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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36816-8.txt b/36816-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f783e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/36816-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3471 @@ +Project Gutenberg's King Matthias and the Beggar Boy, by Nicholas Jósika + +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: King Matthias and the Beggar Boy + +Author: Nicholas Jósika + +Illustrator: R. Hope + +Translator: Selina Gaye + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36816] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY] + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. + + + + +[Illustration: "Come here, gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear." Page +66.] + + + + +[Illustration: KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. T. Nelson & Sons] + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY + +ADAPTED FROM THE HUNGARIAN OF BARON NICHOLAS JÓSIKA + +BY SELINA GAYE + +Author of "Ilka: The Captive Maiden," "Dickie Winton," &c. &c. + +[Illustration] + +T. NELSON AND SONS +London, Edinburgh, and New York + +1902 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE, 9 + II. MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY, 21 + III. "TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!" 32 + IV. IN THE ROBBER'S NEST, 42 + V. CAUGHT, 53 + VI. I AM THE KING'S PAGE! 68 + VII. SENT TO PRISON, 80 + VIII. THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG, 94 + IX. THE KING'S WHIM, 109 + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE. + + +Towards the close of a gloomy day in autumn, a very dusty traveller was +riding quietly up to a castle which stood perched on a height in one of +the northern counties of Hungary. A very extraordinary-looking castle it +was, if it was a castle at all, which one might be inclined to doubt; +for it looked more like a square block hewn by giants out of the ribs of +the mountain, and left to itself for centuries, until its walls had +become mouldy and moss-grown. One thing which gave it an odd appearance +was that, as far as could be seen, it had no roof; the fact being that +it was built round a quadrangle, and that the roof, or rather +half-roof, sloped downwards and inwards from the top of the outer walls. + +But what was even more remarkable still was that the building had +neither door nor window in any one of its four sides; so that how the +inhabitants, if there were any, ever went in or out, was quite a +mystery. + +People had had a good deal to say about the owner of this extraordinary +stronghold for many a year past, and all sorts of wild stories were told +of him. But no one but his own hired servants and men-at-arms had ever +set eyes upon him--so far as they knew, that is to say. + +Neither he nor his servants were ever to be seen coming or going, and +how they managed was quite unknown; but for all that they made their +presence felt, and very unpleasantly felt too. + +The man on horseback had drawn nearer by this time, and was gazing up at +the huge pile, scanning it carefully, but quite unable to discover so +much as a chink or cranny in the grey, weather-beaten walls. + +At last he shook his head and said with a smile, "Why, the castle is in +such a strong position and so well fortified that it must be almost +impregnable! But of course it is inhabited, and the inhabitants are +human beings, not demons; and wherever human beings can dwell, human +beings must also be able to enter. + +"Well, I am here at last! and little enough Mr. Samson guesses what +manner of visitor has come so close to his hiding-place. I am glad I +came, for it is always best to see with one's own eyes. And now that I +am here, the next thing is how to get in. Let us look and consider. No +use," he continued, after a moment or two; "I can't think of any way. If +I could only see some one, a living creature of some sort, to make +inquiries of! Nonsense! I'll wager I know more about the nest than any +one hereabouts. + +"But still, I have been six hours on horseback, and as far as the eye +can see there is no wayside inn or public-house or even farm-house in +sight, and a man can't help being tired even if he be a vice-count--or +more! Well, let's be going on," he went on, putting his horse once more +in motion. + +The young man before us was of middle height and strongly built, with +fiery dark eyes, and curly chestnut hair; he was very plainly clad, and +his horse was no better caparisoned than if it had belonged to some son +of the _puszta_, or steppes. + +Quietly, and with eyes and ears both on the alert, he rode round the +height on which the fortress stood. + +"If I don't see anything," he said to himself with a laugh, "they don't +see me; let's be off! + +"Eh, and yet I should be glad if I could come across a human being of +some sort, if he were no bigger than the rowel of my spur.--Hi! hi +there, _földi_ [countryman]," cried the horseman all at once, as he +caught sight of some one trudging along the road round the shoulder of +the hill. + +The wayfarer thus addressed turned and came up to him, and as soon as he +was within speaking distance he said in humble tones, "_Uram_ [sir], I +am hungry; I have not eaten a morsel to-day. Have pity on me, +_kegyelmed_[1] [your grace]." + +[Footnote 1: A common form of polite address in Hungarian.] + +Then he cast a glance, not altogether devoid of envy, at the dainty +horseman, who was so comfortably clad, and who looked, to judge by his +countenance, as if his hunger had been well satisfied. + +"Here," said the rider, giving the beggar a small coin; for the boy +attracted him, and he thought to himself that he could hardly ever +remember to have seen a face with such a peculiarly taking expression. +Moreover, in spite of the mud and dirt with which his skin was +incrusted, it was impossible not to be struck by his fine features, +which were of a purely Oriental type, and lighted up by a pair of large +dark eyes as black as the raven's wing. + +The man on horseback had given the lad a trifle on the spur of the +moment, because he looked so poverty-stricken; but a second glance made +him fancy, rightly or wrongly, that he was not a beggar of the common +sort, to whom people give careless alms because he stirs their pity for +the moment. This beggar excited something more and better than mere +pity--at least in the man before us. Some people, it is true, might not +have noticed the expression of the lad's face; but to those who had eyes +it told of something more than poverty and distress. It was not the look +of the beggar who is content to be a beggar, who would rather beg than +work, rather live upon others than labour for himself. One might almost +fancy, indeed, that the lad was ashamed of his present plight, and +rather indignant with things in general for not providing him with some +better employment. + +The horseman was one well accustomed to reading character, and rarely +mistaken in his judgment; and being touched as well as favourably +impressed by the boy, it suddenly occurred to him that he might be +turned to account. + +"Just answer me a few questions, my boy, will you?" said he. "Can you +write?" + +"No, I can't; I have never had any teaching." + +And, indeed, writing was a by no means general accomplishment in the +reign of the good King Matthias, when many of the first nobles in the +land could not even sign their own names. But still there seem to have +been elementary schools not only in the towns but in other places as +well, so that the question was not altogether unreasonable. + +"Then you can't read either?" + +"Of course not; as if it were likely!" + +"Have you ever been in service?" + +"Never, sir, thank Heaven; but I have worked as a day-labourer." + +"Why don't you turn soldier?" + +"Because my head is worth more than my arms," said the beggar: "besides, +they wouldn't take such a ragged chap as I." + +"Are you to be trusted, I wonder?" + +The boy looked up at the speaker at this, and then answered with an air +of wounded pride, "I have not had a good meal for a fortnight, yet I +have not stolen so much as a plum from a tree. You may trust me with a +purse full of money." + +"Well, _öcsém_[2] [little brother], it is possible you may be a regular +rascal, for anything I know to the contrary at present; but you have a +good face, and I should like to see such a head as yours on many a pair +of shoulders which are covered with gold and marten-fur. Well, I don't +care! I am going to trust a good pair of eyes and a clear forehead. +Listen, boy. I like you. Stand here before me, and let me see what you +have got in you, gossip! for if you hold good measure, you have been +born under a lucky star, I can tell you." + +[Footnote 2: A common way of addressing younger persons.] + +"You can amuse yourself in return for the money you have given me," said +the boy, looking repeatedly at his gift; "you may take my measure as +much as you like, and I will be looking at the horse meantime. Ah! you +are a lucky man to have such a horse as that. How he snorts! and his +eyes flash as if he were Játos[3] himself." + +[Footnote 3: A magic horse.] + +"Boy!" said the horseman, who looked as if he were at least a +vice-count--"boy, you are up to the mark so far; there is room for good +measure in you, and a few pints over! But, _koma_ [gossip], I have +often seen a good-looking cask full of nothing but bad, sour wine. Let +us see whether you hold one full measure." + +"One measure?" said the beggar, offended. "I shouldn't be my father's +son if my wretched skin did not cover a man of a hundred measures, +especially when I have had a good dinner. It's a couple of weeks now +since I have had a stomachful when I lay down at night." + +"My little brother," said the horseman, "a fellow who is ruled by his +stomach is not worth a farthing. You have lost three measures out of +your cask by that foolish speech." + +"Ha," said the beggar boldly, "my stomach grumbles badly, and it is no +joke when it goes on for long. However, it's no wonder you can't guess +what it feels like to be hungry, for I daresay you are a hall-porter, or +even maybe a poultry-dealer, and such people as those are always well +fed." + +The horseman laughed. "You have got the cow's udder between its horns +now, koma; but whatever and whoever I may be, I am a great man while my +purse is full, and so listen to me. Do you see that castle there?" + +"To be sure." + +"Have you ever been inside?" + +"Well, to be sure, I am well off, I am! but may the Tatars catch me, if +I would take my teeth in there!" + +"Hm!--and why?" + +"Why?" asked the beggar, considering; "I really can't tell you. But what +should take me there? Besides--well, they say it is inhabited by demons, +and that they live on Jews' flesh. The Jews are constantly going there, +just as if they had been invited to dinner; but they get eaten up." + +"Simple Stevie of Debreczin!"[4] cried the horseman. "Do you believe +such nonsense?" + +[Footnote 4: "Simple Stevie" is said to have been a student in the +college of Debreczin, where he was notorious for his simplicity.] + +The beggar grinned. "What would you have?" said he. "People say a great +many things of all sorts, and a fellow like me just believes and +blunders along with the rest! If His Grace in there does live on Jews' +flesh, I wish him good health; but for my own part I had rather have a +little bit of chicken than roast Jew." + +"Now, boy, listen. Just look there," began the horseman again: "if you +can get into that castle and bring me word again how the world wags +there, you shall have a hundred gold ducats in your hand." + +"A hundred ducats!" cried the beggar. "Why, I could buy a whole county +with that, surely!" + +"Not so much as that, little brother," said the rider; "but still it is +a great deal of money!" + +"And who will give it me?" asked the beggar, looking eagerly at the +horseman. + +"I myself," he answered. "But I am slow to believe people, and so I want +first to know whether I can trust you." + +The boy still had his eyes turned towards the castle. "Thunder!" said he +presently, "the devil himself doesn't get in there by the proper way. +But just wait a moment, sir, and let me think a little. So they don't +live on Jews' flesh in there, eh, sir?" + +"To be sure not! I fancy they live on something better than that." + +"But still the Jews do go in and out--at least so people say, and what +is in everybody's mouth is half true at all events." + +"Right; but what then?" + +"Why, I'll be a Jew, and go in, if they don't eat people up." + +"But how?" + +"I don't know yet. Give me a little time, or I shall not be able to hit +upon it." + +"Of course. And now listen. Before I trust you blindly, I am going to +prove you." He drew a sealed letter from his breast, wrote a few lines +on the back with a pencil, and went on: "See this letter? Make haste +with it to Visegrád; ask for admission, and say merely that you have +brought the governor a letter from his son. Do you quite understand? But +I don't know your name; what is it?" + +"Tornay Mihály [Michael Tornay]," answered the boy; and then went on, "I +see! what is there difficult about that? I quite understand: you are the +son of the governor of Visegrád, and you are sending a letter to your +father." + +"Right!" said the horseman. "You will come straight on to Buda with the +answer, and ask at the palace for Mr. Galeotti, and give it into his +hands. You won't forget the name?" + +"Galeotti," repeated the boy. "But will they let me in, in such rags?" + +"You will get proper clothes and a horse in Visegrád." + +"A horse!" exclaimed the boy, his eyes sparkling. "I have never done +anything more than help a coachman to swim his horses now and then, and +now I shall have a horse myself!" + +"For service, gossip; and don't you go off with it!" + +The beggar's face was all aflame. "Am I a horse-stealer," he cried, +"just because your elbows don't show through your dolmány, while my +clothes are so full of holes that twenty cats together would not be able +to catch one mouse in them?" + +"Don't be angry," said the horseman, who was more and more pleased with +the boy every moment. "Here, as a sign that I put more trust in some +people's faces than I do in other people's written word--here is a purse +of money. And now hurry off; you have no time to lose. The sooner you +bring back the answer, the more faith I shall have in you." + +The boy stared at the purse, and being very hungry, poor fellow, it +seemed to him to be full of ham and sausage. + +"You must be an estate-manager," he gasped, "or--a bishop, to have so +much money." + +"What does that matter to you?" answered the horseman. "Make haste, and +I shall see whether you are a man of your word." + +The lad raised his tattered cap, and the next moment he was out of +sight. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY. + + +The beggar boy stopped for a moment to roll the purse up carefully in a +rag, and to put it and the letter away in the pocket of his dilapidated +old jacket. This done he ran on again quickly. + +But he was hungry, desperately hungry, famishing--his eyes were starting +out of his head; and though he had been much cheered by the liberal +present he had received, a good hunch of bread would really have been +worth a hundred times as much to him just at this moment. He could think +of nothing but the nearest wayside inn. + +People who have never known what it is to be more than just hungry +enough to have a good appetite, have no idea what the pangs of hunger +are, nor what keen pain it is to be actually starving. + +Never in his life had he felt such an intense craving as he did now for +a plate of hot food and a draught of good wine. He had to summon up all +his failing strength, or he would have been quite exhausted before he +caught sight of the first roof away in the distance. But when he did +catch sight of it, though it was still far off, it put new life into +him; and as he hurried on, he could think of nothing but the meal he was +going to have. What a sumptuous dinner he gave himself in imagination! +It was like a dream without an end, too good to be believed. + +At last he stood before the little inn. The chimney was smoking away +merrily, and his mouth positively watered as he turned towards the +signboard. + +All at once, however, he came to a dead halt, struck by a sudden +thought. + +For a few moments his feet seemed to be rooted to the ground; then he +muttered to himself, "Didn't that good gentleman, who has made a rich +man of me, say that the business he entrusted me with was of importance, +and that he was in a hurry about it? This is the first important thing I +have ever been trusted with; and the gentleman was so honourable, and +put such confidence in me, and I want to sit down to a feast! It is six +months since a drop of wine has touched my lips, and the devil never +goes to sleep: I might drink myself as drunk as a dog!" + +His right foot was still turned towards the inn, and his eyes were +adoringly fixed on the beautiful blue smoke issuing from the chimney. He +felt just as if he were bound hand and foot, and a dozen horses were all +tugging at him, dragging him to the wineshop. + +"I _won't_ go!" said he to himself, sadly but firmly. "It's not the +first time I have known what it is to be hungry for twenty-four hours; +and he is in a hurry--it's important business." + +With that he stepped up to the entrance of the low white house, daring +himself, as it were, to go any further, asked for some bread, which he +paid for and began to devour at once, drank a good draught of water from +the well-bucket, and then ran on as if the Tatars were at his heels, or +as if he were afraid to trust himself any longer in such a dangerous +neighbourhood. + +No royal banquet could have been more delicious than that hunch of dry +bread seemed to him, and something in the beggar boy's heart cheered him +more than even the best Tokay would have done. + +"Miska,[5] you're a man!" he said to himself. "I shall soon be in +Visegrád, where I shall feast like a lord. I don't know how it is, but +I declare I feel better satisfied with this bit of bread than if I had +eaten a whole yard of sausage." + +[Footnote 5: Short for Mihály = Michael.] + +But Visegrád was still a long way off--long, that is, when the journey +had to be made on foot; for the castle stood on a hill on the Danube, +just where the river makes a sudden bend to the south. On the hillside, +under the wing of the old fortress, stood a palace built by one of the +former kings of Hungary, which is said to have been equal in splendour +to Versailles or any other of the most magnificent palaces of Europe; +for with its three hundred and fifty rooms it could accommodate two +kings, several foreign dukes and marquises, with their respective +suites, all at the same time. + +The floor of the great hall was paved with valuable mosaics, the ceiling +was adorned with Italian frescoes, and the gardens, with their musical +fountains, brilliant flower-beds, and marble statues, were declared to +be a faithful imitation of the hanging gardens of Babylon! + +But Miska's business was with the castle, not the palace; and at last, +after a journey which was becoming every hour more and more wearisome, +he beheld it rising before him in the distance. It looked, indeed, as if +it were but a little way off, so clear was the air; but Miska had lived +an out-of-door life too long to be easily deceived in such matters, and +he took advantage of the next little wayside inn to buy more bread and +get another draught of cool water to help him on his way. + +By the time he reached the hill his strength was failing fast, and it +was all that he could do to drag himself up past Robert-Charles's palace +to the high-perched castle. + +When at last he had been admitted and had given the letter into the +governor's own hands, he dropped down in a fainting fit, and was carried +off to the stables. + +He was not long in coming to himself, however, and as soon as he was +sufficiently recovered he had a feast "fit for a king," as he said; +though he steadily refused to touch a drop of the wine which was brought +to him. + +The whole time he was eating he kept his eyes fixed on the beautiful +horses, wondering which one he should have to ride; and more than once +he sent an urgent message to the governor, begging him to let him have +the answer to the letter which he was to take to Buda. + +"All in good time," said the governor placidly. "He shall be called +presently, tell him, when it is time for him to start." + +So Miska had nothing for it but to rest in the stable, which was +pleasant enough; for where is the Hungarian, old or young, who does not +love a horse? Moreover, he was very tired after his long tramp, and +presently, in spite of his impatience to be off, he fell into a doze. + +He was still dozing comfortably when the sound of a horn roused him. + +There was a rush to the castle-gate, and when it was opened, a young +man, plainly dressed and alone, rode into the courtyard, where the +governor hastened to greet him with affectionate respect. For the +newcomer, the horseman whose acquaintance we made outside Mr. Samson's +castle, was no other than King Matthias himself. + +"Has my messenger, the beggar boy, arrived?" he asked briskly. + +"He is yonder in the stable," said the governor; "he has only just come +in, very faint, and he is urging me to give him a horse already." + +"He is here?" said the king in surprise. "Impossible! I came at a good +pace myself, and set out hardly half an hour after him. Call him here." + +In a few moments the lad was standing in the presence of the great king, +though he was far enough from guessing whom he was talking with. + +"It is you, the horseman?" said Miska. "Well, it is not my fault that I +am still here. I have been urging Mr. Governor enough, I can tell you. I +might have been ever so long on my way by this time, and they haven't +yet changed my rags or given me a horse." + +"Have you had a good feed?" + +"Yes, I have; but I did not dare drink any wine." + +"Why not, gossip?" + +"That's a foolish question," returned the lad calmly, while the governor +turned pale at his audacity. "Why, sir, because it is six months since I +had any, and it would go to my head; and a tipsy messenger is like a +clerk without hands--they both pipe the same tune." + +"Good," said the king, amused. "Then didn't you stop anywhere on the +way? You could hardly lift your feet when you started, and you see I had +not much faith in you, and came after you." + +"Well," said the lad, looking boldly up at Matthias, "to be sure you are +a strong-built chap, and I believe you could swallow Mr. Governor here +if you were angry; but if your eyes had been starting out of your head +with hunger as mine were, I believe you would have been sitting in some +_csárda_ [wayside inn] till now. Stop anywhere? The idea of such a +thing! As if any one who had business needing haste entrusted to him +would think of stopping to rest!" + +"Listen, Miska," said the king. "Would you like to be something better +than you are now?" + +"Hja!" said the beggar, "I might soon be that certainly, for at present +I am not worth even so much as a Jew's harp." + +"Let us hear, gossip; what would you like to be?" + +"Like? Well, really, sir, I have never given it a thought. Hm! what I +should like to be? But then, could it be now--at once?" + +"That depends upon the extent of your wishes; for you might wish to be +governor of Visegrád, and in that case the answer would be, 'Hold in +your greyhounds' [don't be in too much hurry]." + +"I shouldn't care to be governor, to sit here by a good fire keeping +myself warm--though, to be sure, it would be well enough sometimes, +especially in winter, when one has such fine clothes as mine, which just +let the wind in where they should keep it out; but I should like to be +something like that stick on the castle clock which is always moving +backwards and forwards--something that is always on the move." + +"Always on the move!" laughed the king. "Well then, gossip, I'll take +you for my courier; and if you like, you need not keep still a moment." + +"I don't mind!" said Miska joyously. "Then I will be a courier." + +"You will get tired of it, boy. But tell me one thing: do you know +anything?" + +Miska fixed his large eyes on the king. + +"Anything?" he asked, hurt and flushing. "Really, sir, when I come to +consider--thunder!--it seems to me as if I knew just nothing at all!" + +"Then do you wish to learn?" + +"Go to school?" asked Miska; "I don't wish that at all." + +"There is no need for that," said the king; "we will find some other +way. Those who want to learn, can learn without going to school. You +will learn to write and read, which is only play after all to any one +who does not wish to remain a dunce. Do you understand?" + +"I don't mind," said Miska. + +"Well, then," said the king, turning to the governor, "let him be +clothed, and then you can present him." + +Thereupon the king withdrew to his own apartments, where some of the +great nobles were already waiting for him in one of the saloons, and +were not a little surprised to see him appear travel-stained and dusty, +but in the most lively spirits. + +An hour later Miska had had a bath, and had donned a clean shirt and the +becoming livery worn by the royal pages of the second rank. + +The change in his attire had completely metamorphosed him, and now, as +he stood before the king, the latter was more than ever struck by his +face. + +"Listen," said he, fixing his keen eyes attentively on the beggar. "You +have been well fed, and you have been fresh clothed from top to toe. +Now, I don't want you to go to Buda; for you see I am here, and have +seen the governor myself. But you remember what I said to you outside +Mr. Samson's castle? Well, that shall be the first piece of work you do. +I will give you six months, and if you can get inside and bring me word +what goes on there, I'll make a man of you. You shall have money to buy +anything you may want, and a leather knapsack with linen and all you +will want for the journey--for you will have to go on foot. You shall +have a horse some day, never fear, if you turn out as I expect; but it +would only be in your way now. Well, what do you say?" + +The lad knew now that he was in the presence of the king, and Matthias +thought all the more highly of him for the way in which he received his +dangerous commission. He made no hasty promises, but evidently weighed +his words before he spoke. + +"Mr. King," said he (for 'Mr.' is used in Hungary in speaking to any one +of whatever degree, and people say 'Mr. Duke' or 'Mr. Bishop,' as they +do in French)--"Mr. King, God preserve Your Highness, and give you a +thousand times as much as you have given to a poor boy like me. I +vow"--and here the beggar raised his right hand--"I vow that I will do +all I can; and if God keeps me in health and strength, and preserves my +senses, I hope to bring Your Highness news of Mr. Samson six months +hence, in Buda." + +"That's enough," said the king. "Meantime I too shall see what I can do. +I shall give Mr. Samson the chance of mending his ways if he will. God +be with you on your journey, Miska." + +Then putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, he said kindly, "Good-bye, +then, till we meet in Buda." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +"TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!" + + +King Matthias had been elected to the throne of Hungary in 1457, when he +was at most but eighteen years old. But if any of the great nobles +fancied that they were going to do just as they liked with him because +he was so young, they soon found themselves very much mistaken. + +He speedily dismissed the governor who had been appointed to look after +him and the kingdom for the first five years; and having once taken the +reins into his own hands, held them firmly as long as he lived. + +And he had no easy, idle life of it: for what with the Turks and other +enemies, he was very frequently, almost constantly, at war with external +foes; and there was also very much to be done to bring things into order +within the kingdom. He was by no means satisfied to let things go on as +they had been doing. He wanted his people to be educated and +cultivated; for he was highly educated himself, and delighted to +surround himself with learned men and distinguished artists. + +He wanted to have a grand library, a large university, and a learned +society of scholars in Buda, that Hungary might take her place among the +other nations of Europe in the matter of learning. But he wanted also to +improve the condition of trade, arts, and manufactures; and, regardless +of expense, he sent to foreign lands, especially Italy, for +master-craftsmen to come and train the apprentices, whenever he saw that +they needed better teaching than was to be had just then from their +fellow-countrymen. + +Clocks were by no means common articles at this time in other lands, and +the first clock that kept good time in England is said to have been that +set up at Hampton Court many years later--that is, in 1530. But in the +reign of Matthias, clocks made their appearance on many of the castle +towers in Hungary; and, thanks to the king's encouragement and the +energetic measures he took, it was not long before Hungarian craftsmen +became so famous that the Grand Duke of Moscow asked to have goldsmiths, +gun-founders, land-surveyors, miners, architects, and others sent to him +from Hungary. + +But where is the use of arts, crafts, and manufactures--how indeed can +they flourish--where there is a dearth of food? + +What with enemies without and enemies within, there were extensive +districts in some parts of Hungary, and among them some of the royal +domains, which were little better than wildernesses when the king came +to the throne. Villages had been burned down, the inhabitants driven +away, and the land left desolate in many parts; and in order to tempt +the people back, and induce others to come and settle in these deserted +spots, the king caused it to be proclaimed at the fairs that land might +be had rent-free by those who would undertake to cultivate it, and that +for a certain number of years they should be exempt from taxes of all +sorts. + +The king did all he could to induce the great landed nobles to follow +his example in these matters, and to pay more heed to the cultivation of +their property, and to the peasants who laboured for them, than they had +been in the habit of doing. + +One day, so the story goes, he invited a number of distinguished nobles +to dine with him in one of the northerly counties, and when the meal was +ended he distributed among them a number of pick-axes and spades, and +taking one himself, called on them to join him in clearing away the +underwood and digging up the ground. + +The active young king, who was well accustomed to exert himself, worked +away energetically; but the well-fed, self-indulgent lords almost melted +away, the labour made them so hot, and very soon they were completely +exhausted. + +"That's enough, my friends," said the king, observing the state they +were in. "Now we know a little of what it costs the peasants to produce +that which we waste in idleness while they live in poverty. They are +human beings like ourselves, yet we often treat them worse than we do +our horses and dogs." + +The spot where Matthias read his nobles this wholesome lesson is still +pointed out in Gömör. + +But indeed some of them needed sharper teaching than this, and Matthias +did not scruple to give it them. + +Where was the use of the peasant's ploughing and sowing his fields or +planting and tending his orchards and vineyards, where was the use of +trying to encourage trade and manufactures, when at any moment the +farmer, merchant, peddler, might be set upon and robbed of all his +hardly-earned goods? Yet so it was; for in some parts of the country, +especially in the north, there were robber-knights and freebooting +nobles, chiefly Bohemians, who had been invited into the country during +the civil wars, and now, finding their occupation gone, had built +themselves strongholds among the mountains, from which they issued forth +to plunder and rob and often to murder travellers, traders, farmers, and +any one they could lay hands on. Yet these same robbers were many of +them men of noble birth, and there were some who were not ashamed to +make their appearance in the courts of law, and to help in bringing +smaller thieves and robbers to justice. + +Now King Matthias was so true a lover of justice that his name has +become a proverb, and when he died there was a general sigh and +exclamation, "Matthias is dead! justice is fled!" It was not likely, +therefore, that he was going to tolerate robbers merely because they +were nobles; and after giving them fair warning--for he would be just +even to them--he destroyed their castles, and hung a few of them on +their own towers by way of example to the rest, who did not fail to +profit by it and amend their ways: so that by the end of his reign +travellers could pass from one end of the kingdom to the other in +perfect safety, and the peasants could gather in their crops without +fear of having them taken from them by violence. + +At the time when our story begins, the war against the robbers was being +carried on with great energy, and the king's generals were busily +engaged in storming their strongholds. + +But like many another monarch who has had the welfare of his people at +heart, Matthias was very fond of going about among them and seeing for +himself, with his own eyes, what was the real state of affairs and what +were their needs and wrongs. More than once on these secret expeditions +it had happened to him to come across men of humble birth, whom, like +Miska the beggar boy, he fancied capable of being turned to valuable +account, and took accordingly into his service. And his shrewd eye +seldom deceived him. + +Did not Paul Kinizsi the giant, for instance, turn out to be one of his +most famous generals? And yet he was only a miller's boy to begin +with--a miller's boy, but an uncommonly strong one; for when the king +first saw him, he was holding a millstone in one hand and cutting it +with the other--a proof of strength which made the king think he was +wasted on the mill, and would be a valuable acquisition to the army, as +he certainly proved to be. + +Something more and better than mere brute strength had attracted him in +Miska, and had induced him to send the boy on his hazardous mission to +Mr. Jason Samson. + +Nothing, of course, had been heard of him since he started, and now, +sundry other robbers having been disposed of or reduced to order, it was +Mr. Samson's turn. + +But being an uncommon character himself, Matthias was attracted by +anything uncommon and out of the way in other people. He was fond, too, +of unravelling mysteries, and therefore, much as he hated lawlessness +and robbery, and greatly as he was exasperated by some of Mr. Samson's +secret doings, nevertheless the man appeared by all accounts to be such +a very strange, remarkable being that the king's curiosity was whetted, +and after himself paying a secret visit to the eccentric "Cube," as he +called the odd-looking castle, he resolved to try what mild measures +would do, before proceeding to extremities. + +Whether Miska had succeeded in getting into the robber's nest or not the +king had no means of finding out, but his first step was to have a +summons nailed up in the middle of all the four sides of the grim +castle. It ran as follows:-- + + "All good to you from God, Mr. Jason Samson! + + "Present yourself in Buda on the third day of the + coming year, and give an account of your stewardship. + + "MATTHIAS, the King." + +The men charged with affixing this to the castle walls withdrew when +their work was done without having seen any one. But some one or other +had seen and read the summons; for when they returned the next morning, +it had been torn down, and in its place, also affixed to the four sides, +appeared these words:-- + + "_Some other time._" + +A week after this bold answer another summons was put up. This time it +was:-- + + "_Surrender._" + +The day following the answer appeared:-- + + "_Not yet._" + +About a week after this last reply, a company of soldiers, under the +command of General Zokoli, surrounded the ill-omened castle, which stood +out grey and silent against the rose-coloured mists which ushered in the +sunrise. + +The general had given orders for the scaling-ladders to be put up, when +all at once a huge raven-black banner rose up from the centre of the +building with a shining death's-head displayed upon it, and beneath this +the words:-- + + "_Touch me at your peril!_" + +Zokoli ordered the assault to be sounded, and soon the brave soldiers, +always accustomed to be victorious wherever they went, might have been +seen climbing the ladders on one side of the "Cube." As soon as they +reached the top of the wall, which was also the ridge of the roof, it +turned on a hinge, or rather sprang open like a trap-door, as if it had +been touched by a conjuring rod, and disclosed to their astonished eyes +the gaping mouths of three rows of guns ranged close together. + +Now came a blast, loud and deep, like the sound of some giant trumpet or +organ-pipe, and then what appeared like a long fiery serpent darted from +one corner of the building to the other, and was followed the next +moment by the thundering roar of a couple of thousand guns. + +There was one loud, terrible cry, and when the cloud of smoke cleared +away, a couple of hundred men were to be seen lying dead and maimed +round about the castle. + +The king had given Zokoli strict orders to spare his men as much as +possible. He ordered one more assault on the same side therefore, +thinking that the defenders would not have had time to reload their +guns. But again a couple of hundred of the besiegers fell a useless +sacrifice to the experiment; and unwilling to waste any more lives, +General Zokoli retired, completely baffled and much mortified, to report +what had happened. And then the king's anger blazed forth, and he +exclaimed,-- + +"Wait, and I'll teach you, Samson!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +IN THE ROBBER'S NEST. + + +Great men--especially the very few who are great even in their +night-shirts, as the saying is, which was the case with King Matthias, +if it ever was with any one--great men are, by their very natures, +strongly attached to their own ideas and opinions. It is not easy to +shake them when once they have made up their minds about a matter; for +truly great men are not given to hasty judgments. They are firm in their +convictions, but they have some reason to be so. + +Now the king had a sort of instinct or power of reading character, and +he felt convinced that the beggar boy whom he had come across so +strangely would either succeed in getting into the castle, or would +never be heard of again. He had firm faith in him. + +There were a good many matters, as we have seen, requiring his +attention in Hungary just then, and therefore, though he was extremely +angry with Samson for his contemptuous behaviour, he decided to put off +punishing him for a time. He felt that, after General Zokoli's +discomfiture, it would be wisest not to take any further steps against +the clever robber until he could be certain of success; and he resolved +on all accounts therefore to wait until Miska made his appearance, or at +least until the six months had expired. + +Of course there were some who believed that Miska would never be seen +again. The king had taken a fancy to him, that was all; but he was only +a beggar boy, when all was said and done, and most likely he had sold +his new clothes to the first Jew he came across, and was in rags again +by this time! + +When three months, four months, five months, passed away without +bringing any news, those who knew anything about the matter shrugged +their shoulders and shook their heads more than ever. + +But one fine morning, just six months after Miska had left Visegrád, and +when every one but the king had given him up, it was announced that a +stranger had arrived in Buda, giving no name, but saying that he had +been entrusted with special business by the king, and could not give +account of it to any one else. The king's whims were so well known at +the court that the stranger was admitted without difficulty, and was +ushered into the king's presence forthwith. Matthias was alone, and at +once recognized his man, who stepped into the room, looking very spruce, +and as sound as an acorn. + +"It's you, Miska! You have brought good news; I can see it in your eye. +You're a man--speak!" + +Miska bowed, and when he had a little recovered himself--for there was +something about the king which was rather awe-inspiring in spite of his +good nature--he drew a deep breath and said,-- + +"I have been there, Mr. King--in the castle with Mr. Samson--and I know +all about it!" + +"Let us hear," said the king, with delighted and eager curiosity. "But, +little brother, try and tell your tale in an orderly way. First say how +you got into the castle, and then tell me what you saw and heard. Be +bold, my friend, and speak without reserve." + +"Mr. King," began the ex-beggar, "I knew I should never get in by +asking, and it might be the worse for me into the bargain; besides, +there was neither door nor window, nor any one to speak to. 'Well,' I +thought to myself, 'I shall never get in this way; I must keep watch +and find out about those Jews. They get in somehow, though they never +get out again--so people say.'" + +"Right!" said the king; "go on." + +"Well, Mr. King, I waited about there for ten weeks. I spied about all +round the castle, and often went hungry; for I had no time to get food, +though, thanks to you, I had the means. But it was all to no purpose. At +last I began to think that perhaps Mr. Samson was dead, and that Your +Highness would soon be thinking that I had eaten and drunk up my money +and gone off. I was sitting on the trunk of a tree just outside the +wood, but not very far from the castle, one evening, and I was feeling +rather downcast about it all, when I fancied I saw two people coming. +They were not coming _from_ the castle, it is true, but were creeping +through the thicket. 'Ho, ho!' I thought to myself. 'Now, Miska, have +your wits about you! Suppose these night-birds should be on their way to +the castle.' But being one alone against two, I took out my two pistols +and waited to see what might happen." + +Miska now opened his dolmány, and showed a steel coat of mail which he +wore beneath it. "I had got myself this," he said, tapping it with his +finger, "for I thought it might save me from being mortally wounded if +I should happen to get caught anywhere by Samson's men, and I bought two +pistols besides." + +"You were wise," said the king. + +"Well, it was not long before the men came quite close to me; but +instead of going on towards the castle, they turned off in the direction +of a little hollow. I had stood still till then, so that they should not +notice me suddenly; and perhaps they would have gone on, if an +abominable great long-eared owl which was just above my head had not +begun its dismal evening song at that moment. They were just within +about four steps of me when she gave a long, melancholy hoot, and one of +the two men looked up and caught sight of me at once. The next moment he +lifted his cap to me as humbly 'as if he could not count up to three.' +His companion, too, turned and looked about carefully, and I fancied I +caught a glimpse of the glitter of a knife. So I just drew out one of my +pistols and said coolly, 'See what I have got for you.'" + +"Eh! what?" exclaimed Matthias in surprise. + +"Why, of course, Your Highness; for I thought it would be much better to +be beforehand with them." + +The king laughed. + +"Well, and I think, Mr. King, that I did not reckon amiss: for by doing +as I did, I made them suppose that I was a highwayman, and just as bad +as themselves--supposing they belonged to the castle; and besides that, +it gave me an opportunity of finding out whom I had to do with." + +"Go on," said the king; "this is very interesting. Let us hear more." + +"Well, things might have gone very crooked," proceeded Miska; "for I had +no sooner given the alarm than they were both down on me at once as +quick as lightning, and I felt two daggers strike my mail coat. + +"Fortunately for me I was quite prepared, and I did not lose my presence +of mind. I fired one pistol just as they fell upon me, but of course I +did not hit either of them. But my armour had done me good service; for +the two fellows were disconcerted when they found that their daggers had +touched metal, and I had time to jump on one side and point my second +pistol at them. + +"There was a little pause; my men had not given up their designs upon +me, as it seemed, but were consulting, I suppose, how to escape the +second charge of peas, and they seemed to mean to separate and come on +me from both sides at once. 'But,' thought I, 'if you have, so have +I--wits, I mean--and as from all I had heard of Samson's rascally +associates I was quite sure that I had found my gentlemen, I took +advantage of the short pause, and cried out,-- + +"'May seventy-seven thousand thunderbolts strike you! Hear what I have +to say, and don't rush upon a fellow like mad dogs! + +"'I am wanting to come across Mr. Samson; I am tired of living on my own +bread, and I should like to enter his service. If you belong to the +castle, it would be better for you to take me to him, instead of +attacking me; for I am not in the least afraid of you--and, what's more, +a couple of chaps like you won't outwit me.' + +"As soon as I had said my say with all possible speed, but in a firm +rough voice, one of the scamps looked me all over from top to toe, as if +he were going to buy me of a broker. The man was a sturdy, stout-limbed +fellow, and as black as the darkest gipsy; and standing only a span from +the muzzle of my pistol, without winking an eyelid, he said,-- + +"'Who are you, and what do you want with Mr. Samson? If you have come to +spy, you may say your last prayer, for you won't see the sun again.' + +"The man said this in such a soft, drawling voice, and so deliberately, +that it suddenly struck me he was imbecile; for I had my finger on the +trigger all the time, and one touch would have stretched him on the +ground. However, I won't deny that his cool composure made me shudder a +little. + +"I answered as coolly as I could, 'I want to enter his service, sir, for +I fancy he is a fine brave man; and a fellow like me, who cares nothing +for his life, might be useful to him.' + +"My man kept his eye upon my every movement. At last he said,-- + +"'I don't know who you are yet.' + +"I hesitated half a moment, for I did not want to tell him my real name, +and then I said they called me Alpár János, that I was an orphan, and +that until now I had made a poor living by doing just anything that came +to hand--which was true enough. + +"As far as I could see in the twilight, the man's face began to clear; +he whispered a few words to his companion in a language I did not know, +Slovack or Latin, then looked me over again from top to toe, and said,-- + +"'Good! then you can come with us. We will show you the way in; it will +be your own affair how you get out again, if you grow tired of scanty +dinners.' + +"Here our conversation ended," said the lad; while the king, who had +listened to his preface with lively interest, said, "Very good. So you +got in. And now tell me what the castle is like inside." + +And here perhaps it will be better to take the words out of Miska's +mouth and describe in our own way what he saw. + +The castle, as has been said, was built round the four sides of a +square, and, as was often the case with old strongholds, a wide covered +gallery, or corridor, ran along each side, surrounding the courtyard. +There was not a sign of stables anywhere, for there was no way of +getting horses in except by lowering them over the walls by a windlass. +The ground-floor consisted of store-rooms and living-rooms; the keys of +the former being always kept by the master, who allowed none but the +most trusty persons to go into them, for they contained valuable goods +of every sort and kind. Mr. Samson regularly visited these vaults, on +the fifteenth of every month at midnight, when he was accompanied by +twelve Jews. But how these latter got in, where they came from, and +where they went to, was known to no one but Mr. Samson himself. The men +looked like merchants, and he gave stuffs and ornaments, in certain +quantities and of certain values, to each. Then he took them into a +large empty room lighted by a four-cornered lamp which hung from the +ceiling, and here for a couple of hours they were all busy counting +money at a stone table. This was packed into various bags, and when Mr. +Samson had given a purse to each of his agents, the Jews took their +departure amid a shower of compliments, and in what appeared to be a +very well satisfied frame of mind, Mr. Samson escorting them and showing +them the way. But whither they went, and why, and how, and by what +way--that heaven alone could tell. + +In the upper story of the castle there were some fine, cheerful, and +well-lighted rooms; which is not a little surprising, for their windows +all looked into the covered gallery, and from that into the courtyard. +However, this may be explained to some extent by the fact that the +windows of these upper rooms were wide and lofty, the walls were painted +snow-white, and were covered with some sort of varnish which doubled the +light. + +The furniture was in accordance with the taste of the day, and chosen +rather for its good wearing qualities than for comfort; but the bright +colours produced a pleasing and cheerful effect on the whole. + +Mr. Samson kept an entire half of this story for the use of himself and +his only relation, a young girl of fifteen named Esther, and an old +woman who lived with her. Of the two other sides of the square, one was +occupied by servants, the other was furnished but unused. