighter than any in the place. But, after all,
+who knows when they take them off but that I must carry heavier loads to
+gain my bread? And as for liberty, why you see, sir, in fine weather, in
+a starry night, I think it would be a nice thing indeed to be racing
+over the heath with my fellows; but, after all, liberty's very
+uncomfortable: a man must work for his bread, you know."
+
+The notary sighed.
+
+"Cheer up, sir!" said the Vagabond, in happy unconsciousness of the real
+cause of the notary's sigh. "Cheer up, sir! To-morrow you'll have your
+own room; and since Mr. Voelgyeshy's your lawyer, I am sure you'll get
+through the business, however ugly it may be. The devil himself could
+not live in this hole among a parcel of blackguards! Would you believe
+it, sir? there isn't a respectable man among the lot!"
+
+"Society's none of the best in the other cells, I dare say," responded
+the notary, as he settled down for the night.
+
+"Oh, but it is! It was quite a pleasure to be in the cell I once lived
+in. They were all men of substance, I assure you, sir, and mighty fine
+stories they told. There was no end of good stories. There was a woman,
+too--but this is a place to despair in."
+
+"Then, I presume, this is not your own cell?"
+
+"By no means!" said Gatzi the Vagabond, with great pride. "I'm in the
+habit of sleeping in the recorder's kitchen, or in the yard, and I've
+only come down here because Mr. Voelgyeshy told me to watch lest
+something might happen to you, sir."
+
+"What can he mean?"
+
+"Why that old fellow there is fit for any thing in a small way. He's
+been after one of the boys in such a manner that the poor child has got
+the epileptics."
+
+The notary shuddered.
+
+"Why do they allow him to have the children in his cell?" cried he.
+
+Gatzi the Vagabond, stretching his limbs in his bunda, replied, with
+great composure:--
+
+"They say the fellow's so desperately wicked, that whenever a man was
+locked in his cell, he was sure to commit some horrid crime the moment
+he came out of prison. As for Pishta, they've put him here because the
+recorder says he has no chance of living. He'll lose his head to a
+certainty. And the children are small and weak; what harm can they do
+when they get out?"
+
+"But what are they in prison for?"
+
+"It's a queer thing altogether!" yawned Gatzi. "There were no end of
+fires in the village where they come from, and it was found out that
+half the children in the place had a hand in it; little toads, you know,
+of from twelve to fourteen. Mr. Voelgyeshy says it's a disease; and I
+dare say he's right, for one of the boys has been a making fires ever
+since he came here. But, whether it is a disease or not, it didn't
+matter. The justice had the other boys and girls soundly whipped; and as
+for these here two, he sent them to gaol because they're orphans. Fine
+plants they'll come to be. Good night, sir!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+
+There are moments in the life of every votary of the world's splendour
+and ambition in which, wearied by the obstacles which obstruct his path,
+and harassed by the petty failures of a thousand wishes, the more ardent
+because they are unreasonable, he looks back with something like regret
+on his past career, while the future fills his soul with fear, mingled
+with disgust. The rewards of ambition are scanty, its labours great.
+There is profuseness in the promise, there is a niggardly stinginess in
+the performance. The hour of doubt and sorrow comes for every one; that
+hour which makes us feel that "the paltry prize is hardly worth the
+cost." But the man of real ambition, the man of high purposes, who walks
+the rugged paths of greatness, not because he wishes that the crowd
+should stare at him, but to satisfy his own ardent mind; not because he
+longs for command, but because his mind thirsts for freedom,--such a
+man, even in his darkest hours, will never look back to the past with
+that intensity of bitterness which the sheriff felt, when, pacing his
+room, and reviewing his position, he became convinced of the fact that
+his past career was as false as his present existence was hollow.
+
+His was not an unfeeling heart. In his younger years he was loving, and
+zealous for the love of others. Moderately accomplished, with a fine
+property, and a good face and figure, Rety was formed to pass his life
+in tranquil happiness. But there was something in his character which
+blasted the fair hopes of his youth. He was weak and vain, and these two
+qualities spoilt his appetite for the good things with which fortune had
+so amply provided him. Once removed from his natural sphere, his life
+was a series of bitter disappointments. His attachment to the friends of
+his early youth sprang from a desire of praise and friendly
+conversation. When he entered into practical life, he was equally
+influenced by the views of his family, and by their advice; and though
+in the outset he was rather a passive than an active sharer of the high
+plans of his father, his vanity soon caused him to covet those very
+distinctions which he for a time pretended to disregard. His first move
+in that career brought him in opposition to Tengelyi, the friend of his
+youth. Rety was not insensible to the meanness of the transaction. He
+did all he could to change his father's purpose. He told him that to
+treat his friend in this manner would for ever undermine his
+self-respect. But his father protested that all the hopes of his life
+were bound up in this one desire; his mother added her entreaties; and
+the neighbours said there never was so young and so gentlemanly a
+justice in the county. And when they all protested that Tengelyi had not
+the least chance of carrying the election, Rety wanted the strength to
+resist, and all that the nobler feelings of his mind effected was to
+make him ashamed of himself. He was afraid to meet his friend; and he
+added to his wrongs by breaking off the acquaintance.
+
+Thus launched into public life, accustomed to the frequent
+glorifications and distinctions of county life, Rety's innate vanity
+became of gigantic growth; and when he took his father's place of
+sheriff, when the Cortes of the Takshony county made him the object of
+their devotion, he exulted in what he considered his pride of place.
+
+Some people accused him of want of principle. They protested that his
+habitual dignified reserve was the result of a deep scheme, and that his
+ambition was of the most insatiate and the boldest kind. They were
+mistaken. The sheriff was satisfied with his position. All he wished was
+to be the first man, the beloved and exalted man of the county. His was
+a modest vanity. His mind did not crave for fame, or for a grand sphere
+of action. He was satisfied to rise gradually and peaceably, and to be
+surrounded by an admiring circle of friends. The county of Takshony
+yielded the fullest satisfaction to these wishes, and the sheriff's
+aspirations were confined to its borders. It never struck him that it is
+a disgrace for a man to be the favourite of _all_ parties. But this
+tranquil enjoyment of petty honours could only last while there was no
+one near him to disturb it. His distinctions ceased to be grateful to
+him when new wishes were awakened in his heart. The death of his first
+wife and his second marriage served to disgust him with his repose upon
+his laurels.
+
+In the choice of his first wife he had followed his heart; his second
+alliance was caused by ambition. The woman of his choice had no
+property; but she was a magnate's daughter, and celebrated for her
+beauty and her talents. To think of the many that would envy him if he,
+a widower, were to marry the most beautiful woman in the county, made
+him happy; and that thought was a solace to him, even when he found to
+his cost that his wife had other qualities besides beauty and talents.
+Lady Rety felt uncomfortable in her position as the wife of the sheriff
+of Takshony. Though her father was poor, he had rich relations, many of
+whom were high in office; and the uninterrupted correspondence in which
+she stood with some of the greatest men in Hungary, while it
+dissatisfied her with her present station, caused her to strain every
+nerve to raise her husband to a higher rank. From the moment she entered
+his house, she strove to urge Rety on.
+
+And she succeeded. He had hitherto prided himself on being the first man
+in the county. She told him that was a small matter indeed. She told him
+the county of Takshony was not worth living for; that the cheers, the
+exultations of the crowd were caused by his cellar, and not by his
+merits. The affability which his office imposed upon him as a duty
+became perfectly odious to Rety's mind, when his wife convinced him that
+it was a meanness to bow and smile to the Zatonyis, Skinners, and
+Kishlakis. She spurred him on; she sneered at him and his county
+politics, until he felt utterly wretched, demoralised, and contemptible.
+He yielded, and resolved to aim at higher dignities.
+
+That resolution was the curse of his life. A vain man wants the breath
+to run a long race: vanity must have applause for each word, and praise
+for each act. Rety knew that the road to higher things is open to those
+only who league themselves with one party. And when he left his batlike
+position, when he joined a party for good, he saw to his horror that
+there were some people who doubted his excellence; the criticisms of his
+enemies made him miserable. And when he yielded to the impulse of his
+ruling passion, when he returned to his undecided position between the
+hostile factions, their shortlived applause was poisoned by the sneers
+of his wife. The sheriff's conduct was vacillating and fickle. Nobody
+could be more painfully conscious of this fact than he himself was.
+
+The part which Lady Rety played in the robbery of Tengelyi's papers was
+divulged by Viola's confession, and eagerly commented on by the gossips
+of the county. Those who credited the robber's statement believed too
+that the sheriff had acted in concert with his wife. But this opinion
+was erroneous. The sheriff knew nothing of Lady Rety's plans; and,
+though sensible of the importance of the papers which Vandory possessed,
+he was too honest, and, indeed, too weak, to consent to any thing like a
+crime. But when the robbery had been perpetrated, and when his wife
+informed him of Viola's confession, he asked her with horror whether the
+robber had spoken the truth. "He has!" replied she, with that boldness
+which experience told her was wont to awe him into submission. "I have
+done the thing I am accused of. But why did I do it? It was for the
+benefit of your family, name, and interests. Will you accuse me? Can you
+think of producing me in a court of justice? Will you dare to cast
+dishonour upon your own name? If you do, you effect your own ruin,
+without convincing any one of your innocence. They accuse you more than
+me. If you turn against me they will say, it is not because you are
+innocent, but because you are a knave. The only thing you _can_ do is,
+to hush the matter up."
+
+Rety was miserable. But there was no alternative; and he chose to become
+an accessory after the fact. Mr. Catspaw's assassination increased the
+difficulties of his position. Some papers, of which the property was
+traced to Tengelyi, were found in Mr. Catspaw's room. So long as
+Tengelyi was thought to be the murderer, the circumstance of the papers
+being found might be explained by asserting that the notary had lost
+them when he committed the crime; but if he could prove his innocence,
+were not those papers likely to increase the suspicions which the
+sheriff felt were entertained against him? And was not Tengelyi likely
+to rest his defence on those very suspicions?
+
+Rety, as is usually the case with weak men, was by no means fond of the
+person who reigned over him; the coldness of years ripened into hate. He
+was estranged from his old friends; scorned, and perhaps hated, by his
+own children; he was exposed to danger and infamy, and all for her sake.
+He could not pardon his own weakness, but he hated her the more
+cordially; a feeling which she returned with interest. This distracting
+position was still heightened by the contents of a letter which the
+sheriff took up at times, and threw down again, to stamp the floor and
+ponder on certain points which seemed to move his feelings. That letter,
+which was in Vandory's handwriting, was to the following purpose:--
+
+      "My dear Brother,
+
+      "You know that I am not in the habit of using this
+      name too often. I loved it once; but I have dropped it
+      since I saw that it would hurt your interests. I am
+      your brother, but I have never claimed other rights
+      than those your heart gave me; and if I now remind you
+      of the bonds which unite us, it is to recall you from
+      the path which leads to certain ruin.
+
+      "Samuel, you are on the brink of an abyss. The very
+      next step you take will decide your fate for ever. If
+      you proceed in your career, you are given over to
+      evil. Your honour, now jeopardised, is irretrievably
+      lost. There are crimes which defy all repentance.
+      Consider, my brother, whether worldly honours and
+      riches can repay you for peace on earth and for the
+      loss of your hopes of heaven!
+
+      "There was a time in which you professed friendship
+      for Tengelyi; but let that pass. You thought proper to
+      sacrifice his friendship to the cravings of your
+      ambition. I leave it to your heart to decide whether
+      you were right or wrong. But even if Tengelyi had
+      never been your friend, you ought to feel for his
+      situation. You are convinced of his innocence; you
+      know the circumstances to which he fell a victim; you
+      know the authors of his misfortunes; and you know
+      those who accuse him because they wish to hide their
+      own misdeeds. Will you suffer him to fall a prey to
+      his enemies? Will you plunge his family in misery and
+      ruin? I never thought that I should have to raise my
+      voice in a case in which duty speaks so clearly. I was
+      convinced that you, who bear so great a share in
+      Tengelyi's misfortunes, would strain every nerve to
+      save him. I was mistaken. The entreaties of your own
+      son could not prevail upon you even to alleviate the
+      sorrows of this ruined family. All that is now left to
+      me is to remind you of your promise to me; and, though
+      reluctantly, I must also remind you of the
+      obligations which, according to your own words, you
+      are under to me.
+
+      "Yes, Samuel; a review of the past will convince you
+      that I was always a faithful brother to you: that, for
+      your sake, I sacrificed what mankind prize as most
+      high and valuable; and that I have a claim upon your
+      gratitude.
+
+      "I was a child when my mother died, but I was old
+      enough to become conscious of the change in my life
+      when our father married for the second time. Your
+      mother was the bane of my childhood. Before she was a
+      mother she hated me, because I reminded her of what
+      she longed for; and when you were born, she feared
+      lest I should share our father's property with you.
+      Everybody pitied me, and there were some people who
+      wished me to hate you. But I loved you. I loved to
+      embrace you; to hear you speak, and to teach you my
+      childish games. I was neglected, hated, and
+      persecuted; but I had a brother, and I hoped to be
+      happy when he came to be a man. My childhood was so
+      utterly wretched, that my hopes had nothing but the
+      distant future, and the older I grew, the more
+      insupportable became my condition. You say my father
+      loved me. He never showed it. The slightest mark of
+      kindness from him would have prevented me from
+      quitting his roof as I did. My departure from home
+      was covered by a distant relation of my mother's, who
+      found the means and the passports for a journey to a
+      foreign country. He supported me during the first
+      years of my voluntary exile. At the end of three years
+      he died. Death surprised him with such awful rapidity,
+      that no time was left to inform his friends of my
+      whereabouts, or to provide for me in his will, and I
+      found myself, at the commencement of my studies at
+      Goettingen, thrown upon my own resources, and, though
+      not friendless on foreign soil, I felt homesick. But I
+      had no faith in my father's affection, and I conquered
+      that feeling. My poverty could not shake my
+      resolution. I worked for my living, and was happy and
+      proud that I could support myself. I lived thus for
+      more than ten years. My longings for my country passed
+      away. I all but forgot my mother's language; and when
+      I passed my examinations and took my degrees, I felt
+      as a native of the foreign land in which I lived. It
+      was at this time I saw your name in the lists of the
+      University of Heidelberg. I left Goettingen, and
+      hastened to meet you.
+
+      "I write this, not to reproach you. If I was useful to
+      you, your presence was a source of happiness to me.
+      What I wish is, to remind you of those happy days, of
+      those days when there were no secrets between us;
+      when it was as unlikely that I should ask for any
+      thing that could give you pain, as that you should
+      refuse to comply with any of my requests.
+
+      "No one knew of our consanguinity, and many people
+      wondered at our friendship; I was so much older than
+      you. Even Tengelyi could never suspect that we were
+      brothers. We agreed to return together to my father's
+      house, and to ask his pardon for my rash and
+      injudicious step.
+
+      "Heaven would have it otherwise. You knew the woman
+      whose love caused me to forget all other ties, and to
+      make her country mine. I knew my father was proud. I
+      knew that my chosen wife would be a source of
+      annoyance and sorrow to him. He could never be
+      reconciled to the marriage of his son with the
+      daughter of an artisan; and you, too, advised me to
+      take the place which at that time was offered to me,
+      and to remain in Germany.
+
+      "My happiness was of short duration. My wife died a
+      few months after your departure from Heidelberg. I
+      felt very lonely. You were far away. Tengelyi had left
+      the place before you. My soul was sorrowful, even unto
+      death. I resolved to turn my steps homewards, but I
+      did not inform you of my resolution.
+
+      "I wished to see my father and his house before
+      introducing myself to him as his son. What I saw
+      convinced me that it was better to remain unknown as
+      long as my father lived. My name and my claims to the
+      property were likely to inflame your mother's hate
+      against me, and the prodigal's return would have
+      embittered the last days of his father. We resolved to
+      keep the secret between us; and when your
+      recommendation caused me to be appointed to the curacy
+      of Tissaret, I had no reason to desire a change of my
+      position. I lived in the house as one of the family.
+      My father, led by instinct, loved me like a son, and I
+      was permitted to cheer his declining age. Your mother
+      died, and my father's death followed soon afterwards.
+      In his last hour I knelt by his bed, told him who I
+      was, and asked his pardon. He wept. He embraced and
+      blessed me as his son. You were present, he blessed
+      you too, and entreated us to be of one mind, and to
+      love one another.
+
+      "After my father's death there was no obstacle to my
+      assuming my real name; but while I stayed in your
+      house a variety of circumstances had come to my
+      knowledge which prevented my taking that step. Our
+      father was in debt, and you and your wife had, for
+      some years, lived on your expectations. To claim my
+      share of the property was to condemn you to a life of
+      privations and regret; and to assume my name and
+      resign my heritage was ungenerous. It was burdening
+      you with an obligation in the eyes of the world.
+      Besides, I was fond of my new vocation, and I felt
+      that the position my name would give me was likely to
+      interfere with my duties as a clergyman. I entreated
+      you not to reveal the secret of my birth to the world.
+      As it was, I could live with you, and love you as a
+      brother, and that was all I wanted.
+
+      "The world would say that I sacrificed much to you. I
+      sacrificed a name of which you yourself are proud, a
+      fine property, and an enviable position; for though I
+      am not eager for honours, I have often felt that my
+      power of doing good to my fellow creatures would be
+      greater if I had not resigned the advantages of my
+      birth. Do not force me to believe that I made that
+      sacrifice for one who is unworthy of it!
+
+      "Tengelyi's fate is in your hands. It is in your power
+      to save him, and to restore his honour and reputation
+      to their pristine purity. I need not tell you how you
+      can do it. But, my brother, if you ever loved me, if
+      our father's last prayer is indeed sacred to you, and
+      unless you wish me to curse the moment in which my
+      love for you induced me to sacrifice my interests for
+      your sake,--do, for your children's sake, for the sake
+      of your hopes of heaven, what your duty and conscience
+      command you to do.
+
+      "BALTHASAR."
+
+The sheriff had just read the last lines of this letter, when the door
+opened. His brother stood before him.
+
+When Kalman returned from Dustbury, he went to Vandory, and gave him an
+account of Tengelyi's situation; on hearing which, the curate hastened
+to the sheriff, to intercede in behalf of his friend.
+
+Vandory's arrival took the sheriff by surprise. He was not prepared for
+an interview with his brother; and, evidently confused, he held out his
+hand. But the curate did not seize it. His face had lost its habitually
+mild expression. It was solemn and severe.
+
+"Balthasar!" said the sheriff, sadly; "will you not take the hand which
+I hold out to you?"
+
+"Samuel!" replied the curate; "why should our hands meet, since our
+hearts are far asunder?"
+
+The sheriff threw himself back in his chair.
+
+"Alas!" cried he; "and you, too, repulse me! you, too, condemn me,
+Balthasar! you, whose heart is so full of love and pity!"
+
+Vandory was deeply moved by the sorrow which his brother's features
+expressed.
+
+"I condemn no one," said he. "Believe me, I would not have come to you
+if I were not convinced that your good natural disposition would triumph
+over these guilty passions. But the least delay is fatal. Tengelyi is in
+prison----"
+
+"Don't name him!" cried Rety, violently. "Would to God I had never heard
+his name!"
+
+"You are indeed far gone," sighed Vandory. "To think that, instead of
+repenting, you should hate the man whose pardon you ought to implore!"
+
+"Implore his pardon? his?" cried Rety. "No! he is the spoiler, the
+destroyer! Is it not he who caused my only son to leave my house,
+cursing fate which made him son to _me_? Is it not he who robs me of the
+affections of the last person that loved me? Tell me of one of my
+sufferings which may not be traced to him!"
+
+"And who is the cause of all this?"
+
+The sheriff was silent.
+
+"Whose fault is it," continued Vandory, with great earnestness, "that
+the bonds of friendship which once united you are now torn asunder? Who
+was the persecutor? who the destroyer?"
+
+The sheriff would have spoken, but Vandory proceeded:--
+
+"Tengelyi is in prison. He is locked up with murderers and thieves; and
+you, the sheriff of the county, use your power and influence only to
+wreak your vengeance upon him, and to add to his sufferings. Who, I ask,
+is the injured party?"
+
+"I am not the cause of the notary's sufferings," said the sheriff,
+pettishly. "I am convinced of his innocence; but I cannot stay the arm
+of justice, even though it strike in a wrong direction."