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CAUGHT. + + +One is apt to fancy that strange, out-of-the-way characters must needs +be striking and uncommon in their persons, and it is really quite +startling to find them after all mere ordinary-looking, every-day +people. + +Jason Samson, in spite of his remarkably eccentric conduct, was just one +of these commonplace individuals to look at. It was himself, in fact, +who had taken Miska into the castle; a man of middle size, neither stout +nor thin, neither young nor old, but just middling in all respects. His +features were such as we see over and over again, without having either +our sympathies or interest in the least aroused. One can't call such +persons either ill-looking or handsome, and their every-day characters +inspire no feeling but that of utter indifference. + +Mr. Samson was said, naturally enough, to be a man-hater. The walls of +the Cube castle were twelve feet thick, and its inmates could see +nothing either of their fellow-creatures or of God's beautiful world; +for there was neither door to go in by nor window to look out of, and +nothing whatever to be seen but the courtyard. + +It was not a cheerful home certainly for the young girl whom Mr. Samson +had some years previously brought to live there. He called her a +relation of his, and she called him "uncle," but it did not at all +follow that she was his niece; for it is the custom in Hungary, and +considered only common politeness, for young people to address their +elders as "uncles" and "aunts," whether related or not. + +If Mr. Samson was commonplace in appearance, little Esther was very much +the reverse. Without being regularly beautiful, there was a great charm +about her, and she had a look of distinction which was entirely wanting +in her guardian or jailer. Her clear, deep-blue eyes were full of life +and animation, and the whole expression of her face told of a good +heart. Add to this that she had a remarkably sweet and beautiful voice, +and that, though untaught, she had a good ear for music, and was very +fond of singing, and it will be understood that Esther was altogether +not uninteresting. If she was not striking at first sight, yet the more +one saw of her the more impressed and attracted one felt. + +She was very much in awe of her "uncle," though she could not have said +why, and though she had now lived with him some seven years, ever since +the death of her parents indeed, when he had brought her away to the +castle, with her attendant Euphrosyne, she being then a child of eight. + +Esther was now fifteen, but she had as yet no idea that Mr. Samson was +planning in his own mind to unite her more closely to himself by making +her his wife, or she would have shrunk from him even more than she did +now, though she knew nothing against him, and he could never be said to +have ill-treated her in any way except that he kept her a close +prisoner. Perhaps he thought that, considering her age, she had liberty +enough; for she was free to go from one room to another, and she could +walk up and down the gallery and in the courtyard. + +But though she had grown accustomed to the life now, there were times, +especially when the sun shone down for a short hour or two into the dull +courtyard, in spring and summer, when the girl would look up with +longing eyes to the blue sky and wonder what the world looked like +outside the four grey walls. Sometimes she would see a bird fly past +overhead, or watch a lark soaring up into the air, singing as it went. +Then the past would come back to her, and she would remember a time when +she had run about the green fields, and had spent long days in the +garden; when she had gathered wild flowers and wood-strawberries, and +had heard the birds sing. + +It made her a little sad to think of it all, and for a time she felt as +if she were in a cage, and wondered whether she was to spend all her +life in it; but she was blessed with a cheerful disposition, and on the +whole she was not unhappy. She made occupation for herself in one way +and another: she sewed, she embroidered, she netted; she read the two or +three books she had over and over again, and she even wrote a little. +When one day Mr. Samson brought her a harp from his hoard of treasures, +she was delighted indeed: and having soon managed to teach herself how +to play on it, she spent many a happy evening singing such songs as she +had picked up or invented for herself. + +Mr. Samson liked to hear the full, clear young voice singing in the +gallery, though he seldom took any apparent notice of the singer. In his +way perhaps he would have missed Esther a little if she had been taken +from him; but he was not a kindly or affectionate personage, and the +girl had no one to care for but Euphrosyne, a rather tiresome, foolish +old woman, who often tried her patience a good deal with her whims and +fidgets. Esther, however, was very patient with her, and clung to her +simply because there was no one else to cling to. + +Mr. Samson had given them three rooms in a distant corner of the gloomy +building, where they were quite out of the way of everybody; and +Esther's rooms being the two inner ones, she could never leave them +without the knowledge and permission of the old woman, through whose +room she had to pass. + +There was no doubt that Mr. Samson carried on an extensive business of a +peculiar kind. He was very secret about it, and what with his armed +garrison, and the odd way in which the castle was built, as if to stand +a siege, there seemed good reason to suspect that his valuable goods and +rich merchandise were collected from the whole length and breadth of +Hungary, and were, in fact, gathered from every country-house and +peddler's pack and bundle which he could find means to plunder. Not that +Samson ever resorted to violence if he could possibly help it--quite the +contrary; and though he was reckoned among the most powerful +robber-knights of the time, he was really more thief than robber, and +did also a great deal in a quiet way by lending money at very high +interest. + +He would steal out of the castle on foot, disguised now as a beggar and +now as a Jew; and his followers were never to be seen anywhere together +in any number. They lounged along singly, at a considerable distance one +from the other, and they took care not to excite suspicion in any way. + +They had nothing in the way of weapons but a couple of short, sharp +daggers, which they kept carefully concealed, and never used except in +cases of extreme necessity, and in secret places, such as deep ravines +or woods; but when they did have recourse to them, they used them with +bold determination and deadly certainty. No one ever escaped from the +clutches of these accursed robbers, and no one therefore could ever +betray them. They managed, too, to conceal all traces of their deeds of +blood, so that though there were rumours and suspicions, the guilt was +not brought home to them. People who met them saw but one, or at most +two, at a time, looking as meek and mild "as if they could not count up +to three," as the saying is. + +Mr. Samson himself rarely went out quite alone. There were always one +or two men in whom he placed especial confidence, and one or other of +these always accompanied him. + +And now Miska shall take up his narrative again. + +"I was not badly off in the castle," said he. "I was bent on winning Mr. +Samson's confidence above everything, and I succeeded, because I strove +to enter into all his thoughts. I was not too humble and deferential, +but I put myself in his place, and showed great interest in all the work +that went on inside, which was chiefly keeping guard and cleaning arms. + +"Mr. Samson went away once every fortnight; and I fancy the Jews came +twice while I was there, for Mr. Samson twice shut all the doors +carefully, which he did not do at other times. I must say I should have +liked to join him in his secret adventures; but much as he seemed to +trust me, I had no chance of doing so. + +"I had been in the castle about a fortnight, I suppose, when one night +the bell rang in my little room. There was a bell to every hole in the +castle, and the bell-pulls all hung in a long row along two sides of one +of Mr. Samson's rooms. + +"I got up at once and went to him, and found him lying in an arm-chair, +wearing a flowing indoor robe. + +"'Alpár János,' said he, 'I have to leave the castle to-morrow; you will +stay here. Keep an eye on the people, and when I come back tell me +minutely all that has happened during my absence. I believe you are +faithful to me; and if you continue to please me, I will double your +wages.' + +"I received his orders respectfully, as usual; but after a short pause I +said, 'I would much rather you should take me with you, for I think you +would find me more useful outside than here, where there is nothing I +can do.' + +"'I want a faithful man more here than outside,' said Mr. Samson. 'Your +turn will come presently; meantime obey all the governor's orders as if +I were here myself. And now you can go. Everybody will notice my absence +to-morrow, but for all that don't you say a word about it to any +one--that is one of my laws.' + +"'I will obey you, sir,' I said, and then I went back to my quarters. + +"The governor, a gloomy-looking, stout fellow, who could hardly be more +than four-and-twenty, and was called simply Kálmán, had taken a great +liking to me, for I always showed him more respect, if possible, than I +did to Mr. Samson himself." + +"You were wise there," interposed the king. "The smaller the man, the +more respect he claims." + +"And," continued Miska, "this stood me in good stead; for while Mr. +Samson was away we lived better, and now and then the governor sent me a +draught of good wine." + +"Ah, I see," said the king; "nothing much out of the ordinary +way--rumour has said more than was true. But did you become acquainted +with little Esther?" + +"The young lady came out into the gallery more often while Mr. Samson +was away. Sometimes she would walk up and down there till late in the +evening, and she would bring out her harp and sing to it. She was so +gentle and kind that I spoke to her one day and asked her to listen to a +song of mine; I had made the verses and invented the tune myself." + +"Oh!" laughed the king; "then you are a poet too, are you, Miska?" + +"Only a sort of 'willow-tree verse-maker,'[6] Mr. King. But pretty Miss +Esther listened to it very kindly--and what is more, she wrote it +down--and after that she spoke to me every evening, and asked me many +questions about Buda and Your Highness; and I told her long stories of +all that I had seen in the woods and fields. She wanted to hear about +the trees and flowers and birds, which she remembered; and one evening, +when no one was within hearing, I told her how I had met Your Highness, +and how you had sent me to Visegrád, and all I had seen there, and how +you promised me a horse. I had to tell her that story so often that I +think she knows every step of the way. I did not tell her that Your +Highness had sent me to get into the castle, for walls have ears. But +one evening she stopped singing suddenly and asked me what I had come +there for. So first I said, 'To be one of Mr. Samson's servants;' and +then I said in a whisper, 'To set you free.' + +[Footnote 6: Hedge-poet.] + +"'Ah, Jancsi, if you only could!' she said. 'How lovely it would be! But +you can't; nobody can.' + +"So then I told her not to be afraid, for I would somehow; and if I +couldn't, some one else would, I knew--meaning Your Highness, of +course." + +"And pray what did the old lady say to your talking to her charge in +this way?" + +"O Mr. King, she was my very good mistress; I managed to get into her +good graces. And there's no denying it, Your Highness, when Mr. Samson +went away for the third time, Miss Esther herself told me to be very +attentive to the old woman. And it answered perfectly, for she asked me +all sorts of things and put all confidence in me; and the governor often +chaffed me about it, and said that Mrs. Euphrosyne and I would be making +a match of it. Miss Esther often said how happy we might be if we could +escape from Mr. Samson and the gloomy castle, and I promised, Your +Highness, when Mrs. Euphrosyne was not listening." + +"Well, Miska, and I promise too. Miss Esther shall be let out when I get +in," said the king. "But now listen. Have you told me all that I want to +know about the interior of the castle?" + +"Ah," said Miska, "who could find out all its secrets? Mr. Samson said +more than once: 'Woe to him who tries to take it, for it will cost the +lives of thousands, and he will never get in after all.' And it was as +he said: when they assaulted the castle, Mr. Samson did not so much as +leave his room, but sat there as quiet as you please. What went on up +above in the roof I don't know, for others were sent up and I was not. I +only heard the firing, and saw them bringing the gunpowder out in small +casks through a trap-door. More than once, too, I heard him say that he +had only to pull a string and the castle and everything in it would be +blown up. And I saw the red string, too, which would have done it: it +could not be reached except by means of a ladder, and it was in Mr. +Samson's own sleeping-room." + +"Then you saw them raise the black standard?" + +"To be sure; and they did it as easily as if they were lifting a stick." + +"But tell me, how did you get out?" asked the king, cutting him short. + +"I did that only five days ago," said Miska. "Mr. Samson called me at +last one evening and said,-- + +"'Miska, I am satisfied with you; you will go with me to-night, at +midnight. There will be only the two of us; have you the courage?' + +"'I have,' I answered. + +"'See,' Mr. Samson went on, taking a couple of daggers out of a +table-drawer, 'I will make you a present of these; they are the only +arms you will have. Be ready, and when I ring at midnight make haste and +come to me.' + +"I haven't much more to tell you, Mr. King. He led me through several +vaults till we came to a door which led into an underground passage, and +this ended in a cave, which I took good note of, so that I could find it +again; and when we had passed through it and reached the open air, my +spirits rose. We went on through a thick wood, Mr. Samson taking the +lead. The night was dark and stormy. I kept him talking all the while, +and tried to enliven him with all sorts of jokes; and he actually called +me a very sly dog, and laughed himself as if he enjoyed them. + +"We had been going on about a couple of hours, when Mr. Samson said we +had reached our destination, and that before long a rich Jew would be +passing by, and that he had a well-filled money-bag which we were to +take away from him. He warned me to be careful, and not to use my dagger +unless he called out. + +"I suppose Mr. Samson had heard of the rich Jew's coming from his Jew +friends, who frequently came to the castle without any one's knowing +anything about it--so I heard from Kálmán--and by secret ways which he +had told them of. + +"The moon shone out through the thick trees for a moment, and I saw that +Mr. Samson was standing near a footpath, and facing a narrow opening in +the wood, about three steps away from me. + +"Presently I fancied that I heard footsteps, and Mr. Samson whispered, +'Come here behind me, quietly, that they may not hear you.' + +"In a short time I saw a dark shadow moving towards us. Mr. Samson +stood like a lynx, stiff and motionless, with his eyes fixed on the +approaching Jew. + +"'Now,' thought I, 'now or never!' and I drew out a rope-noose which I +had kept carefully hidden under my dolmány. The next moment I had thrown +it over Mr. Samson's shoulders, and so successfully that his two arms +were pinioned to his body, and he was helpless in a moment. + +"'Traitor!' roared Mr. Samson, and in a moment he gave a stab backwards +with his dagger in spite of his pinioned arm, and he did it so cleverly +too that it went about three inches deep into me. Fortunately it struck +my thigh-bone, or there would have been an end of me. + +"The pain was sharp, but in spite of that I pulled the noose tighter, +and then I suddenly tripped him up with my foot, and threw him down. + +"'Here! here!' I cried hurriedly, holding the robber fast. 'Come here, +gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear.' For when Mr. Samson roared out, +his victim, the Jew, had stopped still, with his feet glued to the +ground. But when I cried out that I was the king's man and had caught a +thief, he came forward--in a frightened, reluctant way though; and he +would not have come at all but that I called to him not to turn back, +for if he did, probably before he had got away Mr. Samson's robbers +would have come up, as they were lying in wait for him as well as we, +and knew that he had a bag full of money." + +"But what do you mean?" cried the king. "You took Mr. Samson prisoner?" + +"To be sure I did," said Miska, "and I have given him up to Mr. General +Rozgonyi;[7] and the Jew came along with me." + +[Footnote 7: The king had made Sebastian Rozgonyi Captain of Upper +Hungary.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +I AM THE KING'S PAGE! + + +Soon after the conversation recorded in the last chapter, Miska was sent +back again to Visegrád to take his place, and learn his duties as king's +page; and the king had bidden him be diligent and learn all that he +could, promising to do something more for him as soon as he could read +and write. + +As to what had been done with Mr. Samson, and whether his little friend +Miss Esther had been released from captivity, he heard nothing, though +he often thought and wondered and wished; and if he had dared, he would +have asked to be allowed to go back to the castle and show her that he +had not forgotten his promise. + +Before setting out for Buda, he had shown his friend the Jew the secret +way in and out of the castle; and as Mr. Samson had the keys of the +various gates upon him, the king's soldiers would of course have no +difficulty in getting in and surprising the garrison at any time. If +only he had been a soldier, he might have gone with them; and even +without being a soldier, he might have gone with them to act as guide, +if only the king had thought of it. He had not dared to venture back +after his capture of Mr. Samson, for fear he should not be allowed to +get out again and give his report to the king; and now no doubt the Jew, +who did not care anything at all about it, would be sent in his place. +Well, it did not much matter after all, so long as Miss Esther were set +free, and that the king had promised she should be. + +So now Miska was in Visegrád again, not a little proud of his smart +livery, and greatly enjoying his comfortable quarters after the rough, +hard life which he had led. But these, after all, were very secondary +matters; the great thing was that he was in the king's service, and must +do all that lay in his power to please him. + +"I am page to King Matthias," said he to himself over and over again. +"The king called me his 'little brother' and 'gossip,' and the king will +be ashamed if his gossip is a donkey and does not know the A B C. Ah, +you just wait, gossip-king! for I will distinguish myself. I will make +you open your eyes and your mouth too!" + +Miska was a gay-tempered fellow, as lively as gunpowder, and it was vain +to expect from him the sober, plodding diligence which belongs to calmer +and tamer natures. + +If the truth must be told, Miska did not care very greatly about his +reading and writing for their own sakes. He did his best with them to +please the king, but he was glad enough when his time for study was over +for the day, and enjoyed the few hours he was able to spend in the +riding-school much more than he did the daily appearance of his +wearisome teacher, who came as true to his time as the most obstinate of +fevers. + +When the king's riding-master clapped him on the shoulder and said, +"Michael, you are a man! 'Raven' or 'Swan' carried you well to-day, and +couldn't manage to throw you," he was pleased indeed; but he was much +more glad when his teacher said, "Come, Mr. Michael, I declare you are +getting on like pepper! If you go on like this, I shall come to you for +a lesson in a couple of months' time." + +Miska could read, and write a very fair hand, before he knew where he +was; but though writing rather amused him, he took no pleasure or +interest in the books in which he learned to read. It always cost him a +struggle to keep his temper during lesson-time, and occasionally he felt +such an irresistible inclination to go to sleep, that his teacher was +obliged to rouse him by a friendly twitch or two. + +There were some Italian servants in the stable-yard here, very lively +fellows, whose sprightliness Miska found so attractive that he was quite +vexed at being shut out from their society. They were constantly +laughing and in good spirits; but when Miska wanted to join in the +laugh, they would say in broken Hungarian, "How could they tell all over +again what it was they were laughing at so much?" "You learn Italian, +_mio caro_, and then you can laugh with us." + +"Good!" thought Miska. "If these whipper-snappers, whose mouths are +always pinched up like funnels, can learn a few words of Hungarian, I'll +soon learn their language. Why," reasoned Miska, "I was only a year old +when I began to learn Hungarian, and they say I could talk like a magpie +by the time I was two; and now--when I am eighteen, and have got a +little down shading my upper lip--can't I learn Italian, when these +whipper-snappers could talk it when they were three years old?" + +Miska's reasoning was somewhat peculiar, but it was not altogether amiss +after all. He began by asking his friends what to call the objects about +him; and his good memory served him so well that in a short time he knew +the names of most of the implements and different sorts of work which he +had to do with. + +Six months passed away; but Matthias had a good many other and more +important matters to think of than the beggar lad, and he had not once +been in Visegrád since Miska had been there. + +"So much the better," thought Miska; "he will come some time, and then I +shall know all the more. If only there were not this learning! But it is +no good; it has got to be. And yet why? A little page like me is as wise +as an owl if he can read and write, and what does he want with more? I +can read and write too.--Hm," he thought to himself, "the man who +invented writing--what the thunderbolt did he invent it for? What good +could it do him? Well, it made him able to read books." + +And then presently he muttered, "Donkey! If the king were to hear that +now! Well, to be sure, as if there _were_ any books when nobody could +write! Then they invented it that they might write--that is more +reasonable; but what is the use of writing when a man does not know how +to write books?" + +Miska battered his brains in vain to try to make out why it was +necessary for him to learn to read, and what good his wisdom would do +him. + +One day the governor put a book in his hands. "Here," said he, "little +brother Michael, you know how to read now, and the king's reader is ill. +Suppose you were to try and get his place; it would be a fine thing for +you." + +"Reader!" said Miska. "Do I want his place? What should I gain by it? It +would be a great deal better if I could go out hunting sometimes; my +eyes see green when the horns are sounded, and here I have to be +'selling acorns.'"[8] + +[Footnote 8: Sticking at home.] + +"That will come, too, in time, Michael," said the governor; "but now +give your attention to this book. There are some very fine stories in +it, and I should like, when His Highness the King comes, to have some +one who can read well and intelligently to him; for His Highness says +that I read like a Slovack clerk, and yet none of my family were ever +Slovacks, or ever lived on _kása_."[9] + +[Footnote 9: _Kása_, the chief food of the Slovack peasants, is made of +millet or potatoes boiled in milk.] + +What was to be done? At first Michael read the book with reluctance, and +merely because he was obliged to do so; but later on he became more and +more interested. Presently he felt as if at last he knew what was the +good of writing and reading. + +When he had read the book to the end, he actually asked for another; and +at last, whenever he had any spare time, he crept away and seated +himself in one of the pretty arbours of the castle garden, and read as +hard as if he were to be paid for it. + +If Miska had been like many another lad, he would have seen pretty well +the whole of his career by this time. There was nothing more to be done; +for a page who can read and write, and swallows books as eagerly as a +pelican does fish, already knows more than enough for his position. For +these things are often rather a hindrance to his riding and other +duties, and it is not his business to give an account of the books he +reads, but of the work entrusted to him to do. The governor trusted all +sorts of things to Miska, however. + +"Eh," Miska began to think to himself, "I am not cut out for a page now. +These second-rank pages are really not much better than grooms, and the +governor still expects me to clean the king's two favourite horses. +Why, I'm sure I know as much as Galeotti himself by this time, and I can +speak Italian too." + +But still the king did not come, and Miska went on learning; for ever +since he had taken to reading books, his mind had begun to grow and had +gone on growing, and he saw a good many things in a very different light +now from what he had done formerly. Now, indeed, if the king asked him +again, he could say that he should like to be something better than he +was. + +For a long time he went on racking his brains trying to make up his mind +what he should do; and at last one day, when he had faithfully done all +his duties, he sat down and wrote a letter to the king as follows:-- + + "MR. KING, YOUR HIGHNESS,--I can read and write, and I + can jabber Italian too, when necessary. + + "Please, Your Highness, to have the horses in my + charge brought to Buda; for I'm sure you never rode + such--they have improved so in my hands. + + "May God bless you! Come some time to Visegrád, and + let me kiss your hands and feet.--Your poor, humble + servant, + + TORNAY MICHAEL. + + "_P.S._--Brave Mr. King, if Your Highness could find a + place for me in the Black Legion, I would thank you + indeed, and you would not regret it either." + +When King Matthias read this letter, he laughed aloud, well pleased. + +"See," said he, showing the letter to those who were standing near him. +"This was a ragged beggar lad--perhaps by this time I should have had to +have him hanged. As it is, I have gained a man in him.--Zokoly," said he +to the young knight who was just then with him, "fetch the boy here; and +if he is up to the mark, put him into a coat of mail and then bring him +to me. But I will answer his letter first, for he might abuse my father +and mother for my bad manners if I were to leave it unnoticed." + +The king wrote as follows:-- + + "All good to you from God, Miska. As you can read and + write, I meant to make a precentor of you, good boy; + but if you wish to join the Black Legion instead, no + matter. Mount one of the horses you have had charge + of, and lead the other hither. Mind what you are + about, and don't get drunk.--Your well-wisher, + + "KING MATTHIAS." + +No first fiddle, no Palatine even, in all this wide world could think +himself a greater man than Michael did when the king's letter, written +with his own hand, was given to him. + +He threw himself into the governor's arms in a transport of joy, and +then, when he had made himself clean and tidy and put on his best +clothes--well, then, there was no keeping him. He would neither eat nor +drink, and in a little while he was off, riding one of the horses and +leading the other; and as he went he said, "God keep King Matthias!" +repeating the words over and over again. "Let him only get into some +great trouble one day, just to let me show that there is a grateful +heart under this smart dolmány." + +When Zokoly presented the lad to the king clad in the stern, manly garb +of the Black Legion--wearing, that is to say, a network coat of black +mail, with a heavy sword by his side, and a round helmet on his +head--Matthias was quite surprised. + +The king, as has been said, possessed the rare gift of being able to +read men, and seldom made a mistake in his choice of those whom he took +into his service. And now as he cast a searching glance at the boy's +noble countenance, and noticed the open, honourable expression of his +piercing eyes, and above all the broad forehead which was so full of +promise, the great king--for great he was, though not yet at the +pinnacle of his greatness--the great king felt almost ashamed to see the +lad standing before him in the garb of a common soldier, as if he were +merely one of the ordinary rank and file. The jest with which he had +been about to receive him died away unuttered on his lips. But he +welcomed his man good-naturedly, and said,-- + +"Michael Tornay, from this day forth you are ennobled. I will give you +the parchment to-morrow, and I will make a landed proprietor of you." + +The lad believed in King Matthias as if he had been some altogether +superior being; he was ardently, passionately attached to him, but he +said nothing. + +To tell the truth, he felt more confused than grateful; for the new-made +noble, the private of the Black Legion, had just so much delicacy of +feeling that he was much more flattered by the king's treating him +seriously than he would have been by jests and teasing. + +For the moment he could not get out a word. There was a mist before his +eyes; and after a long pause--for the king himself was touched by the +effect of his words--the young man came to himself, and dropping upon +one knee said, "Your Highness has made a man of me, and I trust in God +that you will never, never repent it!" Few and simple words, but the +king was so well pleased with them, and so confirmed in his previous +opinion, that at that moment he would have dared to trust the boy with +the command of the castle of Visegrád. + +A week later, after a battle in which Michael had taken part, Matthias +made the boy an officer in the famous Black or Death Legion--so called +from the colour of its armour and the skull-like shape of its +helmets--which was under the command of the king himself. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SENT TO PRISON. + + +It would be interesting, no doubt, if we could follow Michael's career +step by step; but the next two years of his life must be passed over +very briefly. + +It was true that the king had made a man of him, and already Tornay was +a marked personage--a man whose name was often in people's mouths, and +well known in the army as a rising young general. + +There was plenty of work for the Black Legion in those days; for the +Turks were perpetually invading the southern provinces, and the +Hungarians were left to fight them almost single-handed--though, as the +king reminded Louis the Eleventh of France, "Hungary was fighting for +all Christendom," as she had been doing for many a long year past. + +Michael had distinguished himself more than once for his courage, and +for a daring which amounted at times to actual foolhardiness, and now +he had outdone his previous exploits by the gallant rescue from extreme +peril of General Rozgonyi. + +The general was cut off from his men, and absolutely alone in the midst +of a band of Turks, when Michael made a bold dash into their midst, +scattering them right and left, and succeeded in extricating himself and +Rozgonyi from their clutches. + +It was a bold exploit and a rash one--madly rash, indeed--but it was +successful; and as Michael rode back to his men, wounded, but not +seriously so, he was received with loud applause; and perhaps, if the +truth must be told, he felt himself something of a hero. + +But the king, who had watched him with much anxiety, was considerably +provoked; and when the battle was over, he summoned him to his tent, +where Michael found him sitting alone and looking very much more grave +than was his wont. + +He raised his eyes when Michael entered, but his voice sounded stern, +and instead of saying "thou" to him as he usually did, he addressed him +quite formally. + +"Mr. Tornay," said he, "you have been behaving like a madman, like a +common soldier whose horse has such a hard mouth that he can't control +it; or--you must have been pouring more wine down your throat than you +ought to have done." + +King Matthias had a great horror of drunkards, and did his best to stop +all excessive drinking in the army and elsewhere. + +But Michael was utterly taken aback. He had been a good deal flattered +and complimented, and had quite expected that the king was going to +thank him for saving the general's life, or at least would show that he +was well pleased with him, and give him a few of those words of approval +which he valued above everything. To be received in this way was rather +crushing. + +"Sir--Your Highness," he stammered, in great surprise, "I was only doing +my duty." + +"That is precisely the very thing you were not doing," said the king +with some warmth, his large dark eyes flashing as he spoke. "You are a +general; you were in command, and you left your troops in the lurch, as +St. Paul left the Wallachians.[10] You rushed among the Turkish spahis +entirely alone, and to what, as far as you could tell, was certain +death, like a man who was weary of his life, his king, and his duty. +You ought to be ashamed of yourself; and understand that what may be +meritorious in a private is worse than cowardice in the officers." + +[Footnote 10: A common saying. St. Paul is supposed to have lost +patience with them.] + +Tornay was so thunderstruck that he could not find words to defend +himself. + +"Speak!" said Matthias, in a tone of displeasure. "We wish to hear what +you have to say in your defence; it is not our custom to punish any one +without hearing him." + +"Sir--Your Highness," said Tornay, with gentle deference, but with the +manner of one who has an easy conscience, "I did not think I was guilty +of cowardice in going to the rescue of one of your best generals!" + +"God be thanked that you were successful!" said the king, "but it is +more than you had any right to expect. The fact is that it was vanity +which led you to risk your head in an experiment which was not merely +hazardous, but so desperate that there was hardly the remotest +reasonable hope of success; and vanity under such circumstances is +cowardice. I honour courage; as for insane foolhardiness, it belongs not +to the knight but to the highwayman." + +Tornay listened abashed, and though much hurt he felt that Matthias was +right. + +"I should have a great mind to punish you," the king went on, "but that +one of my best generals owes his life to your folly, so for his sake I +pardon you." + +"What can I do?" said the young man in a low voice--"what can I do to +regain Your Highness's favour? I can't live if I know that Your Highness +is angry with me--me who owe everything, all that I am, to you." + +"Always be on your guard, my little brother," said the king; and now, +seeing how distressed he was, and wishing to comfort him, he spoke in +the kind, pleasant voice which won all hearts. "Do only what you can +give a right and satisfactory reason for, and then you will never miss +the mark." + +So Michael went back to his quarters comforted, and promising himself to +lay the king's simple advice well to heart. + +There was a grand banquet at the court that night, and many of the great +nobles were present; but Miska did not venture to show himself, though +when once the king had given a reprimand and made the delinquent +understand what he thought of his conduct, his anger was over and done +with, and he spoke in his usual kindly way again. Miska thought, +however, that by thus punishing himself he should soften him. + +After all, as he reflected, the king was right: it was the thought of +making a soldier's name for himself which had led him to run into such +obvious danger. And yet he had a reason to give for what he had done--a +good reason too, he had thought; for he had considered that his life +belonged to the king, who had given him his career and all that made his +life of any importance. And so he had resolved with himself never to +trouble his head about risk and danger, when he had an opportunity of +proving his fidelity to the king. + +But now, as he turned over in his mind the advice which the king had +given him, he began to see things a little differently. + +"My life belongs to the king, it is true," thought he, "and I must be +ready to sacrifice it whenever there is any reason to do so; but just +_because_ my life is the king's, I have no right to throw it away." + +From that time Tornay tried to make himself more and more useful to the +king, by learning all that he could of his profession. + +The courage of a private was not enough--it was not what was wanted of +him, now that he was an officer in command; and he felt that the courage +which made a man strive to acquire the knowledge necessary to those in +his own position--generals and commanders, that is to say--was courage +of a higher, nobler sort than that which led to deeds of mere daring. Of +course the courage of the private was also needful--quite indispensable, +indeed, in every soldier, officer or not, who must always be ready to +sacrifice his life if need be; but he strove to acquire besides the cool +courage which does not let itself be carried away by excitement, which +can listen to the sound of the trumpets and the din of battle without +being intoxicated, which remains calm and collected, retains its +presence of mind, and is capable of seeing and hearing, and, above all, +of thinking for others, even when the issue looks most doubtful. + +For a general has to remember that he is not merely an individual; he is +that, of course, but he is a great deal more--he is the head of a body +which depends upon him for guidance. He must not play only his own game, +or be thinking only or chiefly of the bold, brave deeds he can do on his +own account; he must practise the most stern self-restraint. And he must +not think of gratifying his own vanity or desire of distinguishing +himself; he must think of those under his command--he must be unselfish. + +Hitherto, Michael's one thought when he went into battle had been the +enemy, and how much damage he could do him. He had eyes for nothing +else, and he was eager to give proof of his own personal valour; but now +he began to accustom himself to resist this consuming thirst for action, +and to restrain his longing to rush madly into the fight, for he was +learning that he must not think only of himself. + +When the army was drawn up in battle array, fronting the enemy and all +ready for action, the young soldier would begin to ask himself what he +should do if the king were presently to give orders, as he might some +day, that he, Michael, was to take the chief command and lead the army +to battle. + +And then his blood would boil, his eyes would flash, and he felt an +almost irresistible longing to dash forward and do some valiant deed. +But now he controlled and recovered himself, and repeating to himself +the king's words, would say, "Now, Mihály, how could you do such a +thing? what reason could you give for it?" + +He began to scrutinize the ranks of the enemy in a much more scientific +way, reminding himself that he was not now a private, or even a +subaltern officer, in the Black Legion, but a general, whose duty it was +to think, not of bold ventures, but of sober plans. This gave quite +another turn to his mind, and he felt how much higher and fairer a thing +it was to think of others and direct others, and to keep one's presence +of mind intact and one's blood cool, when youthful zeal made others lose +their heads. + +So thinking to himself one day, as he and the men under his command +stood facing the enemy, waiting for the signal to advance, he was +keeping his eyes upon the opposite ranks, when all at once he observed +something that till now had escaped his notice. + +"The enemy is remarkably weak in the left wing yonder," he reflected, +"and there is a long marsh just in front; I don't think I should be +afraid of being attacked from that quarter. If I were in command," he +went on, "I would order one division to advance in that direction and +outflank the enemy. This would throw him into confusion. Then I would +send part of the cavalry forward, and while the enemy's attention was +engaged by the sudden attack on his wing, I would fall upon his centre +with my whole force." + +"Really," the young officer said to himself, "I should like to tell His +Highness what I think." + +Michael scribbled something in pencil upon a scrap of paper, and sent +one of the Black Knights off with it to the king, who was inspecting the +ranks, and was now riding down the left wing of the army, surrounded by +a brilliant staff, himself more simply attired than any of those about +him. + +The king read over the crooked lines with not a little astonishment, and +for a moment his face flamed. + +Then he cried out in lively tones, "Upon my word, advice is becoming +from a twenty-years-old general! This man will be somebody one of these +days." + +Then on the margin of the paper he wrote just these two words--"_Do +it!_" + + * * * * * + +The battle was over and won, and a fortnight later Tornay Mihály was one +of the king's lieutenant-generals. + +Matthias had by this time grown extremely fond of the young man. Michael +was always so vigilantly on the alert, so blindly devoted to him, and so +quick in his ways, that the king had no misgivings about any commission +which he entrusted to him. It was certain to be done, and done well. +But this was not all. He was pleased, too, with the young man's evident +gratitude and nobility of character--though not as much surprised as +some others, who fancied that such things were not to be looked for in a +beggar lad; for the king could read faces, and he had long since made up +his mind about Michael. + +In those days there were two bastions on the walls of the castle of +Buda, towards Zugliget. They were used as magazines, but in case of a +siege--which at that time Buda had little cause to dread--they would be +garrisoned with soldiers, and were therefore already provided with guns. + +These two bastions, one of which remains, though in an altered form, to +the present day, were about a couple of fathoms apart; and now the king +gave orders that both were to be set in order and made fit for +dwelling-houses. + +There was no opening on three of the sides, with the exception of some +small windows high up, which let in the light, but would give the +intended inmates no outlook; but on the fourth side, where the bastions +faced each other, there were four long, narrow windows in each, guarded +by strong iron bars. + + * * * * * + +The king was just now staying in Buda, and had given Michael command of +part of the castle garrison; and he was so well satisfied with the way +in which he discharged his duties, that hardly a week passed without his +giving him some fresh mark of his favour. + +As for Michael's passionate attachment to the king, it increased daily; +every hint from him was a command, and he was always on the watch to try +to interpret his wishes before they were put into words. + +One morning he was summoned to the king's presence. + +"Michael," said the king, in a good-humoured tone, "I am angry with you, +and I am going to punish you." + +"How have I been so unfortunate as to deserve the anger of the best of +kings and masters?" asked the young man. + +"Well, what do you think?" Matthias went on, laughing. "Am I very angry, +and am I going to pass a severe sentence?" + +"Mr. King," answered Tornay, who saw at once that Matthias was in high +good-humour, "I think Your Highness has got hold of your anger by the +small end this time, and perhaps you won't go quite so far as to have my +head cut off." + +"Your head may possibly be allowed to remain in its accustomed place," +said the king jestingly. "However, it is not necessary that you should +know which part of your person I have sentenced to punishment; it is +enough, gossip, that you are to expiate your offence, and that to begin +with I am going to send you to prison." + +"Perhaps Your Highness is going to entrust me with the command of some +abandoned wooden castle?"[11] said Michael. + +[Footnote 11: Many small castles of wood and stone had been built in the +north by the Bohemian freebooters already mentioned.] + +"No," said the king; "you have not found it out this time. I have got +other quarters for you." + +"Very well, as Your Highness wills; but you won't get much good out of +me if I am in prison." + +"Listen. You can see the two bastions yonder on the Mount St. Gellert +side of the castle. I have had them put in order, and you are to live in +one of them." + +Tornay listened, but he could not make it out at all. He saw the two +bastions sure enough, and as they did not now look at all gloomy or +prison-like, he was not alarmed at the idea of living in one of them; +but he could not by any means conceive what the king's object could be. + +"You are surprised," said the king, "aren't you? But the prison is +tolerable enough. You will have four small rooms; and as for the +look-out, well, I think you will be content with it; and then you will +be your own jailer, so you need have no fear as to the strictness of the +discipline. In a word, you are to move into your new quarters this very +day." + +Tornay retired; but on his way he racked his brains to discover why the +king could want him to move into the bastion. What reason could he have? +If he was his own jailer, and could go in and out as he pleased, it was +not a prison, simply different quarters, and better, at all events, than +those he had had before; for he had been living in a very poor apartment +of the castle, looking into a by-street. + +"Well," thought he, "what do I know as to the king's motives? Who can +ever tell what he has in his head? He wishes me to live there--good! +then that's enough, and there I will live." + +So Tornay took possession of one of the bastions facing Pesth, and was +very well satisfied indeed with his new quarters, which the king had had +plainly but comfortably enough furnished. Perhaps the king had placed +him there only as an excuse for making him more presents. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG. + + +Michael found himself very well off in his new quarters; and as nothing +happened to explain the king's whim, he was confirmed in his belief that +its only object was to make him more comfortable. + +He was very punctual in attending to all his duties, and inspected the +garrison very frequently, but he spent a good many of his spare hours in +reading and study. For the king liked men of learning and cultivation, +and Michael was bent upon pleasing him in these matters if he could. + +Being in Buda, with a little time on his hands, gave him a capital +opportunity of improving himself; for he had become acquainted with the +king's great friend the librarian Galeotti, and through him he now made +acquaintance with the famous library which Matthias was then forming +under the direction of Galeotti and his fellow-worker Ugoletti. + +The library was in the castle, and consisted of two great halls, in +which, by the end of his life, the king had collected above fifty +thousand volumes. He was constantly buying up valuable manuscripts in +Italy, Constantinople, and Asia; and he kept a number of men constantly +employed in copying--four in Florence and thirty in Buda. + +The manuscripts were many of them beautifully illuminated and adorned +with tasteful initials and pictures, and frequently with likenesses of +the king and his wife, so that they were valuable as works of art. + +The art of printing, too, had been lately introduced, and the +printing-press was kept constantly at work adding to the contents of the +polished cedar-wood book-shelves, which were protected by silken, +gold-embroidered curtains: for Matthias treated his books royally and as +if he loved them. + +Besides books, the two halls contained three hundred statues, some +ancient and some modern; and in the vestibule were astronomical and +mathematical instruments, with a large celestial globe in the centre +supported by two genii. + +Michael had abundant opportunities of study, and knew that he could not +please the king better than by availing himself of them. The Italian +which he had learned from the grooms at Visegrád he now found most +useful, as it enabled him to talk to the various artists, sculptors, +musicians, and other distinguished men from Italy, whom the king loved +to have about him. + +The two librarians of course he knew well; then there was the great +painter Filippo Lippi, and the Florentine architect Averulino, by whom +the royal palaces both in Buda and Visegrád were beautified and +enlarged. Carbo of Ferrara was writing a dialogue, in which he sang the +praises of King Matthias; Galeotti was busy with a book of entertaining +stories, full of anecdotes and sayings of the king, to which Michael +certainly might have contributed much that was interesting; Bonfinius of +Ascoli, reader to the queen, was engaged upon his History of Hungary; +and various Hungarian authors were composing their chronicles and +writing legends and poetry in Latin--that being still the language of +the learned throughout Europe. + +From the windows of his "prison" Michael had no view, as has been said, +except of the other bastion, which was not particularly interesting, as +it was uninhabited, so that he was not tempted to waste any time in +looking out of the window. But he had only to go into the palace gardens +when he wanted to get away from his books and rest his eyes and brain; +and these covered a great deal of ground, extending indeed as far as to +the neighbouring hills, then still covered with forests, where the king, +who was an ardent sportsman, often went hunting. + +Michael was sitting in the window one morning to eat his breakfast, when +he chanced to look across to the opposite window, and saw, to his great +surprise, that there was some one there, or at least he fancied that he +saw some one, but the glimpse was so momentary that he could not be +sure. + +When one has nothing at all to look at, very small trifles become quite +important; and the idea that he might have, or be going to have, +neighbours was quite exciting. Certainly the king had said something +about it, but hitherto he had seen no one. + +In a fit of curiosity, Michael opened the window and looked out from +time to time while he went on with his meal. Once he thought he saw some +one flit past it again; but he had to hurry off to his military duties +before he could make out whether the rooms were really occupied or not. + +When he came back, the very first thing he did was to go up to the +window again; and at last his curiosity was gratified, at least to some +extent, for two persons were there--two women, one seated at a little +embroidery-frame, and the other standing over her, looking at her work. +Their faces were hidden from him at first, but from their dress and +figures he could see that one was elderly and the other quite young. +Presently the younger one raised her head from her work and looked up, +and from the momentary glance which he had of her features, Michael +fancied that he had seen her before somewhere or other. He could not for +the moment think where it could have been, for it was the merest glimpse +he had of her face before she looked down again. + +He must not be so rude as to watch; but he could not resist an +occasional glance as long as they were there. In another quarter of an +hour, however, both figures had disappeared, and Michael saw no more of +them. But the discovery that he had neighbours was quite exciting, and +he was so much interested that he shook his head with some impatience +when he found the window deserted in the afternoon. Till this event +occurred, Michael had been in the habit of spending as short a time as +possible within doors, and was most eager to mount his horse as soon as +ever he had finished the work which he had set himself for the day. But +now he was so consumed with curiosity that he actually kept his steed +waiting a whole quarter of an hour later than usual, while he watched +for the reappearance of the ladies. + +But it was all to no purpose. For a moment he caught sight of a white +hand raised, either to fasten the window or to point to something, but +the next instant this too had disappeared. He was on the watch again +when he returned home, taking care, however, to stand or sit where he +could not be seen; and the next day and the next it was the same. He +spent so much time in watching, indeed, that he got quite angry with +himself at last; and then he would go out riding, and come back quite +vexed and out of sorts. + +"Bother it all!" he thought to himself; "of course I shall see her again +sooner or later if she is there." + +He was standing in his usual place again one evening, when he saw two +shadows move away from the opposite window in the most tantalizing +manner, and he felt so hopeful that he sat down to watch at his ease. +If tobacco had been known in those days, no doubt he would have lighted +his pipe or a cigar; but as it was not, he had nothing to console +himself with, and could only sit and "look for King David and his harp" +in the moon, as the saying is. + +All at once he fancied that he really did hear him playing his harp in +his silver palace. There were sounds of some sort--soft, sweet sounds, +which came floating towards him on the air; and he thought to himself +that he had surely heard the plaintive melody with its vibrating chords +somewhere before. + +"To be sure! I have got it!" he said to himself. "I know now _where_! +But, of course, others might know the air.--Eh! what's that, though?" he +exclaimed, as a sweet, young, bell-like voice now began to accompany the +instrument, and he heard one of the very songs which he had himself +composed in the days which now seemed so long ago. + +That Miska the beggar boy should be a popular poet will astonish no one +who knows how many of the popular songs of Hungary have had their origin +in the humble cottages of the peasantry, in the course of past +centuries. Every village has its poet, who is also frequently a musical +composer as well. He sings his songs at the village merry-makings to +airs of his own invention, and the gipsies, who are always present on +such occasions to play for the dancers, accompany him on their fiddles. +If they take a fancy to the air, they will remember it, and invent +variations to it, and in this way it will be preserved and become part +of their stock. + + "One life, one God, + One home, one love," + +sang Michael's opposite neighbour, in a voice of great beauty and +sweetness. + +"It's Esther! it must be Esther!" cried the young man, starting to his +feet in great excitement. "Esther!" he said, and a flush mounted to his +face; "but here, _here_, actually here, opposite me? Impossible! I must +see her and make sure. No one could know that song, though, but herself; +I made it for her, and no one else ever had it, at least from me." + +Often and often Michael had wondered what had become of his little +friend and the other inhabitants of the castle; but whenever he had +ventured to hint an inquiry as to Mr. Samson's fate, or had tried to +find out anything about the rest, the king had turned the subject, and +avoided giving him any direct answer. Of course it was out of the +question to press the matter, so that he had known positively nothing +of what had happened ever since the eventful night when he had left the +castle. But though his life had been a very busy one, and many fresh new +interests had come into it, he had never forgotten the one pleasant +acquaintance whom he had made in Mr. Samson's grim castle. He walked +across towards the window now full of eagerness; but the singer, whose +voice he thought he recognized, was sitting in such a provoking way that +he could not see her face, and he had been careful to manage so that she +should not see him either. Presently he stopped, with his foot on the +window-sill, and then took another step forward, which apparently +startled the singer, for the song ceased abruptly, and a rather +frightened face looked up at him. + +"It is you!" cried the young officer, in impetuous delight; and "Is it +you?" said the girl, more quietly, but with a flush of pleasure. + +"Well, did ever one see!" exclaimed a sharp voice behind Esther. +"Jancsi! [Johnnie!] how ever did you get here?" + +"It is I indeed, my little demoiselle," said Michael, in the utmost +surprise. "But I am quite bewildered. How did you come here?" + +"Did not you know that the king had sent for me here to Buda?" + +"The king!" said the young man, and a shadow crossed his face; "when? +what for?--and have you seen the king?" + +"Three questions at once," said Esther, laughing. "Well, really I don't +know anything more than that we came here under the escort of an old +gentleman whom I don't know; and the king quartered us here, where we +have been now three days, but I have not yet seen His Highness. God +bless him! for I am as free here, and as happy," she went on, blushing +still more, "as if I had been born again. But come in; why do you stand +there in the window? We are neighbours, you know, as we used to be, and +neighbours ought to be on good terms with one another." + +Michael felt as if he were dreaming, but naturally he did not wait to be +asked twice; and the old woman, who had shown a marked liking for him +before while he was in Samson's castle, welcomed him now with the +greatest cordiality. + +"Why, Jancsi, stay a bit," said she, "and let me look at you! Why, what +a smart lad you have turned into, to be sure! What fine buttons you have +on your dolmány! and--well, I declare, you have a watch too! 'Your +lentils must have sold' uncommonly well in the time; and just tell us +now how you came to 'climb the cucumber-tree' so quickly, will you?"[12] + +[Footnote 12: To "sell one's lentils well" and to "climb the +cucumber-tree" mean to get on in the world and make one's fortune +quickly.] + +"Ah, auntie, that would take a long time to tell; but we'll have it +another time. All I can tell you now is that I owe everything to the +good king, and I would go through the fire for him; for my whole life, +every moment of it, belongs to him." + +Then in a few words he told them his history since the time when he had +left the castle with Samson, and had so given Esther some hope of +release. + +"It is strange," said Esther thoughtfully, "that the king should have +put us here opposite one another, and should have had these gloomy +bastions put in order and made so habitable just for us." + +"Very," said Michael. "I am surprised myself, and I don't understand it, +especially as the king asked me yesterday, laughing, whether I had yet +made acquaintance with my neighbour? But what is the good of troubling +one's head about it? I am heartily glad, anyway; and you, Esther, are +you pleased too? tell me." + +The girl blushed a little, and giving Michael her hand, said: "Why +shouldn't I be glad? I am sure I could not have come across a better +neighbour, and it is to you most certainly that I owe my freedom." + +The young officer sighed. "Indirectly, yes," he said; and then in a +lower tone he added, "And the king might have entrusted you to my +charge; I might have had the pleasure of bringing you here. However, +when I had captured Mr. Samson, before I came back to the king, I showed +the way in and out of the castle to the Jew whom Mr. Samson had intended +to relieve of his pack, so it was easy enough then to get in and take +possession." + +"Of course," said Esther, "it did not need any very great valour to +steal in at midnight and seize the place." + +"And what has become of Mr. Samson? the king has never told me a word +more about him." + +"What has become of him? I should think he was safe in one of the king's +prisons." + +"Dear Esther, do tell me what happened; I am burning to know how it all +came about." + +"Well, when a few weeks had passed and Mr. Samson did not come home, we +all began to think that something had happened to him, and that he had +perished for good and all. And then one midnight we heard a great noise +of shouting and the clash of arms, and then Mr. Rozgonyi came and +mentioned your name, and I let him into my room. For I was so +frightened, not knowing what was going on, that I had treble-bolted the +door and put the bar up; but when I heard your name, of course I knew it +was all right, and I opened it at once." + +"And what of the castle?" + +"Mr. Rozgonyi did not allow much time for questions. He just said that +he had brought some stone-masons with him; and apparently they had come +to pull down and not to build, at least in the first place, for he wound +up by saying that the king was going to have the stones used to build a +church and monastery in the nearest village. There would be enough for +three, I should think!" + +"And did Miss Esther ever think of the poor beggar boy?" + +"To be sure! But I thought more of the valiant Alpári János [John], who +was so brave as to come into Mr. Samson's hiding-place, and then so +clever as to get the wicked tyrant into his hands. But, Sir Knight, I +felt afraid of you too, and I must confess that I am rather afraid of +you still. For--you are certainly very clever at pretending and making +believe to be what you are not; and when one finds it all out, how is +one to believe anything you may say?" + +"Good Esther!" said Michael, looking a little shamefaced, "but didn't I +keep my promise to you? I said you should be released, and you were." + +"True," admitted Esther. + +"And if I acted the part of a dissembler with Mr. Samson, I was not my +own master, you know; I belonged to the king, and was obeying his +orders, not following my own fancies and wishes. But as regards +yourself, I have never dissembled at all, from the time when first I +began to make your acquaintance, and it rests with you to put my +sincerity to the test." + +"How do you mean? But I see we have been chattering away a long +time.--Euphrosyne, light the candles.--And you, sir, must go, if you +please; we have talked enough for to-day." + +But though Esther dismissed him now, no day passed after this without +his coming to see her; and both she and Euphrosyne seemed to be always +glad to see him and to listen to all he had to tell them, first about +his own life and adventures, and the king whom he was never tired of +extolling, and then about the day's incidents, his work and his studies, +and what was going on in Buda; for they lived very quietly, and saw and +heard but little of the outside world. Often, too, Esther would bring +out her harp and play and sing. Her voice had gained in power and +richness during the past two or three years, and she had had some +teaching from one of the king's musicians; but nothing pleased Michael +so well as to hear her sing the favourite old songs which he remembered +of old, except--to hear her sing his own. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE KING'S WHIM. + + +Things had been going on very pleasantly for some weeks, and Michael and +his attractive little neighbour had been growing more and more intimate +with each other, when one evening, on entering the room as usual, he saw +at once that something was amiss; for Esther's bright face was quite +overclouded, and her blue eyes looked troubled. + +But Euphrosyne was mounting guard over her young mistress as she always +did, and Michael's anxious but cautious inquiries met with evasive +answers, or passed unnoticed. + +How he wished the old woman would find something to look after in the +kitchen or elsewhere--anything to get rid of her, if but for a few +minutes! + +The conversation was less animated than usual this evening: Esther +seemed to find a difficulty in talking and she said positively that she +could not sing; and Michael was becoming quite uneasy and almost +inclined to take his departure, when--whether she felt that she was not +wanted or not--something or other made Euphrosyne discover, or perhaps +pretend to discover, that she had something to attend to in another +room. + +Such a thing had never happened before, and Michael seized his +opportunity, blessing her in his heart for leaving them to themselves, +but fearing she would be back before he had said what he wanted to say. + +"Now, Esther," he said persuasively, seating himself on the divan by her +side--"now, Esther, tell me what has happened. What is troubling you? +you look so sad and out of spirits. What is the matter? I am sure there +is something." + +"My friend," answered Esther, "I _am_ sad, for I am to leave Buda." + +"Why? where are you going?" cried Michael. + +"I don't know," said the girl--"I don't know! There! read what he says." +And she handed Michael a letter. + +"The king's writing!" he exclaimed; and then he read with a beating +heart:-- + + "MY LITTLE SISTER[13] ESTHER,--Your parents came of + distinguished ancestry. You are an orphan; Mr. Samson + got possession of all that belonged to you, and since + he has paid the penalty of his crimes, his property + has come into our treasury. We have lately heard from + Munkács that he has died a natural death, and we are + willing to restore a portion of his possessions to + you, if you on your part are willing to give your hand + to one of our 'Supreme Counts,'[14] a man of very + ancient family. If you cannot make up your mind to + this, my little sister, then you must go away from + here; for your frequent meetings with Mr. + Tornay--whose head I will wash for him!--have + attracted attention, and will make you talked about. + + "MATTHIAS." + + [Footnote 13: "Little sister" and "little brother" are + usual forms of addressing the young.] + + [Footnote 14: _Fö-ispán_, the head and administrator + of a county, not a hereditary count.] + +Michael let the letter drop from his hand in dismay, and then exclaimed +passionately, "Why, the king placed me here; and, besides, he asked me +himself whether I had made acquaintance with my neighbour." + +"True," said Esther sadly, "and I told His Highness so myself; but he +gave me quite a scolding for letting you come and see me so often." + +"What!" cried Michael, surprised and even startled; "the king has been +here?" + +"He has indeed," said Esther, the tears springing to her eyes. +"Yesterday, while you were out riding the beautiful cream-coloured horse +with the green silk trappings, the king came. I had never seen him +before, but as he closed the door behind him, I knew in a moment that it +was the king and no one else. I felt it somehow, I don't know how." + +"And what did he say? was he in a good humour?" + +"Good? not by any means. He looked at me as fiercely as if I were going +to do him I don't know what injury, and yet I pray for him every day, +and have never sinned against him so much as in thought." + +"Strange!" said Michael. "And this count! The whirlwind take him and all +his ancient family pedigree away together! Do you know this count? And +is there any count in all the wide world who loves you as well as I do?" + +"You?" said Esther, lifting her tearful eyes; "but you see you never +told me you did." + +"I _have_ told you!" said Michael, impetuously seizing Esther's hand and +covering it with kisses; "every word I have uttered has told you so, +ever since I first saw you. Ah! you might have understood me, +because--I was once a beggar boy, how could I speak more plainly? _I_ +have no family pedigree, and I shall never be a Supreme Count," he +finished gloomily. + +"Is it true?" said Esther, blushing very prettily, but looking several +shades less melancholy than before. + +"Why shouldn't it be true, my star? Of course it is true! Don't you +believe me?" said Michael, drawing her to himself. "But I am the son of +poor parents, only a beggar boy, and that abominable count, hang him! +may--what was I going to say?--well, anyhow, may the grasshoppers fall +upon him!" + +"Michael," said Esther, a little shyly, "if you do love me--but +understand well, I mean _really_ love me, really and truly--well then, I +will just confess that I love you too, with all my heart, truly, as my +life. You are more to me than all the counts in the world, for you are +my Supreme Count; and even if you can't point to a line of ancestors, +what does it signify? Somebody has to make a beginning, and you are +making your own name; surely that is a great deal more than merely +inheriting it! Besides, your family pedigree is as long as any one's in +the world after all; for it reaches back to old Father Adam, and no one +can go further." + +At that moment Euphrosyne reappeared with the lights; but Michael cared +little for her, now that he had found out what he wanted to know. Esther +cared for him; what else could possibly matter? + +"I must go to the king," said Michael. "He has always been most gracious +to me, and why should he want to crush me now, after being the making of +me? Why should he make my heart bitter, when it beats true to him and to +my love? Don't be sad, my star. I will see him to-morrow, and tell him +everything. He is so good, so kind, and so just! and it wouldn't be just +to take you away from me, after bringing you here and letting us learn +to know one another. If I only knew which count it was! but there are +more than fifty. There is not one of them, though, that found you out in +Mr. Samson's castle, and you never sang any of their songs, did you now? +_Did_ any one ever make songs for you but me?" + +"No one! I don't know any count, unless the old gentleman who escorted +us was one, and I hardly spoke to him." + +But just then they were interrupted, for the door opened, and one of the +royal pages stepped in. + +"I have been looking for you in your quarters, lieutenant-general," +said he; "and as I did not find you at home, it is a good thing you are +here. See, this is from the king; please to read it." And he handed a +note to Michael, who turned deadly pale as he took it and read as +follows:-- + + "I wish you all good. + + "So you have become very well acquainted indeed with + your neighbours! and we suspect that you have spent + more time tied to their apron-strings than in + exercising the garrison. We shall therefore give you + something to do. + + "We shall expect you to be at Visegrád by eleven + o'clock to-morrow morning, and we will there give you + our orders. Be prepared for three months' absence from + Buda. + + "You will not see your neighbour again; she is to be + the bride of Aggtelky Mihály, one of our best-beloved + and most trusty counts. God be with us.[15] + + "MATTHIAS." + + [Footnote 15: Equivalent to our "adieu."] + +The note was written in the most formally polite style. There was no +"gossip" or "little brother," there was not even a "thou" in it--nothing +from beginning to end but "your grace," answering indeed to our "you," +but a good deal more chilling to those accustomed to the friendly "thee" +and "thou." + +Michael smothered his wrath as best he could, feeling how much he owed +to the king, and that it would be the blackest ingratitude to show +passion and resentment because he now crossed his will. + +"I will obey His Highness's commands," said he to the page, who at once +withdrew. + +Then he embraced Esther, and said with a heavy sigh, "All is not lost +yet. The king is good, and--God is better. Keep up your heart." + + * * * * * + +The next morning the young lieutenant-general was at Visegrád by the +appointed time, and went at once to the governor, who told him that the +king had arrived a couple of hours previously, very irritable and out of +humour, as it seemed. + +"What can have happened to His Highness?" asked Michael, grieved to hear +of the king's ill-humour, and fearing not only that his petition would +come at a most unfortunate time, but that the king would not perhaps let +him have speech of him at all. + +"Eh!" said the governor, "who knows what our good king has to worry +him? There's trouble enough in the country just now, that's certain, and +he has both his hands full. But I am sure I am not afraid of him; and as +for those who vex him, may they suffer for it as they deserve!" + +A long hour passed, and still the king did not send for Michael, though +the governor had lost no time in announcing his arrival. But at last, +after he had waited what to him seemed a very long time, the summons +came. The page who brought it looked grave, but beyond that his face +betrayed nothing, and Michael hastened with a beating heart into the +presence of the master whom he adored, but now, perhaps for the first +time in his life, feared to meet. + +When he entered the beautiful, well-lighted room, whose painted windows +looked out upon the Danube, he found King Matthias seated near an open +window, in an arm-chair covered with yellow velvet, and looking more +gloomy than he had ever seen him before. He was very plainly, almost +carelessly, attired, and near him was his favourite scholar, the +librarian Galeotti, who also looked melancholy and stood gazing at +vacancy, as if he were trying to peer into the future. + +"Is it you?" said Matthias coldly; "you have kept me waiting a long +time." + +"Mr. King," answered Michael, "I have been here for the past two hours, +as you commanded." + +"Ah! true, I was forgetting; of course they announced you. Are you +prepared for a long journey?" + +"A soldier is ready to march without much preparation," said Michael, +with a great want of his usual alacrity. "I am ready to receive your +Highness's orders." + +"Good," said the king. "You will start for Vienna in an hour's time +then, with Mr. Galeotti here. He is going on a mission for me to the +Emperor Friedrich; and until my friend has completed his business, which +may perhaps take six months, you are not to leave him." + +Michael said nothing. + +"Well?" the king went on, in a tone of impatient annoyance. "Perhaps you +don't fancy such an errand; you would prefer, no doubt, to be sent +against Axamith,[16] who has effected a lodgment again in the north, as +we hear, and is thieving and plundering like a swarm of grasshoppers." + +[Footnote 16: One of the Bohemian freebooters.] + +"Why should I deny it?" said Michael humbly, well knowing that the king +liked the truth even when he was angry. "If Your Highness were disposed +to send me on active service somewhere, I _should_ prefer it. But +wherever you please to order me, I shall go with a good will; for my +life belongs to my king." + +"Hm!" said Matthias, fixing his searching eyes upon the speaker; "may be +so, but just at present your tongue does not speak the thoughts of your +heart." + +"Sir! Your Highness!" + +"'Highness' I may be, but 'gracious' I am not to-day, am I, Mr. Michael +Tornay? You have yourself to thank for it, for you have been putting bad +wood on the fire,[17] and you have been going very near what is +forbidden fruit." + +[Footnote 17: That is, you have been up to mischief.] + +"Forbidden fruit?" said Michael, exceedingly cast down by the king's +cold treatment of him. + +"It is true I did not distinctly forbid it you, but I could not suppose +you would take fire so quickly." + +Michael said nothing, and the king went on,-- + +"Don't deny it, for I know everything. You have fallen in love with +Esther. It is just fortunate that the girl has more sense than you, and +does not trust your fine words." + +"I humbly beg your pardon," said Michael, unwilling to let the +opportunity slip, "I believe, on the contrary, Your Highness, that +Esther--" + +"Esther is going to marry Aggtelky Mihály, the Supreme Count," said the +king decidedly; "and now that you know this, it will be as well for you +to give up thinking of her. To make it easier for you, and to impress it +upon your mind, it will not be amiss for you to spend a few months away +from Buda." + +"Your Highness," Michael began again in an imploring tone. + +"Enough!" said the king in a stern voice. "Now both follow me to the +castle chapel. You will receive your instructions after service, and +then--to Vienna!" + +Michael was in the utmost consternation, but he did not venture another +word. It was so strange to see the gay, good-natured king thus unlike +himself, that he thought he must either be ill, or must have had very +bad news from somewhere, or--was it possible?--that some one had been +trying to set him against himself, by telling malicious tales. His +rapid advancement, and the favour which the king showed him, had, he +knew, excited some envy and jealousy. Had some secret enemy then been at +work? + +But then King Matthias was not given to listening to tales, and if he +had heard anything to Michael's discredit, he would have told him of it +plainly, and given him the opportunity of clearing himself. + +He glanced interrogatively at Galeotti; but the Italian merely shrugged +his shoulders to express his entire bewilderment. They were walking +behind the king now, towards the chapel, which they found dressed with +lovely flowers as if for a festival; but Michael was so engrossed in his +own thoughts, so sore at heart, and so hurt by what he felt to be the +just king's injustice, that he had no attention to spare for anything +else. + +They took their places; the shrill tones of a bell were heard, and the +service began and proceeded quietly to its close. + +The king rose up, and was about to leave the chapel, when he stopped +short, saying, "So--I was forgetting! Another little ceremony takes +place here to-day, of course. Follow me." + +With that he turned towards the vestry, Michael following him with +listless steps. + +The door was opened by some one within; but Michael's eyes were bent +upon the ground, and he saw nothing but the marble floor, until Galeotti +twitched him by the sleeve and made him look up. Then he saw what filled +him first with amazement and next with passionate indignation. + +For there before him, like a beautiful dream, stood Esther--_his_ Esther +as he felt her to be, in spite of kings and counts--_his_ Esther, robed +in white, with a bridal wreath on her head, and looking as fair and pure +as a dove! + +Michael turned almost as white as the bride's dress. He had been brought +to Visegrád to see her married to the count! That was his first +collected thought. Could the king, the master whom he had so +loved--_could_ he be so cruel, so heartlessly cruel? + +For a moment or two Michael was so torn in pieces between his love for +Esther and his love and reverence for the king, that he felt as if he +were losing his senses, and might say or do something outrageous. + +The king stopped and turned towards him, as if he were about to speak; +but Michael did not notice it, for his eyes were fixed upon the bride, +and he was trying to master himself. + +"Mr. Michael Tornay!" + +Michael started at the sound of the king's voice, and looked at him +mechanically. + +Matthias held in his hand a heavy gold case, with a piece of parchment +from which hung a large seal. The clouds had vanished from his face as +if by magic, and he was apparently quite himself again, for he looked as +bright and pleasant as possible. + +"Mr. Michael Tornay," he said in a gay tone, which completed Michael's +bewilderment, "you have answered all our expectations. If we have been +the making of you, you have given us complete satisfaction in return. +You have won our heart by your faithful affection, your valour, and your +love and devotion to your country. And now, see, we herewith endow you +with an estate for which we have chosen the name of Aggtelky, from one +of the properties included in it. We also entrust you with the +administration of the county of Szathmár; and that you may not be +lonely, and find the time hang heavy on your hands, we propose to give +you this naughty little daughter of Eve to torment you. + +"What have you to say to this? Will it suit you better than going to +Vienna, little brother--eh? Ah! I thought so," as Michael and his bride +fell upon their knees, unable for the moment to utter a word. "Then, if +the bride is pleased to accept you after all, Mr. Supreme Count Michael +Aggtelky, the wedding shall take place at once." + + +THE END + + + + + The Boys' New Library. + + _Crown 8vo, cloth extra. 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By LUCY TAYLOR, Author + of "The Children's Champion, and the Victories He + Won." + + _An outline, with running comments and moral + reflections, of the "Pilgrim's Progress," designed to + imbue the minds of the young with the lofty aims of + John Bunyan in writing his unique allegory._ + + + =Home for the Holidays.= By MRS. C. C. CAMPBELL, Author + of "Natural History for Young Folks," etc. Twenty + Illustrations. + + _An attractive book for children, which, along with a + simple narrative, includes some interesting facts of + natural science, historical legends, etc._ + + + =The King's Highway=; or, Illustrations of the + Commandments. By Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. With + numerous Engravings. + + _Addresses for the young on each Commandment, with + illustrative anecdotes and hymns._ + + + =The Life of John Knox.= With Biographical Notices of + the Principal Reformers, and Sketches of the Progress + of Literature in Scotland during a great part of the + Sixteenth Century. By Rev. THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D., Author + of "Life of Andrew Melville." + + + =Philip.= A Story of the First Century. By MARY C. + CUTLER. + + "_The authoress writes in a charmingly simple style, + so that the book will be read with delight by the + children; yet it has a force and suggestiveness that + will make it edifying to the adult reader._"--N. B. + DAILY MAIL. + + + =Seed-Time and Harvest=; or, Sow Well and Reap Well. A + Book for the Young. By the late Rev. W. K. TWEEDIE, + D.D. + + _This book is eminently a practical one. It shows the + reader, by illustration and example, the necessary + results of good and bad conduct, and invites him to + choose the right course._ + + + =Seeking a Country=; or, The Home of the Pilgrims. By + the Rev. E. N. HOARE, M.A., Rector of Acrise, Kent; + Author of "Heroism in Humble Life," "Roe Carson's + Enemy," etc. + + _A historical tale, founded on the first voyage of the + "Mayflower," and the early experiences of the Pilgrim + Fathers. With a portrait of Captain Miles Standish, + and many other interesting illustrations._ + + + T. NELSON AND SONS, London, Edinburgh, and New York. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected. + +In Chapter I, a period was added after "To be sure". + +In Chapter IV, a period was added after "better to be beforehand with +them". + +The name Zokoli/Zokoly is spelled inconsistently in the original text. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Matthias and the Beggar Boy, by +Nicholas Jósika + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + +***** This file should be named 36816-8.txt or 36816-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36816/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: King Matthias and the Beggar Boy + +Author: Nicholas Jósika + +Illustrator: R. Hope + +Translator: Selina Gaye + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36816] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 469px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="469" height="600" alt="KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h1>KING MATTHIAS<br /> +AND THE BEGGAR BOY.</h1> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 387px;"> +<img src="images/front.jpg" width="387" height="600" alt=""Come here, gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear." Page 66." title="" /> +</div> +<p class="caption"><i>"Come here, gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear."</i> <a href="#comehere">Page 66.</a></p> + + + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 380px;"> +<img src="images/title.jpg" width="380" height="600" alt="King Matthias and the Beggar Boy. T. Nelson & Sons" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap biggertext">King Matthias</span><br /> +<span class="bigtext">AND THE BEGGAR BOY</span></p> + +<p class="center bigtext"><i>ADAPTED FROM THE HUNGARIAN OF<br /> +BARON NICHOLAS JÓSIKA</i></p> + +<p class="center">BY<br /><span class="bigtext">SELINA GAYE</span></p> + +<p class="center">Author of "Ilka: The Captive Maiden," "Dickie Winton," &c. &c.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="200" height="104" alt="publisher's logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">T. NELSON AND SONS<br /> +<i>London, Edinburgh, and New York</i></p> + +<p class="center">1902</p> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table class="figcenter" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">I.</td> +<td class="chapname">MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">II.</td> +<td class="chapname">MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">III.</td> +<td class="chapname">"TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!"</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IV.</td> +<td class="chapname">IN THE ROBBER'S NEST,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">42</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">V.</td> +<td class="chapname">CAUGHT,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VI.</td> +<td class="chapname">I AM THE KING'S PAGE!</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VII.</td> +<td class="chapname">SENT TO PRISON,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IX.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE KING'S WHIM,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">109</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="KING_MATTHIAS_AND_THE_BEGGAR_BOY" id="KING_MATTHIAS_AND_THE_BEGGAR_BOY"></a>KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY.</h2> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE.</span></h2> + + +<p>Towards the close of a gloomy day in autumn, a very dusty traveller was +riding quietly up to a castle which stood perched on a height in one of +the northern counties of Hungary. A very extraordinary-looking castle it +was, if it was a castle at all, which one might be inclined to doubt; +for it looked more like a square block hewn by giants out of the ribs of +the mountain, and left to itself for centuries, until its walls had +become mouldy and moss-grown. One thing which gave it an odd appearance +was that, as far as could be seen, it had no roof; the fact being that +it was built round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> a quadrangle, and that the roof, or rather +half-roof, sloped downwards and inwards from the top of the outer walls.</p> + +<p>But what was even more remarkable still was that the building had +neither door nor window in any one of its four sides; so that how the +inhabitants, if there were any, ever went in or out, was quite a +mystery.</p> + +<p>People had had a good deal to say about the owner of this extraordinary +stronghold for many a year past, and all sorts of wild stories were told +of him. But no one but his own hired servants and men-at-arms had ever +set eyes upon him—so far as they knew, that is to say.</p> + +<p>Neither he nor his servants were ever to be seen coming or going, and +how they managed was quite unknown; but for all that they made their +presence felt, and very unpleasantly felt too.</p> + +<p>The man on horseback had drawn nearer by this time, and was gazing up at +the huge pile, scanning it carefully, but quite unable to discover so +much as a chink or cranny in the grey, weather-beaten walls.</p> + +<p>At last he shook his head and said with a smile, "Why, the castle is in +such a strong position and so well fortified that it must be almost +impregnable! But of course it is inhabited, and the inhabitants are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +human beings, not demons; and wherever human beings can dwell, human +beings must also be able to enter.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am here at last! and little enough Mr. Samson guesses what +manner of visitor has come so close to his hiding-place. I am glad I +came, for it is always best to see with one's own eyes. And now that I +am here, the next thing is how to get in. Let us look and consider. No +use," he continued, after a moment or two; "I can't think of any way. If +I could only see some one, a living creature of some sort, to make +inquiries of! Nonsense! I'll wager I know more about the nest than any +one hereabouts.</p> + +<p>"But still, I have been six hours on horseback, and as far as the eye +can see there is no wayside inn or public-house or even farm-house in +sight, and a man can't help being tired even if he be a vice-count—or +more! Well, let's be going on," he went on, putting his horse once more +in motion.</p> + +<p>The young man before us was of middle height and strongly built, with +fiery dark eyes, and curly chestnut hair; he was very plainly clad, and +his horse was no better caparisoned than if it had belonged to some son +of the <i>puszta</i>, or steppes.</p> + +<p>Quietly, and with eyes and ears both on the alert,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> he rode round the +height on which the fortress stood.</p> + +<p>"If I don't see anything," he said to himself with a laugh, "they don't +see me; let's be off!</p> + +<p>"Eh, and yet I should be glad if I could come across a human being of +some sort, if he were no bigger than the rowel of my spur.—Hi! hi +there, <i>földi</i> [countryman]," cried the horseman all at once, as he +caught sight of some one trudging along the road round the shoulder of +the hill.</p> + +<p>The wayfarer thus addressed turned and came up to him, and as soon as he +was within speaking distance he said in humble tones, "<i>Uram</i> [sir], I +am hungry; I have not eaten a morsel to-day. Have pity on me, +<i>kegyelmed</i><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> [your grace]."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A common form of polite address in Hungarian.</p></div> + +<p>Then he cast a glance, not altogether devoid of envy, at the dainty +horseman, who was so comfortably clad, and who looked, to judge by his +countenance, as if his hunger had been well satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Here," said the rider, giving the beggar a small coin; for the boy +attracted him, and he thought to himself that he could hardly ever +remember to have seen a face with such a peculiarly taking expression. +Moreover, in spite of the mud and dirt with which his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> skin was +incrusted, it was impossible not to be struck by his fine features, +which were of a purely Oriental type, and lighted up by a pair of large +dark eyes as black as the raven's wing.</p> + +<p>The man on horseback had given the lad a trifle on the spur of the +moment, because he looked so poverty-stricken; but a second glance made +him fancy, rightly or wrongly, that he was not a beggar of the common +sort, to whom people give careless alms because he stirs their pity for +the moment. This beggar excited something more and better than mere +pity—at least in the man before us. Some people, it is true, might not +have noticed the expression of the lad's face; but to those who had eyes +it told of something more than poverty and distress. It was not the look +of the beggar who is content to be a beggar, who would rather beg than +work, rather live upon others than labour for himself. One might almost +fancy, indeed, that the lad was ashamed of his present plight, and +rather indignant with things in general for not providing him with some +better employment.</p> + +<p>The horseman was one well accustomed to reading character, and rarely +mistaken in his judgment; and being touched as well as favourably +impressed by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> boy, it suddenly occurred to him that he might be +turned to account.</p> + +<p>"Just answer me a few questions, my boy, will you?" said he. "Can you +write?"</p> + +<p>"No, I can't; I have never had any teaching."</p> + +<p>And, indeed, writing was a by no means general accomplishment in the +reign of the good King Matthias, when many of the first nobles in the +land could not even sign their own names. But still there seem to have +been elementary schools not only in the towns but in other places as +well, so that the question was not altogether unreasonable.</p> + +<p>"Then you can't read either?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not; as if it were likely!"</p> + +<p>"Have you ever been in service?"</p> + +<p>"Never, sir, thank Heaven; but I have worked as a day-labourer."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you turn soldier?"</p> + +<p>"Because my head is worth more than my arms," said the beggar: "besides, +they wouldn't take such a ragged chap as I."</p> + +<p>"Are you to be trusted, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>The boy looked up at the speaker at this, and then answered with an air +of wounded pride, "I have not had a good meal for a fortnight, yet I +have not stolen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> so much as a plum from a tree. You may trust me with a +purse full of money."</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>öcsém</i><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> [little brother], it is possible you may be a regular +rascal, for anything I know to the contrary at present; but you have a +good face, and I should like to see such a head as yours on many a pair +of shoulders which are covered with gold and marten-fur. Well, I don't +care! I am going to trust a good pair of eyes and a clear forehead. +Listen, boy. I like you. Stand here before me, and let me see what you +have got in you, gossip! for if you hold good measure, you have been +born under a lucky star, I can tell you."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A common way of addressing younger persons.</p></div> + +<p>"You can amuse yourself in return for the money you have given me," said +the boy, looking repeatedly at his gift; "you may take my measure as +much as you like, and I will be looking at the horse meantime. Ah! you +are a lucky man to have such a horse as that. How he snorts! and his +eyes flash as if he were Játos<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> himself."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> A magic horse.</p></div> + +<p>"Boy!" said the horseman, who looked as if he were at least a +vice-count—"boy, you are up to the mark so far; there is room for good +measure in you, and a few pints over! But, <i>koma</i> [gossip], I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +often seen a good-looking cask full of nothing but bad, sour wine. Let +us see whether you hold one full measure."</p> + +<p>"One measure?" said the beggar, offended. "I shouldn't be my father's +son if my wretched skin did not cover a man of a hundred measures, +especially when I have had a good dinner. It's a couple of weeks now +since I have had a stomachful when I lay down at night."</p> + +<p>"My little brother," said the horseman, "a fellow who is ruled by his +stomach is not worth a farthing. You have lost three measures out of +your cask by that foolish speech."</p> + +<p>"Ha," said the beggar boldly, "my stomach grumbles badly, and it is no +joke when it goes on for long. However, it's no wonder you can't guess +what it feels like to be hungry, for I daresay you are a hall-porter, or +even maybe a poultry-dealer, and such people as those are always well +fed."</p> + +<p>The horseman laughed. "You have got the cow's udder between its horns +now, koma; but whatever and whoever I may be, I am a great man while my +purse is full, and so listen to me. Do you see that castle there?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>"Have you ever been inside?"</p> + +<p>"Well, to be sure, I am well off, I am! but may the Tatars catch me, if +I would take my teeth in there!"</p> + +<p>"Hm!—and why?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked the beggar, considering; "I really can't tell you. But what +should take me there? Besides—well, they say it is inhabited by demons, +and that they live on Jews' flesh. The Jews are constantly going there, +just as if they had been invited to dinner; but they get eaten up."</p> + +<p>"Simple Stevie of Debreczin!"<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> cried the horseman. "Do you believe +such nonsense?"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Simple Stevie" is said to have been a student in the +college of Debreczin, where he was notorious for his simplicity.</p></div> + +<p>The beggar grinned. "What would you have?" said he. "People say a great +many things of all sorts, and a fellow like me just believes and +blunders along with the rest! If His Grace in there does live on Jews' +flesh, I wish him good health; but for my own part I had rather have a +little bit of chicken than roast Jew."</p> + +<p>"Now, boy, listen. Just look there," began the horseman again: "if you +can get into that castle and bring me word again how the world wags +there, you shall have a hundred gold ducats in your hand."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>"A hundred ducats!" cried the beggar. "Why, I could buy a whole county +with that, surely!"</p> + +<p>"Not so much as that, little brother," said the rider; "but still it is +a great deal of money!"</p> + +<p>"And who will give it me?" asked the beggar, looking eagerly at the +horseman.</p> + +<p>"I myself," he answered. "But I am slow to believe people, and so I want +first to know whether I can trust you."</p> + +<p>The boy still had his eyes turned towards the castle. "Thunder!" said he +presently, "the devil himself doesn't get in there by the proper way. +But just wait a moment, sir, and let me think a little. So they don't +live on Jews' flesh in there, eh, sir?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure not! I fancy they live on something better than that."</p> + +<p>"But still the Jews do go in and out—at least so people say, and what +is in everybody's mouth is half true at all events."</p> + +<p>"Right; but what then?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I'll be a Jew, and go in, if they don't eat people up."</p> + +<p>"But how?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know yet. Give me a little time, or I shall not be able to hit +upon it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>"Of course. And now listen. Before I trust you blindly, I am going to +prove you." He drew a sealed letter from his breast, wrote a few lines +on the back with a pencil, and went on: "See this letter? Make haste +with it to Visegrád; ask for admission, and say merely that you have +brought the governor a letter from his son. Do you quite understand? But +I don't know your name; what is it?"</p> + +<p>"Tornay Mihály [Michael Tornay]," answered the boy; and then went on, "I +see! what is there difficult about that? I quite understand: you are the +son of the governor of Visegrád, and you are sending a letter to your +father."</p> + +<p>"Right!" said the horseman. "You will come straight on to Buda with the +answer, and ask at the palace for Mr. Galeotti, and give it into his +hands. You won't forget the name?"</p> + +<p>"Galeotti," repeated the boy. "But will they let me in, in such rags?"</p> + +<p>"You will get proper clothes and a horse in Visegrád."</p> + +<p>"A horse!" exclaimed the boy, his eyes sparkling. "I have never done +anything more than help a coachman to swim his horses now and then, and +now I shall have a horse myself!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>"For service, gossip; and don't you go off with it!"</p> + +<p>The beggar's face was all aflame. "Am I a horse-stealer," he cried, +"just because your elbows don't show through your dolmány, while my +clothes are so full of holes that twenty cats together would not be able +to catch one mouse in them?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be angry," said the horseman, who was more and more pleased with +the boy every moment. "Here, as a sign that I put more trust in some +people's faces than I do in other people's written word—here is a purse +of money. And now hurry off; you have no time to lose. The sooner you +bring back the answer, the more faith I shall have in you."</p> + +<p>The boy stared at the purse, and being very hungry, poor fellow, it +seemed to him to be full of ham and sausage.</p> + +<p>"You must be an estate-manager," he gasped, "or—a bishop, to have so +much money."</p> + +<p>"What does that matter to you?" answered the horseman. "Make haste, and +I shall see whether you are a man of your word."</p> + +<p>The lad raised his tattered cap, and the next moment he was out of +sight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY.</span></h2> + + +<p>The beggar boy stopped for a moment to roll the purse up carefully in a +rag, and to put it and the letter away in the pocket of his dilapidated +old jacket. This done he ran on again quickly.</p> + +<p>But he was hungry, desperately hungry, famishing—his eyes were starting +out of his head; and though he had been much cheered by the liberal +present he had received, a good hunch of bread would really have been +worth a hundred times as much to him just at this moment. He could think +of nothing but the nearest wayside inn.</p> + +<p>People who have never known what it is to be more than just hungry +enough to have a good appetite, have no idea what the pangs of hunger +are, nor what keen pain it is to be actually starving.</p> + +<p>Never in his life had he felt such an intense craving as he did now for +a plate of hot food and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> draught of good wine. He had to summon up all +his failing strength, or he would have been quite exhausted before he +caught sight of the first roof away in the distance. But when he did +catch sight of it, though it was still far off, it put new life into +him; and as he hurried on, he could think of nothing but the meal he was +going to have. What a sumptuous dinner he gave himself in imagination! +It was like a dream without an end, too good to be believed.</p> + +<p>At last he stood before the little inn. The chimney was smoking away +merrily, and his mouth positively watered as he turned towards the +signboard.</p> + +<p>All at once, however, he came to a dead halt, struck by a sudden +thought.</p> + +<p>For a few moments his feet seemed to be rooted to the ground; then he +muttered to himself, "Didn't that good gentleman, who has made a rich +man of me, say that the business he entrusted me with was of importance, +and that he was in a hurry about it? This is the first important thing I +have ever been trusted with; and the gentleman was so honourable, and +put such confidence in me, and I want to sit down to a feast! It is six +months since a drop of wine has touched my lips, and the devil never +goes to sleep: I might drink myself as drunk as a dog!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>His right foot was still turned towards the inn, and his eyes were +adoringly fixed on the beautiful blue smoke issuing from the chimney. He +felt just as if he were bound hand and foot, and a dozen horses were all +tugging at him, dragging him to the wineshop.</p> + +<p>"I <i>won't</i> go!" said he to himself, sadly but firmly. "It's not the +first time I have known what it is to be hungry for twenty-four hours; +and he is in a hurry—it's important business."</p> + +<p>With that he stepped up to the entrance of the low white house, daring +himself, as it were, to go any further, asked for some bread, which he +paid for and began to devour at once, drank a good draught of water from +the well-bucket, and then ran on as if the Tatars were at his heels, or +as if he were afraid to trust himself any longer in such a dangerous +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>No royal banquet could have been more delicious than that hunch of dry +bread seemed to him, and something in the beggar boy's heart cheered him +more than even the best Tokay would have done.</p> + +<p>"Miska,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> you're a man!" he said to himself. "I shall soon be in +Visegrád, where I shall feast like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> lord. I don't know how it is, but +I declare I feel better satisfied with this bit of bread than if I had +eaten a whole yard of sausage."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Short for Mihály = Michael.</p></div> + +<p>But Visegrád was still a long way off—long, that is, when the journey +had to be made on foot; for the castle stood on a hill on the Danube, +just where the river makes a sudden bend to the south. On the hillside, +under the wing of the old fortress, stood a palace built by one of the +former kings of Hungary, which is said to have been equal in splendour +to Versailles or any other of the most magnificent palaces of Europe; +for with its three hundred and fifty rooms it could accommodate two +kings, several foreign dukes and marquises, with their respective +suites, all at the same time.</p> + +<p>The floor of the great hall was paved with valuable mosaics, the ceiling +was adorned with Italian frescoes, and the gardens, with their musical +fountains, brilliant flower-beds, and marble statues, were declared to +be a faithful imitation of the hanging gardens of Babylon!</p> + +<p>But Miska's business was with the castle, not the palace; and at last, +after a journey which was becoming every hour more and more wearisome, +he beheld it rising before him in the distance. It looked, indeed, as if +it were but a little way off, so clear was the air;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> but Miska had lived +an out-of-door life too long to be easily deceived in such matters, and +he took advantage of the next little wayside inn to buy more bread and +get another draught of cool water to help him on his way.</p> + +<p>By the time he reached the hill his strength was failing fast, and it +was all that he could do to drag himself up past Robert-Charles's palace +to the high-perched castle.</p> + +<p>When at last he had been admitted and had given the letter into the +governor's own hands, he dropped down in a fainting fit, and was carried +off to the stables.</p> + +<p>He was not long in coming to himself, however, and as soon as he was +sufficiently recovered he had a feast "fit for a king," as he said; +though he steadily refused to touch a drop of the wine which was brought +to him.</p> + +<p>The whole time he was eating he kept his eyes fixed on the beautiful +horses, wondering which one he should have to ride; and more than once +he sent an urgent message to the governor, begging him to let him have +the answer to the letter which he was to take to Buda.</p> + +<p>"All in good time," said the governor placidly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> "He shall be called +presently, tell him, when it is time for him to start."</p> + +<p>So Miska had nothing for it but to rest in the stable, which was +pleasant enough; for where is the Hungarian, old or young, who does not +love a horse? Moreover, he was very tired after his long tramp, and +presently, in spite of his impatience to be off, he fell into a doze.</p> + +<p>He was still dozing comfortably when the sound of a horn roused him.</p> + +<p>There was a rush to the castle-gate, and when it was opened, a young +man, plainly dressed and alone, rode into the courtyard, where the +governor hastened to greet him with affectionate respect. For the +newcomer, the horseman whose acquaintance we made outside Mr. Samson's +castle, was no other than King Matthias himself.</p> + +<p>"Has my messenger, the beggar boy, arrived?" he asked briskly.</p> + +<p>"He is yonder in the stable," said the governor; "he has only just come +in, very faint, and he is urging me to give him a horse already."</p> + +<p>"He is here?" said the king in surprise. "Impossible! I came at a good +pace myself, and set out hardly half an hour after him. Call him here."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>In a few moments the lad was standing in the presence of the great king, +though he was far enough from guessing whom he was talking with.</p> + +<p>"It is you, the horseman?" said Miska. "Well, it is not my fault that I +am still here. I have been urging Mr. Governor enough, I can tell you. I +might have been ever so long on my way by this time, and they haven't +yet changed my rags or given me a horse."</p> + +<p>"Have you had a good feed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have; but I did not dare drink any wine."</p> + +<p>"Why not, gossip?"</p> + +<p>"That's a foolish question," returned the lad calmly, while the governor +turned pale at his audacity. "Why, sir, because it is six months since I +had any, and it would go to my head; and a tipsy messenger is like a +clerk without hands—they both pipe the same tune."</p> + +<p>"Good," said the king, amused. "Then didn't you stop anywhere on the +way? You could hardly lift your feet when you started, and you see I had +not much faith in you, and came after you."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the lad, looking boldly up at Matthias, "to be sure you are +a strong-built chap, and I believe you could swallow Mr. Governor here +if you were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> angry; but if your eyes had been starting out of your head +with hunger as mine were, I believe you would have been sitting in some +<i>csárda</i> [wayside inn] till now. Stop anywhere? The idea of such a +thing! As if any one who had business needing haste entrusted to him +would think of stopping to rest!"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Miska," said the king. "Would you like to be something better +than you are now?"</p> + +<p>"Hja!" said the beggar, "I might soon be that certainly, for at present +I am not worth even so much as a Jew's harp."</p> + +<p>"Let us hear, gossip; what would you like to be?"</p> + +<p>"Like? Well, really, sir, I have never given it a thought. Hm! what I +should like to be? But then, could it be now—at once?"</p> + +<p>"That depends upon the extent of your wishes; for you might wish to be +governor of Visegrád, and in that case the answer would be, 'Hold in +your greyhounds' [don't be in too much hurry]."