+
+"Samuel!" replied the curate, sadly, "that excuse will exculpate you in
+the eyes of man; but how will you stand with it before God, when He
+calls you to account for Tengelyi's sufferings?"
+
+"I've done all I could do!" retorted Rety. "I offered to bail him. I
+implored Skinner, and I instructed Kenihazy, to treat the notary with
+the greatest mildness. Can you, in reason, ask me to do more?"
+
+"I, as your brother, can indeed ask you to do more! I sacrificed
+everything to you----"
+
+The sheriff looked confused and ashamed.
+
+"Fear nothing," said the curate, with a sneer (the first he ever was
+guilty of): "nobody can hear my words. You need not be ashamed to be
+reminded of what, it seems, you have forgotten; namely, that it is your
+brother who speaks to you."
+
+Rety made an unsuccessful attempt to speak; but Vandory continued:--
+
+"Yes; I am your brother. The papers by which I could have proved my
+birth are lost. A court of justice might, perhaps, refuse to hear me, if
+I were to claim my name and property; but you know the truth of what I
+say, and you cannot deny that I treated you as a brother ought to do."
+
+"My gratitude----" muttered Rety.
+
+"Where is it? Where is the brotherly affection which was to indemnify me
+for the loss of wealth; that is to say, of power and influence to do
+good? This is the fulfilment of your voluntary promise never to refuse
+any request of mine! I confided in those promises; for I was convinced
+that I should never abuse my power. We were happy as it was; and I was
+satisfied with my position, which gave me an opportunity to improve the
+condition of the peasantry. Even our former intimacy with Tengelyi was
+on the point of being restored. He was willing to forgive and to forget.
+Your children were a new bond of union between you. Whose fault was it
+that those happy days are gone? I will not accuse you; but I will ask
+you, when were you happier,--then, or now? You sigh? Oh, Samuel! why did
+you not listen to the still small voice within you, which protested
+against the first step on that fatal path? I will not talk of the
+heartlessness with which you treated Tengelyi. Akosh loved Vilma. You
+knew it was my dearest wish that these children should not be separated;
+but your pride revolted at the thought that your son should marry the
+daughter of a notary; and Tengelyi, the friend of your youth, was
+ordered to leave your house!"
+
+"I knew nothing of my wife's doings!" cried the sheriff. "I would never
+have consented to her treating the notary as she did."
+
+"Be it so!" continued Vandory, warmly, and even passionately. "I will
+not argue with you whether that assertion agrees with what you did
+afterwards. As the world goes, a father has a right to dictate to his
+children; I will not quarrel with you because you abused that right. But
+the abstraction of my documents----"
+
+The sheriff started up. "All is lost!" cried he. "My own brother
+condemns me as a villain!"
+
+"God sees my heart!" replied Vandory. "When the first attempt at a
+robbery was made in my house, I would have spurned such a suspicion. I
+made a voluntary resignation of my birthright. How, then, could I
+suspect that any one should desire to rob me of the documents by which I
+could prove my rights? That I had no suspicion against you, is shown by
+my informing you and your wife of my intention to commit those papers to
+Tengelyi's keeping. But when the robber followed them even to my
+friend's house; when Viola accused the attorney and your wife as guilty
+of the theft; when I considered that no one besides you could take an
+interest in those papers----"
+
+Vandory stopped before he pronounced his conclusion. The sheriff covered
+his face with his hands.
+
+"I am not naturally prone to suspect any one," continued the curate;
+"and to suspect you, of all men, gives me unspeakable grief. If you can
+explain it, if you can exculpate yourself,--I will thank God, and ask
+your forgiveness, even on my knees!"
+
+Rety rose from his chair. His heart was full, to overflowing. Not to
+speak was death to him. So he told his brother the share which his wife
+had taken in the robbery, and of her having informed him of it after the
+deed was done. "You may despise me," continued he; "you may hate me;
+but I could not, I cannot, act otherwise than I did. My evil genius
+induced me to marry that beldame. I was blinded by her family, her
+beauty, and by the praises of people who called her the queen of the
+county. I knew that she married me for my fortune; and I never mentioned
+your existence to her. Afterwards, I waited for a good opportunity to
+break the matter to her; until circumstances forced me to an
+explanation. She discovered my son's attachment to Vilma, and insisted
+on my sending Tengelyi, or, rather, Vilma, out of the house. As for me,
+I admit that I would have liked it better if Akosh had chosen another
+woman for his wife; but, partly for your sake, and partly because I
+hoped that he would change his mind, I refused to obey Lady Rety's
+commands. She acted for herself; and, when I reproached her, she sneered
+at me for being in fear of a curate and a poor notary. It was then I
+told her of your real position, and of the power you had of depriving me
+of one half of my estates. The wretched woman would not be dependent on
+your generosity: she availed herself of the attorney's help to deprive
+you of the papers by which you could prove your claims."
+
+"My poor Samuel!" cried Vandory.
+
+"Oh, my brother!" continued the sheriff; "neither you nor any one else
+can conceive the agony of my heart! My children turn away from me; my
+reputation is gone; and you yourself consider me as the partisan of
+robbers and thieves!"
+
+Vandory would have spoken; but the sheriff continued, violently:--
+
+"Don't speak! don't try to comfort me! I _am_ the accomplice of robbers;
+and my very position compels me to hush down and cloak this villanous
+business!"
+
+"The bonds which unite you to your wife are sacred," said the curate.
+"You are not allowed to abandon her to her fate; and, fallen though she
+is, it is your duty to defend her. But you must not sin for her. You
+may, indeed, you ought to, sacrifice yourself for her sake; but it is
+sinful to endanger the life of a guiltless man merely to shield that
+guilty woman from the punishment she so richly deserves!"
+
+"I understand you," replied the sheriff; "nor would I hesitate for one
+moment, if I could save Tengelyi by sacrificing my wife. I hate her! But
+what is the use of accusing her, and of dishonouring the name of my
+children? The more clearly it is proved that the attorney robbed
+Tengelyi of his papers, and that my wife was accessory to the act, the
+more convincing will be the proof of his seeming guilt."
+
+Vandory acknowledged the justness of this view of the case. He admitted
+that the sheriff was unable to effect Tengelyi's liberation; and he
+therefore entreated him to protect the notary against the petty
+persecutions of his enemies. The sheriff was amazed when Vandory
+informed him of the manner in which the people at Dustbury had thought
+proper to execute his orders respecting Tengelyi. He promised to go to
+Dustbury early the next morning, and to provide for the prisoner's
+comforts.
+
+"Do, Samuel," said Vandory; "do your best for poor Tengelyi, and leave
+it to God to do the rest."
+
+The sheriff sighed.
+
+"Be of good cheer!" continued the curate: "let us hope for better days."
+
+"Brother!" said Rety, sadly; "the man whose conscience accuses him,
+knows neither hope nor comfort."
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+
+A few days after Tengelyi's incarceration, Mrs. Ershebet removed to
+Dustbury, where she hired a small house. The wretched woman was a prey
+to the deepest misery. She was proud of her husband. She was accustomed
+to hear his praises wherever she went. It was generally admitted that
+Tengelyi was the most honest and upright man in the county; and that
+man, the pride of her heart, and her idol, was in gaol! He was accused
+of a crime: the dangers which threatened him made her shudder. Ershebet
+was a strong-minded woman. She stood by Tengelyi in all the reverses and
+vicissitudes of his life. But the last blow was more than she could
+bear. Her distress made her careless of everything; even her daughter's
+society and conversation failed to cheer her, and her former friends
+were convinced that she could not survive Tengelyi's sentence.
+
+Vilma, on the other hand, rose with the storm. She was convinced of her
+father's innocence, and firm in her hopes of better days. Her sorrow was
+of the keenest, but it was tempered by her conviction that it was her
+duty to cheer her mother, and by her love for Akosh, whose devotion kept
+pace with the unfortunate events which threatened for ever to destroy
+the honour and prosperity of the notary's family. The sheriff was now no
+longer opposed to the wishes of his son; indeed, there was nothing to
+prevent the perfect happiness of the young couple, except their anxiety
+concerning Tengelyi's fate.
+
+The notary himself bore the blows of misfortune with his usual sturdy
+perseverance, but, we regret to say, with more than his usual
+bitterness. Neither Voelgyeshy's advice, nor the entreaties of Akosh and
+Vandory, could induce him to see the sheriff. He refused to avail
+himself even of the legal remedies which were at his command, unless
+they agreed with his ideas of what the law ought to be; and Voelgyeshy's
+complaints that his conduct was likely to injure the defence, he met
+with dogged indifference.
+
+"I am innocent!" was his usual plea on such occasions. "My innocence
+will sooner or later come to light; and although I am forced to prove
+that I am not guilty, I will at least avoid guilty means in doing so."
+
+This was the state of affairs during winter; nor was it changed in the
+beginning of spring. The prisoner passed that time surrounded by all
+the comforts, and even luxuries, which the ingenuity of the sheriff
+could devise, and which the nature of a gaol would admit of. His little
+room was comfortably furnished; he was not without society, and among
+those who visited him, no one was more assiduous or more eager to effect
+a formal reconciliation between the notary and the sheriff, than
+Voelgyeshy the advocate. It is in the midst of one of their discussions
+on the manner and time of the defence, that we find them on a fine day
+in March.
+
+"Consider, my friend," said Voelgyeshy; "there can be no humiliation in
+your speaking a few kind words to the sheriff: nor is there any meanness
+in writing one or two simple lines to the lord-lieutenant, entreating
+him to adjourn your case."
+
+"But I tell you it is a humiliation!" retorted the notary. "I will not
+condescend to beg for mercy. I am innocent. If they condemn me, it is
+their affair, not mine!"
+
+"But you need not beg for mercy," replied the advocate, with a sigh.
+"All I desire is, that you should treat people with kindness and
+civility; that you should not insult them when they show you sympathy,
+as you did the other day when Kriver and the attorney-general called on
+you."
+
+"And what is the use of this sympathy? Do these people think me
+guiltless? No! they came because the lord-lieutenant mentioned my name
+with kindness? Am I to herd with beings like these?"
+
+"My dear sir!" entreated the advocate, "consider the nature of the
+charge; pray consider the consequences of your conduct!"
+
+"The consequences? Oh, I am aware that my conduct leads me to the
+scaffold!" replied the notary, passionately. "Let them do their worst;
+and may my blood be on their heads! I am not their first victim, nor
+indeed the last."
+
+"And your family!" cried Voelgyeshy. "What is to become of your wife and
+children?"
+
+Tengelyi covered his face and wept. At last he said, with a trembling
+voice:--
+
+"What is it you wish me to do? Am I to kneel to Skinner? am I to bribe
+false witnesses? or have recourse to some equally infamous means? I know
+that these things have more effect in our courts than the musty legal
+remedies which they taught us at college. We adopt a homoeopathic
+treatment to cure wickedness. If you are accused of a crime, you may
+save yourself by committing a crime. Our Dustbury magistrates wish to
+prove their oriental descent, by extorting presents from the suitors in
+their courts. I know it all; but how can you ask me to condescend to sue
+and to bribe?"
+
+"My dear friend, you are unreasonable!" said Voelgyeshy, seizing the
+notary's hand.
+
+"Unreasonable!" cried Tengelyi. "I, of all men, have cause to be so. I
+commenced life as an enthusiast, I grant it; but were its lessons lost
+upon me? No! All I have latterly wished for was, to be a useful and
+humble member of the community, and to end my life in peace. But even
+this is denied me. My wife is not likely to survive my misfortune; my
+daughter's grief, though less avowed, is not less acute. My son has to
+enter life with a dishonoured name: and after all this, I am expected to
+abandon my principles! Is it not enough to drive a man mad?"
+
+"No!" replied Voelgyeshy; "for no honest man was ever in so distressing a
+situation, and without his own fault too. I admit all you complain of;
+but what I say is, that there is no humiliation in your asking the
+lord-lieutenant and Rety to adjourn the decision in your case."
+
+The notary shook his head, and replied,--
+
+"My asking them to delay the sentence, what is it but a confession that
+I doubt the justice of my own cause?"
+
+"By no means. It is a proof that you do not consider the case ripe for
+decision. We cannot but admit, as it stands at present, that all the
+evidence is against us. Public opinion is in your favour. Nobody doubts
+your innocence, though there is no evidence we can adduce in support of
+our statement of the case. If you were to be judged by a jury of your
+countrymen, I am sure I would not hesitate to appeal to their verdict.
+But the judges cannot travel out of the record, and they cannot but
+decide against us. Time may do a great deal for us. That Jew is now
+dying of typhus fever; who knows but he may recover, and our promises
+may induce him to confess the truth? Perhaps we may find out Viola, and
+defeat the accusation by producing him; perhaps some circumstance may
+turn up----"
+
+Here the advocate's argument was interrupted by Janosh, the hussar, who
+had quietly entered the room and listened to the latter part of the
+conversation. Yielding to the entreaties of his son, the sheriff had
+consented to let Janosh wait upon the notary in prison; a duty which the
+old trooper fulfilled with so much alacrity, that even Tengelyi was
+moved by the devotion and kindness of his new servant.
+
+"I say, sir," said the hussar, approaching the table at which Voelgyeshy
+and the notary were seated, "is it a fact that they cannot injure you if
+we manage to produce Viola?"
+
+"Certainly!" replied Voelgyeshy; "if Viola could be induced to appear and
+to confess that it was he who killed the attorney, there can be no doubt
+but that the decision would be in our favour."
+
+"Then the great thing is to find him?" said the hussar.
+
+"We have tried it in vain," replied the advocate, with a sigh. "We have
+sent orders to all the justices, we have written to all the counties,
+but nothing has come of it."
+
+"Well, sir, no wonder he dodged you," said Janosh, shaking his head;
+"who the deuce thinks of sending a drummer to catch rats? Viola won't
+leave his address at a justice's, I promise you."
+
+"But what are we to do? Do you know of any other way?"
+
+"Of course I do! it's the only way to do the thing. If you hunt after
+your watch, some thief will tell you where it was last heard of. If you
+wish to find Viola, you had better speak to some of his cronies."
+
+"We have asked the Liptaka, and Peti the gipsy?" replied the lawyer.
+
+"Well, as far as the gipsy is concerned," said the hussar, "I'll be
+bound that cunning creature could give us a hint or two, if he thought
+proper. But who knows whether he was not a party to the murder of the
+attorney? Besides, he is Viola's sworn brother, and thinks, perhaps,
+they would hang him, if they had him fast and sure."
+
+"As for the hanging part of the business," said Voelgyeshy, "Peti knows
+very well that Viola is not to be tried by court-martial. A common court
+will not condemn him to capital punishment, since he is not guilty of
+any other great crime besides the assassination of Catspaw; and,
+especially, since he has once gone through his agonies."[30]
+
+[Footnote 30: See Note II.]
+
+"That's what the sheriff may say; but Peti won't believe it. A gallows
+is an ugly concern to joke with. But there are others--"
+
+"Who?" asked Voelgyeshy.
+
+"Why, sir, any of the robbers that are now in gaol. An honest man does
+not know his fellow, but a robber does. For instance, there is Gatzi,
+sir, the Vagabond; give him leave of absence for two or three weeks. I
+will put on a peasant's dress and go with him, and I'll promise you
+I'll keep him safe. Now, I tell you, if he and I don't bring Viola to
+this place! you may call me a liar, even when I tell you that we beat
+the French at Aspern."
+
+Voelgyeshy, who was aware of the uninterrupted correspondence in which
+the captive robbers in Hungary stand with their comrades out of doors,
+volunteered at once to solicit the dismissal from custody of Gatzi the
+Vagabond, and he proposed that the two men should start early the next
+morning.
+
+"We had better go this very night," said the hussar. "If any of the
+robbers see me leave this place with the Vagabond, I'll warrant you
+there's not a robber in the county but will know of it before
+to-morrow's sunset. They'll mistake him for a spy, and if they do, we
+may go whistling after Viola."
+
+Voelgyeshy was struck with the truth of this remark.
+
+"And besides, sir!" continued Janosh, confusedly. "I beg you a thousand
+pardons; and I'm sure I'll do any thing I can for Mr. Tengelyi--any
+thing I'll do to get him out of this confounded place; but Viola is
+after all a fellow-creature, and his wife is the best woman I ever set
+my eyes on, and his children are so pretty,--they've called me Batshi,
+and plucked my moustache! You see, sir, it wouldn't be decent in me to
+twist a rope to hang their father with. Punish him as you please, sir;
+but as for death--you see it's a very queer thing!"
+
+Voelgyeshy repeated his former statements and promises; and the old
+soldier, who was well pleased with them, stroked his moustache, saying,
+
+"Well, if that's the case, sir; and why shouldn't it be? especially
+since the sheriff has said so, and after all he is the man to say who is
+to be hanged; since that's the case, I'll be a rascal if I don't bring
+Viola along with me. It's much better for him, poor fellow, to get his
+punishment, and have done with it; and as for his wife and children,
+I'll be bound Mr. Tengelyi will do what is right by them. Let Gatzi go
+with me, and you'll see what we'll do. It's not the first time I've left
+my quarters with a queerish order; still no one can say but that I've
+always come back with credit to myself. The worst thing a man can do is
+to despair!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+
+The month of March is notoriously fatal to the inmates of the Hungarian
+prisons. The typhus fever increases in that month to a fearful violence.
+It is but natural that the year of Tengelyi's captivity should have
+exhibited the average amount of disease and mortality in the Dustbury
+county gaol. Nothing, indeed, appeared more natural to the Dustbury
+people. They looked upon the sufferings of their fellow-creatures with
+so much indifference that a stoic might have envied them; and as for the
+prison coffin, which was put in requisition more than once a day, it was
+to them a matter of light and fanciful conversation.
+
+The medical inspector of the county of Takshony--and here our readers
+must pardon us a short digression on the merits of the Hungarian
+medicinal police, for the man who filled that important office, and whom
+we shall take the liberty of most particularly introducing to the
+public, had devoted his whole life to the elucidation and
+exemplification of that great official problem, how far it is safe, and
+even profitable, to neglect and disobey the orders of superior boards
+and committees?
+
+It is now some years since a terrible disease prevailed among the cattle
+throughout the country. Pursuant to an order of the High Court, all
+communication was interdicted between the counties; the county of
+Takshony too was placed in a state of unenviable isolation, and a
+rigorous prohibition was published against the importation of foreign
+(that is to say, not Takshony) cattle.
+
+And what was the consequence? One of the justices having bought some
+cattle in a neighbouring county, insisted on taking them to his estate.
+The sanitary commissioner and the border guards protested; and the
+justice, who was accustomed to have his oxen and sheep in the fields of
+his neighbours, was now precluded from taking them to his own fields.
+But a state of things which involved so gross a violation of the laws of
+property, could not possibly last. For the medical commissioner of the
+county remarked with great fairness, that the order of the High Court
+stated expressly that no _foreign_ cattle should be allowed to enter the
+county, but that it was perfectly ridiculous to suppose that any oxen
+belonging to a county magistrate could be _foreign_ cattle. Some few
+months after this lucid decision, which, strange to say, did _not_
+obtain the unqualified approval of the High Court, this meritorious
+servant of the public proposed to an assembly of magistrates to prohibit
+the transit of cattle for the term of one month, since it was proved by
+the experience of years that the disease among the cattle had always
+broken out in this particular month, just about the time of the Dustbury
+cattle market. There was not at the time any disease among the cattle in
+the neighbouring counties; but one thing is certain, viz., that the
+landed proprietors of Takshony realised enormous sums by the sale of
+their oxen. A variety of other measures might be adduced to prove that
+the medical commissioner was fully deserving of the high degree of
+popularity which he enjoyed. It now remains to be told how it happened
+that this deserving patriot was elected to the important post of a
+county commissioner of public health.