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't care to be governor, to sit here by a good fire keeping +myself warm—though, to be sure, it would be well enough sometimes, +especially in winter, when one has such fine clothes as mine, which just +let the wind in where they should keep it out; but I should like to be +something like that stick on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> castle clock which is always moving +backwards and forwards—something that is always on the move."</p> + +<p>"Always on the move!" laughed the king. "Well then, gossip, I'll take +you for my courier; and if you like, you need not keep still a moment."</p> + +<p>"I don't mind!" said Miska joyously. "Then I will be a courier."</p> + +<p>"You will get tired of it, boy. But tell me one thing: do you know +anything?"</p> + +<p>Miska fixed his large eyes on the king.</p> + +<p>"Anything?" he asked, hurt and flushing. "Really, sir, when I come to +consider—thunder!—it seems to me as if I knew just nothing at all!"</p> + +<p>"Then do you wish to learn?"</p> + +<p>"Go to school?" asked Miska; "I don't wish that at all."</p> + +<p>"There is no need for that," said the king; "we will find some other +way. Those who want to learn, can learn without going to school. You +will learn to write and read, which is only play after all to any one +who does not wish to remain a dunce. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind," said Miska.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said the king, turning to the governor, "let him be +clothed, and then you can present him."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>Thereupon the king withdrew to his own apartments, where some of the +great nobles were already waiting for him in one of the saloons, and +were not a little surprised to see him appear travel-stained and dusty, +but in the most lively spirits.</p> + +<p>An hour later Miska had had a bath, and had donned a clean shirt and the +becoming livery worn by the royal pages of the second rank.</p> + +<p>The change in his attire had completely metamorphosed him, and now, as +he stood before the king, the latter was more than ever struck by his +face.</p> + +<p>"Listen," said he, fixing his keen eyes attentively on the beggar. "You +have been well fed, and you have been fresh clothed from top to toe. +Now, I don't want you to go to Buda; for you see I am here, and have +seen the governor myself. But you remember what I said to you outside +Mr. Samson's castle? Well, that shall be the first piece of work you do. +I will give you six months, and if you can get inside and bring me word +what goes on there, I'll make a man of you. You shall have money to buy +anything you may want, and a leather knapsack with linen and all you +will want for the journey—for you will have to go on foot. You shall +have a horse some day, never fear, if you turn out as I expect;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> but it +would only be in your way now. Well, what do you say?"</p> + +<p>The lad knew now that he was in the presence of the king, and Matthias +thought all the more highly of him for the way in which he received his +dangerous commission. He made no hasty promises, but evidently weighed +his words before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Mr. King," said he (for 'Mr.' is used in Hungary in speaking to any one +of whatever degree, and people say 'Mr. Duke' or 'Mr. Bishop,' as they +do in French)—"Mr. King, God preserve Your Highness, and give you a +thousand times as much as you have given to a poor boy like me. I +vow"—and here the beggar raised his right hand—"I vow that I will do +all I can; and if God keeps me in health and strength, and preserves my +senses, I hope to bring Your Highness news of Mr. Samson six months +hence, in Buda."</p> + +<p>"That's enough," said the king. "Meantime I too shall see what I can do. +I shall give Mr. Samson the chance of mending his ways if he will. God +be with you on your journey, Miska."</p> + +<p>Then putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, he said kindly, "Good-bye, +then, till we meet in Buda."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">"TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!"</span></h2> + + +<p>King Matthias had been elected to the throne of Hungary in 1457, when he +was at most but eighteen years old. But if any of the great nobles +fancied that they were going to do just as they liked with him because +he was so young, they soon found themselves very much mistaken.</p> + +<p>He speedily dismissed the governor who had been appointed to look after +him and the kingdom for the first five years; and having once taken the +reins into his own hands, held them firmly as long as he lived.</p> + +<p>And he had no easy, idle life of it: for what with the Turks and other +enemies, he was very frequently, almost constantly, at war with external +foes; and there was also very much to be done to bring things into order +within the kingdom. He was by no means satisfied to let things go on as +they had been doing. He wanted his people to be educated and +cultivated;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> for he was highly educated himself, and delighted to +surround himself with learned men and distinguished artists.</p> + +<p>He wanted to have a grand library, a large university, and a learned +society of scholars in Buda, that Hungary might take her place among the +other nations of Europe in the matter of learning. But he wanted also to +improve the condition of trade, arts, and manufactures; and, regardless +of expense, he sent to foreign lands, especially Italy, for +master-craftsmen to come and train the apprentices, whenever he saw that +they needed better teaching than was to be had just then from their +fellow-countrymen.</p> + +<p>Clocks were by no means common articles at this time in other lands, and +the first clock that kept good time in England is said to have been that +set up at Hampton Court many years later—that is, in 1530. But in the +reign of Matthias, clocks made their appearance on many of the castle +towers in Hungary; and, thanks to the king's encouragement and the +energetic measures he took, it was not long before Hungarian craftsmen +became so famous that the Grand Duke of Moscow asked to have goldsmiths, +gun-founders, land-surveyors, miners, architects, and others sent to him +from Hungary.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>But where is the use of arts, crafts, and manufactures—how indeed can +they flourish—where there is a dearth of food?</p> + +<p>What with enemies without and enemies within, there were extensive +districts in some parts of Hungary, and among them some of the royal +domains, which were little better than wildernesses when the king came +to the throne. Villages had been burned down, the inhabitants driven +away, and the land left desolate in many parts; and in order to tempt +the people back, and induce others to come and settle in these deserted +spots, the king caused it to be proclaimed at the fairs that land might +be had rent-free by those who would undertake to cultivate it, and that +for a certain number of years they should be exempt from taxes of all +sorts.</p> + +<p>The king did all he could to induce the great landed nobles to follow +his example in these matters, and to pay more heed to the cultivation of +their property, and to the peasants who laboured for them, than they had +been in the habit of doing.</p> + +<p>One day, so the story goes, he invited a number of distinguished nobles +to dine with him in one of the northerly counties, and when the meal was +ended he distributed among them a number of pick-axes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> spades, and +taking one himself, called on them to join him in clearing away the +underwood and digging up the ground.</p> + +<p>The active young king, who was well accustomed to exert himself, worked +away energetically; but the well-fed, self-indulgent lords almost melted +away, the labour made them so hot, and very soon they were completely +exhausted.</p> + +<p>"That's enough, my friends," said the king, observing the state they +were in. "Now we know a little of what it costs the peasants to produce +that which we waste in idleness while they live in poverty. They are +human beings like ourselves, yet we often treat them worse than we do +our horses and dogs."</p> + +<p>The spot where Matthias read his nobles this wholesome lesson is still +pointed out in Gömör.</p> + +<p>But indeed some of them needed sharper teaching than this, and Matthias +did not scruple to give it them.</p> + +<p>Where was the use of the peasant's ploughing and sowing his fields or +planting and tending his orchards and vineyards, where was the use of +trying to encourage trade and manufactures, when at any moment the +farmer, merchant, peddler, might be set upon and robbed of all his +hardly-earned goods? Yet so it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> was; for in some parts of the country, +especially in the north, there were robber-knights and freebooting +nobles, chiefly Bohemians, who had been invited into the country during +the civil wars, and now, finding their occupation gone, had built +themselves strongholds among the mountains, from which they issued forth +to plunder and rob and often to murder travellers, traders, farmers, and +any one they could lay hands on. Yet these same robbers were many of +them men of noble birth, and there were some who were not ashamed to +make their appearance in the courts of law, and to help in bringing +smaller thieves and robbers to justice.</p> + +<p>Now King Matthias was so true a lover of justice that his name has +become a proverb, and when he died there was a general sigh and +exclamation, "Matthias is dead! justice is fled!" It was not likely, +therefore, that he was going to tolerate robbers merely because they +were nobles; and after giving them fair warning—for he would be just +even to them—he destroyed their castles, and hung a few of them on +their own towers by way of example to the rest, who did not fail to +profit by it and amend their ways: so that by the end of his reign +travellers could pass from one end of the kingdom to the other in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +perfect safety, and the peasants could gather in their crops without +fear of having them taken from them by violence.</p> + +<p>At the time when our story begins, the war against the robbers was being +carried on with great energy, and the king's generals were busily +engaged in storming their strongholds.</p> + +<p>But like many another monarch who has had the welfare of his people at +heart, Matthias was very fond of going about among them and seeing for +himself, with his own eyes, what was the real state of affairs and what +were their needs and wrongs. More than once on these secret expeditions +it had happened to him to come across men of humble birth, whom, like +Miska the beggar boy, he fancied capable of being turned to valuable +account, and took accordingly into his service. And his shrewd eye +seldom deceived him.</p> + +<p>Did not Paul Kinizsi the giant, for instance, turn out to be one of his +most famous generals? And yet he was only a miller's boy to begin +with—a miller's boy, but an uncommonly strong one; for when the king +first saw him, he was holding a millstone in one hand and cutting it +with the other—a proof of strength which made the king think he was +wasted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> on the mill, and would be a valuable acquisition to the army, as +he certainly proved to be.</p> + +<p>Something more and better than mere brute strength had attracted him in +Miska, and had induced him to send the boy on his hazardous mission to +Mr. Jason Samson.</p> + +<p>Nothing, of course, had been heard of him since he started, and now, +sundry other robbers having been disposed of or reduced to order, it was +Mr. Samson's turn.</p> + +<p>But being an uncommon character himself, Matthias was attracted by +anything uncommon and out of the way in other people. He was fond, too, +of unravelling mysteries, and therefore, much as he hated lawlessness +and robbery, and greatly as he was exasperated by some of Mr. Samson's +secret doings, nevertheless the man appeared by all accounts to be such +a very strange, remarkable being that the king's curiosity was whetted, +and after himself paying a secret visit to the eccentric "Cube," as he +called the odd-looking castle, he resolved to try what mild measures +would do, before proceeding to extremities.</p> + +<p>Whether Miska had succeeded in getting into the robber's nest or not the +king had no means of finding out, but his first step was to have a +summons nailed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> up in the middle of all the four sides of the grim +castle. It ran as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"All good to you from God, Mr. Jason Samson!</p> + +<p>"Present yourself in Buda on the third day of the +coming year, and give an account of your stewardship.</p> + +<p class="signature">"<span class="smcap">Matthias</span>, the King."</p></div> + +<p>The men charged with affixing this to the castle walls withdrew when +their work was done without having seen any one. But some one or other +had seen and read the summons; for when they returned the next morning, +it had been torn down, and in its place, also affixed to the four sides, +appeared these words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Some other time.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>A week after this bold answer another summons was put up. This time it +was:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Surrender.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>The day following the answer appeared:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Not yet.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>About a week after this last reply, a company of soldiers, under the +command of General Zokoli, surrounded the ill-omened castle, which stood +out grey and silent against the rose-coloured mists which ushered in the +sunrise.</p> + +<p>The general had given orders for the scaling-ladders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> to be put up, when +all at once a huge raven-black banner rose up from the centre of the +building with a shining death's-head displayed upon it, and beneath this +the words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Touch me at your peril!</i>"</p></div> + +<p>Zokoli ordered the assault to be sounded, and soon the brave soldiers, +always accustomed to be victorious wherever they went, might have been +seen climbing the ladders on one side of the "Cube." As soon as they +reached the top of the wall, which was also the ridge of the roof, it +turned on a hinge, or rather sprang open like a trap-door, as if it had +been touched by a conjuring rod, and disclosed to their astonished eyes +the gaping mouths of three rows of guns ranged close together.</p> + +<p>Now came a blast, loud and deep, like the sound of some giant trumpet or +organ-pipe, and then what appeared like a long fiery serpent darted from +one corner of the building to the other, and was followed the next +moment by the thundering roar of a couple of thousand guns.</p> + +<p>There was one loud, terrible cry, and when the cloud of smoke cleared +away, a couple of hundred men were to be seen lying dead and maimed +round about the castle.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>The king had given Zokoli strict orders to spare his men as much as +possible. He ordered one more assault on the same side therefore, +thinking that the defenders would not have had time to reload their +guns. But again a couple of hundred of the besiegers fell a useless +sacrifice to the experiment; and unwilling to waste any more lives, +General Zokoli retired, completely baffled and much mortified, to report +what had happened. And then the king's anger blazed forth, and he +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Wait, and I'll teach you, Samson!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">IN THE ROBBER'S NEST.</span></h2> + + +<p>Great men—especially the very few who are great even in their +night-shirts, as the saying is, which was the case with King Matthias, +if it ever was with any one—great men are, by their very natures, +strongly attached to their own ideas and opinions. It is not easy to +shake them when once they have made up their minds about a matter; for +truly great men are not given to hasty judgments. They are firm in their +convictions, but they have some reason to be so.</p> + +<p>Now the king had a sort of instinct or power of reading character, and +he felt convinced that the beggar boy whom he had come across so +strangely would either succeed in getting into the castle, or would +never be heard of again. He had firm faith in him.</p> + +<p>There were a good many matters, as we have seen,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> requiring his +attention in Hungary just then, and therefore, though he was extremely +angry with Samson for his contemptuous behaviour, he decided to put off +punishing him for a time. He felt that, after General Zokoli's +discomfiture, it would be wisest not to take any further steps against +the clever robber until he could be certain of success; and he resolved +on all accounts therefore to wait until Miska made his appearance, or at +least until the six months had expired.</p> + +<p>Of course there were some who believed that Miska would never be seen +again. The king had taken a fancy to him, that was all; but he was only +a beggar boy, when all was said and done, and most likely he had sold +his new clothes to the first Jew he came across, and was in rags again +by this time!</p> + +<p>When three months, four months, five months, passed away without +bringing any news, those who knew anything about the matter shrugged +their shoulders and shook their heads more than ever.</p> + +<p>But one fine morning, just six months after Miska had left Visegrád, and +when every one but the king had given him up, it was announced that a +stranger had arrived in Buda, giving no name, but saying that he had +been entrusted with special business by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> king, and could not give +account of it to any one else. The king's whims were so well known at +the court that the stranger was admitted without difficulty, and was +ushered into the king's presence forthwith. Matthias was alone, and at +once recognized his man, who stepped into the room, looking very spruce, +and as sound as an acorn.</p> + +<p>"It's you, Miska! You have brought good news; I can see it in your eye. +You're a man—speak!"</p> + +<p>Miska bowed, and when he had a little recovered himself—for there was +something about the king which was rather awe-inspiring in spite of his +good nature—he drew a deep breath and said,—</p> + +<p>"I have been there, Mr. King—in the castle with Mr. Samson—and I know +all about it!"</p> + +<p>"Let us hear," said the king, with delighted and eager curiosity. "But, +little brother, try and tell your tale in an orderly way. First say how +you got into the castle, and then tell me what you saw and heard. Be +bold, my friend, and speak without reserve."</p> + +<p>"Mr. King," began the ex-beggar, "I knew I should never get in by +asking, and it might be the worse for me into the bargain; besides, +there was neither door nor window, nor any one to speak to. 'Well,' I +thought to myself, 'I shall never get in this way; I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> must keep watch +and find out about those Jews. They get in somehow, though they never +get out again—so people say.'"</p> + +<p>"Right!" said the king; "go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. King, I waited about there for ten weeks. I spied about all +round the castle, and often went hungry; for I had no time to get food, +though, thanks to you, I had the means. But it was all to no purpose. At +last I began to think that perhaps Mr. Samson was dead, and that Your +Highness would soon be thinking that I had eaten and drunk up my money +and gone off. I was sitting on the trunk of a tree just outside the +wood, but not very far from the castle, one evening, and I was feeling +rather downcast about it all, when I fancied I saw two people coming. +They were not coming <i>from</i> the castle, it is true, but were creeping +through the thicket. 'Ho, ho!' I thought to myself. 'Now, Miska, have +your wits about you! Suppose these night-birds should be on their way to +the castle.' But being one alone against two, I took out my two pistols +and waited to see what might happen."</p> + +<p>Miska now opened his dolmány, and showed a steel coat of mail which he +wore beneath it. "I had got myself this," he said, tapping it with his +finger, "for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> I thought it might save me from being mortally wounded if +I should happen to get caught anywhere by Samson's men, and I bought two +pistols besides."</p> + +<p>"You were wise," said the king.</p> + +<p>"Well, it was not long before the men came quite close to me; but +instead of going on towards the castle, they turned off in the direction +of a little hollow. I had stood still till then, so that they should not +notice me suddenly; and perhaps they would have gone on, if an +abominable great long-eared owl which was just above my head had not +begun its dismal evening song at that moment. They were just within +about four steps of me when she gave a long, melancholy hoot, and one of +the two men looked up and caught sight of me at once. The next moment he +lifted his cap to me as humbly 'as if he could not count up to three.' +His companion, too, turned and looked about carefully, and I fancied I +caught a glimpse of the glitter of a knife. So I just drew out one of my +pistols and said coolly, 'See what I have got for you.'"</p> + +<p>"Eh! what?" exclaimed Matthias in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, Your Highness; for I thought it would be much better to +be beforehand with them."</p> + +<p>The king laughed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>"Well, and I think, Mr. King, that I did not reckon amiss: for by doing +as I did, I made them suppose that I was a highwayman, and just as bad +as themselves—supposing they belonged to the castle; and besides that, +it gave me an opportunity of finding out whom I had to do with."</p> + +<p>"Go on," said the king; "this is very interesting. Let us hear more."</p> + +<p>"Well, things might have gone very crooked," proceeded Miska; "for I had +no sooner given the alarm than they were both down on me at once as +quick as lightning, and I felt two daggers strike my mail coat.</p> + +<p>"Fortunately for me I was quite prepared, and I did not lose my presence +of mind. I fired one pistol just as they fell upon me, but of course I +did not hit either of them. But my armour had done me good service; for +the two fellows were disconcerted when they found that their daggers had +touched metal, and I had time to jump on one side and point my second +pistol at them.</p> + +<p>"There was a little pause; my men had not given up their designs upon +me, as it seemed, but were consulting, I suppose, how to escape the +second charge of peas, and they seemed to mean to separate and come on +me from both sides at once. 'But,' thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> I, 'if you have, so have +I—wits, I mean—and as from all I had heard of Samson's rascally +associates I was quite sure that I had found my gentlemen, I took +advantage of the short pause, and cried out,—</p> + +<p>"'May seventy-seven thousand thunderbolts strike you! Hear what I have +to say, and don't rush upon a fellow like mad dogs!</p> + +<p>"'I am wanting to come across Mr. Samson; I am tired of living on my own +bread, and I should like to enter his service. If you belong to the +castle, it would be better for you to take me to him, instead of +attacking me; for I am not in the least afraid of you—and, what's more, +a couple of chaps like you won't outwit me.'</p> + +<p>"As soon as I had said my say with all possible speed, but in a firm +rough voice, one of the scamps looked me all over from top to toe, as if +he were going to buy me of a broker. The man was a sturdy, stout-limbed +fellow, and as black as the darkest gipsy; and standing only a span from +the muzzle of my pistol, without winking an eyelid, he said,—</p> + +<p>"'Who are you, and what do you want with Mr. Samson? If you have come to +spy, you may say your last prayer, for you won't see the sun again.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>"The man said this in such a soft, drawling voice, and so deliberately, +that it suddenly struck me he was imbecile; for I had my finger on the +trigger all the time, and one touch would have stretched him on the +ground. However, I won't deny that his cool composure made me shudder a +little.</p> + +<p>"I answered as coolly as I could, 'I want to enter his service, sir, for +I fancy he is a fine brave man; and a fellow like me, who cares nothing +for his life, might be useful to him.'</p> + +<p>"My man kept his eye upon my every movement. At last he said,—</p> + +<p>"'I don't know who you are yet.'</p> + +<p>"I hesitated half a moment, for I did not want to tell him my real name, +and then I said they called me Alpár János, that I was an orphan, and +that until now I had made a poor living by doing just anything that came +to hand—which was true enough.</p> + +<p>"As far as I could see in the twilight, the man's face began to clear; +he whispered a few words to his companion in a language I did not know, +Slovack or Latin, then looked me over again from top to toe, and said,—</p> + +<p>"'Good! then you can come with us. We will show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> you the way in; it will +be your own affair how you get out again, if you grow tired of scanty +dinners.'</p> + +<p>"Here our conversation ended," said the lad; while the king, who had +listened to his preface with lively interest, said, "Very good. So you +got in. And now tell me what the castle is like inside."</p> + +<p>And here perhaps it will be better to take the words out of Miska's +mouth and describe in our own way what he saw.</p> + +<p>The castle, as has been said, was built round the four sides of a +square, and, as was often the case with old strongholds, a wide covered +gallery, or corridor, ran along each side, surrounding the courtyard. +There was not a sign of stables anywhere, for there was no way of +getting horses in except by lowering them over the walls by a windlass. +The ground-floor consisted of store-rooms and living-rooms; the keys of +the former being always kept by the master, who allowed none but the +most trusty persons to go into them, for they contained valuable goods +of every sort and kind. Mr. Samson regularly visited these vaults, on +the fifteenth of every month at midnight, when he was accompanied by +twelve Jews. But how these latter got in, where they came from, and +where they went to, was known to no one but Mr. Samson him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>self. The men +looked like merchants, and he gave stuffs and ornaments, in certain +quantities and of certain values, to each. Then he took them into a +large empty room lighted by a four-cornered lamp which hung from the +ceiling, and here for a couple of hours they were all busy counting +money at a stone table. This was packed into various bags, and when Mr. +Samson had given a purse to each of his agents, the Jews took their +departure amid a shower of compliments, and in what appeared to be a +very well satisfied frame of mind, Mr. Samson escorting them and showing +them the way. But whither they went, and why, and how, and by what +way—that heaven alone could tell.</p> + +<p>In the upper story of the castle there were some fine, cheerful, and +well-lighted rooms; which is not a little surprising, for their windows +all looked into the covered gallery, and from that into the courtyard. +However, this may be explained to some extent by the fact that the +windows of these upper rooms were wide and lofty, the walls were painted +snow-white, and were covered with some sort of varnish which doubled the +light.</p> + +<p>The furniture was in accordance with the taste of the day, and chosen +rather for its good wearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> qualities than for comfort; but the bright +colours produced a pleasing and cheerful effect on the whole.</p> + +<p>Mr. Samson kept an entire half of this story for the use of himself and +his only relation, a young girl of fifteen named Esther, and an old +woman who lived with her. Of the two other sides of the square, one was +occupied by servants, the other was furnished but unused.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">CAUGHT.</span></h2> + + +<p>One is apt to fancy that strange, out-of-the-way characters must needs +be striking and uncommon in their persons, and it is really quite +startling to find them after all mere ordinary-looking, every-day +people.</p> + +<p>Jason Samson, in spite of his remarkably eccentric conduct, was just one +of these commonplace individuals to look at. It was himself, in fact, +who had taken Miska into the castle; a man of middle size, neither stout +nor thin, neither young nor old, but just middling in all respects. His +features were such as we see over and over again, without having either +our sympathies or interest in the least aroused. One can't call such +persons either ill-looking or handsome, and their every-day characters +inspire no feeling but that of utter indifference.</p> + +<p>Mr. Samson was said, naturally enough, to be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> man-hater. The walls of +the Cube castle were twelve feet thick, and its inmates could see +nothing either of their fellow-creatures or of God's beautiful world; +for there was neither door to go in by nor window to look out of, and +nothing whatever to be seen but the courtyard.</p> + +<p>It was not a cheerful home certainly for the young girl whom Mr. Samson +had some years previously brought to live there. He called her a +relation of his, and she called him "uncle," but it did not at all +follow that she was his niece; for it is the custom in Hungary, and +considered only common politeness, for young people to address their +elders as "uncles" and "aunts," whether related or not.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Samson was commonplace in appearance, little Esther was very much +the reverse. Without being regularly beautiful, there was a great charm +about her, and she had a look of distinction which was entirely wanting +in her guardian or jailer. Her clear, deep-blue eyes were full of life +and animation, and the whole expression of her face told of a good +heart. Add to this that she had a remarkably sweet and beautiful voice, +and that, though untaught, she had a good ear for music, and was very +fond of singing, and it will be understood that Esther was altogether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +not uninteresting. If she was not striking at first sight, yet the more +one saw of her the more impressed and attracted one felt.</p> + +<p>She was very much in awe of her "uncle," though she could not have said +why, and though she had now lived with him some seven years, ever since +the death of her parents indeed, when he had brought her away to the +castle, with her attendant Euphrosyne, she being then a child of eight.</p> + +<p>Esther was now fifteen, but she had as yet no idea that Mr. Samson was +planning in his own mind to unite her more closely to himself by making +her his wife, or she would have shrunk from him even more than she did +now, though she knew nothing against him, and he could never be said to +have ill-treated her in any way except that he kept her a close +prisoner. Perhaps he thought that, considering her age, she had liberty +enough; for she was free to go from one room to another, and she could +walk up and down the gallery and in the courtyard.</p> + +<p>But though she had grown accustomed to the life now, there were times, +especially when the sun shone down for a short hour or two into the dull +courtyard, in spring and summer, when the girl would look up with +longing eyes to the blue sky and wonder what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> the world looked like +outside the four grey walls. Sometimes she would see a bird fly past +overhead, or watch a lark soaring up into the air, singing as it went. +Then the past would come back to her, and she would remember a time when +she had run about the green fields, and had spent long days in the +garden; when she had gathered wild flowers and wood-strawberries, and +had heard the birds sing.</p> + +<p>It made her a little sad to think of it all, and for a time she felt as +if she were in a cage, and wondered whether she was to spend all her +life in it; but she was blessed with a cheerful disposition, and on the +whole she was not unhappy. She made occupation for herself in one way +and another: she sewed, she embroidered, she netted; she read the two or +three books she had over and over again, and she even wrote a little. +When one day Mr. Samson brought her a harp from his hoard of treasures, +she was delighted indeed: and having soon managed to teach herself how +to play on it, she spent many a happy evening singing such songs as she +had picked up or invented for herself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Samson liked to hear the full, clear young voice singing in the +gallery, though he seldom took any apparent notice of the singer. In his +way perhaps he would have missed Esther a little if she had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> taken +from him; but he was not a kindly or affectionate personage, and the +girl had no one to care for but Euphrosyne, a rather tiresome, foolish +old woman, who often tried her patience a good deal with her whims and +fidgets. Esther, however, was very patient with her, and clung to her +simply because there was no one else to cling to.</p> + +<p>Mr. Samson had given them three rooms in a distant corner of the gloomy +building, where they were quite out of the way of everybody; and +Esther's rooms being the two inner ones, she could never leave them +without the knowledge and permission of the old woman, through whose +room she had to pass.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt that Mr. Samson carried on an extensive business of a +peculiar kind. He was very secret about it, and what with his armed +garrison, and the odd way in which the castle was built, as if to stand +a siege, there seemed good reason to suspect that his valuable goods and +rich merchandise were collected from the whole length and breadth of +Hungary, and were, in fact, gathered from every country-house and +peddler's pack and bundle which he could find means to plunder. Not that +Samson ever resorted to violence if he could possibly help it—quite the +contrary; and though he was reckoned among the most powerful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +robber-knights of the time, he was really more thief than robber, and +did also a great deal in a quiet way by lending money at very high +interest.</p> + +<p>He would steal out of the castle on foot, disguised now as a beggar and +now as a Jew; and his followers were never to be seen anywhere together +in any number. They lounged along singly, at a considerable distance one +from the other, and they took care not to excite suspicion in any way.</p> + +<p>They had nothing in the way of weapons but a couple of short, sharp +daggers, which they kept carefully concealed, and never used except in +cases of extreme necessity, and in secret places, such as deep ravines +or woods; but when they did have recourse to them, they used them with +bold determination and deadly certainty. No one ever escaped from the +clutches of these accursed robbers, and no one therefore could ever +betray them. They managed, too, to conceal all traces of their deeds of +blood, so that though there were rumours and suspicions, the guilt was +not brought home to them. People who met them saw but one, or at most +two, at a time, looking as meek and mild "as if they could not count up +to three," as the saying is.</p> + +<p>Mr. Samson himself rarely went out quite alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> There were always one +or two men in whom he placed especial confidence, and one or other of +these always accompanied him.</p> + +<p>And now Miska shall take up his narrative again.</p> + +<p>"I was not badly off in the castle," said he. "I was bent on winning Mr. +Samson's confidence above everything, and I succeeded, because I strove +to enter into all his thoughts. I was not too humble and deferential, +but I put myself in his place, and showed great interest in all the work +that went on inside, which was chiefly keeping guard and cleaning arms.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Samson went away once every fortnight; and I fancy the Jews came +twice while I was there, for Mr. Samson twice shut all the doors +carefully, which he did not do at other times. I must say I should have +liked to join him in his secret adventures; but much as he seemed to +trust me, I had no chance of doing so.</p> + +<p>"I had been in the castle about a fortnight, I suppose, when one night +the bell rang in my little room. There was a bell to every hole in the +castle, and the bell-pulls all hung in a long row along two sides of one +of Mr. Samson's rooms.</p> + +<p>"I got up at once and went to him, and found him lying in an arm-chair, +wearing a flowing indoor robe.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>"'Alpár János,' said he, 'I have to leave the castle to-morrow; you will +stay here. Keep an eye on the people, and when I come back tell me +minutely all that has happened during my absence. I believe you are +faithful to me; and if you continue to please me, I will double your +wages.'</p> + +<p>"I received his orders respectfully, as usual; but after a short pause I +said, 'I would much rather you should take me with you, for I think you +would find me more useful outside than here, where there is nothing I +can do.'</p> + +<p>"'I want a faithful man more here than outside,' said Mr. Samson. 'Your +turn will come presently; meantime obey all the governor's orders as if +I were here myself. And now you can go. Everybody will notice my absence +to-morrow, but for all that don't you say a word about it to any +one—that is one of my laws.'</p> + +<p>"'I will obey you, sir,' I said, and then I went back to my quarters.</p> + +<p>"The governor, a gloomy-looking, stout fellow, who could hardly be more +than four-and-twenty, and was called simply Kálmán, had taken a great +liking to me, for I always showed him more respect, if possible, than I +did to Mr. Samson himself."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>"You were wise there," interposed the king. "The smaller the man, the +more respect he claims."</p> + +<p>"And," continued Miska, "this stood me in good stead; for while Mr. +Samson was away we lived better, and now and then the governor sent me a +draught of good wine."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I see," said the king; "nothing much out of the ordinary +way—rumour has said more than was true. But did you become acquainted +with little Esther?"</p> + +<p>"The young lady came out into the gallery more often while Mr. Samson +was away. Sometimes she would walk up and down there till late in the +evening, and she would bring out her harp and sing to it. She was so +gentle and kind that I spoke to her one day and asked her to listen to a +song of mine; I had made the verses and invented the tune myself."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" laughed the king; "then you are a poet too, are you, Miska?"</p> + +<p>"Only a sort of 'willow-tree verse-maker,'<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Mr. King. But pretty Miss +Esther listened to it very kindly—and what is more, she wrote it +down—and after that she spoke to me every evening, and asked me many +questions about Buda and Your Highness; and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> told her long stories of +all that I had seen in the woods and fields. She wanted to hear about +the trees and flowers and birds, which she remembered; and one evening, +when no one was within hearing, I told her how I had met Your Highness, +and how you had sent me to Visegrád, and all I had seen there, and how +you promised me a horse. I had to tell her that story so often that I +think she knows every step of the way. I did not tell her that Your +Highness had sent me to get into the castle, for walls have ears. But +one evening she stopped singing suddenly and asked me what I had come +there for. So first I said, 'To be one of Mr. Samson's servants;' and +then I said in a whisper, 'To set you free.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Hedge-poet.</p></div> + +<p>"'Ah, Jancsi, if you only could!' she said. 'How lovely it would be! But +you can't; nobody can.'</p> + +<p>"So then I told her not to be afraid, for I would somehow; and if I +couldn't, some one else would, I knew—meaning Your Highness, of +course."</p> + +<p>"And pray what did the old lady say to your talking to her charge in +this way?"</p> + +<p>"O Mr. King, she was my very good mistress; I managed to get into her +good graces. And there's no denying it, Your Highness, when Mr. Samson +went away for the third time, Miss Esther herself told me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> to be very +attentive to the old woman. And it answered perfectly, for she asked me +all sorts of things and put all confidence in me; and the governor often +chaffed me about it, and said that Mrs. Euphrosyne and I would be making +a match of it. Miss Esther often said how happy we might be if we could +escape from Mr. Samson and the gloomy castle, and I promised, Your +Highness, when Mrs. Euphrosyne was not listening."</p> + +<p>"Well, Miska, and I promise too. Miss Esther shall be let out when I get +in," said the king. "But now listen. Have you told me all that I want to +know about the interior of the castle?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Miska, "who could find out all its secrets? Mr. Samson said +more than once: 'Woe to him who tries to take it, for it will cost the +lives of thousands, and he will never get in after all.' And it was as +he said: when they assaulted the castle, Mr. Samson did not so much as +leave his room, but sat there as quiet as you please. What went on up +above in the roof I don't know, for others were sent up and I was not. I +only heard the firing, and saw them bringing the gunpowder out in small +casks through a trap-door. More than once, too, I heard him say that he +had only to pull a string and the castle and everything in it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> would be +blown up. And I saw the red string, too, which would have done it: it +could not be reached except by means of a ladder, and it was in Mr. +Samson's own sleeping-room."</p> + +<p>"Then you saw them raise the black standard?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure; and they did it as easily as if they were lifting a stick."</p> + +<p>"But tell me, how did you get out?" asked the king, cutting him short.</p> + +<p>"I did that only five days ago," said Miska. "Mr. Samson called me at +last one evening and said,—</p> + +<p>"'Miska, I am satisfied with you; you will go with me to-night, at +midnight. There will be only the two of us; have you the courage?'</p> + +<p>"'I have,' I answered.</p> + +<p>"'See,' Mr. Samson went on, taking a couple of daggers out of a +table-drawer, 'I will make you a present of these; they are the only +arms you will have. Be ready, and when I ring at midnight make haste and +come to me.'</p> + +<p>"I haven't much more to tell you, Mr. King. He led me through several +vaults till we came to a door which led into an underground passage, and +this ended in a cave, which I took good note of, so that I could find it +again; and when we had passed through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> it and reached the open air, my +spirits rose. We went on through a thick wood, Mr. Samson taking the +lead. The night was dark and stormy. I kept him talking all the while, +and tried to enliven him with all sorts of jokes; and he actually called +me a very sly dog, and laughed himself as if he enjoyed them.</p> + +<p>"We had been going on about a couple of hours, when Mr. Samson said we +had reached our destination, and that before long a rich Jew would be +passing by, and that he had a well-filled money-bag which we were to +take away from him. He warned me to be careful, and not to use my dagger +unless he called out.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Mr. Samson had heard of the rich Jew's coming from his Jew +friends, who frequently came to the castle without any one's knowing +anything about it—so I heard from Kálmán—and by secret ways which he +had told them of.</p> + +<p>"The moon shone out through the thick trees for a moment, and I saw that +Mr. Samson was standing near a footpath, and facing a narrow opening in +the wood, about three steps away from me.</p> + +<p>"Presently I fancied that I heard footsteps, and Mr. Samson whispered, +'Come here behind me, quietly, that they may not hear you.'</p> + +<p>"In a short time I saw a dark shadow moving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> towards us. Mr. Samson +stood like a lynx, stiff and motionless, with his eyes fixed on the +approaching Jew.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' thought I, 'now or never!' and I drew out a rope-noose which I +had kept carefully hidden under my dolmány. The next moment I had thrown +it over Mr. Samson's shoulders, and so successfully that his two arms +were pinioned to his body, and he was helpless in a moment.</p> + +<p>"'Traitor!' roared Mr. Samson, and in a moment he gave a stab backwards +with his dagger in spite of his pinioned arm, and he did it so cleverly +too that it went about three inches deep into me. Fortunately it struck +my thigh-bone, or there would have been an end of me.</p> + +<p>"The pain was sharp, but in spite of that I pulled the noose tighter, +and then I suddenly tripped him up with my foot, and threw him down.</p> + +<p><a name="comehere" id="comehere"></a>"'Here! here!' I cried hurriedly, holding the robber fast. 'Come here, +gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear.' For when Mr. Samson roared out, +his victim, the Jew, had stopped still, with his feet glued to the +ground. But when I cried out that I was the king's man and had caught a +thief, he came forward—in a frightened, reluctant way though; and he +would not have come at all but that I called to him not to turn back, +for if he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> did, probably before he had got away Mr. Samson's robbers +would have come up, as they were lying in wait for him as well as we, +and knew that he had a bag full of money."</p> + +<p>"But what do you mean?" cried the king. "You took Mr. Samson prisoner?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure I did," said Miska, "and I have given him up to Mr. General +Rozgonyi;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and the Jew came along with me."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The king had made Sebastian Rozgonyi Captain of Upper +Hungary.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">I AM THE KING'S PAGE!</span></h2> + + +<p>Soon after the conversation recorded in the last chapter, Miska was sent +back again to Visegrád to take his place, and learn his duties as king's +page; and the king had bidden him be diligent and learn all that he +could, promising to do something more for him as soon as he could read +and write.</p> + +<p>As to what had been done with Mr. Samson, and whether his little friend +Miss Esther had been released from captivity, he heard nothing, though +he often thought and wondered and wished; and if he had dared, he would +have asked to be allowed to go back to the castle and show her that he +had not forgotten his promise.</p> + +<p>Before setting out for Buda, he had shown his friend the Jew the secret +way in and out of the castle; and as Mr. Samson had the keys of the +various gates upon him, the king's soldiers would of course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> have no +difficulty in getting in and surprising the garrison at any time. If +only he had been a soldier, he might have gone with them; and even +without being a soldier, he might have gone with them to act as guide, +if only the king had thought of it. He had not dared to venture back +after his capture of Mr. Samson, for fear he should not be allowed to +get out again and give his report to the king; and now no doubt the Jew, +who did not care anything at all about it, would be sent in his place. +Well, it did not much matter after all, so long as Miss Esther were set +free, and that the king had promised she should be.</p> + +<p>So now Miska was in Visegrád again, not a little proud of his smart +livery, and greatly enjoying his comfortable quarters after the rough, +hard life which he had led. But these, after all, were very secondary +matters; the great thing was that he was in the king's service, and must +do all that lay in his power to please him.</p> + +<p>"I am page to King Matthias," said he to himself over and over again. +"The king called me his 'little brother' and 'gossip,' and the king will +be ashamed if his gossip is a donkey and does not know the A B C. Ah, +you just wait, gossip-king! for I will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> distinguish myself. I will make +you open your eyes and your mouth too!"</p> + +<p>Miska was a gay-tempered fellow, as lively as gunpowder, and it was vain +to expect from him the sober, plodding diligence which belongs to calmer +and tamer natures.</p> + +<p>If the truth must be told, Miska did not care very greatly about his +reading and writing for their own sakes. He did his best with them to +please the king, but he was glad enough when his time for study was over +for the day, and enjoyed the few hours he was able to spend in the +riding-school much more than he did the daily appearance of his +wearisome teacher, who came as true to his time as the most obstinate of +fevers.</p> + +<p>When the king's riding-master clapped him on the shoulder and said, +"Michael, you are a man! 'Raven' or 'Swan' carried you well to-day, and +couldn't manage to throw you," he was pleased indeed; but he was much +more glad when his teacher said, "Come, Mr. Michael, I declare you are +getting on like pepper! If you go on like this, I shall come to you for +a lesson in a couple of months' time."</p> + +<p>Miska could read, and write a very fair hand, before he knew where he +was; but though writing rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> amused him, he took no pleasure or +interest in the books in which he learned to read. It always cost him a +struggle to keep his temper during lesson-time, and occasionally he felt +such an irresistible inclination to go to sleep, that his teacher was +obliged to rouse him by a friendly twitch or two.</p> + +<p>There were some Italian servants in the stable-yard here, very lively +fellows, whose sprightliness Miska found so attractive that he was quite +vexed at being shut out from their society. They were constantly +laughing and in good spirits; but when Miska wanted to join in the +laugh, they would say in broken Hungarian, "How could they tell all over +again what it was they were laughing at so much?" "You learn Italian, +<i>mio caro</i>, and then you can laugh with us."</p> + +<p>"Good!" thought Miska. "If these whipper-snappers, whose mouths are +always pinched up like funnels, can learn a few words of Hungarian, I'll +soon learn their language. Why," reasoned Miska, "I was only a year old +when I began to learn Hungarian, and they say I could talk like a magpie +by the time I was two; and now—when I am eighteen, and have got a +little down shading my upper lip—can't I learn Italian, when these +whipper-snappers could talk it when they were three years old?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>Miska's reasoning was somewhat peculiar, but it was not altogether amiss +after all. He began by asking his friends what to call the objects about +him; and his good memory served him so well that in a short time he knew +the names of most of the implements and different sorts of work which he +had to do with.</p> + +<p>Six months passed away; but Matthias had a good many other and more +important matters to think of than the beggar lad, and he had not once +been in Visegrád since Miska had been there.</p> + +<p>"So much the better," thought Miska; "he will come some time, and then I +shall know all the more. If only there were not this learning! But it is +no good; it has got to be. And yet why? A little page like me is as wise +as an owl if he can read and write, and what does he want with more? I +can read and write too.—Hm," he thought to himself, "the man who +invented writing—what the thunderbolt did he invent it for? What good +could it do him? Well, it made him able to read books."</p> + +<p>And then presently he muttered, "Donkey! If the king were to hear that +now! Well, to be sure, as if there <i>were</i> any books when nobody could +write! Then they invented it that they might write—that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> more +reasonable; but what is the use of writing when a man does not know how +to write books?"</p> + +<p>Miska battered his brains in vain to try to make out why it was +necessary for him to learn to read, and what good his wisdom would do +him.</p> + +<p>One day the governor put a book in his hands. "Here," said he, "little +brother Michael, you know how to read now, and the king's reader is ill. +Suppose you were to try and get his place; it would be a fine thing for +you."</p> + +<p>"Reader!" said Miska. "Do I want his place? What should I gain by it? It +would be a great deal better if I could go out hunting sometimes; my +eyes see green when the horns are sounded, and here I have to be +'selling acorns.'"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Sticking at home.</p></div> + +<p>"That will come, too, in time, Michael," said the governor; "but now +give your attention to this book. There are some very fine stories in +it, and I should like, when His Highness the King comes, to have some +one who can read well and intelligently to him; for His Highness says +that I read like a Slovack clerk, and yet none of my family were ever +Slovacks, or ever lived on <i>kása</i>."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Kása</i>, the chief food of the Slovack peasants, is made of +millet or potatoes boiled in milk.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>What was to be done? At first Michael read the book with reluctance, and +merely because he was obliged to do so; but later on he became more and +more interested. Presently he felt as if at last he knew what was the +good of writing and reading.</p> + +<p>When he had read the book to the end, he actually asked for another; and +at last, whenever he had any spare time, he crept away and seated +himself in one of the pretty arbours of the castle garden, and read as +hard as if he were to be paid for it.</p> + +<p>If Miska had been like many another lad, he would have seen pretty well +the whole of his career by this time. There was nothing more to be done; +for a page who can read and write, and swallows books as eagerly as a +pelican does fish, already knows more than enough for his position. For +these things are often rather a hindrance to his riding and other +duties, and it is not his business to give an account of the books he +reads, but of the work entrusted to him to do. The governor trusted all +sorts of things to Miska, however.</p> + +<p>"Eh," Miska began to think to himself, "I am not cut out for a page now. +These second-rank pages are really not much better than grooms, and the +governor still expects me to clean the king's two favourite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> horses. +Why, I'm sure I know as much as Galeotti himself by this time, and I can +speak Italian too."</p> + +<p>But still the king did not come, and Miska went on learning; for ever +since he had taken to reading books, his mind had begun to grow and had +gone on growing, and he saw a good many things in a very different light +now from what he had done formerly. Now, indeed, if the king asked him +again, he could say that he should like to be something better than he +was.</p> + +<p>For a long time he went on racking his brains trying to make up his mind +what he should do; and at last one day, when he had faithfully done all +his duties, he sat down and wrote a letter to the king as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Mr. King, Your Highness</span>,—I can read and write, and I +can jabber Italian too, when necessary.</p> + +<p>"Please, Your Highness, to have the horses in my +charge brought to Buda; for I'm sure you never rode +such—they have improved so in my hands.</p> + +<p>"May God bless you! Come some time to Visegrád, and +let me kiss your hands and feet.—Your poor, humble +servant,</p> + +<p class="signature"><span class="smcap">Tornay Michael</span>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>"<i>P.S.</i>—Brave Mr. King, if Your Highness could find a +place for me in the Black Legion, I would thank you +indeed, and you would not regret it either."</p></div> + +<p>When King Matthias read this letter, he laughed aloud, well pleased.</p> + +<p>"See," said he, showing the letter to those who were standing near him. +"This was a ragged beggar lad—perhaps by this time I should have had to +have him hanged. As it is, I have gained a man in him.—Zokoly," said he +to the young knight who was just then with him, "fetch the boy here; and +if he is up to the mark, put him into a coat of mail and then bring him +to me. But I will answer his letter first, for he might abuse my father +and mother for my bad manners if I were to leave it unnoticed."</p> + +<p>The king wrote as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"All good to you from God, Miska. As you can read and +write, I meant to make a precentor of you, good boy; +but if you wish to join the Black Legion instead, no +matter. Mount one of the horses you have had charge +of, and lead the other hither. Mind what you are +about, and don't get drunk.—Your well-wisher,</p> + +<p class="signature">"<span class="smcap">King Matthias</span>."</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>No first fiddle, no Palatine even, in all this wide world could think +himself a greater man than Michael did when the king's letter, written +with his own hand, was given to him.</p> + +<p>He threw himself into the governor's arms in a transport of joy, and +then, when he had made himself clean and tidy and put on his best +clothes—well, then, there was no keeping him. He would neither eat nor +drink, and in a little while he was off, riding one of the horses and +leading the other; and as he went he said, "God keep King Matthias!" +repeating the words over and over again. "Let him only get into some +great trouble one day, just to let me show that there is a grateful +heart under this smart dolmány."</p> + +<p>When Zokoly presented the lad to the king clad in the stern, manly garb +of the Black Legion—wearing, that is to say, a network coat of black +mail, with a heavy sword by his side, and a round helmet on his +head—Matthias was quite surprised.</p> + +<p>The king, as has been said, possessed the rare gift of being able to +read men, and seldom made a mistake in his choice of those whom he took +into his service. And now as he cast a searching glance at the boy's +noble countenance, and noticed the open, honourable expression of his +piercing eyes, and above all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> broad forehead which was so full of +promise, the great king—for great he was, though not yet at the +pinnacle of his greatness—the great king felt almost ashamed to see the +lad standing before him in the garb of a common soldier, as if he were +merely one of the ordinary rank and file. The jest with which he had +been about to receive him died away unuttered on his lips. But he +welcomed his man good-naturedly, and said,—</p> + +<p>"Michael Tornay, from this day forth you are ennobled. I will give you +the parchment to-morrow, and I will make a landed proprietor of you."</p> + +<p>The lad believed in King Matthias as if he had been some altogether +superior being; he was ardently, passionately attached to him, but he +said nothing.</p> + +<p>To tell the truth, he felt more confused than grateful; for the new-made +noble, the private of the Black Legion, had just so much delicacy of +feeling that he was much more flattered by the king's treating him +seriously than he would have been by jests and teasing.</p> + +<p>For the moment he could not get out a word. There was a mist before his +eyes; and after a long pause—for the king himself was touched by the +effect of his words—the young man came to himself, and dropping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> upon +one knee said, "Your Highness has made a man of me, and I trust in God +that you will never, never repent it!" Few and simple words, but the +king was so well pleased with them, and so confirmed in his previous +opinion, that at that moment he would have dared to trust the boy with +the command of the castle of Visegrád.</p> + +<p>A week later, after a battle in which Michael had taken part, Matthias +made the boy an officer in the famous Black or Death Legion—so called +from the colour of its armour and the skull-like shape of its +helmets—which was under the command of the king himself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">SENT TO PRISON.</span></h2> + + +<p>It would be interesting, no doubt, if we could follow Michael's career +step by step; but the next two years of his life must be passed over +very briefly.</p> + +<p>It was true that the king had made a man of him, and already Tornay was +a marked personage—a man whose name was often in people's mouths, and +well known in the army as a rising young general.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of work for the Black Legion in those days; for the +Turks were perpetually invading the southern provinces, and the +Hungarians were left to fight them almost single-handed—though, as the +king reminded Louis the Eleventh of France, "Hungary was fighting for +all Christendom," as she had been doing for many a long year past.</p> + +<p>Michael had distinguished himself more than once for his courage, and +for a daring which amounted at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> times to actual foolhardiness, and now +he had outdone his previous exploits by the gallant rescue from extreme +peril of General Rozgonyi.</p> + +<p>The general was cut off from his men, and absolutely alone in the midst +of a band of Turks, when Michael made a bold dash into their midst, +scattering them right and left, and succeeded in extricating himself and +Rozgonyi from their clutches.</p> + +<p>It was a bold exploit and a rash one—madly rash, indeed—but it was +successful; and as Michael rode back to his men, wounded, but not +seriously so, he was received with loud applause; and perhaps, if the +truth must be told, he felt himself something of a hero.</p> + +<p>But the king, who had watched him with much anxiety, was considerably +provoked; and when the battle was over, he summoned him to his tent, +where Michael found him sitting alone and looking very much more grave +than was his wont.</p> + +<p>He raised his eyes when Michael entered, but his voice sounded stern, +and instead of saying "thou" to him as he usually did, he addressed him +quite formally.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Tornay," said he, "you have been behaving like a madman, like a +common soldier whose horse has such a hard mouth that he can't control +it; or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>—you must have been pouring more wine down your throat than you +ought to have done."</p> + +<p>King Matthias had a great horror of drunkards, and did his best to stop +all excessive drinking in the army and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>But Michael was utterly taken aback. He had been a good deal flattered +and complimented, and had quite expected that the king was going to +thank him for saving the general's life, or at least would show that he +was well pleased with him, and give him a few of those words of approval +which he valued above everything. To be received in this way was rather +crushing.</p> + +<p>"Sir—Your Highness," he stammered, in great surprise, "I was only doing +my duty."</p> + +<p>"That is precisely the very thing you were not doing," said the king +with some warmth, his large dark eyes flashing as he spoke. "You are a +general; you were in command, and you left your troops in the lurch, as +St. Paul left the Wallachians.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> You rushed among the Turkish spahis +entirely alone, and to what, as far as you could tell, was certain +death, like a man who was weary of his life, his king, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> his duty. +You ought to be ashamed of yourself; and understand that what may be +meritorious in a private is worse than cowardice in the officers."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A common saying. St. Paul is supposed to have lost +patience with them.</p></div> + +<p>Tornay was so thunderstruck that he could not find words to defend +himself.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" said Matthias, in a tone of displeasure. "We wish to hear what +you have to say in your defence; it is not our custom to punish any one +without hearing him."</p> + +<p>"Sir—Your Highness," said Tornay, with gentle deference, but with the +manner of one who has an easy conscience, "I did not think I was guilty +of cowardice in going to the rescue of one of your best generals!"</p> + +<p>"God be thanked that you were successful!" said the king, "but it is +more than you had any right to expect. The fact is that it was vanity +which led you to risk your head in an experiment which was not merely +hazardous, but so desperate that there was hardly the remotest +reasonable hope of success; and vanity under such circumstances is +cowardice. I honour courage; as for insane foolhardiness, it belongs not +to the knight but to the highwayman."</p> + +<p>Tornay listened abashed, and though much hurt he felt that Matthias was +right.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>"I should have a great mind to punish you," the king went on, "but that +one of my best generals owes his life to your folly, so for his sake I +pardon you."</p> + +<p>"What can I do?" said the young man in a low voice—"what can I do to +regain Your Highness's favour? I can't live if I know that Your Highness +is angry with me—me who owe everything, all that I am, to you."</p> + +<p>"Always be on your guard, my little brother," said the king; and now, +seeing how distressed he was, and wishing to comfort him, he spoke in +the kind, pleasant voice which won all hearts. "Do only what you can +give a right and satisfactory reason for, and then you will never miss +the mark."</p> + +<p>So Michael went back to his quarters comforted, and promising himself to +lay the king's simple advice well to heart.</p> + +<p>There was a grand banquet at the court that night, and many of the great +nobles were present; but Miska did not venture to show himself, though +when once the king had given a reprimand and made the delinquent +understand what he thought of his conduct, his anger was over and done +with, and he spoke in his usual kindly way again. Miska thought,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +however, that by thus punishing himself he should soften him.</p> + +<p>After all, as he reflected, the king was right: it was the thought of +making a soldier's name for himself which had led him to run into such +obvious danger. And yet he had a reason to give for what he had done—a +good reason too, he had thought; for he had considered that his life +belonged to the king, who had given him his career and all that made his +life of any importance. And so he had resolved with himself never to +trouble his head about risk and danger, when he had an opportunity of +proving his fidelity to the king.</p> + +<p>But now, as he turned over in his mind the advice which the king had +given him, he began to see things a little differently.</p> + +<p>"My life belongs to the king, it is true," thought he, "and I must be +ready to sacrifice it whenever there is any reason to do so; but just +<i>because</i> my life is the king's, I have no right to throw it away."</p> + +<p>From that time Tornay tried to make himself more and more useful to the +king, by learning all that he could of his profession.</p> + +<p>The courage of a private was not enough—it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> not what was wanted of +him, now that he was an officer in command; and he felt that the courage +which made a man strive to acquire the knowledge necessary to those in +his own position—generals and commanders, that is to say—was courage +of a higher, nobler sort than that which led to deeds of mere daring. Of +course the courage of the private was also needful—quite indispensable, +indeed, in every soldier, officer or not, who must always be ready to +sacrifice his life if need be; but he strove to acquire besides the cool +courage which does not let itself be carried away by excitement, which +can listen to the sound of the trumpets and the din of battle without +being intoxicated, which remains calm and collected, retains its +presence of mind, and is capable of seeing and hearing, and, above all, +of thinking for others, even when the issue looks most doubtful.</p> + +<p>For a general has to remember that he is not merely an individual; he is +that, of course, but he is a great deal more—he is the head of a body +which depends upon him for guidance. He must not play only his own game, +or be thinking only or chiefly of the bold, brave deeds he can do on his +own account; he must practise the most stern self-restraint. And he must +not think of gratifying his own vanity or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> desire of distinguishing +himself; he must think of those under his command—he must be unselfish.</p> + +<p>Hitherto, Michael's one thought when he went into battle had been the +enemy, and how much damage he could do him. He had eyes for nothing +else, and he was eager to give proof of his own personal valour; but now +he began to accustom himself to resist this consuming thirst for action, +and to restrain his longing to rush madly into the fight, for he was +learning that he must not think only of himself.</p> + +<p>When the army was drawn up in battle array, fronting the enemy and all +ready for action, the young soldier would begin to ask himself what he +should do if the king were presently to give orders, as he might some +day, that he, Michael, was to take the chief command and lead the army +to battle.</p> + +<p>And then his blood would boil, his eyes would flash, and he felt an +almost irresistible longing to dash forward and do some valiant deed. +But now he controlled and recovered himself, and repeating to himself +the king's words, would say, "Now, Mihály, how could you do such a +thing? what reason could you give for it?"</p> + +<p>He began to scrutinize the ranks of the enemy in a much more scientific +way, reminding himself that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> he was not now a private, or even a +subaltern officer, in the Black Legion, but a general, whose duty it was +to think, not of bold ventures, but of sober plans. This gave quite +another turn to his mind, and he felt how much higher and fairer a thing +it was to think of others and direct others, and to keep one's presence +of mind intact and one's blood cool, when youthful zeal made others lose +their heads.</p> + +<p>So thinking to himself one day, as he and the men under his command +stood facing the enemy, waiting for the signal to advance, he was +keeping his eyes upon the opposite ranks, when all at once he observed +something that till now had escaped his notice.</p> + +<p>"The enemy is remarkably weak in the left wing yonder," he reflected, +"and there is a long marsh just in front; I don't think I should be +afraid of being attacked from that quarter. If I were in command," he +went on, "I would order one division to advance in that direction and +outflank the enemy. This would throw him into confusion. Then I would +send part of the cavalry forward, and while the enemy's attention was +engaged by the sudden attack on his wing, I would fall upon his centre +with my whole force."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>"Really," the young officer said to himself, "I should like to tell His +Highness what I think."</p> + +<p>Michael scribbled something in pencil upon a scrap of paper, and sent +one of the Black Knights off with it to the king, who was inspecting the +ranks, and was now riding down the left wing of the army, surrounded by +a brilliant staff, himself more simply attired than any of those about +him.</p> + +<p>The king read over the crooked lines with not a little astonishment, and +for a moment his face flamed.</p> + +<p>Then he cried out in lively tones, "Upon my word, advice is becoming +from a twenty-years-old general! This man will be somebody one of these +days."</p> + +<p>Then on the margin of the paper he wrote just these two words—"<i>Do +it!</i>"</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p>The battle was over and won, and a fortnight later Tornay Mihály was one +of the king's lieutenant-generals.</p> + +<p>Matthias had by this time grown extremely fond of the young man. Michael +was always so vigilantly on the alert, so blindly devoted to him, and so +quick in his ways, that the king had no misgivings about any commission +which he entrusted to him. It was certain to be done, and done well. +But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> this was not all. He was pleased, too, with the young man's evident +gratitude and nobility of character—though not as much surprised as +some others, who fancied that such things were not to be looked for in a +beggar lad; for the king could read faces, and he had long since made up +his mind about Michael.</p> + +<p>In those days there were two bastions on the walls of the castle of +Buda, towards Zugliget. They were used as magazines, but in case of a +siege—which at that time Buda had little cause to dread—they would be +garrisoned with soldiers, and were therefore already provided with guns.</p> + +<p>These two bastions, one of which remains, though in an altered form, to +the present day, were about a couple of fathoms apart; and now the king +gave orders that both were to be set in order and made fit for +dwelling-houses.</p> + +<p>There was no opening on three of the sides, with the exception of some +small windows high up, which let in the light, but would give the +intended inmates no outlook; but on the fourth side, where the bastions +faced each other, there were four long, narrow windows in each, guarded +by strong iron bars.</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p>The king was just now staying in Buda, and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> given Michael command of +part of the castle garrison; and he was so well satisfied with the way +in which he discharged his duties, that hardly a week passed without his +giving him some fresh mark of his favour.</p> + +<p>As for Michael's passionate attachment to the king, it increased daily; +every hint from him was a command, and he was always on the watch to try +to interpret his wishes before they were put into words.</p> + +<p>One morning he was summoned to the king's presence.</p> + +<p>"Michael," said the king, in a good-humoured tone, "I am angry with you, +and I am going to punish you."</p> + +<p>"How have I been so unfortunate as to deserve the anger of the best of +kings and masters?" asked the young man.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you think?" Matthias went on, laughing. "Am I very angry, +and am I going to pass a severe sentence?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. King," answered Tornay, who saw at once that Matthias was in high +good-humour, "I think Your Highness has got hold of your anger by the +small end this time, and perhaps you won't go quite so far as to have my +head cut off."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>"Your head may possibly be allowed to remain in its accustomed place," +said the king jestingly. "However, it is not necessary that you should +know which part of your person I have sentenced to punishment; it is +enough, gossip, that you are to expiate your offence, and that to begin +with I am going to send you to prison."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Your Highness is going to entrust me with the command of some +abandoned wooden castle?"<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> said Michael.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Many small castles of wood and stone had been built in the +north by the Bohemian freebooters already mentioned.</p></div> + +<p>"No," said the king; "you have not found it out this time. I have got +other quarters for you."</p> + +<p>"Very well, as Your Highness wills; but you won't get much good out of +me if I am in prison."</p> + +<p>"Listen. You can see the two bastions yonder on the Mount St. Gellert +side of the castle. I have had them put in order, and you are to live in +one of them."</p> + +<p>Tornay listened, but he could not make it out at all. He saw the two +bastions sure enough, and as they did not now look at all gloomy or +prison-like, he was not alarmed at the idea of living in one of them; +but he could not by any means conceive what the king's object could be.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>"You are surprised," said the king, "aren't you? But the prison is +tolerable enough. You will have four small rooms; and as for the +look-out, well, I think you will be content with it; and then you will +be your own jailer, so you need have no fear as to the strictness of the +discipline. In a word, you are to move into your new quarters this very +day."</p> + +<p>Tornay retired; but on his way he racked his brains to discover why the +king could want him to move into the bastion. What reason could he have? +If he was his own jailer, and could go in and out as he pleased, it was +not a prison, simply different quarters, and better, at all events, than +those he had had before; for he had been living in a very poor apartment +of the castle, looking into a by-street.</p> + +<p>"Well," thought he, "what do I know as to the king's motives? Who can +ever tell what he has in his head? He wishes me to live there—good! +then that's enough, and there I will live."</p> + +<p>So Tornay took possession of one of the bastions facing Pesth, and was +very well satisfied indeed with his new quarters, which the king had had +plainly but comfortably enough furnished. Perhaps the king had placed +him there only as an excuse for making him more presents.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG.</span></h2> + + +<p>Michael found himself very well off in his new quarters; and as nothing +happened to explain the king's whim, he was confirmed in his belief that +its only object was to make him more comfortable.</p> + +<p>He was very punctual in attending to all his duties, and inspected the +garrison very frequently, but he spent a good many of his spare hours in +reading and study. For the king liked men of learning and cultivation, +and Michael was bent upon pleasing him in these matters if he could.</p> + +<p>Being in Buda, with a little time on his hands, gave him a capital +opportunity of improving himself; for he had become acquainted with the +king's great friend the librarian Galeotti, and through him he now made +acquaintance with the famous library<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> which Matthias was then forming +under the direction of Galeotti and his fellow-worker Ugoletti.</p> + +<p>The library was in the castle, and consisted of two great halls, in +which, by the end of his life, the king had collected above fifty +thousand volumes. He was constantly buying up valuable manuscripts in +Italy, Constantinople, and Asia; and he kept a number of men constantly +employed in copying—four in Florence and thirty in Buda.</p> + +<p>The manuscripts were many of them beautifully illuminated and adorned +with tasteful initials and pictures, and frequently with likenesses of +the king and his wife, so that they were valuable as works of art.</p> + +<p>The art of printing, too, had been lately introduced, and the +printing-press was kept constantly at work adding to the contents of the +polished cedar-wood book-shelves, which were protected by silken, +gold-embroidered curtains: for Matthias treated his books royally and as +if he loved them.</p> + +<p>Besides books, the two halls contained three hundred statues, some +ancient and some modern; and in the vestibule were astronomical and +mathematical instruments, with a large celestial globe in the centre +supported by two genii.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>Michael had abundant opportunities of study, and knew that he could not +please the king better than by availing himself of them. The Italian +which he had learned from the grooms at Visegrád he now found most +useful, as it enabled him to talk to the various artists, sculptors, +musicians, and other distinguished men from Italy, whom the king loved +to have about him.</p> + +<p>The two librarians of course he knew well; then there was the great +painter Filippo Lippi, and the Florentine architect Averulino, by whom +the royal palaces both in Buda and Visegrád were beautified and +enlarged. Carbo of Ferrara was writing a dialogue, in which he sang the +praises of King Matthias; Galeotti was busy with a book of entertaining +stories, full of anecdotes and sayings of the king, to which Michael +certainly might have contributed much that was interesting; Bonfinius of +Ascoli, reader to the queen, was engaged upon his History of Hungary; +and various Hungarian authors were composing their chronicles and +writing legends and poetry in Latin—that being still the language of +the learned throughout Europe.</p> + +<p>From the windows of his "prison" Michael had no view, as has been said, +except of the other bastion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> which was not particularly interesting, as +it was uninhabited, so that he was not tempted to waste any time in +looking out of the window. But he had only to go into the palace gardens +when he wanted to get away from his books and rest his eyes and brain; +and these covered a great deal of ground, extending indeed as far as to +the neighbouring hills, then still covered with forests, where the king, +who was an ardent sportsman, often went hunting.</p> + +<p>Michael was sitting in the window one morning to eat his breakfast, when +he chanced to look across to the opposite window, and saw, to his great +surprise, that there was some one there, or at least he fancied that he +saw some one, but the glimpse was so momentary that he could not be +sure.</p> + +<p>When one has nothing at all to look at, very small trifles become quite +important; and the idea that he might have, or be going to have, +neighbours was quite exciting. Certainly the king had said something +about it, but hitherto he had seen no one.</p> + +<p>In a fit of curiosity, Michael opened the window and looked out from +time to time while he went on with his meal. Once he thought he saw some +one flit past it again; but he had to hurry off to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> military duties +before he could make out whether the rooms were really occupied or not.</p> + +<p>When he came back, the very first thing he did was to go up to the +window again; and at last his curiosity was gratified, at least to some +extent, for two persons were there—two women, one seated at a little +embroidery-frame, and the other standing over her, looking at her work. +Their faces were hidden from him at first, but from their dress and +figures he could see that one was elderly and the other quite young. +Presently the younger one raised her head from her work and looked up, +and from the momentary glance which he had of her features, Michael +fancied that he had seen her before somewhere or other. He could not for +the moment think where it could have been, for it was the merest glimpse +he had of her face before she looked down again.</p> + +<p>He must not be so rude as to watch; but he could not resist an +occasional glance as long as they were there. In another quarter of an +hour, however, both figures had disappeared, and Michael saw no more of +them. But the discovery that he had neighbours was quite exciting, and +he was so much interested that he shook his head with some impatience +when he found the window deserted in the afternoon. Till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> this event +occurred, Michael had been in the habit of spending as short a time as +possible within doors, and was most eager to mount his horse as soon as +ever he had finished the work which he had set himself for the day. But +now he was so consumed with curiosity that he actually kept his steed +waiting a whole quarter of an hour later than usual, while he watched +for the reappearance of the ladies.</p> + +<p>But it was all to no purpose. For a moment he caught sight of a white +hand raised, either to fasten the window or to point to something, but +the next instant this too had disappeared. He was on the watch again +when he returned home, taking care, however, to stand or sit where he +could not be seen; and the next day and the next it was the same. He +spent so much time in watching, indeed, that he got quite angry with +himself at last; and then he would go out riding, and come back quite +vexed and out of sorts.</p> + +<p>"Bother it all!" he thought to himself; "of course I shall see her again +sooner or later if she is there."</p> + +<p>He was standing in his usual place again one evening, when he saw two +shadows move away from the opposite window in the most tantalizing +manner, and he felt so hopeful that he sat down to watch at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> his ease. +If tobacco had been known in those days, no doubt he would have lighted +his pipe or a cigar; but as it was not, he had nothing to console +himself with, and could only sit and "look for King David and his harp" +in the moon, as the saying is.</p> + +<p>All at once he fancied that he really did hear him playing his harp in +his silver palace. There were sounds of some sort—soft, sweet sounds, +which came floating towards him on the air; and he thought to himself +that he had surely heard the plaintive melody with its vibrating chords +somewhere before.</p> + +<p>"To be sure! I have got it!" he said to himself. "I know now <i>where</i>! +But, of course, others might know the air.—Eh! what's that, though?" he +exclaimed, as a sweet, young, bell-like voice now began to accompany the +instrument, and he heard one of the very songs which he had himself +composed in the days which now seemed so long ago.</p> + +<p>That Miska the beggar boy should be a popular poet will astonish no one +who knows how many of the popular songs of Hungary have had their origin +in the humble cottages of the peasantry, in the course of past +centuries. Every village has its poet, who is also frequently a musical +composer as well. He sings his songs at the village merry-makings to +airs of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> own invention, and the gipsies, who are always present on +such occasions to play for the dancers, accompany him on their fiddles. +If they take a fancy to the air, they will remember it, and invent +variations to it, and in this way it will be preserved and become part +of their stock.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"One life, one God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One home, one love,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>sang Michael's opposite neighbour, in a voice of great beauty and +sweetness.</p> + +<p>"It's Esther! it must be Esther!" cried the young man, starting to his +feet in great excitement. "Esther!" he said, and a flush mounted to his +face; "but here, <i>here</i>, actually here, opposite me? Impossible! I must +see her and make sure. No one could know that song, though, but herself; +I made it for her, and no one else ever had it, at least from me."</p> + +<p>Often and often Michael had wondered what had become of his little +friend and the other inhabitants of the castle; but whenever he had +ventured to hint an inquiry as to Mr. Samson's fate, or had tried to +find out anything about the rest, the king had turned the subject, and +avoided giving him any direct answer. Of course it was out of the +question to press the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> matter, so that he had known positively nothing +of what had happened ever since the eventful night when he had left the +castle. But though his life had been a very busy one, and many fresh new +interests had come into it, he had never forgotten the one pleasant +acquaintance whom he had made in Mr. Samson's grim castle. He walked +across towards the window now full of eagerness; but the singer, whose +voice he thought he recognized, was sitting in such a provoking way that +he could not see her face, and he had been careful to manage so that she +should not see him either. Presently he stopped, with his foot on the +window-sill, and then took another step forward, which apparently +startled the singer, for the song ceased abruptly, and a rather +frightened face looked up at him.</p> + +<p>"It is you!" cried the young officer, in impetuous delight; and "Is it +you?" said the girl, more quietly, but with a flush of pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Well, did ever one see!" exclaimed a sharp voice behind Esther. +"Jancsi! [Johnnie!] how ever did you get here?"</p> + +<p>"It is I indeed, my little demoiselle," said Michael, in the utmost +surprise. "But I am quite bewildered. How did you come here?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>"Did not you know that the king had sent for me here to Buda?"</p> + +<p>"The king!" said the young man, and a shadow crossed his face; "when? +what for?—and have you seen the king?"</p> + +<p>"Three questions at once," said Esther, laughing. "Well, really I don't +know anything more than that we came here under the escort of an old +gentleman whom I don't know; and the king quartered us here, where we +have been now three days, but I have not yet seen His Highness. God +bless him! for I am as free here, and as happy," she went on, blushing +still more, "as if I had been born again. But come in; why do you stand +there in the window? We are neighbours, you know, as we used to be, and +neighbours ought to be on good terms with one another."</p> + +<p>Michael felt as if he were dreaming, but naturally he did not wait to be +asked twice; and the old woman, who had shown a marked liking for him +before while he was in Samson's castle, welcomed him now with the +greatest cordiality.</p> + +<p>"Why, Jancsi, stay a bit," said she, "and let me look at you! Why, what +a smart lad you have turned into, to be sure! What fine buttons you have +on your dolmány! and—well, I declare, you have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> watch too! 'Your +lentils must have sold' uncommonly well in the time; and just tell us +now how you came to 'climb the cucumber-tree' so quickly, will you?"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> To "sell one's lentils well" and to "climb the +cucumber-tree" mean to get on in the world and make one's fortune +quickly.</p></div> + +<p>"Ah, auntie, that would take a long time to tell; but we'll have it +another time. All I can tell you now is that I owe everything to the +good king, and I would go through the fire for him; for my whole life, +every moment of it, belongs to him."</p> + +<p>Then in a few words he told them his history since the time when he had +left the castle with Samson, and had so given Esther some hope of +release.</p> + +<p>"It is strange," said Esther thoughtfully, "that the king should have +put us here opposite one another, and should have had these gloomy +bastions put in order and made so habitable just for us."</p> + +<p>"Very," said Michael. "I am surprised myself, and I don't understand it, +especially as the king asked me yesterday, laughing, whether I had yet +made acquaintance with my neighbour? But what is the good of troubling +one's head about it? I am heartily glad, anyway; and you, Esther, are +you pleased too? tell me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>The girl blushed a little, and giving Michael her hand, said: "Why +shouldn't I be glad? I am sure I could not have come across a better +neighbour, and it is to you most certainly that I owe my freedom."</p> + +<p>The young officer sighed. "Indirectly, yes," he said; and then in a +lower tone he added, "And the king might have entrusted you to my +charge; I might have had the pleasure of bringing you here. However, +when I had captured Mr. Samson, before I came back to the king, I showed +the way in and out of the castle to the Jew whom Mr. Samson had intended +to relieve of his pack, so it was easy enough then to get in and take +possession."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Esther, "it did not need any very great valour to +steal in at midnight and seize the place."</p> + +<p>"And what has become of Mr. Samson? the king has never told me a word +more about him."</p> + +<p>"What has become of him? I should think he was safe in one of the king's +prisons."</p> + +<p>"Dear Esther, do tell me what happened; I am burning to know how it all +came about."</p> + +<p>"Well, when a few weeks had passed and Mr. Samson did not come home, we +all began to think that something had happened to him, and that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> had +perished for good and all. And then one midnight we heard a great noise +of shouting and the clash of arms, and then Mr. Rozgonyi came and +mentioned your name, and I let him into my room. For I was so +frightened, not knowing what was going on, that I had treble-bolted the +door and put the bar up; but when I heard your name, of course I knew it +was all right, and I opened it at once."</p> + +<p>"And what of the castle?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rozgonyi did not allow much time for questions. He just said that +he had brought some stone-masons with him; and apparently they had come +to pull down and not to build, at least in the first place, for he wound +up by saying that the king was going to have the stones used to build a +church and monastery in the nearest village. There would be enough for +three, I should think!"</p> + +<p>"And did Miss Esther ever think of the poor beggar boy?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure! But I thought more of the valiant Alpári János [John], who +was so brave as to come into Mr. Samson's hiding-place, and then so +clever as to get the wicked tyrant into his hands. But, Sir Knight, I +felt afraid of you too, and I must confess that I am rather afraid of +you still. For—you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> are certainly very clever at pretending and making +believe to be what you are not; and when one finds it all out, how is +one to believe anything you may say?"</p> + +<p>"Good Esther!" said Michael, looking a little shamefaced, "but didn't I +keep my promise to you? I said you should be released, and you were."</p> + +<p>"True," admitted Esther.</p> + +<p>"And if I acted the part of a dissembler with Mr. Samson, I was not my +own master, you know; I belonged to the king, and was obeying his +orders, not following my own fancies and wishes. But as regards +yourself, I have never dissembled at all, from the time when first I +began to make your acquaintance, and it rests with you to put my +sincerity to the test."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean? But I see we have been chattering away a long +time.—Euphrosyne, light the candles.—And you, sir, must go, if you +please; we have talked enough for to-day."</p> + +<p>But though Esther dismissed him now, no day passed after this without +his coming to see her; and both she and Euphrosyne seemed to be always +glad to see him and to listen to all he had to tell them, first about +his own life and adventures, and the king<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> whom he was never tired of +extolling, and then about the day's incidents, his work and his studies, +and what was going on in Buda; for they lived very quietly, and saw and +heard but little of the outside world. Often, too, Esther would bring +out her harp and play and sing. Her voice had gained in power and +richness during the past two or three years, and she had had some +teaching from one of the king's musicians; but nothing pleased Michael +so well as to hear her sing the favourite old songs which he remembered +of old, except—to hear her sing his own.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE KING'S WHIM.</span></h2> + + +<p>Things had been going on very pleasantly for some weeks, and Michael and +his attractive little neighbour had been growing more and more intimate +with each other, when one evening, on entering the room as usual, he saw +at once that something was amiss; for Esther's bright face was quite +overclouded, and her blue eyes looked troubled.</p> + +<p>But Euphrosyne was mounting guard over her young mistress as she always +did, and Michael's anxious but cautious inquiries met with evasive +answers, or passed unnoticed.</p> + +<p>How he wished the old woman would find something to look after in the +kitchen or elsewhere—anything to get rid of her, if but for a few +minutes!</p> + +<p>The conversation was less animated than usual this evening: Esther +seemed to find a difficulty in talking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> and she said positively that she +could not sing; and Michael was becoming quite uneasy and almost +inclined to take his departure, when—whether she felt that she was not +wanted or not—something or other made Euphrosyne discover, or perhaps +pretend to discover, that she had something to attend to in another +room.</p> + +<p>Such a thing had never happened before, and Michael seized his +opportunity, blessing her in his heart for leaving them to themselves, +but fearing she would be back before he had said what he wanted to say.</p> + +<p>"Now, Esther," he said persuasively, seating himself on the divan by her +side—"now, Esther, tell me what has happened. What is troubling you? +you look so sad and out of spirits. What is the matter? I am sure there +is something."</p> + +<p>"My friend," answered Esther, "I <i>am</i> sad, for I am to leave Buda."</p> + +<p>"Why? where are you going?" cried Michael.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said the girl—"I don't know! There! read what he says." +And she handed Michael a letter.</p> + +<p>"The king's writing!" he exclaimed; and then he read with a beating +heart:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>"<span class="smcap">My little Sister</span><a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> <span class="smcap">Esther</span>,—Your parents came of +distinguished ancestry. You are an orphan; Mr. Samson +got possession of all that belonged to you, and since +he has paid the penalty of his crimes, his property +has come into our treasury. We have lately heard from +Munkács that he has died a natural death, and we are +willing to restore a portion of his possessions to +you, if you on your part are willing to give your hand +to one of our 'Supreme Counts,'<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> a man of very +ancient family. If you cannot make up your mind to +this, my little sister, then you must go away from +here; for your frequent meetings with Mr. +Tornay—whose head I will wash for him!—have +attracted attention, and will make you talked about.</p> + +<p class="signature">"<span class="smcap">Matthias.</span>"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> "Little sister" and "little brother" are +usual forms of addressing the young.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Fö-ispán</i>, the head and administrator +of a county, not a hereditary count.</p></div></div> + +<p>Michael let the letter drop from his hand in dismay, and then exclaimed +passionately, "Why, the king placed me here; and, besides, he asked me +himself whether I had made acquaintance with my neighbour."</p> + +<p>"True," said Esther sadly, "and I told His Highness so myself; but he +gave me quite a scolding for letting you come and see me so often."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>"What!" cried Michael, surprised and even startled; "the king has been +here?"</p> + +<p>"He has indeed," said Esther, the tears springing to her eyes. +"Yesterday, while you were out riding the beautiful cream-coloured horse +with the green silk trappings, the king came. I had never seen him +before, but as he closed the door behind him, I knew in a moment that it +was the king and no one else. I felt it somehow, I don't know how."</p> + +<p>"And what did he say? was he in a good humour?"</p> + +<p>"Good? not by any means. He looked at me as fiercely as if I were going +to do him I don't know what injury, and yet I pray for him every day, +and have never sinned against him so much as in thought."</p> + +<p>"Strange!" said Michael. "And this count! The whirlwind take him and all +his ancient family pedigree away together! Do you know this count? And +is there any count in all the wide world who loves you as well as I do?"</p> + +<p>"You?" said Esther, lifting her tearful eyes; "but you see you never +told me you did."</p> + +<p>"I <i>have</i> told you!" said Michael, impetuously seizing Esther's hand and +covering it with kisses; "every word I have uttered has told you so, +ever since I first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> saw you. Ah! you might have understood me, +because—I was once a beggar boy, how could I speak more plainly? <i>I</i> +have no family pedigree, and I shall never be a Supreme Count," he +finished gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Is it true?" said Esther, blushing very prettily, but looking several +shades less melancholy than before.</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't it be true, my star? Of course it is true! Don't you +believe me?" said Michael, drawing her to himself. "But I am the son of +poor parents, only a beggar boy, and that abominable count, hang him! +may—what was I going to say?—well, anyhow, may the grasshoppers fall +upon him!"</p> + +<p>"Michael," said Esther, a little shyly, "if you do love me—but +understand well, I mean <i>really</i> love me, really and truly—well then, I +will just confess that I love you too, with all my heart, truly, as my +life. You are more to me than all the counts in the world, for you are +my Supreme Count; and even if you can't point to a line of ancestors, +what does it signify? Somebody has to make a beginning, and you are +making your own name; surely that is a great deal more than merely +inheriting it! Besides, your family pedigree is as long as any one's in +the world after all; for it reaches back to old Father Adam, and no one +can go further."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>At that moment Euphrosyne reappeared with the lights; but Michael cared +little for her, now that he had found out what he wanted to know. Esther +cared for him; what else could possibly matter?</p> + +<p>"I must go to the king," said Michael. "He has always been most gracious +to me, and why should he want to crush me now, after being the making of +me? Why should he make my heart bitter, when it beats true to him and to +my love? Don't be sad, my star. I will see him to-morrow, and tell him +everything. He is so good, so kind, and so just! and it wouldn't be just +to take you away from me, after bringing you here and letting us learn +to know one another. If I only knew which count it was! but there are +more than fifty. There is not one of them, though, that found you out in +Mr. Samson's castle, and you never sang any of their songs, did you now? +<i>Did</i> any one ever make songs for you but me?"</p> + +<p>"No one! I don't know any count, unless the old gentleman who escorted +us was one, and I hardly spoke to him."</p> + +<p>But just then they were interrupted, for the door opened, and one of the +royal pages stepped in.</p> + +<p>"I have been looking for you in your quarters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> lieutenant-general," +said he; "and as I did not find you at home, it is a good thing you are +here. See, this is from the king; please to read it." And he handed a +note to Michael, who turned deadly pale as he took it and read as +follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I wish you all good.</p> + +<p>"So you have become very well acquainted indeed with +your neighbours! and we suspect that you have spent +more time tied to their apron-strings than in +exercising the garrison. We shall therefore give you +something to do.</p> + +<p>"We shall expect you to be at Visegrád by eleven +o'clock to-morrow morning, and we will there give you +our orders. Be prepared for three months' absence from +Buda.</p> + +<p>"You will not see your neighbour again; she is to be +the bride of Aggtelky Mihály, one of our best-beloved +and most trusty counts. God be with us.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p class="signature">"<span class="smcap">Matthias.</span>"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Equivalent to our "adieu."</p></div></div> + +<p>The note was written in the most formally polite style. There was no +"gossip" or "little brother," there was not even a "thou" in it—nothing +from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> beginning to end but "your grace," answering indeed to our "you," +but a good deal more chilling to those accustomed to the friendly "thee" +and "thou."</p> + +<p>Michael smothered his wrath as best he could, feeling how much he owed +to the king, and that it would be the blackest ingratitude to show +passion and resentment because he now crossed his will.