+
+When his predecessor, the late commissioner, died,--the worthy man was
+notorious for killing pheasants and larks with the same sized shot, and
+drugging all his patients with the same modicum of pills,--the
+lord-lieutenant and the Estates of Takshony had a tussle on the
+appointment of a medical officer. The lord-lieutenant promised the place
+to a distinguished young man of excellent conservative principles. He
+was a Roman Catholic; he had a diploma; he had been tutor to a magnate,
+and he had written several poems and charades. But the Estates of the
+county of Takshony laughed at his Excellency's recommendation, and,
+insisting on their right of election, they chose another man, and one of
+whose abilities the county was utterly ignorant. But it was said of him
+that he knew French, English, and the breeding of silkworms, that he was
+an honorary member of sundry foreign agricultural societies, that he had
+studied medicine and law at the university of Sharosh-Patak, and that he
+was a Calvinist. But the election was annulled; the county was divided
+into two hostile camps, and the contest lasted above a twelvemonth, when
+the rival candidates were forced to withdraw from the field, and the
+hostile factions united in favour of a third party; the reigning medical
+commissioner of the county. He was a Lutheran, and as such he was
+agreeable to his Excellency, who hated the Calvinists, and to the
+Estates, who bore an equal hate to the Romanists. The successful
+candidate was not of the conservative nor indeed of any other party; he
+had never been a tutor; he was ignorant of foreign languages, and of the
+breeding of silkworms; he was not a member of any learned society either
+at home or abroad; and he was therefore agreeable to all parties, and
+(as Kriver said) a born angel of peace for the county of Takshony.
+
+Dr. Letemdy, the medical commissioner, was a great man. He treated every
+one of his patients according to the very system which that individual
+patient preferred to all others. This accommodating temper of his was,
+like virtue, its own reward. If the patients had the worst of it, the
+fault was their own; and besides, Dr. Letemdy had a number of champions
+on his side. The homoeopathists said it served the patient right, for the
+fool insisted on being treated allopathically; and when the patient
+refused to be bled, the allopathists raved about the fatal theories of
+the homoeopathists. Add to this that he advised the old bachelors to
+marry and the young ladies to dance; that he sent the married ladies to
+the watering-places, and that he indulged his male patients with
+tobacco, gulyashus, tarhonya, and wine; and it is but natural that Dr.
+Letemdy was held in great veneration, not only in his own county, but
+also in the districts and "demesnes that there adjacent lay."
+
+An epidemic disease is the touchstone of a physician. It is here he has
+to prove not only his skill, but also his courage, his devotion, his
+philanthropy. The typhus fever which raged in the Dustbury gaol gave
+Dr. Letemdy a favourable opportunity to display his brilliant qualities;
+and candour compels us to state that he did display them to a most
+dazzling extent; for, considering that the great duty of a medical
+commissioner consists in preventing the extension of an infectious
+disease, and considering that he was in daily communication with the
+first families of Dustbury: he made an heroic sacrifice of his feelings,
+as a physician and a man of science, by never once crossing the
+threshold of the infected place. The prisoners were thus left to their
+fate and to Nature; the druggist's bill was remarkably moderate, and Dr.
+Letemdy could not, in justice, be accused of having adopted a false
+treatment in the case of any of the many deaths which were daily
+reported to him, and which he, excellent man! entered, though with a
+bleeding heart, on the register.
+
+The majority of the Dustbury prisoners were not generally discontented
+with their involuntary place of residence. Cheerful society, wine,
+brandy, gambling, singing and laughing, indemnified them, especially in
+winter, for the pleasures of liberty; and, indeed, there were some of
+the noble and ignoble inmates of the place who strove hard in autumn,
+and would not be satisfied till they were safely housed in what they
+considered their winter quarters.
+
+But in the month of March of the year 18-- the Dustbury gaol was a place
+of howling and gnashing of teeth.
+
+There was a sick ward in the prison. The Estates of the county, obedient
+to superior orders, had one room and six beds prepared for the sick
+among the prisoners. And although there were only five hundred people in
+the gaol, it so happened that the sick ward was always full; nor was it
+possible, during the prevalence of the epidemic, to separate the
+infected from those who were in health; each remained on the spot where
+the hand of disease struck him. The upper rooms had from thirty to
+eighty prisoners, and from two to three corpses daily. Many of the
+vaults were absolutely emptied by the death of their inhabitants.
+
+The prisoners were moody and desponding. Even the boldest shrunk from
+the sight of death in its ghastliest form; and the very haiduks who did
+the service of the prison, spoke of the scenes which they witnessed with
+pity and even with tears. The cells which once resounded with riotous
+laughter and wild songs, were now silent as the grave; but when night
+came on, the slow measure and the lugubrious sound of hymns was heard
+to rise from the loopholes which led to the streets. The sound was like
+the groaning of a vast multitude. And at night, too, the sentinel on his
+lonely post listened to the prayers of the prisoners, to the confused
+and earnest murmur which rose on the air and was hushed in silence. The
+prisoners conversed but little, and always in whispers. When the haiduks
+entered the gaol in the morning, to take them to their usual exercise in
+the yard, they found the wretches clinging to the iron railings of their
+cells, each crying out and entreating them to open his cell first, that
+he might not lose any of the precious moments of air and sunshine. Some
+who were struggling with the disease, and who could not stand or walk,
+crept up the steps and lay on the pavement of the yard, happy to breathe
+the fresh air of the morning and to see the bright sun before they died.
+
+Among the prisoners in the cell next to the steps were two brothers.
+They were herdsmen, and the sons of honest parents. An hour of youthful
+frolic had brought them into the hands of the justice, and from thence
+to gaol. The younger of the two, a mere child, was the first to fall
+ill, and his brother tended him as a mother would her infant. It was he
+who had persuaded his younger brother to do the deed for which they were
+imprisoned; and was he to see that brother die? He implored the haiduks
+to send for a doctor, or to procure his brother's release. He said he
+would willingly suffer the punishment for both. "Let them keep me here
+two years instead of one! let them keep me here for ever, but let that
+poor boy go! He is innocent! I told him to do it!" cried he, wringing
+his hands, and entreating the corporal of the haiduks. Even the eyes of
+that hardened man filled with tears as he replied, that the entreaties
+of the prisoner were of no avail, the county having resolved to confine
+all the inmates of the prison to its precincts to prevent the disease
+from spreading. As the days wore on, and when there was no hope of the
+lad's recovery, the unfortunate young man spoke to no one. At the hour
+of recreation he seized his brother's wasted form, took him to the yard,
+sat down by his side, and taking the poor boy's head in his arms,
+remained quietly sitting there during the short half-hour which they
+were allowed to stay out. One day a haiduk said to him: "Why do you drag
+him about with you? Don't you see he is dead?" The prisoner shuddered.
+He looked at the body which lay by his side. He kissed it--but there was
+no breath! He put his hand to its heart: it had ceased to beat! He
+stared into its eyes, they were fixed and glazed! its limbs were stiff
+and cold. "He is dead!" cried the prisoner, with a broken voice, as he
+reeled and fell. They took him back to the cell, but he never regained
+his consciousness. He, too, fell a victim to the epidemic.
+
+In a cell adjoining his there was a man who moved even his
+fellow-prisoners to compassion. He had passed ten years in gaol: his
+hair was turning grey; his body had lost its former strength; but the
+term of his punishment was all but over. Only a few weeks were wanting
+to the day to which he looked for his return to the world, broken in
+health, but rid of his chains. Nobody expected him. Nobody was to
+receive him and greet him; but he was to be free! That one thought made
+up for all he had suffered. When the fever broke out in the gaol, he
+grew anxious and restless: he asked his fellow-prisoners how they did?
+he asked the haiduks whether there were any deaths? For the first time
+in his life, he was afraid of death; for the first time in his life, he
+had an earnest hope. Two days before his liberation he was taken ill.
+His despair was fearful to behold. He told the bystanders that he
+expected to be a free man in forty-eight hours: he talked of his native
+village and of his plans for the future, and that he intended to live an
+honest life, if, indeed, his life were spared. He prayed and wept. He
+cursed the hour of his birth; he hurled his maledictions against God,
+who had kept him alive all these long years to deprive him of the fruits
+of his hopes and his patience. He doted on life; after ten years'
+absence, the world seemed a paradise to him; there was a deep yearning
+in his soul for the fresh green meadow, the glassy expanse of the river,
+and the wide and boundless view over the Puszta. He had dreamed of these
+things during the long weary nights of his captivity; and now, when
+there was but the space of one single step between him and this
+longed-for bliss, now, now he was to die! Now, even before he was free!
+even before the chains were off his hands! There was the glow of fever
+in his brain, turning, whirling, and distorting the things of this earth
+before his burning eyes: but that one thought was uppermost even in the
+wild ravings of fever; and his wailing voice was heard to lament the
+fate which robbed him of liberty.
+
+At length death set him free! And many were there in that prison who
+gasped for freedom, and found it in the grave.
+
+And, after all, if they had been but guilty! If there had not been men,
+aye, and women, too, who died in that prison by no fault of theirs! For
+the law of Hungary, that nobody can be punished until he has been
+sentenced by a competent judge, is a privilege of the nobility; and thus
+it would be difficult to point out any prison in which there are not a
+great many people, in consequence of an information against them,--and
+that but too often unfounded,--who for years suffer as much and more
+than the greatest criminals. This was the case in the Dustbury prison.
+
+Among a variety of people who were arrested at the suit of some unknown
+informer, there was one man who was perfectly innocent, and who, after
+an incarceration of five months, had not yet been able to find out how,
+why, and wherefore he was in gaol. The poor man, whom his
+fellow-prisoners despised for his very honesty, sat apart from the rest
+in a corner of his cell. His young wife had done and sacrificed her all
+to obtain her husband's liberation. Three times daily did she come to
+the windows of the prison and looked in, and he, shaking off his
+despondency, came up to the window and told her that he was well, asking
+for his father and mother and his children; and when he felt that his
+voice trembled with inward weeping, he entreated her to go away,
+because he would not have her know how much he suffered. Voelgyeshy's
+mediation availed the poor woman at length to prove her husband's
+innocence. Early in the morning, when the prison was opened, she went
+down to the cell; but her husband lay senseless on the straw. He was
+discharged, and a few days afterwards death set his seal to the warrant
+of his deliverance.
+
+There were but two men who strove to soften the sufferings of these poor
+creatures. One of them was Vandory; the other was the Catholic priest of
+Dustbury. Religious questions ran at that time very high in the county,
+and the adherents of the two sects were engaged in a violent controversy
+about the most legitimate method of solemnising marriages between
+Protestants and Catholics. Vandory and the Catholic priest thought
+proper (in spite of the general displeasure which their proceedings
+excited) rather to _act_ than to _talk_ religion. The church militant
+was sufficiently represented in the county of Takshony; perhaps it was
+not amiss that there were at least two men who opined that the Church
+had some other duties besides fighting its own battles; and that amidst
+the violence of the contending parties there were two men who devoted
+themselves to peace-making, to instructing and comforting the
+quarrelsome, ignorant, and distressed. Whenever Vandory could manage to
+leave Tissaret for Dustbury, he passed the greatest part of his time in
+the prison. The priest followed his example; and the words of bliss and
+comfort of the two curates gave new hope to many a wretched heart. Some
+indeed there were who scorned the messengers of peace, but even they
+came at length round, and listened to them; for what man, especially in
+a season of distress, can do without the comforts of religion?
+
+The effect of Vandory's words upon the prisoners was truly miraculous.
+When he entered the gaol, when they heard his voice, and even his step,
+their faces were radiant with joy. The inmates of the wards which he
+entered assembled round him in respectful silence, and the kind and
+loving manner with which he addressed them softened the hearts even of
+the most hardened. But most powerful was his influence on the Jewish
+glazier, on the man who was suspected of being an accessory to the
+assassination of Mr. Catspaw. The circumstance of his having been found
+in the attorney's chimney made his evidence of the greatest importance
+in the Tengelyi process; and Voelgyeshy, the notary's counsel, insisted
+on the Jew being confined in a separate cell. The sheriff seconded this
+demand. A room, which was originally destined for the keeping of
+firewood, was prepared for the reception of the prisoner, who was at
+once consigned to it, to the unbounded delight of Mr. James Bantornyi,
+who considered this mode of disposing of the Jew as a glorious victory
+of the principles of solitary confinement. Lady Rety, indeed, objected
+to what she called an unnecessary harshness, in the case of a man of
+whose innocence she protested she was convinced. So strong was her
+feeling on this head, that she even condescended to visit the prisoner
+once or twice; and though she with genuine humility insisted on the
+turnkey keeping the secret of these visits, that generous man was
+equally eager to proclaim to the world this fresh instance of the
+condescension and charity of the excellent Lady Rety. Indeed, that
+charity was the more meritorious, inasmuch as no one else pitied the
+Jew. Nobody spoke to him. The very haiduk who brought him his scanty
+allowance of bread and greens treated him with contempt, and the
+prisoner was abandoned to all the torments of solitude. He had no hopes
+of the future, no gladdening reminiscences of the past.
+
+Gladdening reminiscences! He was a Jew; that one word tells his whole
+history. Born to be a sharer of the distress of his family, brought up
+to suffer from the injustice of the masses, cast loose upon the world,
+to be not free but abandoned; struggling for his daily bread, not by
+honest labour, for that is forbidden to a Jew, but by trickery and
+cunning; crawling on the earth like a worm which anybody may tread upon
+and crush; hated, hunted, persecuted, scouted: such was his past. Such
+are the sufferings common to the Jews in Hungary; but Jantshi had a
+heavier burden to bear than the generality of Jews. His disgusting
+ugliness made him suspected even before he was guilty; and now that his
+features were still more distorted by fear, he was the very picture of
+misery and wretchedness. But nobody pitied him; and it seemed that he
+himself doubted whether any one could pity him. Vandory found him moody
+and uncommunicative; the curate saw that the Jew considered him as a
+spy. He strove hard to gain the prisoner's confidence; but in vain!
+Jantshi received him with the deepest humility. He replied to every
+question, and he seemed to have no objection to become a convert; but
+everything he said showed that he considered the curate's visits as a
+kind of examination.
+
+This state of things changed suddenly when the prisoner was taken ill.
+He, too, was seized with the epidemic. His case was hopeless. He lay
+alone in his room; there was no one by to cool his parched lips with a
+draught of water. It seemed as if the people out of doors reckoned him
+as one of the dead; for even Lady Rety was quite comfortable in her mind
+when she understood that there was no hope of the patient's recovery,
+and that his delirious ravings were incoherent. Vandory alone showed his
+kindness of heart, by doing all he could for the poor man. When in
+Dustbury he called upon him twice a-day, and hired a woman to sit up
+with him. Awaking from his delirious dreams, the Jew saw Vandory sitting
+at his bedside; when he started up at night, moaning for water to slake
+his burning thirst, the nurse came and gave him to drink; and when he
+asked who it was that sent her, she told him it was Vandory. The curate
+was to him a providence, a guardian angel; in his wildest dreams he
+called for him, imploring his help; and as the days passed by, as he
+grew weaker and weaker, when the tide of the fever turned back, leaving
+his mind clear and unoppressed for the last time, he called out for
+Vandory; "For," said he to the nurse, "I cannot die unless I speak to
+the curate, and thank him for all he has done for me. Besides, there is
+a secret,--something which Mr. Vandory cares to know, and which I ought
+to tell him. I entreat you, my dear good woman, go and see whether he
+has come from Tissaret!"
+
+The old woman left the cell, and shortly afterwards the curate entered
+it. On seeing him Jantshi broke out into a paroxysm of tears.
+
+"Be comforted, my friend!" said Vandory, with deep emotion. "God is
+merciful, and His mercy will not forsake you!"
+
+The prisoner seized Vandory's hand. His tears drowned his voice: he was
+silent.
+
+"You are much better now," said the curate, sitting down by the bed.
+"You will recover, I am sure; and I trust you will be a useful member of
+society."
+
+"Oh, dear, reverend sir!" said the Jew, with a firm voice; "it's all
+over with me! I feel that I must die; but it is not for that I weep. I
+have not had so much joy in the world that I should regret to leave it.
+I never knew my father and mother; and a poor Jew's life is very little
+worth. When I'm once underground, they will perhaps cease from troubling
+me. But, reverend sir, when I think of all you have done for me--for
+_me_, whom people treat like a dog; and when I think that you, who did
+this, are a Christian, and that it is you, sir, whom I----" Here the
+prisoner's voice was lost in tears. He covered his face with his hands,
+and sobbed.
+
+It struck Vandory that this was the time to impress upon Jantshi the
+necessity of his conversion to a purer faith. He therefore told him that
+God was indeed merciful, and willing to receive the homage, of the
+humblest heart; and that Christ----
+
+But the Jew shook his head. "No, reverend sir," said he, with a sigh;
+"do not ask me to do it. I will never abandon the faith of my fathers.
+How utterly lost a wretch I must be if, after having clung to that faith
+all my life (it was my only virtue, sir), I were now to abjure it. There
+is nothing in the world I would not do for you, sir; but do not ask me
+to do this!"
+
+"My son," said Vandory, "do not think I wish for your conversion for
+_my_ sake. It would be a grievous sin if I were to ask you to consult
+any thing but your own conviction in this, the most important step in
+life. But I urge the matter for your own sake--for the sake of your
+soul's welfare. The religion of Christ is the religion of love----"
+
+"The religion of love!" cried the Jew, with something like a sneer.
+"Sir, go and ask the Jews, my brothers, what they know of that love? If
+all Christians were like yourself, sir," added he, in a softer tone, "I
+might possibly have left my faith, and accepted theirs. I, for my part,
+have found but few good men among the Jews. As it is, I wish to die in
+my father's faith. But there is a secret on my soul which I must
+communicate to you before--I am fast going, I fear!"
+
+Vandory moved his chair close to the bed, and the Jew detailed to him
+the circumstances of the robbery of the documents, and the share which
+the Lady Rety and the attorney had in the perpetration of that crime.
+
+"But who killed the attorney?" asked Vandory. "You ought to know. The
+place where you were found allowed you to hear all that happened in the
+room."
+
+"I heard it all. It was Viola who did the deed. He spoke to the
+attorney, and I know his voice."
+
+"Wretched man! Why did you not state this in your examination?" sighed
+Vandory. "You know that another man, an innocent man, is accused of the
+crime, and you know that your confession alone can save his honour and
+his life!"
+
+"You ask me why I did not state it?" replied Jantshi, staring at the
+curate. "The lady, who is as great a lawyer as any in the county, told
+me that the suspicion would lie with me if I were to speak in
+Tengelyi's favour."
+
+"But what business had you in the place where they found you?"
+
+The Jew shook his head.
+
+"I implore you," said Vandory. "I entreat you----"
+
+"Why shouldn't I say it!" cried Jantshi. "I've sworn to keep the secret;
+but this woman has abandoned me in my distress, why then should I spare
+her? Listen! I will tell you. The day before the murder, the Lady Rety
+and the attorney had a quarrel. He refused to give her the papers which
+he had taken from Viola. The lady sent for me, and promised me two
+thousand florins, if I would----"
+
+The curate clasped his hands in astonishment and horror.
+
+"If Viola had not anticipated me," whispered the Jew, "I would have
+killed the attorney!"
+
+He fell back upon his pillow. Vandory sat silent and lost in thought.
+Jantshi's tale had filled him with horror, but with hope too, for it
+held out a chance for Tengelyi. Rising from his seat, he said,
+
+"My friend, thank God that He has given you strength and time to repent
+and atone for your sins. What you have told me suffices to clear the
+notary from suspicion; but to make your testimony effectual, you must
+repeat it in the presence of two witnesses."
+
+"Am I to repeat what I shudder to think of?" said the Jew, mournfully.
+
+"It is your duty. How can you expect God to show you mercy, if you
+refuse to atone for your sin?"
+
+"I will do it!" said Jantshi, after a pause. "The notary is your friend.
+I will do it for your sake!"
+
+"If you are too weak," said Vandory, deeply moved by these words and the
+way in which they were uttered; "if you are weak now, you had better
+take rest. In a few hours----"
+
+"No! sir, no! Now or never! In a few hours I shall have ceased to speak.
+Come back at once, reverend sir! Tell anybody to come. I'll tell them
+all, for I am a dying man. I care not for the sheriff's displeasure. He
+cannot harm me now!"
+
+"You need not say any thing to excite Lady Rety's displeasure," said
+Vandory. "Your transactions were chiefly with the attorney, you need not
+tell them any thing about your intentions----"
+
+"But I _will_ tell them!" cried the Jew, with a savage exultation. "I
+will have my revenge. That woman was my evil genius! She led me on to
+crime, and abandoned me in my distress!"
+
+"And is this the moment to think of revenge?" said the curate.
+
+The Jew was silent. At length he replied, "Let it be done as you wish
+it. I will do anything to please you. But," added he, "go at once. My
+time is very short, sir."
+
+Vandory called the nurse, and hastened away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+When he left the cell of Jantshi the glazier, the curate hastened to
+find some trustworthy persons whom he might take to hear and testify to
+the Jew's confession. The great county sessions were being held in the
+county house, and the curate was aware that some of the justices and
+assessors were sure to be assembled in the large hall of the building.
+When he entered it he found a numerous meeting, under the presidency of
+no less a person than Mr. James Bantornyi.
+
+The gentlemen there and then assembled were members of an association
+for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Mr. Bantornyi was the founder
+and chairman of this charitable institution. Mr. James was a fit and
+proper person to take the chair, for no man could vie with him in racing
+and hunting, which pursuits, as every body knows, are prone to create a
+loving tenderness for the animal creation in the human mind. When Mr.
+James returned from England, his ambition had taken a higher flight. He
+was emulous of the laurels which Wilberforce and the Quakers earned in
+advocating the interests of the black, and injuring that of the white
+population of the British colonies. There are no black people in
+Hungary; but there are gipsies who are brown, and Bantornyi's
+"Association for the Improvement of the coloured Population of Hungary"
+would have enchanted all the Wilberforces and Gurneys of Great Britain.
+The landed interest of Takshony was greatly in favour of the plan. The
+gentry were indeed but slightly acquainted with Mr. Wilberforce's
+emancipation theories; but when Mr. James Bantornyi made his grand
+speech, and explained that _gradual_ emancipation was carried out by
+apprenticing the slave, and by making him work four days in the week,
+the Takshony people became quite enthusiastic for this kind of
+philanthropy, which they preferred to their own _Urbarium_,[31] the
+compilers of which had been most disgracefully neglectful of the vagrant
+population. But, strange to say, the gipsies demurred against the
+proposed improvement of their condition. They fled from the hands of the
+philanthropists who sought to apprentice them; and Mr. James Bantornyi
+saw clearly that Hungary was not ripe for his more subtle projects, and
+that his activity must be displayed in another field.
+
+[Footnote 31: See Note III.]
+
+He therefore founded his famous Association for the Prevention of
+Cruelty to Animals. There was much opposition, but his perseverance
+triumphed over it. It was argued that the ninth chapter of the first
+volume of the _Tripartitum_[32] would go for nothing if the privileges
+of the Hungarian nobility were extended to dumb animals; and that a
+landed proprietor and a member of the Holy Crown would lose his high
+position if he were forbidden to whip his horse to his heart's content.
+The objection was grave, but Mr. James was fertile in expedients. He
+stated that the association would confine itself to the prevention of
+cruelty to animals in the case of the _villain_ population of the
+county. Again, it was objected that peasants were, in the service of
+their landlords, sometimes compelled to beat their horses; and Mr. James
+decided that it was by no means cruelty to animals if a nobleman beat a
+horse or other cattle, or caused it to be beaten, nor was it cruelty in
+a peasant to beat his horse on robot-days, or in winter. So liberal an
+extension of protection against the restrictions of the association
+silenced even its greatest opponents; and the Association for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Animals held its sittings, and flourished to
+the satisfaction of its members, and especially of its paid secretary
+and treasurer.
+
+[Footnote 32: See Note IV.]
+
+When Vandory entered the hall, the assembly were in the act of
+considering and debating on the case of an ass which had suffered from
+the violent temper of its owner. Party feeling ran high; for a strong
+body of conservative members argued that, whereas the association was
+intended to prevent cruelty to, that is to say, the beating of, animals,
+that is to say, of horses: the benefits of its protection could not,
+with any degree of propriety, be extended to asses, sheep, and other
+creatures of an inferior description. The radical members, on the other
+hand, were equally zealous, and far more pathetic, in the cause of
+donkey-emancipation; and, excited as they were with the debate and the
+various points of thrilling interest which the subject offered, they
+remarked with astonishment, not unmixed with disgust, that the curate,
+unmindful of the merits of the question, approached Voelgyeshy and Louis
+Bantornyi, whispered to them, and left the hall in their company.
+Everybody was puzzled, and some were eager to know the secret of this
+sudden intrusion and mysterious disappearance. Mr. James Bantornyi was
+highly incensed against Vandory; for the members declined giving their
+attention to the question, and it was found necessary to adjourn the
+meeting. But besides Mr. James Bantornyi, there was another person in
+the council-house whom Vandory's conduct affected equally powerfully and
+still more disagreeably.
+
+Lady Rety sat at the window of her bedroom, of which the view commanded
+the yard, when she saw Vandory leaving the glazier's cell, and walking
+straightway to the great staircase of the council-house. She was struck
+with his manner, though it excited no apprehensions in her mind. But,
+after a short time she saw him returning, accompanied by Voelgyeshy and
+Louis Bantornyi. They entered the prison, and, immediately afterwards,
+the nurse whom Vandory had hired to attend the Jew, left the cell. They
+had evidently sent her away.
+
+"What can this mean?" thought Lady Rety. "The Jew is delirious: he
+cannot recover. What can they want in his cell? This is indeed strange!
+Voelgyeshy is Tengelyi's advocate; and Vandory--If that Jew were not such
+a rascal--I must look deeper into this business. I'm frightened, and I
+ought to be calm. The woman who waits upon the Jew is in the yard. I'll
+send for her; for she ought to know all about it."
+
+Lady Rety sent her maid for the old woman, who soon after entered the
+room, with many curtsies. She was utterly bewildered to have been sent
+for by, and to be compelled to talk to, the lady sheriff.
+
+That lady strove hard to conceal her emotion. She told the poor woman
+that Jantshi was an old and faithful servant of her house, and (to the
+best of her opinion) innocent of the crime laid to his charge. She
+added, that she took the greatest interest in the unfortunate man; and,
+having praised the nurse for her care and watchfulness, she asked her
+how her patient did, and why Mr. Vandory and the two other gentleman had
+gone to his cell?
+
+The replies of the woman were not calculated to quiet Lady Rety's
+apprehensions. She learnt that the Jew had regained his consciousness;
+that he sent for Vandory; and that he said something about a secret. She
+was likewise informed of the fact, that the curate had had a long
+interview with him; and she trembled to think that Voelgyeshy and Louis
+Bantornyi had been called in to be witnesses to his confession.
+
+"Did you hear what the Jew said to Mr. Vandory?" asked she, with a
+trembling voice.
+
+"His reverence sent me away," said the old woman; "although I cannot,
+for the life of me, understand why he should do so; for I've never been
+a gossip all the days of my life; and he might have trusted me with a
+Jew's secret any day. But, since his reverence sent me away, I know
+nothing about it; only, I believe the infidel made confession of his
+crimes."
+
+"Why do you think so?" said Lady Rety, with a start which attracted the
+old woman's attention.
+
+"I'm sure I did not listen; and, even if I had wished to do it, I could
+not have done it, because I'm rather deaf; but I think they talked of
+bad things; for I've never, in all my born days, seen his reverence so
+violent as he was when he left the cell. God knows; but I think the Jew
+has told him of great crimes. When I came back to the cell, the
+unbeliever was quiet for some minutes; but I had scarcely sat down, when
+he became restless, and asked me whether they would come. 'If they wish
+me to confess,' says he, 'they ought to make haste! Why don't they
+come?' I told him his reverence had just gone away, and he ought to be
+patient; but he tossed about, and groaned. It was a sad thing to see him
+plagued by his conscience; and he would not be quiet till his reverence
+came back with two other gentlemen. He asked them whether they'd allow
+him to confess; and when they said 'Yes,' he seemed quite
+comfortable.--But, my lady," cried the old nurse; "your ladyship is so
+pale! Is your ladyship sick?"
+
+"No!" said Lady Rety, with a violent effort to appear unconcerned. "Go
+to your patient, my good woman. The gentlemen will probably leave him
+soon."
+
+"Very well, your ladyship. I'm sure the poor man won't live till
+to-morrow morning; and perhaps he'll want me in the night. All I care
+for is, that the truth should come to light; for that is the great
+thing, after all: is it not, your ladyship?"
+
+"Go! go!" gasped Lady Rety. "I dare say the truth _will_ come to light!"
+
+The old woman kissed her hand, and left the room.
+
+Lady Rety locked her door; and, overwhelmed with despair, she flung
+herself on the sofa.
+
+The Jew had made a confession. From Voelgyeshy and Vandory she could not
+expect forbearance. She could not hope that Tengelyi's friends would
+make a secret of what Jantshi had told them; since his disclosures were
+evidently in Tengelyi's favour. She knew that she was hated by all, and
+that against such accusations she could not rely on the assistance of
+her husband.
+
+"What shall I do?" cried she, with a shudder. "Is there no means of
+salvation?--There is none! Tengelyi's case is too far advanced to be
+suppressed; and even if it were not, to whom could I confide my dreadful
+position? Whose advice can I ask? On whose assistance can I rely? My
+husband?--am I to truckle to him? Am I to implore his assistance? He
+never loved me! He hates me now! He will leave me in my danger! He will
+turn against me to prove his own innocence! No! I will do any thing but
+bend to him!"
+
+A sudden thought seemed to strike her. She fixed her eyes on the desk
+which stood on the dressing-table. She shuddered.
+
+"No! No!" cried she; "it has not come to this pass yet. I cannot do it!"
+
+She went to the window; but before she had opened it, her eyes were, as
+if by magic force, again attracted by the desk.
+
+"It makes me mad!" said she. "God help me! That thought haunts me! I
+cannot shake it off!"
+
+"But why?" continued she; after a pause--"why should I shudder at the
+thought. To die----? After all, death robs us of that only which we
+have. And is there anything I have to lose? I have no children. I detest
+my husband. My plans are frustrated. Infamy and punishment await me--I
+have no choice!"
+
+She opened a secret drawer in the desk, and produced a small bottle
+containing a whitish substance. Her hand trembled as she put it on the
+table.
+
+"Here's arsenic enough to poison half the county. This is my last, my
+only alternative.--But they say it is a painful death. They have told me
+of people who died after excruciating torments of many hours, foaming
+and cursing with the intensity of the pain. What if this were to be my
+case? Horrid! to suffer the agony of hours! to feel the poison eating
+into me; to feel my every nerve struggling against destruction! to howl
+and to suffer, and to have no one to tend me! to have no one by to wipe
+the sweat of agony from my face! Or worse, to be surrounded by those
+whose every look tells me that they are waiting for the end, not of my
+sufferings, but of my life!"
+
+With a convulsive motion she pushed the poison away.
+
+"But no!" cried she, with a sudden resolution. "I will not live to see
+their triumph! I'll take the whole of it! it will shorten my sufferings.
+It will kill me in a minute--Oh, but to die! to die! and there's twenty
+years' life in me!--Suppose the old woman told me a lie? Suppose what
+she said was not true; or that the Jew did not tell Vandory what I fear
+he did? Why should he betray me? What good can it do him? I must know
+more about this matter before I proceed to extremities," said she, as
+she took her cloak, and restored the poison to its place in the desk.
+
+Night had set in. Nobody observed the guilty woman as she crossed the
+court-yard and knocked at the cell in which the Jew was confined. The
+old nurse opened it. She looked aghast when she saw the sheriff's wife
+in that place and at that time.
+
+"How does your patient go on?" asked Lady Rety.
+
+"He's quiet now!" said the old woman. "When the gentlemen left him, he
+said he was happy now that the murder was out. He's been asleep since.
+Poor fellow! if he could but know that your ladyship's ladyship has
+condescended to ask how he is going on!"
+
+"Leave the room!" said Lady Rety, with a trembling voice. "I want to
+speak to this man before he dies."
+
+The old woman tarried; nor was it until the lady had repeated her
+command, that she left the room, muttering and discontented. When she
+was gone. Lady Rety approached the bed and spoke to the Jew.
+
+He made no reply. His breath came thick and irregular. His limbs moved
+convulsively. The shadows of death were thickening over him.
+
+Again and again she spoke to him. At length he raised his weary head,
+and stared vacantly at the Lady Rety.
+
+"You do not know me," said she. "Look up, man! Tell me, do you know who
+I am?"
+
+"Leave me alone," gasped Jantshi. "I've told you all I know. I've
+nothing more to say. Let me rest."
+
+"Look up, and see to whom you are speaking. It is I, the Lady Rety!"
+
+"The Lady Rety?" said the Jew, while a ray of returning consciousness
+darted over his features.
+
+"Who else would come to you? Who else cares for what becomes of you?"
+
+"Begone!" screamed the dying man. "Begone! What can you want of me? I'm
+not strong enough to steal or murder!"
+
+"You are mad!" cried she. "How _can_ you talk in this manner? Suppose
+some one were to hear you?"
+
+"I do not care," replied he. "I have no fear of anybody."
+
+"Do not let them impose upon you," said she. "I know they tell you there
+is no hope for you. They've told you so to make you confess; but I have
+it from the doctor that you are in no danger whatever. You're weak,
+that's all. Keep your own counsel, I entreat you! They tell me Mr.
+Vandory called upon you; did he?"
+
+The Jew groaned and laughed at the same time. He stretched his trembling
+arms and seized Lady Rety's hands.
+
+"Ah!" said be, "that's what you come for? You want to know what I have
+said of the crimes which we have committed. Set your mind at rest. I've
+told them all--all--all! Do you understand me? I've told them every
+circumstance, from the first day that the attorney hired me to steal the
+papers, to the night you promised me your cursed money if I would kill
+the attorney. You said----"
+
+"Silence, miscreant!" cried Lady Rety, striving to disengage her hands
+from the grasp of the Jew.
+
+"Miscreant! Ay, indeed, miscreant!" retorted the Jew; "but how will they
+call _you_ who bribed me to these enormities?"
+
+"Rascal of a Jew! who will believe you?"
+
+"They are sure to believe me. Viola has said what I say, and nobody can
+doubt it!"
+
+"You must revoke all you have said. I'll bring other witnesses to whom
+you must say that they bribed you to give false testimony."
+
+"I will not revoke a word of what I have said--not a single word----"
+
+"How dare you, Jew----"
+
+"Don't threaten me! Your promises and threats cannot affect me now. This
+very night will remove me from your jurisdiction. But you," added he,
+with a convulsive effort--"You who seduced me and abandoned me to my
+despair--you, Lady Rety, will find your judge. I've dreamed of it. I see
+it now! I see you standing by the side of the executioner. He has a
+large glittering sword. Tzifra, too, is there, and Catspaw, and a crowd
+of people. They tie you down upon the chair----"
+
+His voice sunk down to an indistinct murmur, and his hand, which still
+clasped Lady Rety's fingers, held them with a cold and clammy grasp. She
+tore it away, and, rushing past the nurse, she hastened to her
+apartments.
+
+She rang for her maid.
+
+"Give me a glass of water!" said she.
+
+Julia, the maid, was astonished and shocked to see her mistress look so
+pale.
+
+"Are you ill, my lady?" asked she. "Shall I go for Dr. Letemdy?"
+
+"No! Hold your tongue! Mind your own business!" said Lady Rety. "Give me
+a glass of water, and be off!"
+
+Julia obeyed. Lady Rety locked the door after her.
+
+It is easier to defeat the sympathy of mankind than to baffle their
+curiosity. Lady's maids in particular are always most eager to mind
+other people's business when they are told to go about their own. Julia
+had left the room, but she returned to the door and listened.
+
+What she heard served still more to excite her curiosity. Lady Rety
+walked up and down. She sat down, arranged her papers and wrote. Again
+she got up, and tore some papers. Again she paced the room. She opened a
+drawer. Again she sat down, and Julia overheard a deep, deep sigh. Then
+again there was a sound as of something being stirred in a glass.
+
+"She is ill!" thought Julia. "She's taking her medicine! I ought to call
+the doctor!"
+
+She listened again, and heard the rattling of the glass as it was
+violently put down upon the table. This, it struck her, was a sign that
+her mistress was fearfully ill-tempered. She thought it more prudent not
+to go for the doctor. After a short time she heard deep groans. She
+knocked at the door, but she received no answer. This circumstance, and
+the moaning inside, which became more violent every moment, caused her
+to forget Lady Rety's ill-temper, and to hasten to the sheriff, whom she
+found closeted with Vandory.
+
+Julia told them all she had heard when listening at her mistress's door.
+
+"She has done the worst!" cried Vandory. "Let us make haste. Perhaps
+there is time to save her!"
+
+They hurried to the room. They tried the lock. It resisted. A low
+moaning was heard from within.
+
+"Break it open!" cried Vandory.
+
+As the two men rushed against the door, it gave way. They entered.
+
+It was too late.
+
+The glass,--the poison,--the livid and distorted face of the wretched
+woman, showed them that there was no hope.
+
+She looked at her husband, and made a violent effort to speak; but when
+he knelt down, and seized her hand, he felt it stiff and cold.
+
+She heaved a long deep sigh.
+
+"May God have mercy upon her soul!" said Vandory. "She is dead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. IX.
+
+
+Even the humblest among us excites the interest of at least some of his
+fellow men, at the very time when he is removed beyond its sphere. The
+church bells toll for the poorest man, and, however lonely he may have
+been throughout life, people will assemble round his coffin. Whatever
+may have been the obstacles that blocked up a man's path when alive,
+there are no impediments to the progress of his funeral procession; and
+the very beggar, who never had a crust or a rag which he could really
+call his own, comes into possession of a small freehold, which is given
+to him to hold, and to enjoy, till the day of judgment. A dead body is
+an object of interest and of awe. And why? Is it because respect is due
+to him who acts sensibly, and because the majority of mankind cannot do
+a more sensible thing than to die? Or is it because the dead have passed
+through that arduous ordeal in which all of us are equally interested?
+Death is indeed a capital teacher. Any one who has his doubts about the
+value of earthly things, and who would wish to know whether the objects
+he strives for are worth his trouble, can easily set his mind at rest by
+watching the death of any of his fellow-citizens. A funeral procession,
+a coat of arms, or a name on the coffin, and on the grave or mausoleum a
+marble column or a wooden cross; an after-dinner conversation, a score
+of mourning letters, a paragraph in the provincial papers, or at best a
+column in "The Times" or "La Presse," that is the _gloria mundi_! A
+crape hatband, and a suit of mourning; quarrels about the expense of the
+funeral, or the "cash he left behind him," is all that reminds us of the
+love and devotion of family life. And as for friendship--we all know its
+value and its duration!
+
+We do not mean to plead in defence of the cynical views which we have
+just expressed. Bitter thoughts _will_ press to the surface of our heart
+when we ponder on the pride, pomp, and circumstance of life, and the
+utter oblivion to which we fall a prey after our surviving friends have
+paid us what they significantly call "the last honours." But still, as
+there is an exception to every rule, we must admit that the people of
+Dustbury were neither unmindful of Lady Rety's death, nor forgetful of
+it; at least not in the first fortnight after the event. The most noble
+the Lady Rety was a person of great importance. Her decease would have
+attracted attention under any circumstances. That a lady of rank and
+property, the head of an excellent table, and the owner of a splendid
+wardrobe, should depart this life, is shocking, even if she takes that
+step with all due formality, and with the assistance and advice of
+half-a-dozen physicians. But Lady Rety's case was far worse. Dr. Letemdy
+had indeed been called in, but at a time when his help and co-operation
+was quite out of the question; and his professional learning was of no
+avail, except in enabling him to protest that the most noble lady might
+have been saved, if greater despatch had been employed in soliciting his
+presence. Mr. Sherer, who was likewise on the spot, asserted his
+conviction that the draught of which Lady Rety died must have been any
+thing but sugar water, and that almond milk might have saved her life,
+if she had not died before he could offer that miraculous medicine. But
+the fact remained unaltered. Lady Rety had taken poison. The medical men
+in the county of Takshony had a just title to complain of this
+encroachment upon their legal sphere of action, and the people of
+Dustbury were equally justified in their laudable and charitable
+endeavours to discover the secret causes of this shocking occurrence.
+
+Rety's family and friends would have it that the accident was occasioned
+by a mistake. Lady Rety, they said, was in the habit of taking magnesia,
+which she kept in a drawer where she had some time previously placed a
+bottle of arsenic for the purpose of killing rats. In the twilight of
+evening she had taken the poison instead of the drug; and this--the
+Retys protested--was the cause of the terrible catastrophe. But
+explanations of this kind are by no means palatable to the understanding
+of the crowd. The Dustbury gentry would not, and could not, credit any
+thing like a simple story. They all and each launched into the boundless
+realms of surmise and speculation, and in their praiseworthy endeavours
+to make out a substantial and shocking account of Lady Rety's death,
+they were eagerly assisted by Julia, who had been all but an eye-witness
+of the decease of her mistress. Julia gave so interesting an account of
+the sadness and despondency to which her lady had of late been a victim,
+and of her extraordinary behaviour on the last day of her life, that all
+her hearers relinquished any doubts which they might have entertained,
+for the firm and (under the circumstances) comfortable conviction of
+Lady Rety's suicide. But as for the cause of that step, it remained a
+secret and a mystery to the gossips of the town of Dustbury.