</p> + +<p>"I will obey His Highness's commands," said he to the page, who at once +withdrew.</p> + +<p>Then he embraced Esther, and said with a heavy sigh, "All is not lost +yet. The king is good, and—God is better. Keep up your heart."</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p>The next morning the young lieutenant-general was at Visegrád by the +appointed time, and went at once to the governor, who told him that the +king had arrived a couple of hours previously, very irritable and out of +humour, as it seemed.</p> + +<p>"What can have happened to His Highness?" asked Michael, grieved to hear +of the king's ill-humour, and fearing not only that his petition would +come at a most unfortunate time, but that the king would not perhaps let +him have speech of him at all.</p> + +<p>"Eh!" said the governor, "who knows what our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> good king has to worry +him? There's trouble enough in the country just now, that's certain, and +he has both his hands full. But I am sure I am not afraid of him; and as +for those who vex him, may they suffer for it as they deserve!"</p> + +<p>A long hour passed, and still the king did not send for Michael, though +the governor had lost no time in announcing his arrival. But at last, +after he had waited what to him seemed a very long time, the summons +came. The page who brought it looked grave, but beyond that his face +betrayed nothing, and Michael hastened with a beating heart into the +presence of the master whom he adored, but now, perhaps for the first +time in his life, feared to meet.</p> + +<p>When he entered the beautiful, well-lighted room, whose painted windows +looked out upon the Danube, he found King Matthias seated near an open +window, in an arm-chair covered with yellow velvet, and looking more +gloomy than he had ever seen him before. He was very plainly, almost +carelessly, attired, and near him was his favourite scholar, the +librarian Galeotti, who also looked melancholy and stood gazing at +vacancy, as if he were trying to peer into the future.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>"Is it you?" said Matthias coldly; "you have kept me waiting a long +time."</p> + +<p>"Mr. King," answered Michael, "I have been here for the past two hours, +as you commanded."</p> + +<p>"Ah! true, I was forgetting; of course they announced you. Are you +prepared for a long journey?"</p> + +<p>"A soldier is ready to march without much preparation," said Michael, +with a great want of his usual alacrity. "I am ready to receive your +Highness's orders."</p> + +<p>"Good," said the king. "You will start for Vienna in an hour's time +then, with Mr. Galeotti here. He is going on a mission for me to the +Emperor Friedrich; and until my friend has completed his business, which +may perhaps take six months, you are not to leave him."</p> + +<p>Michael said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Well?" the king went on, in a tone of impatient annoyance. "Perhaps you +don't fancy such an errand; you would prefer, no doubt, to be sent +against Axamith,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> who has effected a lodgment again in the north, as +we hear, and is thieving and plundering like a swarm of grasshoppers."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> One of the Bohemian freebooters.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>"Why should I deny it?" said Michael humbly, well knowing that the king +liked the truth even when he was angry. "If Your Highness were disposed +to send me on active service somewhere, I <i>should</i> prefer it. But +wherever you please to order me, I shall go with a good will; for my +life belongs to my king."</p> + +<p>"Hm!" said Matthias, fixing his searching eyes upon the speaker; "may be +so, but just at present your tongue does not speak the thoughts of your +heart."</p> + +<p>"Sir! Your Highness!"</p> + +<p>"'Highness' I may be, but 'gracious' I am not to-day, am I, Mr. Michael +Tornay? You have yourself to thank for it, for you have been putting bad +wood on the fire,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> and you have been going very near what is +forbidden fruit."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> That is, you have been up to mischief.</p></div> + +<p>"Forbidden fruit?" said Michael, exceedingly cast down by the king's +cold treatment of him.</p> + +<p>"It is true I did not distinctly forbid it you, but I could not suppose +you would take fire so quickly."</p> + +<p>Michael said nothing, and the king went on,—</p> + +<p>"Don't deny it, for I know everything. You have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> fallen in love with +Esther. It is just fortunate that the girl has more sense than you, and +does not trust your fine words."</p> + +<p>"I humbly beg your pardon," said Michael, unwilling to let the +opportunity slip, "I believe, on the contrary, Your Highness, that +Esther—"</p> + +<p>"Esther is going to marry Aggtelky Mihály, the Supreme Count," said the +king decidedly; "and now that you know this, it will be as well for you +to give up thinking of her. To make it easier for you, and to impress it +upon your mind, it will not be amiss for you to spend a few months away +from Buda."</p> + +<p>"Your Highness," Michael began again in an imploring tone.</p> + +<p>"Enough!" said the king in a stern voice. "Now both follow me to the +castle chapel. You will receive your instructions after service, and +then—to Vienna!"</p> + +<p>Michael was in the utmost consternation, but he did not venture another +word. It was so strange to see the gay, good-natured king thus unlike +himself, that he thought he must either be ill, or must have had very +bad news from somewhere, or—was it possible?—that some one had been +trying to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> set him against himself, by telling malicious tales. His +rapid advancement, and the favour which the king showed him, had, he +knew, excited some envy and jealousy. Had some secret enemy then been at +work?</p> + +<p>But then King Matthias was not given to listening to tales, and if he +had heard anything to Michael's discredit, he would have told him of it +plainly, and given him the opportunity of clearing himself.</p> + +<p>He glanced interrogatively at Galeotti; but the Italian merely shrugged +his shoulders to express his entire bewilderment. They were walking +behind the king now, towards the chapel, which they found dressed with +lovely flowers as if for a festival; but Michael was so engrossed in his +own thoughts, so sore at heart, and so hurt by what he felt to be the +just king's injustice, that he had no attention to spare for anything +else.</p> + +<p>They took their places; the shrill tones of a bell were heard, and the +service began and proceeded quietly to its close.</p> + +<p>The king rose up, and was about to leave the chapel, when he stopped +short, saying, "So—I was forgetting! Another little ceremony takes +place here to-day, of course. Follow me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>With that he turned towards the vestry, Michael following him with +listless steps.</p> + +<p>The door was opened by some one within; but Michael's eyes were bent +upon the ground, and he saw nothing but the marble floor, until Galeotti +twitched him by the sleeve and made him look up. Then he saw what filled +him first with amazement and next with passionate indignation.</p> + +<p>For there before him, like a beautiful dream, stood Esther—<i>his</i> Esther +as he felt her to be, in spite of kings and counts—<i>his</i> Esther, robed +in white, with a bridal wreath on her head, and looking as fair and pure +as a dove!</p> + +<p>Michael turned almost as white as the bride's dress. He had been brought +to Visegrád to see her married to the count! That was his first +collected thought. Could the king, the master whom he had so +loved—<i>could</i> he be so cruel, so heartlessly cruel?</p> + +<p>For a moment or two Michael was so torn in pieces between his love for +Esther and his love and reverence for the king, that he felt as if he +were losing his senses, and might say or do something outrageous.</p> + +<p>The king stopped and turned towards him, as if he were about to speak; +but Michael did not notice it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> for his eyes were fixed upon the bride, +and he was trying to master himself.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Michael Tornay!"</p> + +<p>Michael started at the sound of the king's voice, and looked at him +mechanically.</p> + +<p>Matthias held in his hand a heavy gold case, with a piece of parchment +from which hung a large seal. The clouds had vanished from his face as +if by magic, and he was apparently quite himself again, for he looked as +bright and pleasant as possible.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Michael Tornay," he said in a gay tone, which completed Michael's +bewilderment, "you have answered all our expectations. If we have been +the making of you, you have given us complete satisfaction in return. +You have won our heart by your faithful affection, your valour, and your +love and devotion to your country. And now, see, we herewith endow you +with an estate for which we have chosen the name of Aggtelky, from one +of the properties included in it. We also entrust you with the +administration of the county of Szathmár; and that you may not be +lonely, and find the time hang heavy on your hands, we propose to give +you this naughty little daughter of Eve to torment you.</p> + +<p>"What have you to say to this? Will it suit you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> better than going to +Vienna, little brother—eh? Ah! I thought so," as Michael and his bride +fell upon their knees, unable for the moment to utter a word. "Then, if +the bride is pleased to accept you after all, Mr. Supreme Count Michael +Aggtelky, the wedding shall take place at once."</p> + + +<p class="theend">THE END</p> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<h2><a name="The_Boys_New_Library" id="The_Boys_New_Library"></a>The Boys' New Library.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i><b>Crown 8vo, cloth extra. Price 3s. 6d. each.</b></i></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="advert1"><b>The British Legion.</b> A Tale of the Carlist War. By +<span class="smcap">Herbert Hayens</span>, author of "An Emperor's Doom," etc., +etc. Crown 8vo. With Six Illustrations by <span class="smcap">W. H. +Margetson</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Island of Gold.</b> A Sea Story. 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Whishaw</span>, author of "A +Lost Army," "Boris the Bear-Hunter," etc. Post 8vo, +cloth extra.</p> + +<p class="advert2">"<i>An entrancing story dealing with Norse life in the +eleventh century, a period unsurpassed for the +opportunities it presents to the romancer.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Dundee +Advertiser.</span></p> + +<p class="advert2">"<i>A stirring story of a stirring period, which, though +we regard it at the distance of eight centuries, is +full of unfailing fascination to all lovers of the +romance of history.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Court Journal.</span></p></div> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<h2>Our Boys' Select Library.</h2> + +<p class="center">STORIES OF ADVENTURE, TRAVEL, AND DISCOVERY.</p> + +<p class="center"><i><b>Post 8vo, cloth extra. 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There are plenty of exciting adventures +and encounters with wild beasts and no less wild +men.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Standard.</span></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Castaways.</b> A Story of Adventure in the Wilds of +Borneo. By Captain <span class="smcap">Mayne Reid</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Meadows Family</b>; or, Fireside Stories of Adventure +and Enterprise. By <span class="smcap">M. A. Paull</span>, Author of "Tim's +Troubles," etc. With Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Story of the Niger.</b> A Record of Travel and +Adventure from the Days of Mungo Park to the Present +Time. By <span class="smcap">Robert Richardson</span>, Author of "Adventurous +Boat Voyages," "Ralph's Year in Russia," etc. With +Thirty-one Illustrations.</p></div> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<h2>The Norseland Library.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i><b>Post 8vo, cloth extra. 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All are well written and +interesting.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Glasgow Herald.</span></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Leaves from a Middy's Log.</b> By <span class="smcap">Arthur Lee Knight</span>, +Author of "Adventures of a Midshipmite," "The Rajah of +Monkey Island," etc. Illustrated by <span class="smcap">A. Pearce</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert2">"<i>A decidedly fresh and stirring story. There is +plenty of incident and plenty of spirit in the story; +the dialogue is amusing and natural, and the +descriptions are vigorous and vivid.</i>"—<span class="smcap">Spectator.</span></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Sons of the Vikings.</b> An Orkney Story. By <span class="smcap">John Gunn</span>, +M.A., D.Sc. With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">John Williamson</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Sons of Freedom;</b> or, The Fugitives from Siberia. By +<span class="smcap">Fred. Whishaw</span>, Author of "Harold the Norseman," "A +Lost Army," "Boris the Bear-Hunter," etc. With +numerous Illustrations.</p></div> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<h2><a name="Books_for_the_Home_Circle" id="Books_for_the_Home_Circle"></a>Books for the Home Circle.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i><b>Post 8vo, cloth extra. Price 2s. each.</b></i></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="advert1"><b>The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which +is to Come.</b> Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream. +By <span class="smcap">John Bunyan</span>. With Mason's Notes, and Eight +full-page Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Children's Champion, and the Victories He Won.</b> +Pictures from the Life of "The Good Earl," Lord +Shaftesbury. By <span class="smcap">Lucy Taylor</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>A simple and touching account of the life and work of +one who nobly strove to fulfil the law of Christ, +"Bear ye one another's burdens." It is admirably +fitted to arouse the interest and enlist the sympathy +of the young, and to fire them with a holy ambition to +follow the example of one who was a real and not +simply an ideal hero.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Favourite Narratives for the Christian Household.</b> +Containing—<span class="smcap">The Shepherd of Salisbury +Plain</span>—<span class="smcap">Dairyman's Daughter</span>—<span class="smcap">Young Cottager</span>, etc.</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>This is a suitable book to put into the hands of +Sunday-school scholars.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Going on Pilgrimage.</b> A Companion to the "Pilgrim's +Progress," for Young Pilgrims. By <span class="smcap">Lucy Taylor</span>, Author +of "The Children's Champion, and the Victories He +Won."</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>An outline, with running comments and moral +reflections, of the "Pilgrim's Progress," designed to +imbue the minds of the young with the lofty aims of +John Bunyan in writing his unique allegory.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Home for the Holidays.</b> By <span class="smcap">Mrs. C. C. Campbell</span>, Author +of "Natural History for Young Folks," etc. Twenty +Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>An attractive book for children, which, along with a +simple narrative, includes some interesting facts of +natural science, historical legends, etc.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The King's Highway</b>; or, Illustrations of the +Commandments. By Rev. <span class="smcap">Richard Newton, D.D.</span> With +numerous Engravings.</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>Addresses for the young on each Commandment, with +illustrative anecdotes and hymns.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>The Life of John Knox.</b> With Biographical Notices of +the Principal Reformers, and Sketches of the Progress +of Literature in Scotland during a great part of the +Sixteenth Century. By Rev. <span class="smcap">Thomas M'Crie, D.D.</span>, Author +of "Life of Andrew Melville."</p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Philip.</b> A Story of the First Century. By <span class="smcap">Mary C. +Cutler</span>.</p> + +<p class="advert2">"<i>The authoress writes in a charmingly simple style, +so that the book will be read with delight by the +children; yet it has a force and suggestiveness that +will make it edifying to the adult reader.</i>"—<span class="smcap">N. B. +Daily Mail.</span></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Seed-Time and Harvest</b>; or, Sow Well and Reap Well. A +Book for the Young. By the late Rev. <span class="smcap">W. K. Tweedie, +D.D.</span></p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>This book is eminently a practical one. It shows the +reader, by illustration and example, the necessary +results of good and bad conduct, and invites him to +choose the right course.</i></p> + +<p class="advert1"><b>Seeking a Country</b>; or, The Home of the Pilgrims. By +the Rev. <span class="smcap">E. N. Hoare, M.A.</span>, Rector of Acrise, Kent; +Author of "Heroism in Humble Life," "Roe Carson's +Enemy," etc.</p> + +<p class="advert2"><i>A historical tale, founded on the first voyage of the +"Mayflower," and the early experiences of the Pilgrim +Fathers. With a portrait of Captain Miles Standish, +and many other interesting illustrations.</i></p></div> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">T. Nelson and Sons</span>, London, Edinburgh, and New York.</p> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected.</p> + +<p>In Chapter I, a period was added after "To be sure".</p> + +<p>In Chapter IV, a period was added after "better to be beforehand with +them".</p> + +<p>The name Zokoli/Zokoly is spelled inconsistently in the original text.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Matthias and the Beggar Boy, by +Nicholas Jósika + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + +***** This file should be named 36816-h.htm or 36816-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36816/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: King Matthias and the Beggar Boy + +Author: Nicholas Josika + +Illustrator: R. Hope + +Translator: Selina Gaye + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36816] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY] + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. + + + + +[Illustration: "Come here, gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear." Page +66.] + + + + +[Illustration: KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. T. Nelson & Sons] + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY + +ADAPTED FROM THE HUNGARIAN OF BARON NICHOLAS JOSIKA + +BY SELINA GAYE + +Author of "Ilka: The Captive Maiden," "Dickie Winton," &c. &c. + +[Illustration] + +T. NELSON AND SONS +London, Edinburgh, and New York + +1902 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE, 9 + II. MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY, 21 + III. "TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!" 32 + IV. IN THE ROBBER'S NEST, 42 + V. CAUGHT, 53 + VI. I AM THE KING'S PAGE! 68 + VII. SENT TO PRISON, 80 + VIII. THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG, 94 + IX. THE KING'S WHIM, 109 + + + + +KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE. + + +Towards the close of a gloomy day in autumn, a very dusty traveller was +riding quietly up to a castle which stood perched on a height in one of +the northern counties of Hungary. A very extraordinary-looking castle it +was, if it was a castle at all, which one might be inclined to doubt; +for it looked more like a square block hewn by giants out of the ribs of +the mountain, and left to itself for centuries, until its walls had +become mouldy and moss-grown. One thing which gave it an odd appearance +was that, as far as could be seen, it had no roof; the fact being that +it was built round a quadrangle, and that the roof, or rather +half-roof, sloped downwards and inwards from the top of the outer walls. + +But what was even more remarkable still was that the building had +neither door nor window in any one of its four sides; so that how the +inhabitants, if there were any, ever went in or out, was quite a +mystery. + +People had had a good deal to say about the owner of this extraordinary +stronghold for many a year past, and all sorts of wild stories were told +of him. But no one but his own hired servants and men-at-arms had ever +set eyes upon him--so far as they knew, that is to say. + +Neither he nor his servants were ever to be seen coming or going, and +how they managed was quite unknown; but for all that they made their +presence felt, and very unpleasantly felt too. + +The man on horseback had drawn nearer by this time, and was gazing up at +the huge pile, scanning it carefully, but quite unable to discover so +much as a chink or cranny in the grey, weather-beaten walls. + +At last he shook his head and said with a smile, "Why, the castle is in +such a strong position and so well fortified that it must be almost +impregnable! But of course it is inhabited, and the inhabitants are +human beings, not demons; and wherever human beings can dwell, human +beings must also be able to enter. + +"Well, I am here at last! and little enough Mr. Samson guesses what +manner of visitor has come so close to his hiding-place. I am glad I +came, for it is always best to see with one's own eyes. And now that I +am here, the next thing is how to get in. Let us look and consider. No +use," he continued, after a moment or two; "I can't think of any way. If +I could only see some one, a living creature of some sort, to make +inquiries of! Nonsense! I'll wager I know more about the nest than any +one hereabouts. + +"But still, I have been six hours on horseback, and as far as the eye +can see there is no wayside inn or public-house or even farm-house in +sight, and a man can't help being tired even if he be a vice-count--or +more! Well, let's be going on," he went on, putting his horse once more +in motion. + +The young man before us was of middle height and strongly built, with +fiery dark eyes, and curly chestnut hair; he was very plainly clad, and +his horse was no better caparisoned than if it had belonged to some son +of the _puszta_, or steppes. + +Quietly, and with eyes and ears both on the alert, he rode round the +height on which the fortress stood. + +"If I don't see anything," he said to himself with a laugh, "they don't +see me; let's be off! + +"Eh, and yet I should be glad if I could come across a human being of +some sort, if he were no bigger than the rowel of my spur.--Hi! hi +there, _foeldi_ [countryman]," cried the horseman all at once, as he +caught sight of some one trudging along the road round the shoulder of +the hill. + +The wayfarer thus addressed turned and came up to him, and as soon as he +was within speaking distance he said in humble tones, "_Uram_ [sir], I +am hungry; I have not eaten a morsel to-day. Have pity on me, +_kegyelmed_[1] [your grace]." + +[Footnote 1: A common form of polite address in Hungarian.] + +Then he cast a glance, not altogether devoid of envy, at the dainty +horseman, who was so comfortably clad, and who looked, to judge by his +countenance, as if his hunger had been well satisfied. + +"Here," said the rider, giving the beggar a small coin; for the boy +attracted him, and he thought to himself that he could hardly ever +remember to have seen a face with such a peculiarly taking expression. +Moreover, in spite of the mud and dirt with which his skin was +incrusted, it was impossible not to be struck by his fine features, +which were of a purely Oriental type, and lighted up by a pair of large +dark eyes as black as the raven's wing. + +The man on horseback had given the lad a trifle on the spur of the +moment, because he looked so poverty-stricken; but a second glance made +him fancy, rightly or wrongly, that he was not a beggar of the common +sort, to whom people give careless alms because he stirs their pity for +the moment. This beggar excited something more and better than mere +pity--at least in the man before us. Some people, it is true, might not +have noticed the expression of the lad's face; but to those who had eyes +it told of something more than poverty and distress. It was not the look +of the beggar who is content to be a beggar, who would rather beg than +work, rather live upon others than labour for himself. One might almost +fancy, indeed, that the lad was ashamed of his present plight, and +rather indignant with things in general for not providing him with some +better employment. + +The horseman was one well accustomed to reading character, and rarely +mistaken in his judgment; and being touched as well as favourably +impressed by the boy, it suddenly occurred to him that he might be +turned to account. + +"Just answer me a few questions, my boy, will you?" said he. "Can you +write?" + +"No, I can't; I have never had any teaching." + +And, indeed, writing was a by no means general accomplishment in the +reign of the good King Matthias, when many of the first nobles in the +land could not even sign their own names. But still there seem to have +been elementary schools not only in the towns but in other places as +well, so that the question was not altogether unreasonable. + +"Then you can't read either?" + +"Of course not; as if it were likely!" + +"Have you ever been in service?" + +"Never, sir, thank Heaven; but I have worked as a day-labourer." + +"Why don't you turn soldier?" + +"Because my head is worth more than my arms," said the beggar: "besides, +they wouldn't take such a ragged chap as I." + +"Are you to be trusted, I wonder?" + +The boy looked up at the speaker at this, and then answered with an air +of wounded pride, "I have not had a good meal for a fortnight, yet I +have not stolen so much as a plum from a tree. You may trust me with a +purse full of money." + +"Well, _oecsem_[2] [little brother], it is possible you may be a regular +rascal, for anything I know to the contrary at present; but you have a +good face, and I should like to see such a head as yours on many a pair +of shoulders which are covered with gold and marten-fur. Well, I don't +care! I am going to trust a good pair of eyes and a clear forehead. +Listen, boy. I like you. Stand here before me, and let me see what you +have got in you, gossip! for if you hold good measure, you have been +born under a lucky star, I can tell you." + +[Footnote 2: A common way of addressing younger persons.] + +"You can amuse yourself in return for the money you have given me," said +the boy, looking repeatedly at his gift; "you may take my measure as +much as you like, and I will be looking at the horse meantime. Ah! you +are a lucky man to have such a horse as that. How he snorts! and his +eyes flash as if he were Jatos[3] himself." + +[Footnote 3: A magic horse.] + +"Boy!" said the horseman, who looked as if he were at least a +vice-count--"boy, you are up to the mark so far; there is room for good +measure in you, and a few pints over! But, _koma_ [gossip], I have +often seen a good-looking cask full of nothing but bad, sour wine. Let +us see whether you hold one full measure." + +"One measure?" said the beggar, offended. "I shouldn't be my father's +son if my wretched skin did not cover a man of a hundred measures, +especially when I have had a good dinner. It's a couple of weeks now +since I have had a stomachful when I lay down at night." + +"My little brother," said the horseman, "a fellow who is ruled by his +stomach is not worth a farthing. You have lost three measures out of +your cask by that foolish speech." + +"Ha," said the beggar boldly, "my stomach grumbles badly, and it is no +joke when it goes on for long. However, it's no wonder you can't guess +what it feels like to be hungry, for I daresay you are a hall-porter, or +even maybe a poultry-dealer, and such people as those are always well +fed." + +The horseman laughed. "You have got the cow's udder between its horns +now, koma; but whatever and whoever I may be, I am a great man while my +purse is full, and so listen to me. Do you see that castle there?" + +"To be sure." + +"Have you ever been inside?" + +"Well, to be sure, I am well off, I am! but may the Tatars catch me, if +I would take my teeth in there!" + +"Hm!--and why?" + +"Why?" asked the beggar, considering; "I really can't tell you. But what +should take me there? Besides--well, they say it is inhabited by demons, +and that they live on Jews' flesh. The Jews are constantly going there, +just as if they had been invited to dinner; but they get eaten up." + +"Simple Stevie of Debreczin!"[4] cried the horseman. "Do you believe +such nonsense?" + +[Footnote 4: "Simple Stevie" is said to have been a student in the +college of Debreczin, where he was notorious for his simplicity.] + +The beggar grinned. "What would you have?" said he. "People say a great +many things of all sorts, and a fellow like me just believes and +blunders along with the rest! If His Grace in there does live on Jews' +flesh, I wish him good health; but for my own part I had rather have a +little bit of chicken than roast Jew." + +"Now, boy, listen. Just look there," began the horseman again: "if you +can get into that castle and bring me word again how the world wags +there, you shall have a hundred gold ducats in your hand." + +"A hundred ducats!" cried the beggar. "Why, I could buy a whole county +with that, surely!" + +"Not so much as that, little brother," said the rider; "but still it is +a great deal of money!" + +"And who will give it me?" asked the beggar, looking eagerly at the +horseman. + +"I myself," he answered. "But I am slow to believe people, and so I want +first to know whether I can trust you." + +The boy still had his eyes turned towards the castle. "Thunder!" said he +presently, "the devil himself doesn't get in there by the proper way. +But just wait a moment, sir, and let me think a little. So they don't +live on Jews' flesh in there, eh, sir?" + +"To be sure not! I fancy they live on something better than that." + +"But still the Jews do go in and out--at least so people say, and what +is in everybody's mouth is half true at all events." + +"Right; but what then?" + +"Why, I'll be a Jew, and go in, if they don't eat people up." + +"But how?" + +"I don't know yet. Give me a little time, or I shall not be able to hit +upon it." + +"Of course. And now listen. Before I trust you blindly, I am going to +prove you." He drew a sealed letter from his breast, wrote a few lines +on the back with a pencil, and went on: "See this letter? Make haste +with it to Visegrad; ask for admission, and say merely that you have +brought the governor a letter from his son. Do you quite understand? But +I don't know your name; what is it?" + +"Tornay Mihaly [Michael Tornay]," answered the boy; and then went on, "I +see! what is there difficult about that? I quite understand: you are the +son of the governor of Visegrad, and you are sending a letter to your +father." + +"Right!" said the horseman. "You will come straight on to Buda with the +answer, and ask at the palace for Mr. Galeotti, and give it into his +hands. You won't forget the name?" + +"Galeotti," repeated the boy. "But will they let me in, in such rags?" + +"You will get proper clothes and a horse in Visegrad." + +"A horse!" exclaimed the boy, his eyes sparkling. "I have never done +anything more than help a coachman to swim his horses now and then, and +now I shall have a horse myself!" + +"For service, gossip; and don't you go off with it!" + +The beggar's face was all aflame. "Am I a horse-stealer," he cried, +"just because your elbows don't show through your dolmany, while my +clothes are so full of holes that twenty cats together would not be able +to catch one mouse in them?" + +"Don't be angry," said the horseman, who was more and more pleased with +the boy every moment. "Here, as a sign that I put more trust in some +people's faces than I do in other people's written word--here is a purse +of money. And now hurry off; you have no time to lose. The sooner you +bring back the answer, the more faith I shall have in you." + +The boy stared at the purse, and being very hungry, poor fellow, it +seemed to him to be full of ham and sausage. + +"You must be an estate-manager," he gasped, "or--a bishop, to have so +much money." + +"What does that matter to you?" answered the horseman. "Make haste, and +I shall see whether you are a man of your word." + +The lad raised his tattered cap, and the next moment he was out of +sight. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY. + + +The beggar boy stopped for a moment to roll the purse up carefully in a +rag, and to put it and the letter away in the pocket of his dilapidated +old jacket. This done he ran on again quickly. + +But he was hungry, desperately hungry, famishing--his eyes were starting +out of his head; and though he had been much cheered by the liberal +present he had received, a good hunch of bread would really have been +worth a hundred times as much to him just at this moment. He could think +of nothing but the nearest wayside inn. + +People who have never known what it is to be more than just hungry +enough to have a good appetite, have no idea what the pangs of hunger +are, nor what keen pain it is to be actually starving. + +Never in his life had he felt such an intense craving as he did now for +a plate of hot food and a draught of good wine. He had to summon up all +his failing strength, or he would have been quite exhausted before he +caught sight of the first roof away in the distance. But when he did +catch sight of it, though it was still far off, it put new life into +him; and as he hurried on, he could think of nothing but the meal he was +going to have. What a sumptuous dinner he gave himself in imagination! +It was like a dream without an end, too good to be believed. + +At last he stood before the little inn. The chimney was smoking away +merrily, and his mouth positively watered as he turned towards the +signboard. + +All at once, however, he came to a dead halt, struck by a sudden +thought. + +For a few moments his feet seemed to be rooted to the ground; then he +muttered to himself, "Didn't that good gentleman, who has made a rich +man of me, say that the business he entrusted me with was of importance, +and that he was in a hurry about it? This is the first important thing I +have ever been trusted with; and the gentleman was so honourable, and +put such confidence in me, and I want to sit down to a feast! It is six +months since a drop of wine has touched my lips, and the devil never +goes to sleep: I might drink myself as drunk as a dog!" + +His right foot was still turned towards the inn, and his eyes were +adoringly fixed on the beautiful blue smoke issuing from the chimney. He +felt just as if he were bound hand and foot, and a dozen horses were all +tugging at him, dragging him to the wineshop. + +"I _won't_ go!" said he to himself, sadly but firmly. "It's not the +first time I have known what it is to be hungry for twenty-four hours; +and he is in a hurry--it's important business." + +With that he stepped up to the entrance of the low white house, daring +himself, as it were, to go any further, asked for some bread, which he +paid for and began to devour at once, drank a good draught of water from +the well-bucket, and then ran on as if the Tatars were at his heels, or +as if he were afraid to trust himself any longer in such a dangerous +neighbourhood. + +No royal banquet could have been more delicious than that hunch of dry +bread seemed to him, and something in the beggar boy's heart cheered him +more than even the best Tokay would have done. + +"Miska,[5] you're a man!" he said to himself. "I shall soon be in +Visegrad, where I shall feast like a lord. I don't know how it is, but +I declare I feel better satisfied with this bit of bread than if I had +eaten a whole yard of sausage." + +[Footnote 5: Short for Mihaly = Michael.] + +But Visegrad was still a long way off--long, that is, when the journey +had to be made on foot; for the castle stood on a hill on the Danube, +just where the river makes a sudden bend to the south. On the hillside, +under the wing of the old fortress, stood a palace built by one of the +former kings of Hungary, which is said to have been equal in splendour +to Versailles or any other of the most magnificent palaces of Europe; +for with its three hundred and fifty rooms it could accommodate two +kings, several foreign dukes and marquises, with their respective +suites, all at the same time. + +The floor of the great hall was paved with valuable mosaics, the ceiling +was adorned with Italian frescoes, and the gardens, with their musical +fountains, brilliant flower-beds, and marble statues, were declared to +be a faithful imitation of the hanging gardens of Babylon! + +But Miska's business was with the castle, not the palace; and at last, +after a journey which was becoming every hour more and more wearisome, +he beheld it rising before him in the distance. It looked, indeed, as if +it were but a little way off, so clear was the air; but Miska had lived +an out-of-door life too long to be easily deceived in such matters, and +he took advantage of the next little wayside inn to buy more bread and +get another draught of cool water to help him on his way. + +By the time he reached the hill his strength was failing fast, and it +was all that he could do to drag himself up past Robert-Charles's palace +to the high-perched castle. + +When at last he had been admitted and had given the letter into the +governor's own hands, he dropped down in a fainting fit, and was carried +off to the stables. + +He was not long in coming to himself, however, and as soon as he was +sufficiently recovered he had a feast "fit for a king," as he said; +though he steadily refused to touch a drop of the wine which was brought +to him. + +The whole time he was eating he kept his eyes fixed on the beautiful +horses, wondering which one he should have to ride; and more than once +he sent an urgent message to the governor, begging him to let him have +the answer to the letter which he was to take to Buda. + +"All in good time," said the governor placidly. "He shall be called +presently, tell him, when it is time for him to start." + +So Miska had nothing for it but to rest in the stable, which was +pleasant enough; for where is the Hungarian, old or young, who does not +love a horse? Moreover, he was very tired after his long tramp, and +presently, in spite of his impatience to be off, he fell into a doze. + +He was still dozing comfortably when the sound of a horn roused him. + +There was a rush to the castle-gate, and when it was opened, a young +man, plainly dressed and alone, rode into the courtyard, where the +governor hastened to greet him with affectionate respect. For the +newcomer, the horseman whose acquaintance we made outside Mr. Samson's +castle, was no other than King Matthias himself. + +"Has my messenger, the beggar boy, arrived?" he asked briskly. + +"He is yonder in the stable," said the governor; "he has only just come +in, very faint, and he is urging me to give him a horse already." + +"He is here?" said the king in surprise. "Impossible! I came at a good +pace myself, and set out hardly half an hour after him. Call him here." + +In a few moments the lad was standing in the presence of the great king, +though he was far enough from guessing whom he was talking with. + +"It is you, the horseman?" said Miska. "Well, it is not my fault that I +am still here. I have been urging Mr. Governor enough, I can tell you. I +might have been ever so long on my way by this time, and they haven't +yet changed my rags or given me a horse." + +"Have you had a good feed?" + +"Yes, I have; but I did not dare drink any wine." + +"Why not, gossip?" + +"That's a foolish question," returned the lad calmly, while the governor +turned pale at his audacity. "Why, sir, because it is six months since I +had any, and it would go to my head; and a tipsy messenger is like a +clerk without hands--they both pipe the same tune." + +"Good," said the king, amused. "Then didn't you stop anywhere on the +way? You could hardly lift your feet when you started, and you see I had +not much faith in you, and came after you." + +"Well," said the lad, looking boldly up at Matthias, "to be sure you are +a strong-built chap, and I believe you could swallow Mr. Governor here +if you were angry; but if your eyes had been starting out of your head +with hunger as mine were, I believe you would have been sitting in some +_csarda_ [wayside inn] till now. Stop anywhere? The idea of such a +thing! As if any one who had business needing haste entrusted to him +would think of stopping to rest!" + +"Listen, Miska," said the king. "Would you like to be something better +than you are now?" + +"Hja!" said the beggar, "I might soon be that certainly, for at present +I am not worth even so much as a Jew's harp." + +"Let us hear, gossip; what would you like to be?" + +"Like? Well, really, sir, I have never given it a thought. Hm! what I +should like to be? But then, could it be now--at once?" + +"That depends upon the extent of your wishes; for you might wish to be +governor of Visegrad, and in that case the answer would be, 'Hold in +your greyhounds' [don't be in too much hurry]." + +"I shouldn't care to be governor, to sit here by a good fire keeping +myself warm--though, to be sure, it would be well enough sometimes, +especially in winter, when one has such fine clothes as mine, which just +let the wind in where they should keep it out; but I should like to be +something like that stick on the castle clock which is always moving +backwards and forwards--something that is always on the move." + +"Always on the move!" laughed the king. "Well then, gossip, I'll take +you for my courier; and if you like, you need not keep still a moment." + +"I don't mind!" said Miska joyously. "Then I will be a courier." + +"You will get tired of it, boy. But tell me one thing: do you know +anything?" + +Miska fixed his large eyes on the king. + +"Anything?" he asked, hurt and flushing. "Really, sir, when I come to +consider--thunder!--it seems to me as if I knew just nothing at all!" + +"Then do you wish to learn?" + +"Go to school?" asked Miska; "I don't wish that at all." + +"There is no need for that," said the king; "we will find some other +way. Those who want to learn, can learn without going to school. You +will learn to write and read, which is only play after all to any one +who does not wish to remain a dunce. Do you understand?" + +"I don't mind," said Miska. + +"Well, then," said the king, turning to the governor, "let him be +clothed, and then you can present him." + +Thereupon the king withdrew to his own apartments, where some of the +great nobles were already waiting for him in one of the saloons, and +were not a little surprised to see him appear travel-stained and dusty, +but in the most lively spirits. + +An hour later Miska had had a bath, and had donned a clean shirt and the +becoming livery worn by the royal pages of the second rank. + +The change in his attire had completely metamorphosed him, and now, as +he stood before the king, the latter was more than ever struck by his +face. + +"Listen," said he, fixing his keen eyes attentively on the beggar. "You +have been well fed, and you have been fresh clothed from top to toe. +Now, I don't want you to go to Buda; for you see I am here, and have +seen the governor myself. But you remember what I said to you outside +Mr. Samson's castle? Well, that shall be the first piece of work you do. +I will give you six months, and if you can get inside and bring me word +what goes on there, I'll make a man of you. You shall have money to buy +anything you may want, and a leather knapsack with linen and all you +will want for the journey--for you will have to go on foot. You shall +have a horse some day, never fear, if you turn out as I expect; but it +would only be in your way now. Well, what do you say?" + +The lad knew now that he was in the presence of the king, and Matthias +thought all the more highly of him for the way in which he received his +dangerous commission. He made no hasty promises, but evidently weighed +his words before he spoke. + +"Mr. King," said he (for 'Mr.' is used in Hungary in speaking to any one +of whatever degree, and people say 'Mr. Duke' or 'Mr. Bishop,' as they +do in French)--"Mr. King, God preserve Your Highness, and give you a +thousand times as much as you have given to a poor boy like me. I +vow"--and here the beggar raised his right hand--"I vow that I will do +all I can; and if God keeps me in health and strength, and preserves my +senses, I hope to bring Your Highness news of Mr. Samson six months +hence, in Buda." + +"That's enough," said the king. "Meantime I too shall see what I can do. +I shall give Mr. Samson the chance of mending his ways if he will. God +be with you on your journey, Miska." + +Then putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, he said kindly, "Good-bye, +then, till we meet in Buda." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +"TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!" + + +King Matthias had been elected to the throne of Hungary in 1457, when he +was at most but eighteen years old. But if any of the great nobles +fancied that they were going to do just as they liked with him because +he was so young, they soon found themselves very much mistaken. + +He speedily dismissed the governor who had been appointed to look after +him and the kingdom for the first five years; and having once taken the +reins into his own hands, held them firmly as long as he lived. + +And he had no easy, idle life of it: for what with the Turks and other +enemies, he was very frequently, almost constantly, at war with external +foes; and there was also very much to be done to bring things into order +within the kingdom. He was by no means satisfied to let things go on as +they had been doing. He wanted his people to be educated and +cultivated; for he was highly educated himself, and delighted to +surround himself with learned men and distinguished artists. + +He wanted to have a grand library, a large university, and a learned +society of scholars in Buda, that Hungary might take her place among the +other nations of Europe in the matter of learning. But he wanted also to +improve the condition of trade, arts, and manufactures; and, regardless +of expense, he sent to foreign lands, especially Italy, for +master-craftsmen to come and train the apprentices, whenever he saw that +they needed better teaching than was to be had just then from their +fellow-countrymen. + +Clocks were by no means common articles at this time in other lands, and +the first clock that kept good time in England is said to have been that +set up at Hampton Court many years later--that is, in 1530. But in the +reign of Matthias, clocks made their appearance on many of the castle +towers in Hungary; and, thanks to the king's encouragement and the +energetic measures he took, it was not long before Hungarian craftsmen +became so famous that the Grand Duke of Moscow asked to have goldsmiths, +gun-founders, land-surveyors, miners, architects, and others sent to him +from Hungary. + +But where is the use of arts, crafts, and manufactures--how indeed can +they flourish--where there is a dearth of food? + +What with enemies without and enemies within, there were extensive +districts in some parts of Hungary, and among them some of the royal +domains, which were little better than wildernesses when the king came +to the throne. Villages had been burned down, the inhabitants driven +away, and the land left desolate in many parts; and in order to tempt +the people back, and induce others to come and settle in these deserted +spots, the king caused it to be proclaimed at the fairs that land might +be had rent-free by those who would undertake to cultivate it, and that +for a certain number of years they should be exempt from taxes of all +sorts. + +The king did all he could to induce the great landed nobles to follow +his example in these matters, and to pay more heed to the cultivation of +their property, and to the peasants who laboured for them, than they had +been in the habit of doing. + +One day, so the story goes, he invited a number of distinguished nobles +to dine with him in one of the northerly counties, and when the meal was +ended he distributed among them a number of pick-axes and spades, and +taking one himself, called on them to join him in clearing away the +underwood and digging up the ground. + +The active young king, who was well accustomed to exert himself, worked +away energetically; but the well-fed, self-indulgent lords almost melted +away, the labour made them so hot, and very soon they were completely +exhausted. + +"That's enough, my friends," said the king, observing the state they +were in. "Now we know a little of what it costs the peasants to produce +that which we waste in idleness while they live in poverty. They are +human beings like ourselves, yet we often treat them worse than we do +our horses and dogs." + +The spot where Matthias read his nobles this wholesome lesson is still +pointed out in Goemoer. + +But indeed some of them needed sharper teaching than this, and Matthias +did not scruple to give it them. + +Where was the use of the peasant's ploughing and sowing his fields or +planting and tending his orchards and vineyards, where was the use of +trying to encourage trade and manufactures, when at any moment the +farmer, merchant, peddler, might be set upon and robbed of all his +hardly-earned goods? Yet so it was; for in some parts of the country, +especially in the north, there were robber-knights and freebooting +nobles, chiefly Bohemians, who had been invited into the country during +the civil wars, and now, finding their occupation gone, had built +themselves strongholds among the mountains, from which they issued forth +to plunder and rob and often to murder travellers, traders, farmers, and +any one they could lay hands on. Yet these same robbers were many of +them men of noble birth, and there were some who were not ashamed to +make their appearance in the courts of law, and to help in bringing +smaller thieves and robbers to justice. + +Now King Matthias was so true a lover of justice that his name has +become a proverb, and when he died there was a general sigh and +exclamation, "Matthias is dead! justice is fled!" It was not likely, +therefore, that he was going to tolerate robbers merely because they +were nobles; and after giving them fair warning--for he would be just +even to them--he destroyed their castles, and hung a few of them on +their own towers by way of example to the rest, who did not fail to +profit by it and amend their ways: so that by the end of his reign +travellers could pass from one end of the kingdom to the other in +perfect safety, and the peasants could gather in their crops without +fear of having them taken from them by violence. + +At the time when our story begins, the war against the robbers was being +carried on with great energy, and the king's generals were busily +engaged in storming their strongholds. + +But like many another monarch who has had the welfare of his people at +heart, Matthias was very fond of going about among them and seeing for +himself, with his own eyes, what was the real state of affairs and what +were their needs and wrongs. More than once on these secret expeditions +it had happened to him to come across men of humble birth, whom, like +Miska the beggar boy, he fancied capable of being turned to valuable +account, and took accordingly into his service. And his shrewd eye +seldom deceived him. + +Did not Paul Kinizsi the giant, for instance, turn out to be one of his +most famous generals? And yet he was only a miller's boy to begin +with--a miller's boy, but an uncommonly strong one; for when the king +first saw him, he was holding a millstone in one hand and cutting it +with the other--a proof of strength which made the king think he was +wasted on the mill, and would be a valuable acquisition to the army, as +he certainly proved to be. + +Something more and better than mere brute strength had attracted him in +Miska, and had induced him to send the boy on his hazardous mission to +Mr. Jason Samson. + +Nothing, of course, had been heard of him since he started, and now, +sundry other robbers having been disposed of or reduced to order, it was +Mr. Samson's turn. + +But being an uncommon character himself, Matthias was attracted by +anything uncommon and out of the way in other people. He was fond, too, +of unravelling mysteries, and therefore, much as he hated lawlessness +and robbery, and greatly as he was exasperated by some of Mr. Samson's +secret doings, nevertheless the man appeared by all accounts to be such +a very strange, remarkable being that the king's curiosity was whetted, +and after himself paying a secret visit to the eccentric "Cube," as he +called the odd-looking castle, he resolved to try what mild measures +would do, before proceeding to extremities. + +Whether Miska had succeeded in getting into the robber's nest or not the +king had no means of finding out, but his first step was to have a +summons nailed up in the middle of all the four sides of the grim +castle. It ran as follows:-- + + "All good to you from God, Mr. Jason Samson! + + "Present yourself in Buda on the third day of the + coming year, and give an account of your stewardship. + + "MATTHIAS, the King." + +The men charged with affixing this to the castle walls withdrew when +their work was done without having seen any one. But some one or other +had seen and read the summons; for when they returned the next morning, +it had been torn down, and in its place, also affixed to the four sides, +appeared these words:-- + + "_Some other time._" + +A week after this bold answer another summons was put up. This time it +was:-- + + "_Surrender._" + +The day following the answer appeared:-- + + "_Not yet._" + +About a week after this last reply, a company of soldiers, under the +command of General Zokoli, surrounded the ill-omened castle, which stood +out grey and silent against the rose-coloured mists which ushered in the +sunrise. + +The general had given orders for the scaling-ladders to be put up, when +all at once a huge raven-black banner rose up from the centre of the +building with a shining death's-head displayed upon it, and beneath this +the words:-- + + "_Touch me at your peril!