+
+The sheriff made no allusion to the cause of his wife's death. The most
+watchful sympathy or curiosity could not trace home to him any word or
+action that could have strengthened or confirmed any of the various
+surmises and rumours which were afloat on the subject. The cause of Lady
+Rety's suicide remained an open question. Perhaps it was attributable to
+temporary insanity; perhaps she had been urged to that desperate step by
+the conviction of her inability to prevent her son's union with Vilma
+Tengelyi, and she preferred death to certain shame; or perhaps the
+sheriff had driven his wife to despair (the ladies of Dustbury were very
+eloquent on this last hypothesis) by a concentration of matrimonial
+brutalities; for what woman is a stranger to martyrdom? Certain it is
+that none of Mr. Rety's words or looks could be adduced as an authority
+for all or any of the above surmises. Still, those who knew him became
+aware of the deep impression which the death of his wife had made on his
+mind.
+
+His sorrow was not indeed caused by a return to the old love of days
+long gone by. The flowers of love have indeed been known to luxuriate in
+the soil of a churchyard, especially in the case of couples whose
+matrimonial doings did not present that edifying spectacle of love,
+honour, and obedience, which is inculcated by, and which is so rarely to
+be met with out of, the catechism. Mr. Rety had had too deep an insight
+into his wife's character to lament his loss. His grief was the growth,
+not of affection, but of remorse. He accused himself for being the cause
+of the misfortunes he saw around him. A letter was found on her table,
+which the miserable woman had addressed to him; and in which she
+reproached him as the cause of her unfortunate life and wretched end.
+And was not this accusation well-founded? Could Rety look back upon the
+past without feeling that the events to which his wife fell a victim,
+were brought about by his own culpable weakness. If he had candidly told
+her of his relationship to Vandory, she would perhaps have refused to
+marry him; or if she had, she would have been resigned to the idea that
+the curate was her husband's brother, but she never would have thought
+of committing the crime to which her evil spirit had urged her. Rety's
+weakness and indulgence had made her the woman she was; his dislike and
+aversion drove her to that desperate step which she would never have
+taken, if she could have hoped for the sympathy and protection of her
+husband. Thoughts like these filled Rety's mind with bitter grief, which
+not even Vandory's gentle words could assuage.
+
+The Jew's confession, which was the cause of Lady Rety's death, remained
+without any of those favourable results which it was expected to have.
+It had no influence on Tengelyi's fate. Even before the Jew made his
+confession, there were few who doubted of Mr. Catspaw's having been
+implicated in the robbery of the documents; but this very fact, when
+once established, strengthened the suspicions which were entertained
+against Tengelyi. If the documents were in Mr. Catspaw's possession (and
+Jantshi's evidence proved that they were), that fact alone was reason
+enough to induce Tengelyi to commit the crime of murder. The Jew's
+assertion, that it was Viola who killed Mr. Catspaw, was unsupported by
+the second witness, and inadmissible as evidence against the numerous
+and grave circumstantial evidence which was adduced against the notary.
+His only hope of safety lay in the contingency of Viola's capture and
+confession of the murder. That hope was a vague one. It was now more
+than a fortnight since Janosh and Gatzi the Vagabond had left Dustbury
+in quest of Viola, and no news of their whereabouts and their chances
+of success had reached Vandory. It was scarcely reasonable to suppose
+that the old hussar should succeed in an undertaking, which had hitherto
+foiled the endeavours of Akosh, Kalman, and Voelgyeshy, and, indeed, of
+all those who took an interest in Tengelyi's fate.
+
+Peti, the gipsy, was indeed strongly suspected of being privy to the
+secret of Viola's retreat; but neither entreaties nor promises could
+induce him to answer young Rety's questions. As for the Gulyash of
+Kishlak, who was known to have received Viola's family, after the flight
+of the latter, into his tanya, and who had afterwards taken them away in
+his cart, he, too, gave none but unsatisfactory intelligence. He
+protested that he had taken Susi and her children to a Tsharda, at the
+distance of about three miles from Kishlak, where he had left her. He
+had not the least idea what could have become of her. Curses and
+entreaties, threats and promises, were alike in vain; it was evident
+that even the rack could not induce him to say more. The old woman,
+Liptaka, though devoted to the Tengelyi family, and especially to Vilma,
+was inexhaustible in excuses of her ignorance of Viola's whereabouts;
+until at last, wearied and perplexed by young Rety's questions, she
+protested that she would not betray Viola's confidence, even if she
+could; and when Akosh attempted to move her by his entreaties, she
+exclaimed:--
+
+"No! no! Master Akosh! You know I'm as fond of you as ever a nurse was
+of her own child; but do not--do not compel me to hate you! I'd lay down
+my life for Mr. Tengelyi; but I won't be a Judas, no! not even for _his_
+sake! He has no end of friends; they'll liberate him, sooner or later;
+and even if he were to remain in prison, I know they keep him decently
+and comfortably, and his family is well provided for. But Viola can
+expect no mercy at the hands of the magistrates! To give him up to his
+enemies is to murder him and his family; and even if Susi were not my
+near relative, I'd rather tear my tongue out than betray her husband!"
+
+What could Akosh do? Viola's friends were resolved to keep the secret;
+and, after a search of two weeks, old Janosh was still as much as ever
+in the dark as to the direction which the fugitive had taken.
+
+Both Janosh and Gatzi the Vagabond were convinced that Viola was not
+hidden in any of the neighbouring counties. It was not indeed likely
+that he had left the kingdom of Hungary, as Gatzi was fond of asserting;
+but even this reflection was but cold comfort to the two adventurers. In
+which of the fifty-two counties of Hungary were they to seek him? was
+indeed a question which sadly puzzled the tactics and the military
+experience of old Janosh.
+
+"Viola is a devil of a fellow!" said he to his comrade. "He has
+retreated, and so cunningly too, that Satan's self would be at a loss to
+find him. Ej! what a general he would have been!"
+
+"What does '_to retreat_' mean?" asked Gatzi, who listened to the tales
+of his companion with the greatest interest.
+
+"Did I ever!" cried the hussar. "Do you mean to say you don't know what
+it is to retreat? But, after all, it's but natural," added he, after a
+few moments' consideration. "You have not been in the wars, where they
+would have taught you. Now, mark me! to retreat is when they order you
+to fall back."
+
+"Ah! I understand! It's when the enemy drives you."
+
+"You're a fool!" said Janosh, angrily. "A good soldier won't run away,
+nor will he be driven. I have never been in a battle in which we did
+not beat the enemy, and yet we retreated!"
+
+The old hussar, like many soldiers in the Austrian army, was firmly
+convinced that the Emperor's troops had never been defeated.
+
+"To retreat," added he, "means to fall back, after you've given your
+enemy a drubbing. Do you understand me?"
+
+"Oh yes! I understand!" replied Gatzi; "but I can't make out why you
+should fall back after a victory."
+
+"Donkey!" said Janosh, with a compassionate smile; "you retreat because
+you're ordered to fall back; and a soldier who doesn't obey orders is
+shot. That's all!"
+
+"But why do they order you back?"
+
+"Why, indeed? That's not our business!" replied the old trooper,
+angrily; for it was the very question which had puzzled him all his
+life. "Why, indeed? A good soldier obeys his officers, and the rest
+doesn't concern him. Why they order you back? A stupid question that!
+Perhaps it is to make you advance, for if you fall back you've got room
+to go forward. Perhaps they do it to give the enemy time to rally their
+men, and to prepare for another battle. I say, Gatzi, if you were a
+soldier, and if you were to ask such questions, they'd shoot you on the
+spot!"
+
+Such conversations were instructive to the Vagabond Gatzi, and
+entertaining for Janosh, who gloried in the reminiscences of his
+campaigns; but they did not promote the ends of the two travellers. The
+Gulyash of Kishlak was as little communicative to Janosh as he was to
+his young master, nor was the hussar more lucky in his inquiries in
+other quarters.
+
+"It strikes me they've agreed upon it!" murmured he. "They have but one
+answer to all my questions, and that answer is the worst they can give.
+Every one says, 'I don't know; you'd better inquire somewhere else!' and
+so we go from one tanya to another, without being any the wiser for it!"
+
+They had, indeed, by this time, made the round of three counties; and
+though Gatzi became gradually accustomed to their roving life, and
+though Janosh, riding, as he did, through forests and over moors, felt
+almost happy to live again the life of a trooper, they came at length to
+be fairly tired of their fruitless search. The season, too, was by no
+means favourable. The month of April has a general reputation for
+changeableness; but in the year in which Janosh and Gatzi rode in search
+of Viola, that month was by no means changeable. On the contrary, it
+rained from the first day to the last. Janosh had seen a deal of
+hardship in the course of his long and eventful life; but still his
+temper was not proof against the provoking sameness of this
+extraordinary April weather. At length he fairly lost his patience.
+
+They were just traversing the third county, at a distance of about
+eighty miles from Dustbury. They had been on horseback from an early
+hour in the morning, and now the sun was setting, when Gatzi confessed
+to his older comrade that he could not find the tanya to which he had
+promised to conduct him. The old man had hitherto borne all
+disappointments with great fortitude, still hoping to get news of Viola;
+for Gatzi had told him that the Gulyash to whom they were going knew all
+the herdsmen of the district. What was to be done? They were in the
+heart of the forest; they had lost their way; and, although Janosh swore
+that it was a shame for an old man to follow at the heels of a mere boy
+like Gatzi, he could not but wrap himself up in his bunda, and follow
+his companion, who was looking for marks on the trees, and for cross
+branches on the road, these being the signs by which men of doubtful
+honesty are in the habit of marking their track for the benefit of
+their comrades. It was quite dark when the two wanderers were at length
+attracted by the glare of a fire. They struck from the path which they
+had hitherto pursued, and reached the tanya which they sought. The
+pleasure which Janosh felt as he stretched his limbs by the fire could
+not be greater than the rapture of the Gulyash when he recognised Gatzi.
+The old herdsman, it seems, had been Gatzi's partner in more than one
+affair of which they did not care to inform the county magistrates.
+
+When the old Gulyash had had his chat with his young companion, Janosh
+stepped in and asked for Viola. The first answer which he received was a
+profession of utter ignorance on the part of the Gulyash; when Gatzi too
+showed his desire for information, the herdsman told them to stay the
+night.
+
+"To-morrow morning," said he, "I'll conduct you to somebody who is
+likely to answer your questions. There is a Gulyash in this
+neighbourhood who came last autumn from your part of the country. He is
+a good-for-nothing fellow, who does not associate with any one. He
+doesn't sell cattle, and there is no talking to him. But, after all, it
+is very likely that he can give you the information you require."
+
+"Who can he be?" said Gatzi, astonished. "I don't know of any herdsman
+from our parts who has gone to this county."
+
+"It's the brother of the Gulyash of Kishlak," replied the old man. "His
+brother is a trump of a fellow; but this chap is a blockhead. He won't
+speak to a body."
+
+"It can't be the brother of the Gulyash of Kishlak. Old Ishtvan had but
+one brother, who died last autumn."
+
+"Nonsense! I tell you, man, I have seen him. He is a handsome fellow,
+and darkish. He brought his wife and two children. Don't tell me he's
+dead."
+
+"I say, the brother of the Gulyash of Kishlak is dead, though the man,
+whom you take to be his brother, may be alive, for all I know: but I am
+sure he is no relation to Ishtvan the herdsman!"
+
+"But I tell you he is! Don't teach me to know Ishtvan the herdsman! It's
+true I haven't seen him for many years: but formerly we were much
+together; and last year, when he brought his brother's family to this
+place, they all slept in my hut. One of the children is not at all
+likely to live; but the other boy is a fine fellow. I am sure he'll be a
+better sort of a man than his father. There! now don't you believe that
+I am going to take you to the brother of the Gulyash of Kishlak?"
+
+In the course of this conversation, Gatzi cast significant looks at the
+old hussar; and when their host had retired for the night, he said,
+"I'll lose my head if the fellow he speaks of isn't Viola!"
+
+"I am sure it's he," whispered Janosh. "Let us keep our own counsel,
+lest he refuse to show us to the place."
+
+"How he'll stare, when he hears that his neighbour, of whom he thinks so
+little, is no other than Viola, the great robber! What a treat!" said
+Gatzi, as he lay down by the fire. "But I'm as sleepy as a dog! Good
+night!"
+
+"Good night!" responded Janosh, turning round, and arranging his bunda
+for the night. The day had been one of extraordinary fatigue. His lair
+in the hut was comfortable, and the fire burnt bright and cheerful at
+his side; but still the old hussar could not sleep. He turned and tossed
+about, a prey to restlessness and harassing thought. Now that Viola was
+all but found, Janosh began to doubt whether he was justified in
+disturbing the poor man's quiet life, and whether it was not better to
+leave him where he was.
+
+"He's come to be an honest man," thought he; "why should I remind him of
+his former misfortune? I dare say they won't hang Mr. Tengelyi; but as
+for Viola, I'm not at all sure whether they'll stick to their word when
+they have him in their power. His wife will despair, and his children
+come to be little vagabonds; and who will be the cause of all this
+misery but I, who am now trying to entrap him, for all the world like
+one of those d--d spies whom we used to hang in France!"
+
+Old Janosh had but one comfort amidst these distressing reflections. He
+might indeed find Viola; but there was no necessity which forced him to
+give him up to the county magistrates: and, after all, was it not
+possible, in conversing with Viola, that they might find out a means of
+liberating the notary without any prejudice to the late robber's life
+and liberty?
+
+"For," said Janosh, "God knows he has suffered enough! and his children,
+bless them! they are such fine creatures, and so loving. I wouldn't harm
+them; no, not for the world!"
+
+As for the object of old Janosh's search, it was he who, under the
+assumed name of a brother to Ishtvan, the herdsman of Kishlak, inhabited
+the tanya to which Gatzi's friend had promised to conduct the two
+adventurers. The outlaw's place of refuge was not quite so large and
+commodious as his farm-house at Tissaret; but it was as favourable a
+specimen of a tanya as a man of Viola's character and habits might wish
+to see. The roof was made of reeds, and afforded a shelter against the
+rain; the walls were newly washed, and shone hospitably over the dun and
+desolate heath. The tanya was built on a slope of the mountains, which,
+forest-crowned, extended in the rear; and in front lay the immense
+plain, dotted with flocks and herds of cattle and horses, with here and
+there a steeple rising on the far horizon. Near the house was a stable
+and some haystacks; and close to the threshold lay a couple of large
+fierce wolf-hounds, basking in the rays of the sun.
+
+Viola might have been happy. He had found a place of refuge: he was
+removed from all social intercourse; and this is, in itself, a blessing
+for the persecuted and maligned. He might have been happy, if our
+happiness or misery were not at least quite as much depending on the
+past as it is on the present. Viola's recollections were most gloomy.
+His mind was saddened by the thought that he was compelled to leave the
+scenes of his former life. An exile from the place of his birth, he
+languished and grieved quite as much as men of better education do, when
+fate compels them to fly from their own country. The lower classes
+cling, not only to their country, but also to the place of their birth.
+Their lives lie within a narrower circle; and, however great his
+patriotism, a peasant's love for his _home_ is still greater. With some
+it is a predominant feeling; with others it is a madness. His real
+country, his real fatherland, is the village in which he saw the
+light,--the narrow spot of earth on which he passed his earliest years.
+If you remove him from that place, he finds little consolation in the
+thought that his new abode is still on Hungarian soil, that his
+country's language is still spoken around him. He sighs for his
+birth-place, for the humble roof of his parents, for the fields in which
+he used to work, for the trees in the shade of which he took his rest.
+His reminiscences are not national, but local; his sphere of interest
+and action is limited to the confines of his parish. And even if this
+were not the case, is not our life a totality? Can we separate the past
+from the present, or the present from the future? Are not our joys bound
+up in remembrance and hope? And what was there in Viola's past, what was
+there in his future, to cheer him up, and to nerve him amidst the
+sorrows of life?
+
+Could he ever forget the injustice and cruelty of mankind? Could he
+forget that they had hunted him like a beast of the forest? And, worse
+than all, could he forget his own deeds? the blood he had shed,--the
+blood which still clung to his trembling hands? How could he hope for
+happiness? The future lowered over him like a pall. His name was,
+indeed, unknown in that part of the country. His master, and the people
+with whom he had dealings, took him for a brother of the Gulyash of
+Kishlak; but what guarantee had he for his safety? The arrival of any of
+his former associates, the discovery of his having come to the county
+with a false passport, was sure to divulge his real name, and deliver
+him into the hands of justice. Every stranger who approached the tanya
+made him tremble. He trembled to think that his own boy might betray the
+secret of his father's guilt. But still, he could have borne all this.
+He might have inured his heart to sorrow and anxiety if his wife had
+been happy, if the love of his children had withdrawn his mind from the
+remorse and fear in which it lay shrouded.
+
+Fate willed it otherwise!
+
+Susi wanted but little for happiness. To love, was her vocation. She had
+no wish but to live with her husband and her children, to devote herself
+to them, to care, labour, and pray for them. Her heart was made to
+resist the blows of fate, if they failed to strike at that one tender
+point. When she knew of her husband's liberation,--when she took her
+children to their new home, she felt as if there was nothing to wish
+for, or to hope; and all her past sufferings were lost in the feeling of
+happiness which pervaded her mind. To live far away from mankind,
+removed from the scene of her former sufferings,--to live a new life,
+lonely and unknown,--had been her wish for many years; and that wish was
+now realised. She knelt down at the threshold of her new tanya, and wept
+and prayed with a grateful heart. She had nothing to ask for, nothing to
+desire!
+
+But her happiness was of short duration. Her younger child was weak and
+sickly. Its little face had that expression of sadness which, in
+children, is a sure sign of suffering and disease.
+
+"How could it be otherwise?" said Susi; "sorrow was its first food. My
+tears have effaced its smiles, and ever since it opened its soft blue
+eyes it has seen nothing but grief and sorrow. The poor child cannot
+help being sad!"
+
+The unsettled life which Susi had latterly been compelled to lead, and
+which the infant had shared with her; the cold autumnal air to which it
+was exposed; and last, not least, the fatigue and exposure of the
+journey to their place of refuge, had a fatal effect upon the tender
+health of the child. So long as the excitement continued, and while she
+had to tremble for the safety of her husband, Susi took no heed of its
+altered appearance; but a few days after their meeting in the tanya, she
+became alive to the danger which threatened the infant's life. To see
+and despair of all hope was one and the same thing. After some days of
+maddening anxiety, the child died, and a little grave near the tanya was
+all that remained of so much sorrow and so much love.
+
+The child's death struck a deeper blow to Susi's heart, from the
+circumstance of its occurring in the very first week of her new-found
+repose; but when she remarked her husband's sadness, who, still
+depressed by the late events, considered the death of his youngest born
+as a harbinger of the approach of avenging fate, she felt that Viola
+wanted to be cheered and comforted, and her love for him conquered the
+grief of her mother's heart.
+
+"Who knows," said she, "whether the child is not all the better off for
+leaving this world of sorrow; and perhaps this misfortune has been sent
+to us, to prevent our becoming too presumptuous in our happiness? And,
+after all, have we not Pishta, and does he not grow up to be a fine
+bold fellow, like his father?"
+
+But in January little Pishta was seized with the fever. His mother's
+anxiety, her watchfulness, her care, the smiles of comfort from her
+breaking heart, and her secret tears and wailings,--all,--all could not
+prevail against the stern decree of fate; and after three long weeks,
+Pishta was buried by the side of his little brother, and Susi felt that
+there was nothing in the world that could make her happy.
+
+She complained not; she spoke not of her misfortune; she strove to hide
+her grief from her husband: but the forced smile on her pale face, the
+rebellious sigh which _would_ break forth, the trembling of her voice,
+when an accident, when
+
+    "The wind, a flower, a tone of music"
+
+reminded her of her children, and her turning away to hide the tears
+which _would_ bedew her cheeks, spoke more plainly than any wailing and
+mourning by which the wretched woman might have given vent to her grief.