_" + +Zokoli ordered the assault to be sounded, and soon the brave soldiers, +always accustomed to be victorious wherever they went, might have been +seen climbing the ladders on one side of the "Cube." As soon as they +reached the top of the wall, which was also the ridge of the roof, it +turned on a hinge, or rather sprang open like a trap-door, as if it had +been touched by a conjuring rod, and disclosed to their astonished eyes +the gaping mouths of three rows of guns ranged close together. + +Now came a blast, loud and deep, like the sound of some giant trumpet or +organ-pipe, and then what appeared like a long fiery serpent darted from +one corner of the building to the other, and was followed the next +moment by the thundering roar of a couple of thousand guns. + +There was one loud, terrible cry, and when the cloud of smoke cleared +away, a couple of hundred men were to be seen lying dead and maimed +round about the castle. + +The king had given Zokoli strict orders to spare his men as much as +possible. He ordered one more assault on the same side therefore, +thinking that the defenders would not have had time to reload their +guns. But again a couple of hundred of the besiegers fell a useless +sacrifice to the experiment; and unwilling to waste any more lives, +General Zokoli retired, completely baffled and much mortified, to report +what had happened. And then the king's anger blazed forth, and he +exclaimed,-- + +"Wait, and I'll teach you, Samson!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +IN THE ROBBER'S NEST. + + +Great men--especially the very few who are great even in their +night-shirts, as the saying is, which was the case with King Matthias, +if it ever was with any one--great men are, by their very natures, +strongly attached to their own ideas and opinions. It is not easy to +shake them when once they have made up their minds about a matter; for +truly great men are not given to hasty judgments. They are firm in their +convictions, but they have some reason to be so. + +Now the king had a sort of instinct or power of reading character, and +he felt convinced that the beggar boy whom he had come across so +strangely would either succeed in getting into the castle, or would +never be heard of again. He had firm faith in him. + +There were a good many matters, as we have seen, requiring his +attention in Hungary just then, and therefore, though he was extremely +angry with Samson for his contemptuous behaviour, he decided to put off +punishing him for a time. He felt that, after General Zokoli's +discomfiture, it would be wisest not to take any further steps against +the clever robber until he could be certain of success; and he resolved +on all accounts therefore to wait until Miska made his appearance, or at +least until the six months had expired. + +Of course there were some who believed that Miska would never be seen +again. The king had taken a fancy to him, that was all; but he was only +a beggar boy, when all was said and done, and most likely he had sold +his new clothes to the first Jew he came across, and was in rags again +by this time! + +When three months, four months, five months, passed away without +bringing any news, those who knew anything about the matter shrugged +their shoulders and shook their heads more than ever. + +But one fine morning, just six months after Miska had left Visegrad, and +when every one but the king had given him up, it was announced that a +stranger had arrived in Buda, giving no name, but saying that he had +been entrusted with special business by the king, and could not give +account of it to any one else. The king's whims were so well known at +the court that the stranger was admitted without difficulty, and was +ushered into the king's presence forthwith. Matthias was alone, and at +once recognized his man, who stepped into the room, looking very spruce, +and as sound as an acorn. + +"It's you, Miska! You have brought good news; I can see it in your eye. +You're a man--speak!" + +Miska bowed, and when he had a little recovered himself--for there was +something about the king which was rather awe-inspiring in spite of his +good nature--he drew a deep breath and said,-- + +"I have been there, Mr. King--in the castle with Mr. Samson--and I know +all about it!" + +"Let us hear," said the king, with delighted and eager curiosity. "But, +little brother, try and tell your tale in an orderly way. First say how +you got into the castle, and then tell me what you saw and heard. Be +bold, my friend, and speak without reserve." + +"Mr. King," began the ex-beggar, "I knew I should never get in by +asking, and it might be the worse for me into the bargain; besides, +there was neither door nor window, nor any one to speak to. 'Well,' I +thought to myself, 'I shall never get in this way; I must keep watch +and find out about those Jews. They get in somehow, though they never +get out again--so people say.'" + +"Right!" said the king; "go on." + +"Well, Mr. King, I waited about there for ten weeks. I spied about all +round the castle, and often went hungry; for I had no time to get food, +though, thanks to you, I had the means. But it was all to no purpose. At +last I began to think that perhaps Mr. Samson was dead, and that Your +Highness would soon be thinking that I had eaten and drunk up my money +and gone off. I was sitting on the trunk of a tree just outside the +wood, but not very far from the castle, one evening, and I was feeling +rather downcast about it all, when I fancied I saw two people coming. +They were not coming _from_ the castle, it is true, but were creeping +through the thicket. 'Ho, ho!' I thought to myself. 'Now, Miska, have +your wits about you! Suppose these night-birds should be on their way to +the castle.' But being one alone against two, I took out my two pistols +and waited to see what might happen." + +Miska now opened his dolmany, and showed a steel coat of mail which he +wore beneath it. "I had got myself this," he said, tapping it with his +finger, "for I thought it might save me from being mortally wounded if +I should happen to get caught anywhere by Samson's men, and I bought two +pistols besides." + +"You were wise," said the king. + +"Well, it was not long before the men came quite close to me; but +instead of going on towards the castle, they turned off in the direction +of a little hollow. I had stood still till then, so that they should not +notice me suddenly; and perhaps they would have gone on, if an +abominable great long-eared owl which was just above my head had not +begun its dismal evening song at that moment. They were just within +about four steps of me when she gave a long, melancholy hoot, and one of +the two men looked up and caught sight of me at once. The next moment he +lifted his cap to me as humbly 'as if he could not count up to three.' +His companion, too, turned and looked about carefully, and I fancied I +caught a glimpse of the glitter of a knife. So I just drew out one of my +pistols and said coolly, 'See what I have got for you.'" + +"Eh! what?" exclaimed Matthias in surprise. + +"Why, of course, Your Highness; for I thought it would be much better to +be beforehand with them." + +The king laughed. + +"Well, and I think, Mr. King, that I did not reckon amiss: for by doing +as I did, I made them suppose that I was a highwayman, and just as bad +as themselves--supposing they belonged to the castle; and besides that, +it gave me an opportunity of finding out whom I had to do with." + +"Go on," said the king; "this is very interesting. Let us hear more." + +"Well, things might have gone very crooked," proceeded Miska; "for I had +no sooner given the alarm than they were both down on me at once as +quick as lightning, and I felt two daggers strike my mail coat. + +"Fortunately for me I was quite prepared, and I did not lose my presence +of mind. I fired one pistol just as they fell upon me, but of course I +did not hit either of them. But my armour had done me good service; for +the two fellows were disconcerted when they found that their daggers had +touched metal, and I had time to jump on one side and point my second +pistol at them. + +"There was a little pause; my men had not given up their designs upon +me, as it seemed, but were consulting, I suppose, how to escape the +second charge of peas, and they seemed to mean to separate and come on +me from both sides at once. 'But,' thought I, 'if you have, so have +I--wits, I mean--and as from all I had heard of Samson's rascally +associates I was quite sure that I had found my gentlemen, I took +advantage of the short pause, and cried out,-- + +"'May seventy-seven thousand thunderbolts strike you! Hear what I have +to say, and don't rush upon a fellow like mad dogs! + +"'I am wanting to come across Mr. Samson; I am tired of living on my own +bread, and I should like to enter his service. If you belong to the +castle, it would be better for you to take me to him, instead of +attacking me; for I am not in the least afraid of you--and, what's more, +a couple of chaps like you won't outwit me.' + +"As soon as I had said my say with all possible speed, but in a firm +rough voice, one of the scamps looked me all over from top to toe, as if +he were going to buy me of a broker. The man was a sturdy, stout-limbed +fellow, and as black as the darkest gipsy; and standing only a span from +the muzzle of my pistol, without winking an eyelid, he said,-- + +"'Who are you, and what do you want with Mr. Samson? If you have come to +spy, you may say your last prayer, for you won't see the sun again.' + +"The man said this in such a soft, drawling voice, and so deliberately, +that it suddenly struck me he was imbecile; for I had my finger on the +trigger all the time, and one touch would have stretched him on the +ground. However, I won't deny that his cool composure made me shudder a +little. + +"I answered as coolly as I could, 'I want to enter his service, sir, for +I fancy he is a fine brave man; and a fellow like me, who cares nothing +for his life, might be useful to him.' + +"My man kept his eye upon my every movement. At last he said,-- + +"'I don't know who you are yet.' + +"I hesitated half a moment, for I did not want to tell him my real name, +and then I said they called me Alpar Janos, that I was an orphan, and +that until now I had made a poor living by doing just anything that came +to hand--which was true enough. + +"As far as I could see in the twilight, the man's face began to clear; +he whispered a few words to his companion in a language I did not know, +Slovack or Latin, then looked me over again from top to toe, and said,-- + +"'Good! then you can come with us. We will show you the way in; it will +be your own affair how you get out again, if you grow tired of scanty +dinners.' + +"Here our conversation ended," said the lad; while the king, who had +listened to his preface with lively interest, said, "Very good. So you +got in. And now tell me what the castle is like inside." + +And here perhaps it will be better to take the words out of Miska's +mouth and describe in our own way what he saw. + +The castle, as has been said, was built round the four sides of a +square, and, as was often the case with old strongholds, a wide covered +gallery, or corridor, ran along each side, surrounding the courtyard. +There was not a sign of stables anywhere, for there was no way of +getting horses in except by lowering them over the walls by a windlass. +The ground-floor consisted of store-rooms and living-rooms; the keys of +the former being always kept by the master, who allowed none but the +most trusty persons to go into them, for they contained valuable goods +of every sort and kind. Mr. Samson regularly visited these vaults, on +the fifteenth of every month at midnight, when he was accompanied by +twelve Jews. But how these latter got in, where they came from, and +where they went to, was known to no one but Mr. Samson himself. The men +looked like merchants, and he gave stuffs and ornaments, in certain +quantities and of certain values, to each. Then he took them into a +large empty room lighted by a four-cornered lamp which hung from the +ceiling, and here for a couple of hours they were all busy counting +money at a stone table. This was packed into various bags, and when Mr. +Samson had given a purse to each of his agents, the Jews took their +departure amid a shower of compliments, and in what appeared to be a +very well satisfied frame of mind, Mr. Samson escorting them and showing +them the way. But whither they went, and why, and how, and by what +way--that heaven alone could tell. + +In the upper story of the castle there were some fine, cheerful, and +well-lighted rooms; which is not a little surprising, for their windows +all looked into the covered gallery, and from that into the courtyard. +However, this may be explained to some extent by the fact that the +windows of these upper rooms were wide and lofty, the walls were painted +snow-white, and were covered with some sort of varnish which doubled the +light. + +The furniture was in accordance with the taste of the day, and chosen +rather for its good wearing qualities than for comfort; but the bright +colours produced a pleasing and cheerful effect on the whole. + +Mr. Samson kept an entire half of this story for the use of himself and +his only relation, a young girl of fifteen named Esther, and an old +woman who lived with her. Of the two other sides of the square, one was +occupied by servants, the other was furnished but unused. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CAUGHT. + + +One is apt to fancy that strange, out-of-the-way characters must needs +be striking and uncommon in their persons, and it is really quite +startling to find them after all mere ordinary-looking, every-day +people. + +Jason Samson, in spite of his remarkably eccentric conduct, was just one +of these commonplace individuals to look at. It was himself, in fact, +who had taken Miska into the castle; a man of middle size, neither stout +nor thin, neither young nor old, but just middling in all respects. His +features were such as we see over and over again, without having either +our sympathies or interest in the least aroused. One can't call such +persons either ill-looking or handsome, and their every-day characters +inspire no feeling but that of utter indifference. + +Mr. Samson was said, naturally enough, to be a man-hater. The walls of +the Cube castle were twelve feet thick, and its inmates could see +nothing either of their fellow-creatures or of God's beautiful world; +for there was neither door to go in by nor window to look out of, and +nothing whatever to be seen but the courtyard. + +It was not a cheerful home certainly for the young girl whom Mr. Samson +had some years previously brought to live there. He called her a +relation of his, and she called him "uncle," but it did not at all +follow that she was his niece; for it is the custom in Hungary, and +considered only common politeness, for young people to address their +elders as "uncles" and "aunts," whether related or not. + +If Mr. Samson was commonplace in appearance, little Esther was very much +the reverse. Without being regularly beautiful, there was a great charm +about her, and she had a look of distinction which was entirely wanting +in her guardian or jailer. Her clear, deep-blue eyes were full of life +and animation, and the whole expression of her face told of a good +heart. Add to this that she had a remarkably sweet and beautiful voice, +and that, though untaught, she had a good ear for music, and was very +fond of singing, and it will be understood that Esther was altogether +not uninteresting. If she was not striking at first sight, yet the more +one saw of her the more impressed and attracted one felt. + +She was very much in awe of her "uncle," though she could not have said +why, and though she had now lived with him some seven years, ever since +the death of her parents indeed, when he had brought her away to the +castle, with her attendant Euphrosyne, she being then a child of eight. + +Esther was now fifteen, but she had as yet no idea that Mr. Samson was +planning in his own mind to unite her more closely to himself by making +her his wife, or she would have shrunk from him even more than she did +now, though she knew nothing against him, and he could never be said to +have ill-treated her in any way except that he kept her a close +prisoner. Perhaps he thought that, considering her age, she had liberty +enough; for she was free to go from one room to another, and she could +walk up and down the gallery and in the courtyard. + +But though she had grown accustomed to the life now, there were times, +especially when the sun shone down for a short hour or two into the dull +courtyard, in spring and summer, when the girl would look up with +longing eyes to the blue sky and wonder what the world looked like +outside the four grey walls. Sometimes she would see a bird fly past +overhead, or watch a lark soaring up into the air, singing as it went. +Then the past would come back to her, and she would remember a time when +she had run about the green fields, and had spent long days in the +garden; when she had gathered wild flowers and wood-strawberries, and +had heard the birds sing. + +It made her a little sad to think of it all, and for a time she felt as +if she were in a cage, and wondered whether she was to spend all her +life in it; but she was blessed with a cheerful disposition, and on the +whole she was not unhappy. She made occupation for herself in one way +and another: she sewed, she embroidered, she netted; she read the two or +three books she had over and over again, and she even wrote a little. +When one day Mr. Samson brought her a harp from his hoard of treasures, +she was delighted indeed: and having soon managed to teach herself how +to play on it, she spent many a happy evening singing such songs as she +had picked up or invented for herself. + +Mr. Samson liked to hear the full, clear young voice singing in the +gallery, though he seldom took any apparent notice of the singer. In his +way perhaps he would have missed Esther a little if she had been taken +from him; but he was not a kindly or affectionate personage, and the +girl had no one to care for but Euphrosyne, a rather tiresome, foolish +old woman, who often tried her patience a good deal with her whims and +fidgets. Esther, however, was very patient with her, and clung to her +simply because there was no one else to cling to. + +Mr. Samson had given them three rooms in a distant corner of the gloomy +building, where they were quite out of the way of everybody; and +Esther's rooms being the two inner ones, she could never leave them +without the knowledge and permission of the old woman, through whose +room she had to pass. + +There was no doubt that Mr. Samson carried on an extensive business of a +peculiar kind. He was very secret about it, and what with his armed +garrison, and the odd way in which the castle was built, as if to stand +a siege, there seemed good reason to suspect that his valuable goods and +rich merchandise were collected from the whole length and breadth of +Hungary, and were, in fact, gathered from every country-house and +peddler's pack and bundle which he could find means to plunder. Not that +Samson ever resorted to violence if he could possibly help it--quite the +contrary; and though he was reckoned among the most powerful +robber-knights of the time, he was really more thief than robber, and +did also a great deal in a quiet way by lending money at very high +interest. + +He would steal out of the castle on foot, disguised now as a beggar and +now as a Jew; and his followers were never to be seen anywhere together +in any number. They lounged along singly, at a considerable distance one +from the other, and they took care not to excite suspicion in any way. + +They had nothing in the way of weapons but a couple of short, sharp +daggers, which they kept carefully concealed, and never used except in +cases of extreme necessity, and in secret places, such as deep ravines +or woods; but when they did have recourse to them, they used them with +bold determination and deadly certainty. No one ever escaped from the +clutches of these accursed robbers, and no one therefore could ever +betray them. They managed, too, to conceal all traces of their deeds of +blood, so that though there were rumours and suspicions, the guilt was +not brought home to them. People who met them saw but one, or at most +two, at a time, looking as meek and mild "as if they could not count up +to three," as the saying is. + +Mr. Samson himself rarely went out quite alone. There were always one +or two men in whom he placed especial confidence, and one or other of +these always accompanied him. + +And now Miska shall take up his narrative again. + +"I was not badly off in the castle," said he. "I was bent on winning Mr. +Samson's confidence above everything, and I succeeded, because I strove +to enter into all his thoughts. I was not too humble and deferential, +but I put myself in his place, and showed great interest in all the work +that went on inside, which was chiefly keeping guard and cleaning arms. + +"Mr. Samson went away once every fortnight; and I fancy the Jews came +twice while I was there, for Mr. Samson twice shut all the doors +carefully, which he did not do at other times. I must say I should have +liked to join him in his secret adventures; but much as he seemed to +trust me, I had no chance of doing so. + +"I had been in the castle about a fortnight, I suppose, when one night +the bell rang in my little room. There was a bell to every hole in the +castle, and the bell-pulls all hung in a long row along two sides of one +of Mr. Samson's rooms. + +"I got up at once and went to him, and found him lying in an arm-chair, +wearing a flowing indoor robe. + +"'Alpar Janos,' said he, 'I have to leave the castle to-morrow; you will +stay here. Keep an eye on the people, and when I come back tell me +minutely all that has happened during my absence. I believe you are +faithful to me; and if you continue to please me, I will double your +wages.' + +"I received his orders respectfully, as usual; but after a short pause I +said, 'I would much rather you should take me with you, for I think you +would find me more useful outside than here, where there is nothing I +can do.' + +"'I want a faithful man more here than outside,' said Mr. Samson. 'Your +turn will come presently; meantime obey all the governor's orders as if +I were here myself. And now you can go. Everybody will notice my absence +to-morrow, but for all that don't you say a word about it to any +one--that is one of my laws.' + +"'I will obey you, sir,' I said, and then I went back to my quarters. + +"The governor, a gloomy-looking, stout fellow, who could hardly be more +than four-and-twenty, and was called simply Kalman, had taken a great +liking to me, for I always showed him more respect, if possible, than I +did to Mr. Samson himself." + +"You were wise there," interposed the king. "The smaller the man, the +more respect he claims." + +"And," continued Miska, "this stood me in good stead; for while Mr. +Samson was away we lived better, and now and then the governor sent me a +draught of good wine." + +"Ah, I see," said the king; "nothing much out of the ordinary +way--rumour has said more than was true. But did you become acquainted +with little Esther?" + +"The young lady came out into the gallery more often while Mr. Samson +was away. Sometimes she would walk up and down there till late in the +evening, and she would bring out her harp and sing to it. She was so +gentle and kind that I spoke to her one day and asked her to listen to a +song of mine; I had made the verses and invented the tune myself." + +"Oh!" laughed the king; "then you are a poet too, are you, Miska?" + +"Only a sort of 'willow-tree verse-maker,'[6] Mr. King. But pretty Miss +Esther listened to it very kindly--and what is more, she wrote it +down--and after that she spoke to me every evening, and asked me many +questions about Buda and Your Highness; and I told her long stories of +all that I had seen in the woods and fields. She wanted to hear about +the trees and flowers and birds, which she remembered; and one evening, +when no one was within hearing, I told her how I had met Your Highness, +and how you had sent me to Visegrad, and all I had seen there, and how +you promised me a horse. I had to tell her that story so often that I +think she knows every step of the way. I did not tell her that Your +Highness had sent me to get into the castle, for walls have ears. But +one evening she stopped singing suddenly and asked me what I had come +there for. So first I said, 'To be one of Mr. Samson's servants;' and +then I said in a whisper, 'To set you free.' + +[Footnote 6: Hedge-poet.] + +"'Ah, Jancsi, if you only could!' she said. 'How lovely it would be! But +you can't; nobody can.' + +"So then I told her not to be afraid, for I would somehow; and if I +couldn't, some one else would, I knew--meaning Your Highness, of +course." + +"And pray what did the old lady say to your talking to her charge in +this way?" + +"O Mr. King, she was my very good mistress; I managed to get into her +good graces. And there's no denying it, Your Highness, when Mr. Samson +went away for the third time, Miss Esther herself told me to be very +attentive to the old woman. And it answered perfectly, for she asked me +all sorts of things and put all confidence in me; and the governor often +chaffed me about it, and said that Mrs. Euphrosyne and I would be making +a match of it. Miss Esther often said how happy we might be if we could +escape from Mr. Samson and the gloomy castle, and I promised, Your +Highness, when Mrs. Euphrosyne was not listening." + +"Well, Miska, and I promise too. Miss Esther shall be let out when I get +in," said the king. "But now listen. Have you told me all that I want to +know about the interior of the castle?" + +"Ah," said Miska, "who could find out all its secrets? Mr. Samson said +more than once: 'Woe to him who tries to take it, for it will cost the +lives of thousands, and he will never get in after all.' And it was as +he said: when they assaulted the castle, Mr. Samson did not so much as +leave his room, but sat there as quiet as you please. What went on up +above in the roof I don't know, for others were sent up and I was not. I +only heard the firing, and saw them bringing the gunpowder out in small +casks through a trap-door. More than once, too, I heard him say that he +had only to pull a string and the castle and everything in it would be +blown up. And I saw the red string, too, which would have done it: it +could not be reached except by means of a ladder, and it was in Mr. +Samson's own sleeping-room." + +"Then you saw them raise the black standard?" + +"To be sure; and they did it as easily as if they were lifting a stick." + +"But tell me, how did you get out?" asked the king, cutting him short. + +"I did that only five days ago," said Miska. "Mr. Samson called me at +last one evening and said,-- + +"'Miska, I am satisfied with you; you will go with me to-night, at +midnight. There will be only the two of us; have you the courage?' + +"'I have,' I answered. + +"'See,' Mr. Samson went on, taking a couple of daggers out of a +table-drawer, 'I will make you a present of these; they are the only +arms you will have. Be ready, and when I ring at midnight make haste and +come to me.' + +"I haven't much more to tell you, Mr. King. He led me through several +vaults till we came to a door which led into an underground passage, and +this ended in a cave, which I took good note of, so that I could find it +again; and when we had passed through it and reached the open air, my +spirits rose. We went on through a thick wood, Mr. Samson taking the +lead. The night was dark and stormy. I kept him talking all the while, +and tried to enliven him with all sorts of jokes; and he actually called +me a very sly dog, and laughed himself as if he enjoyed them. + +"We had been going on about a couple of hours, when Mr. Samson said we +had reached our destination, and that before long a rich Jew would be +passing by, and that he had a well-filled money-bag which we were to +take away from him. He warned me to be careful, and not to use my dagger +unless he called out. + +"I suppose Mr. Samson had heard of the rich Jew's coming from his Jew +friends, who frequently came to the castle without any one's knowing +anything about it--so I heard from Kalman--and by secret ways which he +had told them of. + +"The moon shone out through the thick trees for a moment, and I saw that +Mr. Samson was standing near a footpath, and facing a narrow opening in +the wood, about three steps away from me. + +"Presently I fancied that I heard footsteps, and Mr. Samson whispered, +'Come here behind me, quietly, that they may not hear you.' + +"In a short time I saw a dark shadow moving towards us. Mr. Samson +stood like a lynx, stiff and motionless, with his eyes fixed on the +approaching Jew. + +"'Now,' thought I, 'now or never!' and I drew out a rope-noose which I +had kept carefully hidden under my dolmany. The next moment I had thrown +it over Mr. Samson's shoulders, and so successfully that his two arms +were pinioned to his body, and he was helpless in a moment. + +"'Traitor!' roared Mr. Samson, and in a moment he gave a stab backwards +with his dagger in spite of his pinioned arm, and he did it so cleverly +too that it went about three inches deep into me. Fortunately it struck +my thigh-bone, or there would have been an end of me. + +"The pain was sharp, but in spite of that I pulled the noose tighter, +and then I suddenly tripped him up with my foot, and threw him down. + +"'Here! here!' I cried hurriedly, holding the robber fast. 'Come here, +gossip Jew; there is nothing to fear.' For when Mr. Samson roared out, +his victim, the Jew, had stopped still, with his feet glued to the +ground. But when I cried out that I was the king's man and had caught a +thief, he came forward--in a frightened, reluctant way though; and he +would not have come at all but that I called to him not to turn back, +for if he did, probably before he had got away Mr. Samson's robbers +would have come up, as they were lying in wait for him as well as we, +and knew that he had a bag full of money." + +"But what do you mean?" cried the king. "You took Mr. Samson prisoner?" + +"To be sure I did," said Miska, "and I have given him up to Mr. General +Rozgonyi;[7] and the Jew came along with me." + +[Footnote 7: The king had made Sebastian Rozgonyi Captain of Upper +Hungary.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +I AM THE KING'S PAGE! + + +Soon after the conversation recorded in the last chapter, Miska was sent +back again to Visegrad to take his place, and learn his duties as king's +page; and the king had bidden him be diligent and learn all that he +could, promising to do something more for him as soon as he could read +and write. + +As to what had been done with Mr. Samson, and whether his little friend +Miss Esther had been released from captivity, he heard nothing, though +he often thought and wondered and wished; and if he had dared, he would +have asked to be allowed to go back to the castle and show her that he +had not forgotten his promise. + +Before setting out for Buda, he had shown his friend the Jew the secret +way in and out of the castle; and as Mr. Samson had the keys of the +various gates upon him, the king's soldiers would of course have no +difficulty in getting in and surprising the garrison at any time. If +only he had been a soldier, he might have gone with them; and even +without being a soldier, he might have gone with them to act as guide, +if only the king had thought of it. He had not dared to venture back +after his capture of Mr. Samson, for fear he should not be allowed to +get out again and give his report to the king; and now no doubt the Jew, +who did not care anything at all about it, would be sent in his place. +Well, it did not much matter after all, so long as Miss Esther were set +free, and that the king had promised she should be. + +So now Miska was in Visegrad again, not a little proud of his smart +livery, and greatly enjoying his comfortable quarters after the rough, +hard life which he had led. But these, after all, were very secondary +matters; the great thing was that he was in the king's service, and must +do all that lay in his power to please him. + +"I am page to King Matthias," said he to himself over and over again. +"The king called me his 'little brother' and 'gossip,' and the king will +be ashamed if his gossip is a donkey and does not know the A B C. Ah, +you just wait, gossip-king! for I will distinguish myself. I will make +you open your eyes and your mouth too!" + +Miska was a gay-tempered fellow, as lively as gunpowder, and it was vain +to expect from him the sober, plodding diligence which belongs to calmer +and tamer natures. + +If the truth must be told, Miska did not care very greatly about his +reading and writing for their own sakes. He did his best with them to +please the king, but he was glad enough when his time for study was over +for the day, and enjoyed the few hours he was able to spend in the +riding-school much more than he did the daily appearance of his +wearisome teacher, who came as true to his time as the most obstinate of +fevers. + +When the king's riding-master clapped him on the shoulder and said, +"Michael, you are a man! 'Raven' or 'Swan' carried you well to-day, and +couldn't manage to throw you," he was pleased indeed; but he was much +more glad when his teacher said, "Come, Mr. Michael, I declare you are +getting on like pepper! If you go on like this, I shall come to you for +a lesson in a couple of months' time." + +Miska could read, and write a very fair hand, before he knew where he +was; but though writing rather amused him, he took no pleasure or +interest in the books in which he learned to read. It always cost him a +struggle to keep his temper during lesson-time, and occasionally he felt +such an irresistible inclination to go to sleep, that his teacher was +obliged to rouse him by a friendly twitch or two. + +There were some Italian servants in the stable-yard here, very lively +fellows, whose sprightliness Miska found so attractive that he was quite +vexed at being shut out from their society. They were constantly +laughing and in good spirits; but when Miska wanted to join in the +laugh, they would say in broken Hungarian, "How could they tell all over +again what it was they were laughing at so much?" "You learn Italian, +_mio caro_, and then you can laugh with us." + +"Good!" thought Miska. "If these whipper-snappers, whose mouths are +always pinched up like funnels, can learn a few words of Hungarian, I'll +soon learn their language. Why," reasoned Miska, "I was only a year old +when I began to learn Hungarian, and they say I could talk like a magpie +by the time I was two; and now--when I am eighteen, and have got a +little down shading my upper lip--can't I learn Italian, when these +whipper-snappers could talk it when they were three years old?" + +Miska's reasoning was somewhat peculiar, but it was not altogether amiss +after all. He began by asking his friends what to call the objects about +him; and his good memory served him so well that in a short time he knew +the names of most of the implements and different sorts of work which he +had to do with. + +Six months passed away; but Matthias had a good many other and more +important matters to think of than the beggar lad, and he had not once +been in Visegrad since Miska had been there. + +"So much the better," thought Miska; "he will come some time, and then I +shall know all the more. If only there were not this learning! But it is +no good; it has got to be. And yet why? A little page like me is as wise +as an owl if he can read and write, and what does he want with more? I +can read and write too.--Hm," he thought to himself, "the man who +invented writing--what the thunderbolt did he invent it for? What good +could it do him? Well, it made him able to read books." + +And then presently he muttered, "Donkey! If the king were to hear that +now! Well, to be sure, as if there _were_ any books when nobody could +write! Then they invented it that they might write--that is more +reasonable; but what is the use of writing when a man does not know how +to write books?" + +Miska battered his brains in vain to try to make out why it was +necessary for him to learn to read, and what good his wisdom would do +him. + +One day the governor put a book in his hands. "Here," said he, "little +brother Michael, you know how to read now, and the king's reader is ill. +Suppose you were to try and get his place; it would be a fine thing for +you." + +"Reader!" said Miska. "Do I want his place? What should I gain by it? It +would be a great deal better if I could go out hunting sometimes; my +eyes see green when the horns are sounded, and here I have to be +'selling acorns.'"[8] + +[Footnote 8: Sticking at home.] + +"That will come, too, in time, Michael," said the governor; "but now +give your attention to this book. There are some very fine stories in +it, and I should like, when His Highness the King comes, to have some +one who can read well and intelligently to him; for His Highness says +that I read like a Slovack clerk, and yet none of my family were ever +Slovacks, or ever lived on _kasa_."[9] + +[Footnote 9: _Kasa_, the chief food of the Slovack peasants, is made of +millet or potatoes boiled in milk.] + +What was to be done? At first Michael read the book with reluctance, and +merely because he was obliged to do so; but later on he became more and +more interested. Presently he felt as if at last he knew what was the +good of writing and reading. + +When he had read the book to the end, he actually asked for another; and +at last, whenever he had any spare time, he crept away and seated +himself in one of the pretty arbours of the castle garden, and read as +hard as if he were to be paid for it. + +If Miska had been like many another lad, he would have seen pretty well +the whole of his career by this time. There was nothing more to be done; +for a page who can read and write, and swallows books as eagerly as a +pelican does fish, already knows more than enough for his position. For +these things are often rather a hindrance to his riding and other +duties, and it is not his business to give an account of the books he +reads, but of the work entrusted to him to do. The governor trusted all +sorts of things to Miska, however. + +"Eh," Miska began to think to himself, "I am not cut out for a page now. +These second-rank pages are really not much better than grooms, and the +governor still expects me to clean the king's two favourite horses. +Why, I'm sure I know as much as Galeotti himself by this time, and I can +speak Italian too." + +But still the king did not come, and Miska went on learning; for ever +since he had taken to reading books, his mind had begun to grow and had +gone on growing, and he saw a good many things in a very different light +now from what he had done formerly. Now, indeed, if the king asked him +again, he could say that he should like to be something better than he +was. + +For a long time he went on racking his brains trying to make up his mind +what he should do; and at last one day, when he had faithfully done all +his duties, he sat down and wrote a letter to the king as follows:-- + + "MR. KING, YOUR HIGHNESS,--I can read and write, and I + can jabber Italian too, when necessary. + + "Please, Your Highness, to have the horses in my + charge brought to Buda; for I'm sure you never rode + such--they have improved so in my hands. + + "May God bless you! Come some time to Visegrad, and + let me kiss your hands and feet.--Your poor, humble + servant, + + TORNAY MICHAEL. + + "_P.S._--Brave Mr. King, if Your Highness could find a + place for me in the Black Legion, I would thank you + indeed, and you would not regret it either." + +When King Matthias read this letter, he laughed aloud, well pleased. + +"See," said he, showing the letter to those who were standing near him. +"This was a ragged beggar lad--perhaps by this time I should have had to +have him hanged. As it is, I have gained a man in him.--Zokoly," said he +to the young knight who was just then with him, "fetch the boy here; and +if he is up to the mark, put him into a coat of mail and then bring him +to me. But I will answer his letter first, for he might abuse my father +and mother for my bad manners if I were to leave it unnoticed." + +The king wrote as follows:-- + + "All good to you from God, Miska. As you can read and + write, I meant to make a precentor of you, good boy; + but if you wish to join the Black Legion instead, no + matter. Mount one of the horses you have had charge + of, and lead the other hither. Mind what you are + about, and don't get drunk.--Your well-wisher, + + "KING MATTHIAS." + +No first fiddle, no Palatine even, in all this wide world could think +himself a greater man than Michael did when the king's letter, written +with his own hand, was given to him. + +He threw himself into the governor's arms in a transport of joy, and +then, when he had made himself clean and tidy and put on his best +clothes--well, then, there was no keeping him. He would neither eat nor +drink, and in a little while he was off, riding one of the horses and +leading the other; and as he went he said, "God keep King Matthias!" +repeating the words over and over again. "Let him only get into some +great trouble one day, just to let me show that there is a grateful +heart under this smart dolmany." + +When Zokoly presented the lad to the king clad in the stern, manly garb +of the Black Legion--wearing, that is to say, a network coat of black +mail, with a heavy sword by his side, and a round helmet on his +head--Matthias was quite surprised. + +The king, as has been said, possessed the rare gift of being able to +read men, and seldom made a mistake in his choice of those whom he took +into his service. And now as he cast a searching glance at the boy's +noble countenance, and noticed the open, honourable expression of his +piercing eyes, and above all the broad forehead which was so full of +promise, the great king--for great he was, though not yet at the +pinnacle of his greatness--the great king felt almost ashamed to see the +lad standing before him in the garb of a common soldier, as if he were +merely one of the ordinary rank and file. The jest with which he had +been about to receive him died away unuttered on his lips. But he +welcomed his man good-naturedly, and said,-- + +"Michael Tornay, from this day forth you are ennobled. I will give you +the parchment to-morrow, and I will make a landed proprietor of you." + +The lad believed in King Matthias as if he had been some altogether +superior being; he was ardently, passionately attached to him, but he +said nothing. + +To tell the truth, he felt more confused than grateful; for the new-made +noble, the private of the Black Legion, had just so much delicacy of +feeling that he was much more flattered by the king's treating him +seriously than he would have been by jests and teasing. + +For the moment he could not get out a word. There was a mist before his +eyes; and after a long pause--for the king himself was touched by the +effect of his words--the young man came to himself, and dropping upon +one knee said, "Your Highness has made a man of me, and I trust in God +that you will never, never repent it!" Few and simple words, but the +king was so well pleased with them, and so confirmed in his previous +opinion, that at that moment he would have dared to trust the boy with +the command of the castle of Visegrad. + +A week later, after a battle in which Michael had taken part, Matthias +made the boy an officer in the famous Black or Death Legion--so called +from the colour of its armour and the skull-like shape of its +helmets--which was under the command of the king himself. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SENT TO PRISON. + + +It would be interesting, no doubt, if we could follow Michael's career +step by step; but the next two years of his life must be passed over +very briefly. + +It was true that the king had made a man of him, and already Tornay was +a marked personage--a man whose name was often in people's mouths, and +well known in the army as a rising young general. + +There was plenty of work for the Black Legion in those days; for the +Turks were perpetually invading the southern provinces, and the +Hungarians were left to fight them almost single-handed--though, as the +king reminded Louis the Eleventh of France, "Hungary was fighting for +all Christendom," as she had been doing for many a long year past. + +Michael had distinguished himself more than once for his courage, and +for a daring which amounted at times to actual foolhardiness, and now +he had outdone his previous exploits by the gallant rescue from extreme +peril of General Rozgonyi. + +The general was cut off from his men, and absolutely alone in the midst +of a band of Turks, when Michael made a bold dash into their midst, +scattering them right and left, and succeeded in extricating himself and +Rozgonyi from their clutches. + +It was a bold exploit and a rash one--madly rash, indeed--but it was +successful; and as Michael rode back to his men, wounded, but not +seriously so, he was received with loud applause; and perhaps, if the +truth must be told, he felt himself something of a hero. + +But the king, who had watched him with much anxiety, was considerably +provoked; and when the battle was over, he summoned him to his tent, +where Michael found him sitting alone and looking very much more grave +than was his wont. + +He raised his eyes when Michael entered, but his voice sounded stern, +and instead of saying "thou" to him as he usually did, he addressed him +quite formally. + +"Mr. Tornay," said he, "you have been behaving like a madman, like a +common soldier whose horse has such a hard mouth that he can't control +it; or--you must have been pouring more wine down your throat than you +ought to have done." + +King Matthias had a great horror of drunkards, and did his best to stop +all excessive drinking in the army and elsewhere. + +But Michael was utterly taken aback. He had been a good deal flattered +and complimented, and had quite expected that the king was going to +thank him for saving the general's life, or at least would show that he +was well pleased with him, and give him a few of those words of approval +which he valued above everything. To be received in this way was rather +crushing. + +"Sir--Your Highness," he stammered, in great surprise, "I was only doing +my duty." + +"That is precisely the very thing you were not doing," said the king +with some warmth, his large dark eyes flashing as he spoke. "You are a +general; you were in command, and you left your troops in the lurch, as +St. Paul left the Wallachians.[10] You rushed among the Turkish spahis +entirely alone, and to what, as far as you could tell, was certain +death, like a man who was weary of his life, his king, and his duty. +You ought to be ashamed of yourself; and understand that what may be +meritorious in a private is worse than cowardice in the officers." + +[Footnote 10: A common saying. St. Paul is supposed to have lost +patience with them.] + +Tornay was so thunderstruck that he could not find words to defend +himself. + +"Speak!" said Matthias, in a tone of displeasure. "We wish to hear what +you have to say in your defence; it is not our custom to punish any one +without hearing him." + +"Sir--Your Highness," said Tornay, with gentle deference, but with the +manner of one who has an easy conscience, "I did not think I was guilty +of cowardice in going to the rescue of one of your best generals!" + +"God be thanked that you were successful!" said the king, "but it is +more than you had any right to expect. The fact is that it was vanity +which led you to risk your head in an experiment which was not merely +hazardous, but so desperate that there was hardly the remotest +reasonable hope of success; and vanity under such circumstances is +cowardice. I honour courage; as for insane foolhardiness, it belongs not +to the knight but to the highwayman." + +Tornay listened abashed, and though much hurt he felt that Matthias was +right. + +"I should have a great mind to punish you," the king went on, "but that +one of my best generals owes his life to your folly, so for his sake I +pardon you." + +"What can I do?" said the young man in a low voice--"what can I do to +regain Your Highness's favour? I can't live if I know that Your Highness +is angry with me--me who owe everything, all that I am, to you." + +"Always be on your guard, my little brother," said the king; and now, +seeing how distressed he was, and wishing to comfort him, he spoke in +the kind, pleasant voice which won all hearts. "Do only what you can +give a right and satisfactory reason for, and then you will never miss +the mark." + +So Michael went back to his quarters comforted, and promising himself to +lay the king's simple advice well to heart. + +There was a grand banquet at the court that night, and many of the great +nobles were present; but Miska did not venture to show himself, though +when once the king had given a reprimand and made the delinquent +understand what he thought of his conduct, his anger was over and done +with, and he spoke in his usual kindly way again. Miska thought, +however, that by thus punishing himself he should soften him. + +After all, as he reflected, the king was right: it was the thought of +making a soldier's name for himself which had led him to run into such +obvious danger. And yet he had a reason to give for what he had done--a +good reason too, he had thought; for he had considered that his life +belonged to the king, who had given him his career and all that made his +life of any importance. And so he had resolved with himself never to +trouble his head about risk and danger, when he had an opportunity of +proving his fidelity to the king. + +But now, as he turned over in his mind the advice which the king had +given him, he began to see things a little differently. + +"My life belongs to the king, it is true," thought he, "and I must be +ready to sacrifice it whenever there is any reason to do so; but just +_because_ my life is the king's, I have no right to throw it away." + +From that time Tornay tried to make himself more and more useful to the +king, by learning all that he could of his profession. + +The courage of a private was not enough--it was not what was wanted of +him, now that he was an officer in command; and he felt that the courage +which made a man strive to acquire the knowledge necessary to those in +his own position--generals and commanders, that is to say--was courage +of a higher, nobler sort than that which led to deeds of mere daring. Of +course the courage of the private was also needful--quite indispensable, +indeed, in every soldier, officer or not, who must always be ready to +sacrifice his life if need be; but he strove to acquire besides the cool +courage which does not let itself be carried away by excitement, which +can listen to the sound of the trumpets and the din of battle without +being intoxicated, which remains calm and collected, retains its +presence of mind, and is capable of seeing and hearing, and, above all, +of thinking for others, even when the issue looks most doubtful. + +For a general has to remember that he is not merely an individual; he is +that, of course, but he is a great deal more--he is the head of a body +which depends upon him for guidance. He must not play only his own game, +or be thinking only or chiefly of the bold, brave deeds he can do on his +own account; he must practise the most stern self-restraint. And he must +not think of gratifying his own vanity or desire of distinguishing +himself; he must think of those under his command--he must be unselfish. + +Hitherto, Michael's one thought when he went into battle had been the +enemy, and how much damage he could do him. He had eyes for nothing +else, and he was eager to give proof of his own personal valour; but now +he began to accustom himself to resist this consuming thirst for action, +and to restrain his longing to rush madly into the fight, for he was +learning that he must not think only of himself. + +When the army was drawn up in battle array, fronting the enemy and all +ready for action, the young soldier would begin to ask himself what he +should do if the king were presently to give orders, as he might some +day, that he, Michael, was to take the chief command and lead the army +to battle. + +And then his blood would boil, his eyes would flash, and he felt an +almost irresistible longing to dash forward and do some valiant deed. +But now he controlled and recovered himself, and repeating to himself +the king's words, would say, "Now, Mihaly, how could you do such a +thing? what reason could you give for it?" + +He began to scrutinize the ranks of the enemy in a much more scientific +way, reminding himself that he was not now a private, or even a +subaltern officer, in the Black Legion, but a general, whose duty it was +to think, not of bold ventures, but of sober plans. This gave quite +another turn to his mind, and he felt how much higher and fairer a thing +it was to think of others and direct others, and to keep one's presence +of mind intact and one's blood cool, when youthful zeal made others lose +their heads. + +So thinking to himself one day, as he and the men under his command +stood facing the enemy, waiting for the signal to advance, he was +keeping his eyes upon the opposite ranks, when all at once he observed +something that till now had escaped his notice. + +"The enemy is remarkably weak in the left wing yonder," he reflected, +"and there is a long marsh just in front; I don't think I should be +afraid of being attacked from that quarter. If I were in command," he +went on, "I would order one division to advance in that direction and +outflank the enemy. This would throw him into confusion. Then I would +send part of the cavalry forward, and while the enemy's attention was +engaged by the sudden attack on his wing, I would fall upon his centre +with my whole force." + +"Really," the young officer said to himself, "I should like to tell His +Highness what I think." + +Michael scribbled something in pencil upon a scrap of paper, and sent +one of the Black Knights off with it to the king, who was inspecting the +ranks, and was now riding down the left wing of the army, surrounded by +a brilliant staff, himself more simply attired than any of those about +him. + +The king read over the crooked lines with not a little astonishment, and +for a moment his face flamed. + +Then he cried out in lively tones, "Upon my word, advice is becoming +from a twenty-years-old general! This man will be somebody one of these +days." + +Then on the margin of the paper he wrote just these two words--"_Do +it!