+Viola loved his wife too warmly to be deceived by her seeming calmness;
+his keen eye found the traces of secret tears upon her face; he
+understood her wordless woe, and his heart was a prey to the bitterness
+of sorrow. To love, to see the loved one suffering, and to feel that we
+cannot do any thing to lessen her grief, is a bitter feeling indeed; and
+Viola felt as if fate had saved his life, only for him to drain the cup
+of misfortune to the very dregs.
+
+"Wretched man that I am!" cried he, as he stood alone on the heath;
+"after all my sufferings, must I live to see this day? If I had suffered
+for my crimes, God would perhaps have pitied my children; but now His
+hand strikes me in them! There is blood on my hands,--but is it Susi's
+fault? Are my little ones guilty? Father in heaven! what have they done,
+that Thy wrath should pursue them?"
+
+Thus lost in the bitterness of his grief, he sat on the hill near his
+house, when his attention was attracted by the violent barking of his
+dogs, and as he looked in the direction of the tanya, he beheld a
+stranger approaching him. Viola lived in solitude; the Gulyash of
+Kishlak had only called on him once since he dwelled in the tanya, and
+the herdsmen and outlaws of the county were by no means inclined to
+cultivate the acquaintance of their new neighbour, for a few
+unsuccessful attempts had convinced them of his reluctance to join them
+in their illicit doings. No wonder, then, that the approach of a
+stranger attracted Viola's attention. But his astonishment passed all
+bounds when he recognised the sheriff's hussar, and when the latter
+called him by his real name, a name which he had not heard for many
+months.
+
+At some distance from the tanya, Janosh had thanked his guide for his
+trouble, and sent him and Gatzi back, for he wished to speak to Viola
+freely and without being interrupted. The latter could hardly trust his
+own eyes, when he saw the old soldier, who used to be a pattern of
+neatness, attired in a peasant's dress, travel-stained, and with his
+hair and beard neglected.
+
+"Is it you, Janosh?" said he, addressing the new comer. "What does this
+dress mean?"
+
+"It's strange, isn't it? We are naked when we are born, and naked do we
+go to the grave, or at best they give us a gatya to sleep in. A soldier
+was a peasant at one time, and to a peasant's estate he returns; that's
+how the world goes. After all, my present dress is none of the worst,
+only I felt queer in it at first, accustomed as I am, you know, to be
+buttoned up in a tight hussar jacket. For some days I fancied I was not
+dressed at all!"
+
+"But where did you come from, and what has brought you all this way from
+home?"
+
+The old soldier, who had some secret misgivings about the honesty of his
+errand, felt uncomfortable at this question.
+
+"Why," said he, scratching his head, "I wanted to call on you,--that is
+to say, I wanted to find you. I've some important matters to talk to you
+about. But don't be frightened, man!" added he, on seeing Viola's
+astonishment; "I have indeed promised to find you, but I have not
+promised to tell them where you are. I'll have my palaver with you,
+that's all, and you may afterwards do as you please. As for the
+worshipful magistrates, they shall never get any thing out of me; no!
+not even if they'd skin me alive! I'm not the man to blow upon a
+deserter! Bless you! I never did that sort of a thing!"
+
+Viola's curiosity was heightened by the words and the manner of Janosh;
+and his desire for an account of the sudden and mysterious appearance of
+the latter was at length gratified by a circumstantial statement of all
+the events which had taken place at Dustbury and Tissaret, since the
+assassination of Mr. Catspaw. The impression which this news produced
+upon Viola was fearful.
+
+When Janosh told him of Tengelyi's situation, he cast a despairing look
+to heaven, and cried:--
+
+"I am a cursed being! I am born to destroy all who come near me, no
+matter whether they are my friends or my foes!"
+
+And covering his eyes with his hands, he gave himself up to a transport
+of grief.
+
+His distress moved the old hussar, who endeavoured to comfort him in his
+own rough manner.
+
+"Don't you think," said Janosh, "that Mr. Tengelyi is very badly off!
+Nonsense, man! he isn't even in gaol."
+
+"But where is he?"
+
+"Why he is not exactly in gaol; but he's in a room of his own in the
+prison. He has plenty to eat and to drink, for it's I who wait upon him;
+and you might have known that I am not a man who would give Master
+Akosh's father-in-law cause to complain. He's all right and comfortable,
+and there's no reason why he should not walk away, if they had not got
+that accursed criminal process (for that's the name they give it, I
+believe,) against him. But there's the rub! Unless his innocence is
+proved, they'll sentence him--Heaven knows to what! And you see----"
+
+"Did I not wish to serve him?" cried Viola, in a violent burst of grief.
+"I'm in gratitude bound to serve him! He gave shelter to my wife and
+children. I would have given my life to make him happy. I killed the
+attorney because I thought to do him good, and what has come of all my
+gratitude?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Why, this has come of it! He's the honestest man on the face of the
+earth, and they accuse him of _my_ crime! and it's I who have got him
+into prison,--oh! and if you had not come and told me all, they would
+execute him in my place!"
+
+"Viola! my boy," said the hussar, "you're wrong. The case is not half so
+bad as you make it out, I assure you."
+
+"Oh, Janosh! why, when I was sentenced at Tissaret, did you come to my
+assistance? Why did you save my life? You see what I have come to! I'm
+ready to bless the day of my death. When a mad dog feels the distemper,
+he will run away from the house of his master, in order not to harm his
+benefactor! That's what a mad dog does,--but I, I am worse than a dog,
+for I am dangerous to those whom I love best!"
+
+Janosh, who was deeply moved by Viola's remorse, endeavoured to comfort
+him, by protesting he was sure there must be some means of extricating
+the notary from his present dangerous position.
+
+His words, rude and awkward as they were, had their effect upon Viola.
+He became more composed, and said--
+
+"As for the notary, he is safe. It will take us three days to go to
+Dustbury. The papers which I took from the attorney are in my hands;
+they are covered with blood, and when I tell them how the thing was
+brought about, they cannot possibly suspect Tengelyi."
+
+The old hussar shook his head.
+
+"I don't think," said he, "you can do it in that way. You're not in a
+fit state to take a resolution. You are in despair, and what you intend
+to do ought to be well considered. Nothing is more easy than to go to
+Dustbury. 'Here I am! I'm Viola! I've killed that rascal, Catspaw!' Why
+it's mere child's-play to say the words. But the worst is behind. When
+they've once got you into gaol, I don't see how you can get out of it."
+
+"I don't care!"
+
+"But you ought to care! Why, man! it's the very first thing you ought to
+think of! They have indeed promised not to take your life, and even the
+sheriff has pledged his word for your safety! But who can tell? I
+wouldn't advise you to rely on the promises of the gentry, and it's far
+more prudent to manage the business otherwise."
+
+"Have you any idea how it can be done?" said Viola, sullenly.
+
+"Of course I have! Give me the papers! I'll take them to Dustbury, and
+tell the gentlemen that I have spoken to you, that you gave me the
+papers, and that you made no denial of your having murdered the
+attorney."
+
+"They'll never believe you!"
+
+"If they don't, I'll call in another witness--Gatzi the Vagabond, who is
+a good fellow. He's come along with me, and he's now at your
+neighbour's, the Gulyash. Two honest witnesses can prove any thing; but
+as Gatzi is not, perhaps, quite honest, because he's in the habit of
+stealing now and then, we'll have the Gulyash as a third witness. While
+we are telling our story at Dustbury, you and your wife and children
+leave this place, and when they come to arrest you they'll find an empty
+house. That's _my_ plan!"
+
+"I have no children!" said Viola, with a deep sigh; "our last--our
+little Pishta--was buried two months ago!"
+
+"Pishta!" cried Janosh; "my little Pishta! Why, that's a dreadful
+misfortune!"
+
+"The two little ones are dead! I am childless! My poor Susi is not
+likely to survive her sweet children long. She is sinking fast; poor
+woman, she won't see the next snow!"
+
+The two men sat in silence. Viola was lost in gloomy thought, and old
+Janosh's eyes were full of tears. At length he said,--
+
+"Truly, God alone knows why fate deals harshly with some people! They
+tell me we're all going to the same place in the end, and that God, who
+is a great general, commands us to march straight through this world
+into another. But I must say, the men of the rear-guard have the worst
+of it. The advanced guard have it all to themselves--grub, and glory,
+and all; and those that remain behind are in for short commons and
+kicks. I've known that sort of thing, my boy! When an army retreats, the
+best men are ordered to the rear; and in the wars I've been dealt with
+as you are on this earth. 'Devil take the hindmost!' is a true proverb.
+Bless me! you can't fancy what hard blows we got, and how we were
+starved! but, after all, it was then I learnt that a man ought never to
+despair. For when you've come to the camp, a good general is sure to
+praise and reward the last man of the regiment; and I'm sure our Father
+in Heaven will do the same when you march into quarters. And besides,
+who knows but the tide will turn? Susi is left you, and that's a great
+blessing. Why shouldn't she have half a dozen children? You won't have
+another Pishta, I'm afraid; for there is not another such a child on
+the earth, nor will there ever be; but you'll have plenty of children.
+And, I say, no one knows what a deal of good luck such a child may bring
+you; and all I say to you is, you're a fool if you put your neck into
+the keeping of the Dustbury gentry. Bless you, man, it's the worst you
+can do! and there's time enough for the worst, I should hope!"
+
+Viola listened to the old hussar's advice, without showing his dissent
+either by words or gestures; but when Janosh ceased speaking, and looked
+at him, waiting for a reply, he shook his head sadly, hopelessly, and
+said,--
+
+"You would not advise me as you do if you could but know what I have
+suffered. You warn me not to surrender to my judges and you counsel me
+to fly from punishment. But do you really think, my poor Janosh, that my
+present and past sufferings are not a hundred times more painful than
+any punishment which they can award to me? You say they will sentence me
+to death. It's no more than what I deserve. And what is even the most
+painful death, compared to the unceasing fear which has weighed upon my
+heart ever since I came to this place? I am eighty miles from home; but
+what, after all, are eighty miles? _You_ have found me, and others
+may!"
+
+"There you are out! It's not every man has been in the wars, and----"
+
+"You found me by accident! Oh, I tell you, I've played the coward! I've
+crouched among the ferns and the brushwood, when I saw a stranger
+approaching my house! When my master asked me about my former pursuits,
+I felt the hot blood rush into my face, and I trembled for all the world
+as if I stood before my Judge. No, Janosh! my life is a hell! it's not
+the life of a human being, and the sooner I've got rid of it the better
+for me, for Susi, for all!"
+
+"They won't hang you!" said Janosh. "The sheriff has come to quarrel
+with his wife, and he has been an altered man ever since. He has
+promised to spare your life, and I'm sure he'll stick to his word, that
+is to say, if he _can_; for, after all, who knows but the other
+gentleman may get the better of him? and it's always my opinion one
+ought never----"
+
+"Stop!" cried Viola. "I'm sure you mean well; but I've made up my mind.
+Believe me, ever since my children died I've often thought whether to
+surrender is not the best thing I can do. Even if you had not come and
+told me of the notary's danger, I think I should have given myself up to
+the police, to rid myself of the torments which now prey upon my mind.
+A few days before my poor Pishta died, the child was so thin and worn
+out you would not have known him if you had seen him at the time.
+Nothing was left of him but his sweet soft voice; methinks I hear it
+now; and he----What were we saying?" continued Viola, wiping his eyes;
+"to think of him makes me forget all and everything. What was it,
+Janosh?"
+
+"You spoke of Pishta's death. Don't go on, pray!"
+
+"I must! I must tell you, that shortly before he died, and, indeed, all
+the time he was ill, he entreated me not to go on being a robber: 'Won't
+you, father, dear! you won't be a robber any more?' were the last words
+I ever heard him say. Now, tell me, is it in my power to obey my dying
+child's request if I remain here? Let the meanest thief come to this
+house who has seen me in former times; is he not my master, because he
+has my secret? Can he not force me to join him in any crime he may
+choose to perpetrate? I'm lost! My very honesty depends upon an
+accident; and chance alone can protect me from falling back into my old
+ways."
+
+Janosh sighed; for he felt the truth of Viola's remarks.
+
+"There's blood on my hands, and I must die! It's but common justice!
+I've thought the matter over, and I see no other way to get out of it.
+And, after all, there is neither peace nor comfort in this world after
+such a deed! When they have pronounced my sentence, my conscience will
+cease from accusing me. I have not, indeed, ever had the _intention_ of
+killing any body! Accident has made me what I am--a murderer! and fate
+has decreed that I am to suffer for my crime. What man can prevail
+against his destiny?"
+
+"This is all very well; but what's to become of Susi, I'd like to know?"
+said Janosh, with a deep sigh.
+
+Viola made no reply. His features were violently contracted; his hands
+clung with a tremulous grasp to the staff which lay by his side; his
+chest heaved as if it were bursting. At length he said, with a trembling
+voice,--
+
+"What is to become of Susi when I am dead? Why, it's this which unnerves
+me! But what am I to do? Poor woman! If I could do aught to remove her
+sorrow, if her misery were not so great that nothing can add to it, I
+would suffer all! all! all! I would not care for the pangs of my
+conscience! I would not mind my fears and my sorrows, neither here, nor
+even in the world to come, if I could hope that my life would serve to
+comfort Susi. But her heart is brimful of anguish. There is no room for
+fresh griefs, no room for comfort of any kind; nay, more, my presence
+compels her to forego the only relief she has--that of taking her fill
+of weeping! No! no!" continued he, passionately, "I cannot bear it any
+longer. I'll do it, since it _must_ be done, and I'll do it at once. God
+will perhaps have mercy on her when I'm dead and gone! He'll take her
+away from this world, in which there is no place of rest--no! none at
+all for those that love Viola; and even if she does not die, she will be
+safe, and perhaps some charitable hearts will pity her case and provide
+for her. Come, Janosh! bind my hands and take me to Dustbury. Be quick!"
+
+These words, and the tone in which they were spoken, convinced Janosh of
+the firmness of Viola's resolution, which he did not attempt to oppose,
+because he felt the weight of the arguments which the repentant robber
+had advanced in support of it.
+
+"After all, you're not far from right," said he, after a short pause.
+"I'll be bound for it they won't hang you; and perhaps it's better for
+you to have your punishment over, and have done with it. It makes you a
+free man; and prevents you being brought back to your old ways. But as
+for the binding part of the business, it's sheer stuff and nonsense, I
+tell you. If you come of your own accord, they'll put it down on the
+bill as a special point in your favour, and strike off a few years from
+the time of your captivity. But, hang me if I take you to Dustbury! It
+would be a disgrace to me to the end of my life, if people could say, it
+was old Janosh who arrested Viola!"
+
+"Very well!" said Viola, "if you won't take me, you may go to Dustbury
+at once, and tell Mr. Tengelyi to be of good cheer, I'll be at Dustbury
+on the fourth day from this. My Bojtar[33] will soon come back to take
+charge of the cattle. I must talk to Susi lest she should be shocked by
+my sudden departure. Poor woman! it will be a hard thing to take leave
+of her."
+
+[Footnote 33: Bojtar, _i.e._ helpmate.]
+
+"Why," said old Janosh, "if you've made up your mind to go, you had
+better not mention your plans to Susi. After you've come to Dustbury,
+I'll go to fetch your wife; and when the sheriff tells her that your
+life is not in danger, I'm sure she'll get reconciled to the
+arrangement. Be of good cheer!" added the old soldier, shaking Viola's
+hand; "all's well that ends well! They'll lock you up for a few years,
+and after that time you'll go back to Tissaret as an honest man. But I
+must be off now. It would frighten Susi to death to find me here, and in
+this dress too!"
+
+Saying which, the hussar turned to leave the spot; but after walking a
+few yards he came back, and said:
+
+"I forgot to mention, that you need not come if you should repent of
+your resolution. I'll take my oath nobody shall ever learn from me where
+your tanya is; and all they can say is, that I'm a greater donkey than
+they thought I was, because I couldn't manage to find you. But, believe
+me, I don't care what they say. God bless you, my boy!"
+
+Janosh did not wait for an answer. He hurried away; and after a few
+minutes, Viola heard the quick trotting of a horse. It was Janosh on his
+way back from the tanya.
+
+"After all, my life will be good for something," muttered Viola. "I
+wanted to prove my gratitude to my benefactor, and all I did was to
+bring another misfortune upon him. At present I have it in my power to
+save his life by the sacrifice of my own! But what is to become of
+Susi?"
+
+He sat lost in gloomy thoughts, with his head leaning on his hand, when
+his wife returned to the tanya. Her voice awoke him from his dreams. It
+struck her that he looked as if he had wept. But for the poor woman, who
+came from the grave of her children, there was nothing extraordinary in
+his tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAP. X.
+
+
+Viola had many difficulties to encounter before he could carry his
+project into execution. His resolution was irrevocable; but what was his
+most plausible pretence for leaving the tanya without alarming the fears
+of his wife? Ever since their change of abode, Susi showed the greatest
+anxiety whenever her husband left her, though but for a few hours; and
+this anxiety, so natural to a woman in her position, had risen to a
+formidable height ever since the death of her children. Her husband was
+her all--her only treasure,--her sole comfort on this earth. And was he
+not always in danger of a discovery of his former character and
+pursuits? Her anxious care was, in the present instance, almost
+maddening to Viola. In the course of that day he attempted a hundred
+times at least to tell his wife that he must leave her for a few days;
+and a hundred times he felt that he wanted the strength to break the
+matter to her. At one time it struck him that Susi was more cheerful
+than usual, and he was loth to distress her at such a moment; another
+time he thought she looked sadder than she generally did, and he
+considered that frame of mind unfavourable to the reception of his
+communication. Indeed there is no saying how he could have executed his
+project if Susi had not been struck with his embarrassed manner, and the
+preparations he made for the journey. She questioned him, and he told
+her that his master had sent in the morning ordering him to fetch some
+cattle from a neighbouring county. Susi trembled; but there was no help
+for it. Viola was bound to obey his master's orders: he could not
+possibly refuse obedience by stating the reasons of his aversion to the
+journey; and the poor woman was reduced to snatch at the straws of
+comfort which lay in her husband's assurance that the place to which he
+was sent lay at a greater distance from the county of Takshony than
+their present abode did.
+
+"Don't be afraid. Nobody can know me at that place; no Tissaret people
+come there!" said Viola; and Susi did her best to appear quiet and
+unconcerned.
+
+Viola was conscious of the fate which awaited him. Whenever he looked at
+his wife he shuddered to think what her anguish would be when the true
+nature of his errand was revealed to her; and all his strength of mind
+could scarcely suppress his tears. He struggled hard to keep them down;
+and in the evening, when, after pressing Susi to his heart for the last
+time, he mounted his horse, she could not, by any outward signs, get a
+clue to the deep despair which ate into his heart. When his voice came
+to her with the last "God bless you!" she had no idea of the truth. It
+never struck her that she heard his voice for the last time.
+
+Viola was inured to suffering. His grave aspect hid the anguish which
+convulsed his mind: but when his horse had borne him onwards to the deep
+forest, his grief leapt forth like a giant; and, shaking off the bonds
+of restraint, he bent his head low down on his horse's neck, and his
+powerful frame trembled with the convulsions of deep, hopeless,
+unmitigated grief.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when he left the tanya; the faint rays of
+the setting sun shone from the west, and the crescent, shedding her
+silver light through a few feathery clouds, shone upon the solemn
+silence of the earth below. The beauty of Nature cannot prevail against
+the existence of care; but it can lessen its intensity: grief, with its
+bitter and passionate expression, yields to solemn sadness. Nature seems
+to share our woe: each star looks feelingly down from its sphere; and
+the boundless horizon brings our own littleness, and the trivial
+character of our sorrows, home to us.
+
+The peaceful silence which surrounded Viola gave peace to his weary
+heart. He dried his tears as he looked up to the stars, that send forth
+their rays of hope from their spheres of silence and mystery.
+
+He came to the hill whence, but a few short months ago, he had cast the
+first glance at his new tanya. He stopped his horse and looked back. The
+dim light of the moon showed him but a whitish speck, and a herdsman's
+fire near it. He thought of the hopes which bloomed in his heart when he
+came to the place; he thought of the events which destroyed those hopes
+in their first and fairest bloom. He thought of his children, who lay
+buried at the foot of the hill, and of their wretched mother, and of the
+cruel blow which was about to descend on her devoted head. Again the big
+tears gushed forth from his eyes; but when this sudden burst of sorrow
+was over, he regained all his former firmness.
+
+"Who can help it?" said he, with a deep sigh, as he turned his horse's
+head away from the place which contained all he loved best. "What man
+can run away from his fate? I was born for misery!"
+
+Viola intended to go to Tissaret and to surrender to Akosh Rety, or, if
+he did not find him, at least to send the Liptaka to tend and comfort
+his wife. The distance from the tanya to Tissaret was full eighty miles;
+and Viola, to avoid being seen by any one, especially in the county of
+Takshony, shunned the roads and beaten paths, and journeyed mostly at
+night. He had therefore time enough to think of his situation and
+prospects. But his thoughts would still return to Susi.
+
+"I would not care," said he to himself, "if I could but be comforted on
+her account. She'll despair when they tell her that I have surrendered
+to the county magistrates. She will think me cruel! But what was I to
+do? They would have found me out at last. Old Janosh found me sure
+enough, and others might follow in his track any day. They would have
+pounced upon me and arrested me. But now that I surrender of my own free
+will, I can at least prevent them from taking Mr. Tengelyi's papers. I
+can get him out of his troubles, and who knows? perhaps they'll give me
+a pardon, Janosh said they would!"
+
+This last reflection was a great comfort. If ever a man expected the
+approach of death calmly and with firmness, that man was Viola. But
+death by the hands of the executioner is terrible even to the most
+courageous; and Viola, who thought of Susi, was prepared to suffer all
+and everything, except this one last infamy, which he felt convinced his
+wife could never survive.
+
+"Perhaps they will lock me up for ten years--let them! they may torture
+me, they may do their worst, I won't care for it. It will give Susi
+strength to know that I am alive, and that she can be of use to me; and
+I, too, I'm sure I'll bear any thing if I can see her at times; and
+after all there must be an end even to the worst punishment, as Janosh
+told me, and I shall be able to live as an honest man to the end of my
+life!"
+
+Such is human nature. In the worst plights we cast the anchor of our
+hope amidst the shoals of lesser evils; but without hope we could not
+live for a day.
+
+Viola's reflections on his position tended greatly to calm and comfort
+his mind. He was a two-fold murderer: but there were a variety of
+extenuating circumstances in both the cases; and, with the exception of
+his two great crimes, of all his breaches of the law, there was not one
+which exposed him to capital punishment; the circumstance that he had
+already undergone what the Hungarian law calls "_the agony_,"[34]
+namely, the mortal anxiety of a culprit under sentence of death, and in
+the present instance his voluntary surrender to the criminal justice of
+his country would stand in the way of a capital sentence. And if he
+succeeded in liberating the notary from his present painful position,
+could he not rely on the protection of Akosh Rety and his friends?
+
+[Footnote 34: See Note II.]
+
+The third night of his journey found him at a few miles' distance from
+Tissaret. Here he was under serious apprehensions lest he should fall
+into the hands of Mr. Skinner's Pandurs, before he could surrender or
+manage to deliver the papers to Akosh Rety. Viola had no idea of the
+real cause of the importance of the papers, but when he remembered that
+they were taken from him at the time of his capture in the St. Vilmosh
+forest, and that Mr. Skinner had attempted to deny their existence, he
+was justified in his fear that the justice would annihilate the
+documents if they were to fall into his hands. He resolved therefore to
+defend them to the last, and to prefer death to captivity, unless he
+could place the notary's papers in the hands of a trustworthy person.
+
+At break of day he reached the St. Vilmosh forest. He had been on
+horseback ever since sunset, and his horse was fatigued. It was a good
+two hours' ride to Tissaret from the place where he stood, and he
+pitied the horse, which had done many a good service in by-gone days. He
+knew the danger to which he exposed himself by approaching the village
+by daylight, for nothing was more likely than that he would be seized
+and dragged to the justice's before he could meet young Rety. But what
+was he to do? The forest had been cleared in the course of the winter;
+the trees were still stripped of their foliage, and there was no place
+in which he could have remained till sunset. He had no other alternative
+but to proceed.
+
+"And after all," thought he, "on the plain I can keep a good look out,
+and get out of the way, if need be. _Hollo_, my boy!" added he, patting
+his horse's neck, "don't fail me to-day, old comrade! I'll give you into
+good hands. Perhaps Master Akosh will take you to his stable. He'll use
+you for hare-hunting, for you've had a good schooling in racing. They've
+hunted us many a time; but never mind! Your time has come at last,
+Hollo, my boy, for this is the last time you and I are on the heath
+together!"
+
+He continued his way in deep thought; and the horse, too, as if
+conscious of his master's grief, walked dejectedly amidst the trees on
+the outskirts of the forest.
+
+Viola's train of gloomy reflections was interrupted by the sound of
+hoofs. He looked up, and beheld three Pandurs, who were travelling on
+the other side of the clearing. He turned his horse's head to steal
+away; but they had seen him, and rode up to him.
+
+There was but one means of safety. He knew it at once, and, putting
+spurs to his horse, he rushed forward.
+
+"Stand, or die!" shouted his pursuers; but, though fatigued, Hollo was
+still a match for the jaded hacks[35] of the county police, and the
+reports of the pistols which were fired behind him only heightened his
+speed. He rode on in the direction of Tissaret, and the Pandurs, who
+still kept their eyes upon him, followed, though at a distance.
+
+[Footnote 35: Note V.]
+
+Akosh was at that time in Tissaret. Ever since his wife's death, the
+sheriff felt an aversion to return to his family seat. He left the
+management of the property to his son, who lived in old Vandory's house;
+for he too had an aversion to the Castle and the reminiscences connected
+with it.
+
+The morning on which Viola approached his native village, Vandory arose
+early, according to his habits, and seeing that the sky was clear and
+unclouded, he could not resist his desire to visit the Turk's Hill, to
+see the sunrise from its summit. He roused Akosh, and induced him to
+accompany him to the hill, on which we found the curate and Tengelyi at
+the commencement of this history.
+
+There are few people in the world who like to be disturbed in their
+sleep; and though Akosh Rety yielded to his uncle's entreaties, his
+temper was none of the sweetest, as he accompanied the enthusiastic old
+man, who, in the course of their walk, held forth on the beauties of the
+rising sun, while he delighted in the anticipation of the glorious
+spectacle which awaited them. To the shame of Akosh Rety be it spoken,
+that not all the glories of that gorgeous phenomenon, and much less his
+uncle's arguments, could convince him that it was worth while to wake
+him from his sweet dreams, merely for the purpose of seeing a few pink
+clouds and breathing the moist and chilly air of an April morning. But
+though the beauties of Nature failed to engage his interest, his
+attention was soon directed to and attracted by another spectacle.
+
+Akosh had not been on the Turk's Hill ever since the autumn, when he met
+Vandory and the notary after the hunt. It was but natural that he should
+think of all the events that had occurred since that time. His heart was
+full, and he turned to the curate, saying,--
+
+"I remember, for all the world as if it had happened yesterday, that
+poor Tengelyi stood where we now stand. Our horses were at the bottom of
+the hill. To the right stood Paul Skinner, the great fool. I think even
+now I hear his curses when he looked to the forest of St. Vilmosh, and
+saw that the Pandurs were escorting a prisoner. You remember it, don't
+you? I protested that it was not Viola whom they had with them!"
+
+As he said these words, Akosh turned in the direction of the St. Vilmosh
+forest, and his quick eye discovered the horsemen, who at that moment
+broke from the forest and spurred over the plain.
+
+"What does this mean?" cried he, as he directed Vandory's attention to
+the chase.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Look! look! they are going at a fearful rate. One man in front, and
+three after him as if they were pursuing him!"
+
+The curate sighed.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" said he. "I have seen one of my fellow-creatures hunted
+down from this very spot. I hope and trust----"
+
+"It's a chase!" cried Akosh. "It's the foremost man they are after. How
+he cuts away! straight through the meadows and over the fields!"
+
+"God help him!" said the curate, folding his hands.
+
+"He can't escape! they are driving him up to the village, and his beast
+is done up. They have been gaining upon him ever since we first saw
+him!"
+
+"Let us hope the man is not a robber!" said Vandory, who watched the
+proceedings of the horseman with painful attention. "I am sure he is a
+robber, or at least his pursuers take him for one," added he, after a
+short pause.
+
+"I see the carbines of the Pandurs!" cried Akosh. "The poor beast is
+done up! One of the rascals is close at his heels--there! he's come down
+horse and all! On! on! my fine fellow! you're safe for a few minutes!
+you've got a start now! Goodness knows!" added the young man, "I'd do
+any thing to give him a fresh horse!"
+
+Viola's position--for we need not say that it was he whom Akosh and
+Vandory beheld from the Turk's Hill--was improved by the fall of one of
+his pursuers; for when the second Pandur came up to the place where his
+comrade struggled under the weight of his horse, he stopped and
+dismounted to assist him. As for the third officer, he was far in the
+rear; and as it was Viola's greatest desire to reach the village, and to
+give the papers into the hands of a trustworthy person, he could for a
+moment hope to succeed in his endeavours.
+
+"Hollo! my good horse, don't fail me in this last extremity!" gasped he,
+as he spurred his steed. "On! on! Hajra! Hajra! Hollo!"
+
+But Hollo's last strength was spent. The poor beast came from a long and
+fatiguing journey, and for the last half-hour the race had been over
+broken ground, fields and ditches. From a gallop he fell into a broken
+trot; and Viola, who was close to the Turk's Hill, and who saw his
+pursuers coming nearer and nearer, tried all he could do, with voice,
+whip, and spur, to urge the exhausted animal onward. The horse was
+covered with white foam, the perspiration ran down his long black mane,
+he trembled on his legs--but despair made Viola blind to the sufferings
+of his faithful companion, and again and again he buried his spurs in
+his bleeding sides. Hollo made another rush forward.
+
+"Stand and surrender!" cried a voice behind him.
+
+Viola turned round.
+
+The Pandur was at the distance of but a few yards from him; another
+minute would have brought him to his side.
+
+The outlaw seized the pistol at his saddle-bow, and turned it upon his
+pursuer. But the Pandur had his carbine in readiness.
+
+He raised it, and fired.
+
+Viola uttered a loud shriek! He flung back his hands and fell on his
+horse's neck. The frightened animal leaped, plunged, and rolled on the
+ground!
+
+Akosh Rety, who had left his position on the hill for the purpose of
+interfering, if possible, in behalf of the pursued, came just in time to
+prevent the Pandur from ill-treating the wounded man.
+
+The latter had dismounted, and would have struck Viola with a fokosh,
+had not young Rety prevented him.
+
+"You're a dead man, if you dare to hurt him!" cried Akosh, endeavouring
+to extricate the robber from the weight of his horse. "Scoundrel! don't
+you see you've killed him?"
+
+"Killed him, indeed! So much the better!" said Tzifra, (for it was he,
+whom the patronage of Paul Skinner had established among the county
+police). He would have resisted, but on consideration he thought it best
+to avoid a quarrel with the sheriff's son.
+
+"I don't care, sir, whether I've killed him or not," said he; "I'm sure
+it does not matter. Don't you see, sir, it's Viola; and I'm entitled to
+the reward of five hundred florins, which the county has promised to
+the man who captures or kills him. I hope he'll die before my comrades
+come. Confound them, they'd be after claiming part of the money!"
+
+Akosh paid no attention to the Pandur's brutal expressions, and with
+Vandory's assistance he succeeded in removing the horse from the body of
+the wounded man.
+
+"He is dead!" said Akosh, as they laid him on the turf. "Life is
+extinct, and with it all hope of proving Tengelyi's innocence!"
+
+The curate knelt down and examined the wound.
+
+"No!" said he. "He is alive, but the ball has pierced his breast. He is
+not likely to live; still I think he will linger on for a few hours. I
+say!" added he, addressing the Pandur, "mount and ride to the village!
+Tell them to send a stretcher and call in a surgeon!"
+
+"I'd rather----" replied Tzifra. "Don't you think me such a fool as all
+that. I'm entitled to a reward of five hundred florins, and if I go, my
+comrades will come and claim the money. And, after all, your worships
+are my witnesses that it was I who shot him!"
+
+"If you don't go this very moment, I'll blow your brains out!" shouted
+Akosh, taking up a pistol which had fallen from Viola's hands. "Be off!
+I'll give the blood-money if no one else will!"
+
+His threats and promises induced Tzifra to hasten away. Young Rety and
+the curate remained with Viola, and when the two Pandurs came up they
+were at once despatched for some water; but neither the water, nor the
+words of comfort and consolation spoken by Vandory, availed to break
+through the deep slumber of death which lay on the wounded man.
+
+Half an hour passed thus, and already did the people from the village
+flock to the spot, when Viola gave some signs of returning life.
+
+He moved his limbs, opened his eyes, and looked around.
+
+"Do you know me?" said Akosh, leaning over him, and taking his hand.
+"Pray look at me, Viola!"
+
+"I know you!" replied the outlaw, with a broken voice. "It's well you
+are here, for it's you I wanted to see."
+
+He raised his hand, and made a vain attempt to open his dress.
+
+"Open my coat for me!" said he. "Take the papers away. They are Mr.
+Tengelyi's papers, which Jantshi the Jew and Catspaw the attorney stole.
+I came to restore them to their owner."
+
+Akosh took the papers in his hand.
+
+"They are covered with blood!" groaned the outlaw. "There's some fresh
+blood on them; but it's no matter,--it's my own blood. Mr. Tengelyi
+deserved well of me,--we are quits now. Tell him I kiss his hands, and
+don't let him say that Viola was a reprobate who returned evil for
+good!"
+
+While he spoke, the people of the village came in crowds and stood round
+him.
+
+Vandory advanced, and said,--
+
+"My friend, perhaps you are not aware of the fearful suspicion which
+rests on Mr. Tengelyi, on account of these very papers?"
+
+"I know all about it!" replied Viola. "Janosh told me everything; and it
+was for the purpose of clearing him from suspicion that I came to
+deliver myself to the magistrates."
+
+With a violent effort he raised himself on his arm, and exclaimed:
+
+"Men of Tissaret, listen to me! Whoever says that it was Mr. Tengelyi
+who killed the attorney, that man tells an untruth, no matter who he be!
+_I_ am the murderer. I intended to take the papers which the attorney
+and the Jew stole from the notary. He threatened to shoot me, and I slew
+him. The notary is not guilty of the murder, so help me God!"
+
+He fell back, and lay motionless. The villagers were deeply moved by his
+words. They stood silent, and many of them wept.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said an old peasant at length, "why has fate dealt with
+you in this manner? You were a good neighbour, and I thought you would
+close my eyes after my death, as I closed your father's eyes before
+you."
+
+Viola turned his glance upon the speaker.
+
+"Old man," said he, "when you pass my house, and see it desolate or
+inhabited by strangers, you will not forget Viola, your neighbour, who
+owned it in former times. God sees my soul! it was not by my own fault
+that I came to be what I am. May God have mercy upon me, and upon those
+who made me a robber!"
+
+"Clear the way! let me pass! for mercy's sake, let me come to him!"
+cried a female voice at a distance; and as the people fell back on each
+side, old Mother Liptaka came running up to her dying kinsman.
+
+"Take him up!" cried she. "Why don't you take him to the village?
+There's life, and hope, and help! Come along, some of you, and carry him
+to my house!"
+
+"Leave me alone, coz!" said Viola, drawing his breath with great
+difficulty; "leave me alone! Nothing can do me good. It's over with me,
+and it serves me right. There's blood on my hands, and I pay for it with
+my own blood. Heaven is just, coz! But since die I must, let me die here
+in the free air of heaven, and in the warm rays of the sun."
+
+His voice grew fainter and fainter.
+
+He moved his hand.
+
+The Liptaka, obedient to his wish, knelt down by his side.
+
+"Go to Susi, coz!" said he; "tell her I implore her pardon for having
+deceived her when I left my home. Tell her I could not help it. I could
+not abandon my benefactor in his distress; and if I had told her what I
+was going to do----"
+
+The words died on his pale lips. Once more did he open his eyes on the
+clear blue sky, on the distant village, and the people around him. He
+closed them again. A strange smile passed over his face, and with his
+last breath he whispered,--
+
+"_Susi!_"
+
+"May God have mercy on every sinner!" said the old peasant. "He has much
+to answer for!"
+
+"His sufferings were great!" said Vandory. "May the earth be light to
+him, after the struggles of this life!"
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+It is scarcely necessary to detail the results of Viola's last
+confession. Tengelyi's liberation and the alliance of his house with the
+Retys, and of the Retys with the Kishlakis, by means of Kalman and
+Etelka, were its first fruits. The happy consummation of the wishes of
+the young people, and the heartfelt contentment which expressed itself
+in the faces of all around him, sufficed to rouse Mr. Rety from the
+gloomy lethargy into which the events detailed in this history, and
+especially the death of his wife, had sunk him. He did not, indeed, feel
+at ease in his official position, which he resigned, under the pretence
+of ill health; nor at Tissaret, for the place reminded him of many
+things which he wished to forget; but he sought and found all his heart
+longed for in his dignified retirement at Dustbury. He was respected by
+all factions, for he never opposed any, and he was the favourite of the
+ruling party, whatever it might be, for his political opinions were
+always exactly those of the majority. Some people believed that he
+intended to remove to Pesth. They were mistaken. Rety was the first man
+in Dustbury: he did not care to follow, since he might lead. Besides,
+he became, in course of time, sincerely attached to old Kishlaki, who
+disliked Pesth, and who preferred Dustbury, his pipe, and the frequency
+of his intercourse with his son, Kalman, and his daughter-in-law,
+Etelka, to all the capitals of Europe. It need hardly be said, that Mr.
+Kishlaki was not any longer, nor did he ever intend to act again as,
+president of a court-martial.
+
+The notary was moody and depressed for many months. Misfortunes are apt
+to spoil the most facile temper, and Mr. Tengelyi's temper was _not_
+facile. His wife's entreaties could never induce him to inhabit the
+Castle of Tissaret, and to join the family circle of Akosh and Vilma
+Rety. But the happiness which surrounded him, the beneficial influence
+which he, the father-in-law of the lord of the manor, exercised over the
+condition of the inhabitants of Tissaret, and the conversation of his
+friends, Voelgyeshy and Vandory, conquered his habitual ill-humour, and
+made him, in course of time, an agreeable and even indulgent member of
+the circle in which he moved.
+
+As for Mr. Paul Skinner, his fate was simple in the extreme. An
+unfortunate mistake which he committed, by compelling the peasants of
+Garatsh to repair his house instead of the roads, caused the High Court
+to deprive him of his office, and, with it, of all the means he
+possessed to attract attention or merit public reproof. If he is still a
+tyrant--for nothing is known of his present doings--he must confine his
+oppression to his family circle, where it is but too likely that he will
+at length meet with opposition.
+
+Susi was anxiously waiting for her husband's return when the news of his
+death reached her. It came upon her like lightning: she fell, and lay in
+a death-like swoon. When she returned to consciousness, she arose and
+went to the graves of her children, which were for the first time
+covered with the fresh verdure of spring. She knelt down and took her
+leave of all that remained of her loved ones; and, having done this, she
+consented to accompany the Mother Liptaka to Tissaret. She asked, as a
+favour, that she might be allowed to live in the house which she and her
+husband formerly inhabited. Akosh Rety had the house repaired, and
+everything arranged as it was when Viola was an honest and thriving
+peasant. It was there Susi lived, lonely and solitary, speaking to no
+one, and never leaving her room except by night. After sunset she would
+go to the Turk's Hill, where she remained till morning dawned on the far
+plain.
+
+Some months passed in this manner. Akosh and Vilma (now his loving wife)
+were walking on a fine evening in June to the Turk's Hill, when they
+were startled by a female voice, singing the words of the psalm:--
+
+    "Oh that to me the wings were given,
+      Which bear the turtle to her nest!
+    That I might cleave the vaults of heaven,
+      And flee away, and be at rest!"
+
+Vilma knew the singer.
+
+Early next morning, when the peasants went to their work in the fields,
+they found a woman lying on her face, close to the Turk's Hill, on the
+spot where Viola had breathed his last.
+
+They tried to wake her, but they could not. Susi slept, never to wake
+again!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My work is done; and nothing now remains but to say adieu to my readers.