_" + + * * * * * + +The battle was over and won, and a fortnight later Tornay Mihaly was one +of the king's lieutenant-generals. + +Matthias had by this time grown extremely fond of the young man. Michael +was always so vigilantly on the alert, so blindly devoted to him, and so +quick in his ways, that the king had no misgivings about any commission +which he entrusted to him. It was certain to be done, and done well. +But this was not all. He was pleased, too, with the young man's evident +gratitude and nobility of character--though not as much surprised as +some others, who fancied that such things were not to be looked for in a +beggar lad; for the king could read faces, and he had long since made up +his mind about Michael. + +In those days there were two bastions on the walls of the castle of +Buda, towards Zugliget. They were used as magazines, but in case of a +siege--which at that time Buda had little cause to dread--they would be +garrisoned with soldiers, and were therefore already provided with guns. + +These two bastions, one of which remains, though in an altered form, to +the present day, were about a couple of fathoms apart; and now the king +gave orders that both were to be set in order and made fit for +dwelling-houses. + +There was no opening on three of the sides, with the exception of some +small windows high up, which let in the light, but would give the +intended inmates no outlook; but on the fourth side, where the bastions +faced each other, there were four long, narrow windows in each, guarded +by strong iron bars. + + * * * * * + +The king was just now staying in Buda, and had given Michael command of +part of the castle garrison; and he was so well satisfied with the way +in which he discharged his duties, that hardly a week passed without his +giving him some fresh mark of his favour. + +As for Michael's passionate attachment to the king, it increased daily; +every hint from him was a command, and he was always on the watch to try +to interpret his wishes before they were put into words. + +One morning he was summoned to the king's presence. + +"Michael," said the king, in a good-humoured tone, "I am angry with you, +and I am going to punish you." + +"How have I been so unfortunate as to deserve the anger of the best of +kings and masters?" asked the young man. + +"Well, what do you think?" Matthias went on, laughing. "Am I very angry, +and am I going to pass a severe sentence?" + +"Mr. King," answered Tornay, who saw at once that Matthias was in high +good-humour, "I think Your Highness has got hold of your anger by the +small end this time, and perhaps you won't go quite so far as to have my +head cut off." + +"Your head may possibly be allowed to remain in its accustomed place," +said the king jestingly. "However, it is not necessary that you should +know which part of your person I have sentenced to punishment; it is +enough, gossip, that you are to expiate your offence, and that to begin +with I am going to send you to prison." + +"Perhaps Your Highness is going to entrust me with the command of some +abandoned wooden castle?"[11] said Michael. + +[Footnote 11: Many small castles of wood and stone had been built in the +north by the Bohemian freebooters already mentioned.] + +"No," said the king; "you have not found it out this time. I have got +other quarters for you." + +"Very well, as Your Highness wills; but you won't get much good out of +me if I am in prison." + +"Listen. You can see the two bastions yonder on the Mount St. Gellert +side of the castle. I have had them put in order, and you are to live in +one of them." + +Tornay listened, but he could not make it out at all. He saw the two +bastions sure enough, and as they did not now look at all gloomy or +prison-like, he was not alarmed at the idea of living in one of them; +but he could not by any means conceive what the king's object could be. + +"You are surprised," said the king, "aren't you? But the prison is +tolerable enough. You will have four small rooms; and as for the +look-out, well, I think you will be content with it; and then you will +be your own jailer, so you need have no fear as to the strictness of the +discipline. In a word, you are to move into your new quarters this very +day." + +Tornay retired; but on his way he racked his brains to discover why the +king could want him to move into the bastion. What reason could he have? +If he was his own jailer, and could go in and out as he pleased, it was +not a prison, simply different quarters, and better, at all events, than +those he had had before; for he had been living in a very poor apartment +of the castle, looking into a by-street. + +"Well," thought he, "what do I know as to the king's motives? Who can +ever tell what he has in his head? He wishes me to live there--good! +then that's enough, and there I will live." + +So Tornay took possession of one of the bastions facing Pesth, and was +very well satisfied indeed with his new quarters, which the king had had +plainly but comfortably enough furnished. Perhaps the king had placed +him there only as an excuse for making him more presents. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG. + + +Michael found himself very well off in his new quarters; and as nothing +happened to explain the king's whim, he was confirmed in his belief that +its only object was to make him more comfortable. + +He was very punctual in attending to all his duties, and inspected the +garrison very frequently, but he spent a good many of his spare hours in +reading and study. For the king liked men of learning and cultivation, +and Michael was bent upon pleasing him in these matters if he could. + +Being in Buda, with a little time on his hands, gave him a capital +opportunity of improving himself; for he had become acquainted with the +king's great friend the librarian Galeotti, and through him he now made +acquaintance with the famous library which Matthias was then forming +under the direction of Galeotti and his fellow-worker Ugoletti. + +The library was in the castle, and consisted of two great halls, in +which, by the end of his life, the king had collected above fifty +thousand volumes. He was constantly buying up valuable manuscripts in +Italy, Constantinople, and Asia; and he kept a number of men constantly +employed in copying--four in Florence and thirty in Buda. + +The manuscripts were many of them beautifully illuminated and adorned +with tasteful initials and pictures, and frequently with likenesses of +the king and his wife, so that they were valuable as works of art. + +The art of printing, too, had been lately introduced, and the +printing-press was kept constantly at work adding to the contents of the +polished cedar-wood book-shelves, which were protected by silken, +gold-embroidered curtains: for Matthias treated his books royally and as +if he loved them. + +Besides books, the two halls contained three hundred statues, some +ancient and some modern; and in the vestibule were astronomical and +mathematical instruments, with a large celestial globe in the centre +supported by two genii. + +Michael had abundant opportunities of study, and knew that he could not +please the king better than by availing himself of them. The Italian +which he had learned from the grooms at Visegrad he now found most +useful, as it enabled him to talk to the various artists, sculptors, +musicians, and other distinguished men from Italy, whom the king loved +to have about him. + +The two librarians of course he knew well; then there was the great +painter Filippo Lippi, and the Florentine architect Averulino, by whom +the royal palaces both in Buda and Visegrad were beautified and +enlarged. Carbo of Ferrara was writing a dialogue, in which he sang the +praises of King Matthias; Galeotti was busy with a book of entertaining +stories, full of anecdotes and sayings of the king, to which Michael +certainly might have contributed much that was interesting; Bonfinius of +Ascoli, reader to the queen, was engaged upon his History of Hungary; +and various Hungarian authors were composing their chronicles and +writing legends and poetry in Latin--that being still the language of +the learned throughout Europe. + +From the windows of his "prison" Michael had no view, as has been said, +except of the other bastion, which was not particularly interesting, as +it was uninhabited, so that he was not tempted to waste any time in +looking out of the window. But he had only to go into the palace gardens +when he wanted to get away from his books and rest his eyes and brain; +and these covered a great deal of ground, extending indeed as far as to +the neighbouring hills, then still covered with forests, where the king, +who was an ardent sportsman, often went hunting. + +Michael was sitting in the window one morning to eat his breakfast, when +he chanced to look across to the opposite window, and saw, to his great +surprise, that there was some one there, or at least he fancied that he +saw some one, but the glimpse was so momentary that he could not be +sure. + +When one has nothing at all to look at, very small trifles become quite +important; and the idea that he might have, or be going to have, +neighbours was quite exciting. Certainly the king had said something +about it, but hitherto he had seen no one. + +In a fit of curiosity, Michael opened the window and looked out from +time to time while he went on with his meal. Once he thought he saw some +one flit past it again; but he had to hurry off to his military duties +before he could make out whether the rooms were really occupied or not. + +When he came back, the very first thing he did was to go up to the +window again; and at last his curiosity was gratified, at least to some +extent, for two persons were there--two women, one seated at a little +embroidery-frame, and the other standing over her, looking at her work. +Their faces were hidden from him at first, but from their dress and +figures he could see that one was elderly and the other quite young. +Presently the younger one raised her head from her work and looked up, +and from the momentary glance which he had of her features, Michael +fancied that he had seen her before somewhere or other. He could not for +the moment think where it could have been, for it was the merest glimpse +he had of her face before she looked down again. + +He must not be so rude as to watch; but he could not resist an +occasional glance as long as they were there. In another quarter of an +hour, however, both figures had disappeared, and Michael saw no more of +them. But the discovery that he had neighbours was quite exciting, and +he was so much interested that he shook his head with some impatience +when he found the window deserted in the afternoon. Till this event +occurred, Michael had been in the habit of spending as short a time as +possible within doors, and was most eager to mount his horse as soon as +ever he had finished the work which he had set himself for the day. But +now he was so consumed with curiosity that he actually kept his steed +waiting a whole quarter of an hour later than usual, while he watched +for the reappearance of the ladies. + +But it was all to no purpose. For a moment he caught sight of a white +hand raised, either to fasten the window or to point to something, but +the next instant this too had disappeared. He was on the watch again +when he returned home, taking care, however, to stand or sit where he +could not be seen; and the next day and the next it was the same. He +spent so much time in watching, indeed, that he got quite angry with +himself at last; and then he would go out riding, and come back quite +vexed and out of sorts. + +"Bother it all!" he thought to himself; "of course I shall see her again +sooner or later if she is there." + +He was standing in his usual place again one evening, when he saw two +shadows move away from the opposite window in the most tantalizing +manner, and he felt so hopeful that he sat down to watch at his ease. +If tobacco had been known in those days, no doubt he would have lighted +his pipe or a cigar; but as it was not, he had nothing to console +himself with, and could only sit and "look for King David and his harp" +in the moon, as the saying is. + +All at once he fancied that he really did hear him playing his harp in +his silver palace. There were sounds of some sort--soft, sweet sounds, +which came floating towards him on the air; and he thought to himself +that he had surely heard the plaintive melody with its vibrating chords +somewhere before. + +"To be sure! I have got it!" he said to himself. "I know now _where_! +But, of course, others might know the air.--Eh! what's that, though?" he +exclaimed, as a sweet, young, bell-like voice now began to accompany the +instrument, and he heard one of the very songs which he had himself +composed in the days which now seemed so long ago. + +That Miska the beggar boy should be a popular poet will astonish no one +who knows how many of the popular songs of Hungary have had their origin +in the humble cottages of the peasantry, in the course of past +centuries. Every village has its poet, who is also frequently a musical +composer as well. He sings his songs at the village merry-makings to +airs of his own invention, and the gipsies, who are always present on +such occasions to play for the dancers, accompany him on their fiddles. +If they take a fancy to the air, they will remember it, and invent +variations to it, and in this way it will be preserved and become part +of their stock. + + "One life, one God, + One home, one love," + +sang Michael's opposite neighbour, in a voice of great beauty and +sweetness. + +"It's Esther! it must be Esther!" cried the young man, starting to his +feet in great excitement. "Esther!" he said, and a flush mounted to his +face; "but here, _here_, actually here, opposite me? Impossible! I must +see her and make sure. No one could know that song, though, but herself; +I made it for her, and no one else ever had it, at least from me." + +Often and often Michael had wondered what had become of his little +friend and the other inhabitants of the castle; but whenever he had +ventured to hint an inquiry as to Mr. Samson's fate, or had tried to +find out anything about the rest, the king had turned the subject, and +avoided giving him any direct answer. Of course it was out of the +question to press the matter, so that he had known positively nothing +of what had happened ever since the eventful night when he had left the +castle. But though his life had been a very busy one, and many fresh new +interests had come into it, he had never forgotten the one pleasant +acquaintance whom he had made in Mr. Samson's grim castle. He walked +across towards the window now full of eagerness; but the singer, whose +voice he thought he recognized, was sitting in such a provoking way that +he could not see her face, and he had been careful to manage so that she +should not see him either. Presently he stopped, with his foot on the +window-sill, and then took another step forward, which apparently +startled the singer, for the song ceased abruptly, and a rather +frightened face looked up at him. + +"It is you!" cried the young officer, in impetuous delight; and "Is it +you?" said the girl, more quietly, but with a flush of pleasure. + +"Well, did ever one see!" exclaimed a sharp voice behind Esther. +"Jancsi! [Johnnie!] how ever did you get here?" + +"It is I indeed, my little demoiselle," said Michael, in the utmost +surprise. "But I am quite bewildered. How did you come here?" + +"Did not you know that the king had sent for me here to Buda?" + +"The king!" said the young man, and a shadow crossed his face; "when? +what for?--and have you seen the king?" + +"Three questions at once," said Esther, laughing. "Well, really I don't +know anything more than that we came here under the escort of an old +gentleman whom I don't know; and the king quartered us here, where we +have been now three days, but I have not yet seen His Highness. God +bless him! for I am as free here, and as happy," she went on, blushing +still more, "as if I had been born again. But come in; why do you stand +there in the window? We are neighbours, you know, as we used to be, and +neighbours ought to be on good terms with one another." + +Michael felt as if he were dreaming, but naturally he did not wait to be +asked twice; and the old woman, who had shown a marked liking for him +before while he was in Samson's castle, welcomed him now with the +greatest cordiality. + +"Why, Jancsi, stay a bit," said she, "and let me look at you! Why, what +a smart lad you have turned into, to be sure! What fine buttons you have +on your dolmany! and--well, I declare, you have a watch too! 'Your +lentils must have sold' uncommonly well in the time; and just tell us +now how you came to 'climb the cucumber-tree' so quickly, will you?"[12] + +[Footnote 12: To "sell one's lentils well" and to "climb the +cucumber-tree" mean to get on in the world and make one's fortune +quickly.] + +"Ah, auntie, that would take a long time to tell; but we'll have it +another time. All I can tell you now is that I owe everything to the +good king, and I would go through the fire for him; for my whole life, +every moment of it, belongs to him." + +Then in a few words he told them his history since the time when he had +left the castle with Samson, and had so given Esther some hope of +release. + +"It is strange," said Esther thoughtfully, "that the king should have +put us here opposite one another, and should have had these gloomy +bastions put in order and made so habitable just for us." + +"Very," said Michael. "I am surprised myself, and I don't understand it, +especially as the king asked me yesterday, laughing, whether I had yet +made acquaintance with my neighbour? But what is the good of troubling +one's head about it? I am heartily glad, anyway; and you, Esther, are +you pleased too? tell me." + +The girl blushed a little, and giving Michael her hand, said: "Why +shouldn't I be glad? I am sure I could not have come across a better +neighbour, and it is to you most certainly that I owe my freedom." + +The young officer sighed. "Indirectly, yes," he said; and then in a +lower tone he added, "And the king might have entrusted you to my +charge; I might have had the pleasure of bringing you here. However, +when I had captured Mr. Samson, before I came back to the king, I showed +the way in and out of the castle to the Jew whom Mr. Samson had intended +to relieve of his pack, so it was easy enough then to get in and take +possession." + +"Of course," said Esther, "it did not need any very great valour to +steal in at midnight and seize the place." + +"And what has become of Mr. Samson? the king has never told me a word +more about him." + +"What has become of him? I should think he was safe in one of the king's +prisons." + +"Dear Esther, do tell me what happened; I am burning to know how it all +came about." + +"Well, when a few weeks had passed and Mr. Samson did not come home, we +all began to think that something had happened to him, and that he had +perished for good and all. And then one midnight we heard a great noise +of shouting and the clash of arms, and then Mr. Rozgonyi came and +mentioned your name, and I let him into my room. For I was so +frightened, not knowing what was going on, that I had treble-bolted the +door and put the bar up; but when I heard your name, of course I knew it +was all right, and I opened it at once." + +"And what of the castle?" + +"Mr. Rozgonyi did not allow much time for questions. He just said that +he had brought some stone-masons with him; and apparently they had come +to pull down and not to build, at least in the first place, for he wound +up by saying that the king was going to have the stones used to build a +church and monastery in the nearest village. There would be enough for +three, I should think!" + +"And did Miss Esther ever think of the poor beggar boy?" + +"To be sure! But I thought more of the valiant Alpari Janos [John], who +was so brave as to come into Mr. Samson's hiding-place, and then so +clever as to get the wicked tyrant into his hands. But, Sir Knight, I +felt afraid of you too, and I must confess that I am rather afraid of +you still. For--you are certainly very clever at pretending and making +believe to be what you are not; and when one finds it all out, how is +one to believe anything you may say?" + +"Good Esther!" said Michael, looking a little shamefaced, "but didn't I +keep my promise to you? I said you should be released, and you were." + +"True," admitted Esther. + +"And if I acted the part of a dissembler with Mr. Samson, I was not my +own master, you know; I belonged to the king, and was obeying his +orders, not following my own fancies and wishes. But as regards +yourself, I have never dissembled at all, from the time when first I +began to make your acquaintance, and it rests with you to put my +sincerity to the test." + +"How do you mean? But I see we have been chattering away a long +time.--Euphrosyne, light the candles.--And you, sir, must go, if you +please; we have talked enough for to-day." + +But though Esther dismissed him now, no day passed after this without +his coming to see her; and both she and Euphrosyne seemed to be always +glad to see him and to listen to all he had to tell them, first about +his own life and adventures, and the king whom he was never tired of +extolling, and then about the day's incidents, his work and his studies, +and what was going on in Buda; for they lived very quietly, and saw and +heard but little of the outside world. Often, too, Esther would bring +out her harp and play and sing. Her voice had gained in power and +richness during the past two or three years, and she had had some +teaching from one of the king's musicians; but nothing pleased Michael +so well as to hear her sing the favourite old songs which he remembered +of old, except--to hear her sing his own. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE KING'S WHIM. + + +Things had been going on very pleasantly for some weeks, and Michael and +his attractive little neighbour had been growing more and more intimate +with each other, when one evening, on entering the room as usual, he saw +at once that something was amiss; for Esther's bright face was quite +overclouded, and her blue eyes looked troubled. + +But Euphrosyne was mounting guard over her young mistress as she always +did, and Michael's anxious but cautious inquiries met with evasive +answers, or passed unnoticed. + +How he wished the old woman would find something to look after in the +kitchen or elsewhere--anything to get rid of her, if but for a few +minutes! + +The conversation was less animated than usual this evening: Esther +seemed to find a difficulty in talking and she said positively that she +could not sing; and Michael was becoming quite uneasy and almost +inclined to take his departure, when--whether she felt that she was not +wanted or not--something or other made Euphrosyne discover, or perhaps +pretend to discover, that she had something to attend to in another +room. + +Such a thing had never happened before, and Michael seized his +opportunity, blessing her in his heart for leaving them to themselves, +but fearing she would be back before he had said what he wanted to say. + +"Now, Esther," he said persuasively, seating himself on the divan by her +side--"now, Esther, tell me what has happened. What is troubling you? +you look so sad and out of spirits. What is the matter? I am sure there +is something." + +"My friend," answered Esther, "I _am_ sad, for I am to leave Buda." + +"Why? where are you going?" cried Michael. + +"I don't know," said the girl--"I don't know! There! read what he says." +And she handed Michael a letter. + +"The king's writing!" he exclaimed; and then he read with a beating +heart:-- + + "MY LITTLE SISTER[13] ESTHER,--Your parents came of + distinguished ancestry. You are an orphan; Mr. Samson + got possession of all that belonged to you, and since + he has paid the penalty of his crimes, his property + has come into our treasury. We have lately heard from + Munkacs that he has died a natural death, and we are + willing to restore a portion of his possessions to + you, if you on your part are willing to give your hand + to one of our 'Supreme Counts,'[14] a man of very + ancient family. If you cannot make up your mind to + this, my little sister, then you must go away from + here; for your frequent meetings with Mr. + Tornay--whose head I will wash for him!--have + attracted attention, and will make you talked about. + + "MATTHIAS." + + [Footnote 13: "Little sister" and "little brother" are + usual forms of addressing the young.] + + [Footnote 14: _Foe-ispan_, the head and administrator + of a county, not a hereditary count.] + +Michael let the letter drop from his hand in dismay, and then exclaimed +passionately, "Why, the king placed me here; and, besides, he asked me +himself whether I had made acquaintance with my neighbour." + +"True," said Esther sadly, "and I told His Highness so myself; but he +gave me quite a scolding for letting you come and see me so often." + +"What!" cried Michael, surprised and even startled; "the king has been +here?" + +"He has indeed," said Esther, the tears springing to her eyes. +"Yesterday, while you were out riding the beautiful cream-coloured horse +with the green silk trappings, the king came. I had never seen him +before, but as he closed the door behind him, I knew in a moment that it +was the king and no one else. I felt it somehow, I don't know how." + +"And what did he say? was he in a good humour?" + +"Good? not by any means. He looked at me as fiercely as if I were going +to do him I don't know what injury, and yet I pray for him every day, +and have never sinned against him so much as in thought." + +"Strange!" said Michael. "And this count! The whirlwind take him and all +his ancient family pedigree away together! Do you know this count? And +is there any count in all the wide world who loves you as well as I do?" + +"You?" said Esther, lifting her tearful eyes; "but you see you never +told me you did." + +"I _have_ told you!" said Michael, impetuously seizing Esther's hand and +covering it with kisses; "every word I have uttered has told you so, +ever since I first saw you. Ah! you might have understood me, +because--I was once a beggar boy, how could I speak more plainly? _I_ +have no family pedigree, and I shall never be a Supreme Count," he +finished gloomily. + +"Is it true?" said Esther, blushing very prettily, but looking several +shades less melancholy than before. + +"Why shouldn't it be true, my star? Of course it is true! Don't you +believe me?" said Michael, drawing her to himself. "But I am the son of +poor parents, only a beggar boy, and that abominable count, hang him! +may--what was I going to say?--well, anyhow, may the grasshoppers fall +upon him!" + +"Michael," said Esther, a little shyly, "if you do love me--but +understand well, I mean _really_ love me, really and truly--well then, I +will just confess that I love you too, with all my heart, truly, as my +life. You are more to me than all the counts in the world, for you are +my Supreme Count; and even if you can't point to a line of ancestors, +what does it signify? Somebody has to make a beginning, and you are +making your own name; surely that is a great deal more than merely +inheriting it! Besides, your family pedigree is as long as any one's in +the world after all; for it reaches back to old Father Adam, and no one +can go further." + +At that moment Euphrosyne reappeared with the lights; but Michael cared +little for her, now that he had found out what he wanted to know. Esther +cared for him; what else could possibly matter? + +"I must go to the king," said Michael. "He has always been most gracious +to me, and why should he want to crush me now, after being the making of +me? Why should he make my heart bitter, when it beats true to him and to +my love? Don't be sad, my star. I will see him to-morrow, and tell him +everything. He is so good, so kind, and so just! and it wouldn't be just +to take you away from me, after bringing you here and letting us learn +to know one another. If I only knew which count it was! but there are +more than fifty. There is not one of them, though, that found you out in +Mr. Samson's castle, and you never sang any of their songs, did you now? +_Did_ any one ever make songs for you but me?" + +"No one! I don't know any count, unless the old gentleman who escorted +us was one, and I hardly spoke to him." + +But just then they were interrupted, for the door opened, and one of the +royal pages stepped in. + +"I have been looking for you in your quarters, lieutenant-general," +said he; "and as I did not find you at home, it is a good thing you are +here. See, this is from the king; please to read it." And he handed a +note to Michael, who turned deadly pale as he took it and read as +follows:-- + + "I wish you all good. + + "So you have become very well acquainted indeed with + your neighbours! and we suspect that you have spent + more time tied to their apron-strings than in + exercising the garrison. We shall therefore give you + something to do. + + "We shall expect you to be at Visegrad by eleven + o'clock to-morrow morning, and we will there give you + our orders. Be prepared for three months' absence from + Buda. + + "You will not see your neighbour again; she is to be + the bride of Aggtelky Mihaly, one of our best-beloved + and most trusty counts. God be with us.[15] + + "MATTHIAS." + + [Footnote 15: Equivalent to our "adieu."] + +The note was written in the most formally polite style. There was no +"gossip" or "little brother," there was not even a "thou" in it--nothing +from beginning to end but "your grace," answering indeed to our "you," +but a good deal more chilling to those accustomed to the friendly "thee" +and "thou." + +Michael smothered his wrath as best he could, feeling how much he owed +to the king, and that it would be the blackest ingratitude to show +passion and resentment because he now crossed his will. + +"I will obey His Highness's commands," said he to the page, who at once +withdrew. + +Then he embraced Esther, and said with a heavy sigh, "All is not lost +yet. The king is good, and--God is better. Keep up your heart." + + * * * * * + +The next morning the young lieutenant-general was at Visegrad by the +appointed time, and went at once to the governor, who told him that the +king had arrived a couple of hours previously, very irritable and out of +humour, as it seemed. + +"What can have happened to His Highness?" asked Michael, grieved to hear +of the king's ill-humour, and fearing not only that his petition would +come at a most unfortunate time, but that the king would not perhaps let +him have speech of him at all. + +"Eh!" said the governor, "who knows what our good king has to worry +him? There's trouble enough in the country just now, that's certain, and +he has both his hands full. But I am sure I am not afraid of him; and as +for those who vex him, may they suffer for it as they deserve!" + +A long hour passed, and still the king did not send for Michael, though +the governor had lost no time in announcing his arrival. But at last, +after he had waited what to him seemed a very long time, the summons +came. The page who brought it looked grave, but beyond that his face +betrayed nothing, and Michael hastened with a beating heart into the +presence of the master whom he adored, but now, perhaps for the first +time in his life, feared to meet. + +When he entered the beautiful, well-lighted room, whose painted windows +looked out upon the Danube, he found King Matthias seated near an open +window, in an arm-chair covered with yellow velvet, and looking more +gloomy than he had ever seen him before. He was very plainly, almost +carelessly, attired, and near him was his favourite scholar, the +librarian Galeotti, who also looked melancholy and stood gazing at +vacancy, as if he were trying to peer into the future. + +"Is it you?" said Matthias coldly; "you have kept me waiting a long +time." + +"Mr. King," answered Michael, "I have been here for the past two hours, +as you commanded." + +"Ah! true, I was forgetting; of course they announced you. Are you +prepared for a long journey?" + +"A soldier is ready to march without much preparation," said Michael, +with a great want of his usual alacrity. "I am ready to receive your +Highness's orders." + +"Good," said the king. "You will start for Vienna in an hour's time +then, with Mr. Galeotti here. He is going on a mission for me to the +Emperor Friedrich; and until my friend has completed his business, which +may perhaps take six months, you are not to leave him." + +Michael said nothing. + +"Well?" the king went on, in a tone of impatient annoyance. "Perhaps you +don't fancy such an errand; you would prefer, no doubt, to be sent +against Axamith,[16] who has effected a lodgment again in the north, as +we hear, and is thieving and plundering like a swarm of grasshoppers." + +[Footnote 16: One of the Bohemian freebooters.] + +"Why should I deny it?" said Michael humbly, well knowing that the king +liked the truth even when he was angry. "If Your Highness were disposed +to send me on active service somewhere, I _should_ prefer it. But +wherever you please to order me, I shall go with a good will; for my +life belongs to my king." + +"Hm!" said Matthias, fixing his searching eyes upon the speaker; "may be +so, but just at present your tongue does not speak the thoughts of your +heart." + +"Sir! Your Highness!" + +"'Highness' I may be, but 'gracious' I am not to-day, am I, Mr. Michael +Tornay? You have yourself to thank for it, for you have been putting bad +wood on the fire,[17] and you have been going very near what is +forbidden fruit." + +[Footnote 17: That is, you have been up to mischief.] + +"Forbidden fruit?" said Michael, exceedingly cast down by the king's +cold treatment of him. + +"It is true I did not distinctly forbid it you, but I could not suppose +you would take fire so quickly." + +Michael said nothing, and the king went on,-- + +"Don't deny it, for I know everything. You have fallen in love with +Esther. It is just fortunate that the girl has more sense than you, and +does not trust your fine words." + +"I humbly beg your pardon," said Michael, unwilling to let the +opportunity slip, "I believe, on the contrary, Your Highness, that +Esther--" + +"Esther is going to marry Aggtelky Mihaly, the Supreme Count," said the +king decidedly; "and now that you know this, it will be as well for you +to give up thinking of her. To make it easier for you, and to impress it +upon your mind, it will not be amiss for you to spend a few months away +from Buda." + +"Your Highness," Michael began again in an imploring tone. + +"Enough!" said the king in a stern voice. "Now both follow me to the +castle chapel. You will receive your instructions after service, and +then--to Vienna!" + +Michael was in the utmost consternation, but he did not venture another +word. It was so strange to see the gay, good-natured king thus unlike +himself, that he thought he must either be ill, or must have had very +bad news from somewhere, or--was it possible?--that some one had been +trying to set him against himself, by telling malicious tales. His +rapid advancement, and the favour which the king showed him, had, he +knew, excited some envy and jealousy. Had some secret enemy then been at +work? + +But then King Matthias was not given to listening to tales, and if he +had heard anything to Michael's discredit, he would have told him of it +plainly, and given him the opportunity of clearing himself. + +He glanced interrogatively at Galeotti; but the Italian merely shrugged +his shoulders to express his entire bewilderment. They were walking +behind the king now, towards the chapel, which they found dressed with +lovely flowers as if for a festival; but Michael was so engrossed in his +own thoughts, so sore at heart, and so hurt by what he felt to be the +just king's injustice, that he had no attention to spare for anything +else. + +They took their places; the shrill tones of a bell were heard, and the +service began and proceeded quietly to its close. + +The king rose up, and was about to leave the chapel, when he stopped +short, saying, "So--I was forgetting! Another little ceremony takes +place here to-day, of course. Follow me." + +With that he turned towards the vestry, Michael following him with +listless steps. + +The door was opened by some one within; but Michael's eyes were bent +upon the ground, and he saw nothing but the marble floor, until Galeotti +twitched him by the sleeve and made him look up. Then he saw what filled +him first with amazement and next with passionate indignation. + +For there before him, like a beautiful dream, stood Esther--_his_ Esther +as he felt her to be, in spite of kings and counts--_his_ Esther, robed +in white, with a bridal wreath on her head, and looking as fair and pure +as a dove! + +Michael turned almost as white as the bride's dress. He had been brought +to Visegrad to see her married to the count! That was his first +collected thought. Could the king, the master whom he had so +loved--_could_ he be so cruel, so heartlessly cruel? + +For a moment or two Michael was so torn in pieces between his love for +Esther and his love and reverence for the king, that he felt as if he +were losing his senses, and might say or do something outrageous. + +The king stopped and turned towards him, as if he were about to speak; +but Michael did not notice it, for his eyes were fixed upon the bride, +and he was trying to master himself. + +"Mr. Michael Tornay!" + +Michael started at the sound of the king's voice, and looked at him +mechanically. + +Matthias held in his hand a heavy gold case, with a piece of parchment +from which hung a large seal. The clouds had vanished from his face as +if by magic, and he was apparently quite himself again, for he looked as +bright and pleasant as possible. + +"Mr. Michael Tornay," he said in a gay tone, which completed Michael's +bewilderment, "you have answered all our expectations. If we have been +the making of you, you have given us complete satisfaction in return. +You have won our heart by your faithful affection, your valour, and your +love and devotion to your country. And now, see, we herewith endow you +with an estate for which we have chosen the name of Aggtelky, from one +of the properties included in it. We also entrust you with the +administration of the county of Szathmar; and that you may not be +lonely, and find the time hang heavy on your hands, we propose to give +you this naughty little daughter of Eve to torment you. + +"What have you to say to this? Will it suit you better than going to +Vienna, little brother--eh? Ah! I thought so," as Michael and his bride +fell upon their knees, unable for the moment to utter a word. "Then, if +the bride is pleased to accept you after all, Mr. Supreme Count Michael +Aggtelky, the wedding shall take place at once." + + +THE END + + + + + The Boys' New Library. + + _Crown 8vo, cloth extra. Price 3s. 6d. each._ + + + =The British Legion.= A Tale of the Carlist War. By + HERBERT HAYENS, author of "An Emperor's Doom," etc., + etc. Crown 8vo. With Six Illustrations by W. H. + MARGETSON. + + + =The Island of Gold.= A Sea Story. By GORDON STABLES, + M.D., R.N., author of "Every Inch a Sailor," "How Jack + Mackenzie won his Epaulettes," etc., etc. Crown 8vo. + With Six Illustrations. + + + =How Jack Mackenzie Won His Epaulettes.= By GORDON + STABLES, M.D., R.N., author of "As We Sweep through + the Deep," etc. With Six Illustrations by A. PEARCE. + Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_A story of the Crimean War, and one of the best that + Dr. Stables has written for some time._"--STANDARD. + + "_One of the most rattling books for boys published + this season.... Delightful as is the first part, the + stirring battle scenes of the second will more + particularly interest Young England._"--WHITEHALL + REVIEW. + + + =Boris the Bear-Hunter.= A Story of Peter the Great and + His Times. By FRED. WHISHAW, author of "A Lost Army," + etc. Illustrated by W. S. STACEY. Crown 8vo, cloth + extra. + + "_Mr. Whishaw may be congratulated on having written + the boys' book of the season._"--CHRISTIAN LEADER. + + + =My Strange Rescue.= AND OTHER STORIES OF SPORT AND + ADVENTURE IN CANADA. By J. MACDONALD OXLEY, author of + "Up Among the Ice-Floes," "Diamond Rock," etc. Crown + 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_We are again among the bears in semi-Polar + latitudes. And what with bears, wolves, Indians, + rapids, snowstorms, and trackless forests, the heroes + have a lively time of it. The tales are exceedingly + well told._"--TIMES. + + + =Pincherton Farm.= By E. A. B. D., author of "Young + Ishmael Conway," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + _A story showing the elevating influence of a simple + trust in God._ + + "_A tale of great interest, with some excellent + character-drawing._"--GLASGOW HERALD. + + + =Up Among the Ice-Floes.= By J. MACDONALD OXLEY, author + of "Diamond Rock," etc. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, + cloth extra. + + _A lively sketch of the exciting adventures of the + crew of a whaler._ + + "_The fun and dangers of hunting the red deer, fishing + the whale, facing storms in ice seas, and forgathering + with the Eskimo, keep the book moving pleasantly + along; and the story has a novelty and freshness that + will please young readers._"--SCOTSMAN. + + + =A Lost Army.= By FRED. WHISHAW, author of "Boris the + Bear-Hunter," "Out of Doors in Tsarland," etc. With + Six Illustrations by W. S. STACEY. Post 8vo, cloth + extra. + + "_The whole story is extremely well told, and, packed + with adventure as it is, is calculated to hold the + ordinary boy spell-bound. It is a striking work of + exceptional and varied interest._"--SCHOOLMASTER. + + + =Baffling the Blockade.= By J. MACDONALD OXLEY, author + of "In the Wilds of the West Coast," "Diamond Rock," + "My Strange Rescue," etc. Post 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_It is really one of the most 'convincing' of books, + in the sense that the incidents, which are thick and + thrilling, read as if they had really + happened._"--CHRISTIAN WORLD. + + "_Holds us in breathless interest from board to board, + so that we are loth to skip a line._"--TIMES. + + + =Chris Willoughby=; or, Against the Current. By FLORENCE + E. BURCH, author of "Dick and Harry and Tom," etc. + Post 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_A capital tale for boys; thoroughly wholesome in + tone, and lively from beginning to end._"--BRITISH + WEEKLY. + + + =Diamond Rock=; or, On the Right Track. By J. MACDONALD + OXLEY, author of "Up Among the Ice-Floes," etc. With + Illustrations. Post 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_A sea story of great power.... Relates to the + stirring period in naval annals in the early years of + the century, when brushes with the French were + frequent, and the glamour which hung about matters + maritime had not passed away. Mr. Oxley narrates an + exciting story vividly._"--LEEDS MERCURY. + + + =Doing and Daring.= A New Zealand Story. By ELEANOR + STREDDER, author of "Jack and his Ostrich," etc. With + Illustrations. Post 8vo, cloth extra. + + "_It has a quickly-moving plot of wild life, + adventure, and dangers, and is sure to please a boy + reader._"--SCOTSMAN. + + + =Harold the Norseman.= By FRED. WHISHAW, author of "A + Lost Army," "Boris the Bear-Hunter," etc. Post 8vo, + cloth extra. + + "_An entrancing story dealing with Norse life in the + eleventh century, a period unsurpassed for the + opportunities it presents to the romancer._"--DUNDEE + ADVERTISER. + + "_A stirring story of a stirring period, which, though + we regard it at the distance of eight centuries, is + full of unfailing fascination to all lovers of the + romance of history._"--COURT JOURNAL. + + + + + Our Boys' Select Library. + + STORIES OF ADVENTURE, TRAVEL, AND DISCOVERY. + + _Post 8vo, cloth extra. Price 2s. 6d. each._ + + + =The Forest, the Jungle, and the Prairie=; or, Tales of + Adventure and Enterprise in Pursuit of Wild Animals. + With numerous Engravings. + + + =Scenes with the Hunter and the Trapper.= Stories of + Adventures with Wild Animals. With Engravings. + + + =Beyond the Himalayas.= By JOHN GEDDIE, F.R.G.S., Author + of "The Lake Regions of Central Africa," etc. With + Nine Engravings. + + "_A tale of adventure and travel over regions on the + borders of China and Thibet. The author has taken + great pains to make his descriptions of the scenery, + natural history, and botany, and of the manners and + habits of the frontier people accurate and + instructive. There are plenty of exciting adventures + and encounters with wild beasts and no less wild + men._"--STANDARD. + + + =The Castaways.= A Story of Adventure in the Wilds of + Borneo. By Captain MAYNE REID. + + + =The Meadows Family=; or, Fireside Stories of Adventure + and Enterprise. By M. A. PAULL, Author of "Tim's + Troubles," etc. With Illustrations. + + + =The Story of the Niger.= A Record of Travel and + Adventure from the Days of Mungo Park to the Present + Time. By ROBERT RICHARDSON, Author of "Adventurous + Boat Voyages," "Ralph's Year in Russia," etc. With + Thirty-one Illustrations. + + + + + The Norseland Library. + + _Post 8vo, cloth extra. Price 2s. 6d. each._ + + + =The Hermit Princes.= A Tale of Adventure in Japan. By + ELEANOR STREDDER, Author of "Doing and Daring," etc. + + "_Conspicuous for novelty of subject and treatment. It + is a Japanese story perfectly conceived and realized. + The landscape-painting throughout is terse and full of + interest._"--MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. + + + =Norseland Tales.= By H. H. BOYESEN, Author of "The + Battle of the Rafts, and Other Stories of Boyhood in + Norway." With Seven Illustrations. + + "_They are tales of modern life, not of the Vikings, + but of and about the sea, and of Norwegian boys who + crossed the Atlantic. All are well written and + interesting._"--GLASGOW HERALD. + + + =Leaves from a Middy's Log.= By ARTHUR LEE KNIGHT, + Author of "Adventures of a Midshipmite," "The Rajah of + Monkey Island," etc. Illustrated by A. PEARCE. + + "_A decidedly fresh and stirring story. There is + plenty of incident and plenty of spirit in the story; + the dialogue is amusing and natural, and the + descriptions are vigorous and vivid._"--SPECTATOR. + + + =Sons of the Vikings.= An Orkney Story. By JOHN GUNN, + M.A., D.Sc. With Illustrations by JOHN WILLIAMSON. + + + =Sons of Freedom;= or, The Fugitives from Siberia. By + FRED. WHISHAW, Author of "Harold the Norseman," "A + Lost Army," "Boris the Bear-Hunter," etc. With + numerous Illustrations. + + + + + Books for the Home Circle. + + _Post 8vo, cloth extra. Price 2s. each._ + + + =The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which + is to Come.= Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream. + By JOHN BUNYAN. With Mason's Notes, and Eight + full-page Illustrations. + + + =The Children's Champion, and the Victories He Won.= + Pictures from the Life of "The Good Earl," Lord + Shaftesbury. By LUCY TAYLOR. + + _A simple and touching account of the life and work of + one who nobly strove to fulfil the law of Christ, + "Bear ye one another's burdens." It is admirably + fitted to arouse the interest and enlist the sympathy + of the young, and to fire them with a holy ambition to + follow the example of one who was a real and not + simply an ideal hero._ + + + =Favourite Narratives for the Christian Household.= + Containing--THE SHEPHERD OF SALISBURY + PLAIN--DAIRYMAN'S DAUGHTER--YOUNG COTTAGER, etc. + + _This is a suitable book to put into the hands of + Sunday-school scholars._ + + + =Going on Pilgrimage.= A Companion to the "Pilgrim's + Progress," for Young Pilgrims. By LUCY TAYLOR, Author + of "The Children's Champion, and the Victories He + Won." + + _An outline, with running comments and moral + reflections, of the "Pilgrim's Progress," designed to + imbue the minds of the young with the lofty aims of + John Bunyan in writing his unique allegory._ + + + =Home for the Holidays.= By MRS. C. C. CAMPBELL, Author + of "Natural History for Young Folks," etc. Twenty + Illustrations. + + _An attractive book for children, which, along with a + simple narrative, includes some interesting facts of + natural science, historical legends, etc._ + + + =The King's Highway=; or, Illustrations of the + Commandments. By Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. With + numerous Engravings. + + _Addresses for the young on each Commandment, with + illustrative anecdotes and hymns._ + + + =The Life of John Knox.= With Biographical Notices of + the Principal Reformers, and Sketches of the Progress + of Literature in Scotland during a great part of the + Sixteenth Century. By Rev. THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D., Author + of "Life of Andrew Melville." + + + =Philip.= A Story of the First Century. By MARY C. + CUTLER. + + "_The authoress writes in a charmingly simple style, + so that the book will be read with delight by the + children; yet it has a force and suggestiveness that + will make it edifying to the adult reader._"--N. B. + DAILY MAIL. + + + =Seed-Time and Harvest=; or, Sow Well and Reap Well. A + Book for the Young. By the late Rev. W. K. TWEEDIE, + D.D. + + _This book is eminently a practical one. It shows the + reader, by illustration and example, the necessary + results of good and bad conduct, and invites him to + choose the right course._ + + + =Seeking a Country=; or, The Home of the Pilgrims. By + the Rev. E. N. HOARE, M.A., Rector of Acrise, Kent; + Author of "Heroism in Humble Life," "Roe Carson's + Enemy," etc. + + _A historical tale, founded on the first voyage of the + "Mayflower," and the early experiences of the Pilgrim + Fathers. With a portrait of Captain Miles Standish, + and many other interesting illustrations._ + + + T. NELSON AND SONS, London, Edinburgh, and New York. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected. + +In Chapter I, a period was added after "To be sure". + +In Chapter IV, a period was added after "better to be beforehand with +them". + +The name Zokoli/Zokoly is spelled inconsistently in the original text. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Matthias and the Beggar Boy, by +Nicholas Josika + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY *** + +***** This file should be named 36816.txt or 36816.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/1/36816/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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