+But before I close this book, let me turn to the boundless plain of my
+country, and to the scene of the joys and sorrows of my youth, to the
+banks of the yellow Theiss! There is a beauty in the mountains; there is
+a charm in the broad waters of the Danube: but to me there is a rapture
+in the thought of the pride of Hungary,--her _green plain_! It extends,
+boundless as the ocean; it has nothing to fetter our view but the deep
+blue canopy of Heaven. No brown chain of mountains surrounds it; no
+ice-covered peaks are gilded by the rays of the rising sun!
+
+Plain of Hungary! Thy luxuriant vegetation withers where it stands; thy
+rivers flow in silence among their reed-covered banks: Nature has denied
+thee the grandeur of mountain scenery, the soft beauty of the valley,
+and the majestic shade of the forest, and the wayfaring man who
+traverses thee will not, in later years, think of one _single_ beauty
+which reminds him of thee; but he will never forget the awe he felt when
+he stood admiring thy vastness; when the rising sun poured his golden
+light on thee; or when, in the sultry hours of noon, the _Fata Morgana_
+covered thy shadeless expanse with flowery lakes of fresh swelling
+waters, like the scorched-up land's dream of the sea which covered it,
+before the waters of the Danube had forced their way through the rocks
+of the _Iron Gate_; or at night, when darkness was spread over the
+silent heath, when the stars were bright in the sky, and the herdsmen's
+fires shone over the plain, and when all was so still that the breeze of
+the evening came to the wanderer's ears, sighing amidst the high grass.
+And what was the feeling which filled his breast in such moments? It
+was perhaps less distinct than the sensations which the wonders of
+Alpine scenery caused in him; but it was grander still, for thou, too,
+boundless Plain of my country, thou, too, art more grand than the
+mountains of this earth. A peer art thou of the unmeasured ocean,
+deep-coloured and boundless like the sea, imparting a freer pulsation to
+the heart, extending onward, and far as the eye can reach!
+
+Vast Plain, thou art the image of my people. Hopeful, but solitary; thou
+art made to bless generations by the profuseness of thy wealth. The
+energies which God gave thee are still slumbering; and the centuries
+which have passed over thee have departed without seeing the day of thy
+gladness! But thy genius, though hidden, is mighty within thee! Thy very
+weeds, in their profusion, proclaim thy fertility; and there is a boding
+voice in my heart which tells me that the great time is at hand. Plain
+of my country, mayst thou flourish! and may the people flourish which
+inhabit thee! Happy he who sees the day of thy glory; and happy those
+whose present affliction is lightened by the consciousness that they are
+devoting their energies to prepare the way for that better time which is
+sure to come!
+
+
+
+
+NOTES TO VOL. III.
+
+
+NOTE I.
+
+KITCHEN-PRISONER.
+
+In all matters of internal management, the Hungarian prisons have always
+been arranged on the self-supporting system. While the service of the
+house, the feeding and airing, and the discipline, were in the hands of
+the haiduks, who acted as turnkeys, the meaner work was done by the
+prisoners. A few of them were always chosen to clean the wards and
+cellars, to sweep the yard, to cook the prisoners' dinners, and (not
+unfrequently) to assist the servants of those among the magistrates who
+occupied chambers in the county-house. The men who were used for this
+kind of work were called "_kitchen-prisoners_;" and as the occupation
+was not only a distinction but also a means of making them comfortable,
+the post was eagerly competed for. So accustomed were the magistrates to
+see certain functions discharged by prisoners instead of by free men,
+that once upon a time, when not a single evil-doer was confined in the
+county gaol of Wieselburg, and when the haiduks refused to sweep, char,
+and cook, such occupations being "_infra dig._," the worshipful
+magistrates assembled, and, for the purpose of putting an end to so
+disgraceful a state of things, resolved to _hire a prisoner_, meaning
+thereby the engaging of a person who, for a certain pecuniary
+consideration, would condescend to act as servant to the turnkeys. This
+resolution was carried out, and the man whom they engaged was ever
+afterwards designated by the name of "_The hired kitchen-prisoner_."
+
+
+NOTE II.
+
+AGONY.
+
+The Hungarian criminal law held that the moral sufferings of a culprit
+on the eve of execution are quite as severe a punishment as death
+itself. Hence, if a culprit was hanged, and the rope broke, he was
+usually released. A free pardon was also granted to those whom the
+headsman failed to kill in three blows. If a culprit escaped, the
+circumstance that he had been ordered to be executed, and that he had
+suffered "_the agonies_," was a great point in his favour whenever he
+was recaptured and brought to trial.
+
+
+NOTE III.
+
+URBARIUM.
+
+Whatever travellers and politicians may have asserted to the contrary,
+Hungary has not, for many years back, known any privileges of race. Her
+social and legislative distinctions were founded on _class privileges_.
+In the very first year of her history we find, indeed, a distinction
+between a governing and a governed race. When Arpad invaded the country,
+his companions and the aborigines who joined him were free. But the
+majority of the Slowaks, who opposed him, were defeated and reduced to
+servitude. The number of the serfs was increased by the frequent
+predatory excursions into Southern Germany, Greece, and Upper Italy, in
+which the followers of Arpad indulged, and from which they returned with
+treasures, cattle, and captives. The latter remained as bondsmen on
+Hungarian soil.
+
+When St. Stephen, king of Hungary, induced his people to embrace the
+Christian faith (in the year 1000), all Christians, even the serfs, and
+all converts to Christianity, became free men; but all heathens were
+reduced to, and remained in, servitude. Hence many nationalities were
+emancipated, while part of the original Magyars became serfs. This is
+the origin of the Hungarian _peasantry_.
+
+In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the Hungarian
+peasant had ceased to be a serf. He was merely "_glebae adscriptus_," and
+bound to a _robot_; that is to say, he was compelled to work for two
+days each week for the benefit of the lord of the soil. In return, a
+certain portion of land (from thirty to forty acres) was ceded to him,
+and he was compelled to pay tithes to the church. The landlord had no
+right to remove him from his _cession_.
+
+In the fourteenth century, the _robot_, or labour rent, was increased,
+and the peasantry were moreover obliged to give one ninth of their
+harvests to the landlord, but, on the other hand, they were freed from
+military service. The noblemen, or, more justly speaking, the franklins,
+alone defended the country against foreign invasions. At a later period,
+when the Turkish wars commenced, the attacks of that hardy, numerous,
+and warlike race, placed Hungary in great jeopardy, and the franklins,
+awed and terrified beyond measure, summoned the peasants to defend the
+country. A law was passed compelling twenty _cessions_ to produce,
+equip, and maintain in the field _one_ soldier; and the men who were
+thus raised were called _hussars_, from _hus_, which means twenty. The
+derivation of the name was of course speedily forgotten; and in later
+years the Hungarian cavalry used to boast that they were called
+_hussars_ because each man of them was a match for twenty.[36]
+
+[Footnote 36: The nickname of the Hungarian infantry was Cherepai, or
+double dealers, because it was asserted that in the exchange of
+prisoners, two Turks were given for one Hungarian foot-soldier.]
+
+In the year 1512, Cardinal Bakatsh, the archbishop of Gran, thought
+proper to preach a crusade against the Turks, and to exhort the
+peasantry to rally round the standard of the cross. They obeyed the call
+with great readiness, but once assembled and in arms, they advanced some
+new and dangerous doctrines. Property, they said, ought to be equally
+divided. No one was entitled to one inch more of ground than his
+neighbour. They protested that they saw no necessity for lords and
+magnates, and as for the king, they put him down as a luxury. Their cry
+was that Hungary was large enough for all to live in plenty, if the land
+were equally divided. For the furtherance of their doctrine, and for the
+purpose of giving a practical proof of their thesis, "that there was
+room and plenty for all," they attacked and slaughtered, not the Turks,
+but their landlords, and all other opponents of their fraternal
+democracy. Some priests who joined them directed their destructive
+fanaticism against the church, and, under the cry of religious and
+political liberty, all ecclesiastical and secular government was
+declared to be vicious and damnable.
+
+This insurrection was at its height, when the franklins and magnates of
+Hungary assembled under John Zapolya (afterwards King John), the
+Voyewode of Transylvania. A war of extermination commenced, and the
+forces of the fraternal democrats were eventually routed in a fierce
+battle, which was fought near Szegedin. Their leader, George Dozsa, fell
+into the hands of John Zapolya, who ordered him to be placed on a
+red-hot iron throne, while his temples were scorched by an iron crown.
+The other leaders of the insurrection were hanged, broken on the wheel,
+and quartered. The Diet, which assembled immediately afterwards,
+declared that the peasants had forfeited all their rights. They were
+degraded to the state of serfs, _ad perpetuam rusticitatem_; that is to
+say, they could never purchase their emancipation, and rise to the
+estate of citizens or franklins.
+
+Fifty years later, we find some laws which prove that this cruel decree
+was "more honoured in the breach than the observance." The peasants have
+returned to their robot of two days each week; but nevertheless their
+condition is extremely precarious, for the law of the land is still
+against them, and whatever privileges they enjoy, they hold them, not by
+right, but by indulgence.
+
+In 1715 occurs the first introduction of a standing army and of war
+taxes. The landowners refused to pay these taxes, because they
+protested that, as they were the proprietors of the land, and as every
+burden on the peasant was a burden on his landlord, it followed that all
+that the peasants paid was in reality paid by them, and that to tax
+peasant and landlord meant no more than taxing the latter twice. The war
+taxes were consequently paid by the peasantry. But as these taxes rested
+and depended on the tenure of the peasants, the government considered
+itself entitled to protect them against the encroachments of the
+landowners, and to establish them irrevocably in their _cessions_.
+
+In 1764, the Empress Maria Theresa proposed a law to the Diet regulating
+and determining the duties and rights of the peasantry. The Diet found
+fault with the details of the bill, and rejected it. The Empress
+convoked no other Diet, but, deviating from the course of the law, she
+decreed that the bill should be enforced throughout Hungary by means of
+Royal Commissioners. The Estates of Hungary demurred against this
+decree, not only because the clauses of the bill were utterly
+impracticable, but also because the interference of Royal Commissioners
+was a source of great annoyance to the Hungarian magistrates and landed
+proprietors. The Hungarian Chancery and the Home Office supported the
+Diet in the question of details, because it was impossible to make one
+rule suffice for the whole country. One councillor only, M. Izdenczy,
+declared that the thing could be done, and he volunteered to prepare the
+code, if the Empress consented to let him have an unlimited quantity of
+Tokay from her cellars. His wish was complied with, and he undertook and
+finished his gigantic task in the year 1771. His code was that very
+year introduced throughout Hungary under the name of _Urbarium_.
+
+Izdenczy's work has a strong resemblance to the Doomsday Book. Every
+village within the Hungarian countries and crownlands has its own
+Urbarium put down in it, stating the number of cessions, and describing
+the various tenures, burdens, and local rights (right of wood and
+turf-cutting, of pasturage, &c.) of the peasants.
+
+The next Diet met in 1790, and memorialised the Crown about the _manner_
+in which the law had been introduced; but no complaints were made of the
+law itself, which obtained a provisional ratification under the
+condition of a future revision. But the French wars compelled the Diet
+to devote all its energies to matters of greater urgency, viz. to the
+defence and preservation of the House of Hapsburg. At a later period the
+subject would have been resumed but for the necessity under which the
+Hungarians were to struggle for their constitution against the attacks
+of the Emperor Francis; but still the revision of the Urbarium, though
+long delayed, was at length finished in 1836 and 1839. The revised work
+was far more liberal than the Urbarium of Maria Theresa: it tended to
+equalise the rights and duties of the peasants; and its leading
+principle was, that in no single case the condition of the peasantry
+should be harder than it was in the most favoured localities in the
+times of Maria Theresa. Exceptional rights were thus made general;
+emancipation was henceforth possible, and attainable even by common
+energy and industry. But the act of the free and unfettered emancipation
+was voted by the Diet of 1848, on the motion and by the influence of M.
+Kossuth, who, while he abolished the Urbarium, induced the Diet likewise
+to provide for the indemnification of the landowners. The present
+emperor of Austria has revoked all the laws of 1848; but he did not
+venture to repeal the Emancipation Bill. Nothing has, indeed, transpired
+as to what the Austrian government proposes to do respecting the
+indemnification of the landed proprietors.
+
+
+NOTE IV.
+
+TRIPARTITUM.
+
+Hungary had at no time a systematic code of civil laws, although several
+jurists attempted to codify the Hungarian common law and the cases in
+which it was modified by statutes. Their zeal was great, for, from the
+earliest times, the Hungarian lawyers found it necessary to protect
+their institutions against the encroachments of the royal prerogative,
+which were the more frequent and formidable as several of the kings were
+not only princes in Hungary, but also sovereigns of other countries.
+Sigismund, for instance, was emperor of Germany, and king of Bohemia and
+Hungary. Uladislaw I. ruled over Poland and Hungary; while Ladislaw
+Posthumus, Uladislaw II., and Louis II., united the two crowns of
+Bohemia and Hungary. At length Uladislaw II., who was a weak prince, and
+who was nicknamed _Doborze_, from his habit of saying "Well! well!" to
+everything which happened, consented to the urgent entreaties of the
+Diet that the common law should be codified; and _Verboetzi_, the leader
+of the opposition and a good lawyer, was instructed to compile a code
+of laws. He published his work under the title of "_Opus Tripartitum
+juris Hungarici_."
+
+Verboetzi was afterwards appointed to the post of Palatine; but he was
+overthrown by a junta of magnates, because they considered him as a
+radical and a friend to the _bourgeoisie_. They protested that his work
+was injurious to their privileges. Before the Tripartitum could be
+submitted to the Diet, King Louis II. (Uladislaw's successor) died in
+the battle of Mohatsh (1526). His death was the cause of a war of
+succession between King John Zapolya, Prince of Grosswarasdin, and King
+Ferdinand of Hapsburg. Verboetzi, who exerted himself on King John's
+behalf, and who was banished by King Ferdinand, took refuge with the
+Turks, who appointed him to the post of Cadi for the Christian
+inhabitants of the district of Buda, where he eventually died. After his
+death, the work of the exiled outlaw became the highest authority of
+Hungarian jurisprudence and the standard of common law. It was never
+formally enacted by the Diets; but as the kings of Austrian extraction
+considered the Tripartitum as injurious to the privileges of the Crown,
+they compiled another code of laws, which they published under the name
+of "_Quadripartitum_" and in which they set forth and enlarged upon the
+royal prerogatives. But the Quadripartitum was rejected by the Diet, who
+thus acknowledged the authority of Verboetzi's Tripartitum, which since
+that time has not only been considered as law, but as an integral part
+of the constitution; and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we
+meet with various statutes of the Diet, interpreting or repealing
+certain paragraphs of the Tripartitum.
+
+The most important parts of the Tripartitum are those treating of the
+rights of the nobility (Trip. part i. ch. 4-9.); part ii. chap. 3., "Qui
+possint condere leges et statuta;" and part iii. chap. 2. "Utrum
+quilibet populus vel comitatus possit per se condere statuta."
+
+The theory of voting in Verboetzi's work is extraordinary in its way. He
+has a maxim that the votes are to be weighed and not counted ("non
+numeranda sed ponderanda"), and consequently he speaks of a "pars
+sanior" of the community, and defends his doctrine by the following
+reasoning:--
+
+"Verum si populus (_i. e._ nobilitas, part ii. ch. 4.) in duas
+divideretur partes, tunc constitutio _sanioris_ et potioris partis
+valet. Sanior et potior pars autem ilia dicitur, in qua _dignitate_ et
+_scientia_ fuerint _praestantiores_ atque _notabiliores_"--Verboetzi,
+Trip. part iii. ch. 8. s. 2.
+
+Among the numerous peculiarities of the work, we find "capital
+punishment with a vengeance" (poena mortis cum exasperatione) pronounced
+against those who maliciously kill any member of the Diet in the course
+of the session.
+
+"Praemissorum nihilominus malitiosi sub Diaeta occisores aut occidi
+procurantes praevia tamen citatione _poena mortis cum exasperatione_
+condemnentur."
+
+Another obsolete punishment is that of making a man an "Aukarius." It is
+provided by law that the slanderers of magistrates shall be condemned to
+the "poena infamiae;" and, in explanation of this punishment, we learn
+that the culprit shall be made "ut omni humanitate exuatur." He is
+struck with what the Code Napoleon would term "mort civile," and, in
+token of his condemnation, a _rope_ is tied round the culprit's body
+(the rope being the mark of infamy, which monks wear to show that they
+have resigned the pomps and vanities of this wicked world), and as the
+sentence is being publicly read to him, a _goose_ is placed into his
+hands. The Hungarian word for goose is _oeke_, and from thence the Latin
+name of the person so treated is _Aukarius_.
+
+
+NOTE V.
+
+HAIDUKS ON HORSEBACK.
+
+The hussars are the Hungarian cavalry, while the haiduks or pandurs are
+foot-soldiers. Both hussars and pandurs act as county police. Whenever
+the _statarium_ was proclaimed in any county, the _persecutor_, or chief
+of the county police, was instructed to provide horses for a reasonable
+number of haiduks, and to send them in quest of robbers.
+
+
+
+
+END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW,
+New-street-Square.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally published in three
+volumes, without a table of contents. The title pages for the second and
+third volumes have been omitted, and a table of contents has been
+created for this electronic edition. Also, the following typographical
+errors present in the original edition have been corrected.
+
+In the Preface, "attempted to pourtray" was changed to "attempted to
+portray".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter IV, "Had it not been for the younker Akosh" was
+changed to "Had it not been for the younger Akosh".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter V, a period was added after "know him as I know
+him", "gave Mr. Kislaki to understand" was changed to "gave Mr. Kishlaki
+to understand", and "Baron Shoskuti; and Mr. Kriver, the recorder" was
+changed to "Baron Shoskuty; and Mr. Kriver, the recorder".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter VI, a quotation mark was added after "the same as
+they were before".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter VII, a period was added after "afraid for their
+money".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter VIII, "an argument on Vetsoeshi's abilities" was
+changed to "an argument on Vetshoesy's abilities".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter X, "Dont stand losing your time" was changed to
+"Don't stand losing your time".
+
+In Volume I, Chapter XI, "his wife---- can" was changed to "his
+wife----can", and a quotation mark was added before "I didn't think I
+could be happier".
+
+In Volume II, Chapter II, a quotation mark was added before "Od's
+wounds!".
+
+In Volume II, Chapter III, "its not a gentleman's carriage" was changed
+to "it's not a gentleman's carriage", "an iron gripe" was changed to "an
+iron grip", and "Even Messrs Skinner and Catspaw" was changed to "Even
+Messrs. Skinner and Catspaw".
+
+In Volume II, Chapter V, "if Mr. Skinner's likes it better" was changed
+to "if Mr. Skinner likes it better", "be took another parcel" was
+changed to "he took another parcel", a period was added after "still
+smiling", "as Skoskuty called it" was changed to "as Shoskuty called
+it", "a resolulution to that effect" was changed to "a resolution to
+that effect", and "sighed Kisklaki" was changed to "sighed Kishlaki".
+
+In Volume II, Chapter VIII, "to keep them sober" was changed to "To keep
+them sober".
+
+In Volume II, Chapter X, "knew to be an accessary" was changed to "knew
+to be an accessory".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter I, "Do not distress youselves" was changed to "Do
+not distress yourselves".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter II, a quotation mark was added after "nothing can
+be easier to Mr. Tengelyi".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter III, "the keeper of Dustbury goal allowed each
+prisoner" was changed to "the keeper of Dustbury gaol allowed each
+prisoner", "hade made the cold" was changed to "had made the cold", and
+"utterly digusted with this resolution" was changed to "utterly
+disgusted with this resolution".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter V, a period was added after "retorted Rety", and
+"not allowed to, abandon her" was changed to "not allowed to abandon
+her".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter VI, "said Jonash, shaking his head" was changed
+to "said Janosh, shaking his head".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter VIII, a quotation mark was added before "Is there
+no means of salvation?".
+
+In Volume III, Chapter IX, "It's true I havn't seen him" was changed to
+"It's true I haven't seen him", and "dotted with flocks and herds of
+cattle and and horses" was changed to "dotted with flocks and herds of
+cattle and horses".
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Village Notary, by Jozsef Eoetvoes
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