by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XI.
THE FIRST SPARK.
Maria Kamienszka talked for the whole of a long hour with the General'swife.
She told her all she knew of that unhappy family, whose fate was boundup with the General's by such tragic memories.
She had learnt to know the disowned and rejected son as a gallant youngofficer in Galicia, and the relations which had sprung up between themwere the tenderest imaginable.
The calamity which compelled the youth to fly had profoundly affectedbut not overwhelmed her, for Maria, with that virile determination whichhas so frequently distinguished the Polish women, had followed up thetrack of the vanished youth step by step, and when, at last, she haddiscovered him, she had devoted all the ingenuity of a loving heart tothe desperate task of saving him.
The enthusiastic words of the girl had electrified Cornelia Vertessy;indeed, she, the gentler, calmer of the two, was quite carried away byMaria's courage, energy, readiness of resource and impulsiveenthusiasm, so that she considered the most fantastic projects which thePolish lady elaborated on the spur of the moment with the rapidity ofcloud formation, as perfectly natural and feasible.
They agreed between them that old Hetfalusy and his son-in-law should bebrought together to the General's, that Cornelia, at the same time,should present to them the child who was believed to have perished,Maria undertaking to get it from its adopted father. They argued thatthe scene which would ensue, when the father and grandfather recognisedthe child they so ardently longed to see could not fail to touch theheart of the General, who at the same instant, when the grandfatherrecovered his grandchild, would complete the old man's joy by presentinghim with his son also.
The dear conspirators had calculated all contingencies, and the wholething seemed to them as feasible as it was romantic, and therefore boundto succeed ... but they forgot that Fate was, after all, mine host, andthat the reckoning was in mine host's own hands and not in theirs.
Nevertheless, Maria, dressed in her masculine attire, which best suitedher present purpose, mounted her nag again, and hastened off towardsHetfalu. On her way she posted a letter in which she instructed oldHetfalusy to get into his carriage and hasten to town as soon aspossible, she herself meant to go straight to the headsman's dwelling.
It was already late when she turned into the main-road. The sun hadalready sunk, and there was in the sky that red glare, so trying to theeyes, which envelops every object in a yellow light and obliteratesevery shadow. In the western sky blood-red rays, like the spokes of awheel, cut up the oddly-coloured sky into segments; while in theopposite, eastern firmament, solar rays of a similar description rosebrown and lofty, like the horns of the crown of an avenging angel.
There was a sombre air of homelessness about the whole region. Not abird was flying in the air, no cattle were grazing in the fields, eventhe merry chirp of the crickets was no longer to be heard in the waysideditches. The road itself was overgrown with grass on both sides, scarceleaving room for a little winding ribbon of a track in the centre, andeven there the ruts, which the last luckless cart had left behind it,were hidden by weeds. It was weeks since anybody had passed that way,for every village was afraid of the village next to it, every manavoided his neighbour, and feared to look upon his face.
The lanes and byeways had been quite abandoned, they were onlydistinguishable by the luxuriant crop of weeds which covered them--weedsmore rampant and of darker colour than were to be found elsewhere. Thewhole land looked just as it used to look in the olden times after aTartar invasion.
The horse trotted along all alone, before and behind him there was notrace either of man or beast, the rider looked round about her with amelancholy eye.
Here and there on both sides of the road crooked trees were tottering totheir fall. They had been stripped bare by the devastating army ofcaterpillars, and instead of their beautiful green leaves they wereclothed with the rags of dusty spider-webs; further away the fruitlessorchards looked as if they had been burnt with fire, and, stretching tothe horizon, as far as the eye could reach, the arid corn-fields had theappearance of being covered with nothing but scrappy stubble.
The atmosphere was oppressive and lay like a stifling weight on thebreast of man; and if, now and then, a faint breath of air flittedlanguidly over the country, it was as burning hot as if it had just comeout of the mouth of a blast-furnace, and only increased the exhaustingsensation of oppression.
Then slowly, very slowly, it began to grow dark. There was a long blackstripe all along the edge of the sky, which gradually bulged out into asort of black veil, and as the infrequent stars twinkled forth in thepallid sky, this dark veil blotted them out one by one; it was just asif some mighty spirit-hand had drawn a crape curtain across a funeralvault bright with glittering lamps.
It was already midnight when Maria Kamienszka perceived the firstroadside _csarda_[10] which, according to her calculations, lay midwaybetween the county-town and Hetfala. In the midnight gloom and silenceit was easier to distinguish distant sounds than to clearly recognisenear objects.
[Footnote 10: Inn.]
It seemed to Maria as if she heard a medley of despairing yells andsavage maledictions, and dimly discernible masses of men were moving upand down all round the house.
Instinctively she felt for the pistols in her saddle bow--there theywere in their proper place.
In a few moments she was close up to the house and perceived clearly atlast, with a tremor of horror, the spectacle that had long been engagingher attention.
Some hundreds of peasants, the dregs of the agricultural population,were swarming in and out of the _csarda_ door, savagely singing andshouting. Two large casks had been planted in front of the house, theirbottoms had been stoved in, and those of the mob who had got near enoughwere ladling out the brandy they contained in their hats. Some of thesegentlemen could only keep their legs at all by leaning upon the objectnearest to them. A white-bearded Jew had been tied to the leg of a chairplaced between the two casks. The drunken mob was bestowing most of itsattention upon him, and pulling out his beard hair by hair as theycross-examined him. The tortured victim was howling horribly, but wouldgive his tormentors no answer, only from time to time he implored themto spare his innocent daughter. A childish shape, evidently a woman's,was lying across the threshold, and everyone going in and out of thedoor gave it a kick as he passed through. Fortunately she felt nothingmore now.
Maria, full of indignation, spurred her horse right into the midst ofthe mob that was tormenting the old innkeeper, and exclaimed in a voiceof virile assurance:
"What are you all doing here?"
The mob only first perceived the horse when it was right amongst them.
A young lout with a stumpy nose, which had evidently been broken sometime or other, a bare breast, and a shock of ragged hair covering hisface, answered the question.
"We are paying off a poisoner, young sir, if you must know."
"What poisoner do you mean?" inquired Maria, who had not the remotestidea what the fellow was driving at.
"What!" cried the stripling defiantly, "do you mean to say you don'tknow? Why, haven't the gentry got the Jews to put poison in the brandy!Why, everyone knows that."
Maria was so dumfounded that she had not a word to say in reply.
"Look! how he pretends to know nothing about it. But we are up to them.They may weave their plans as artfully as they like, we've got eyes inour heads all the same. All is betrayed. Come, thou Jew! confess thatthere is poison in that cask!"
And yet they all went on drinking out of the barrel as if they had madeup their minds to discover what poison really tasted like.
The lout of a spokesman now filled his hat with brandy up to the brim,and held it out towards Maria.
"Come, young sir," said he, "if you don't believe that there's poison init, just taste for yourself and see."
Maria, full of loathing, pushed aside the dirty hat-full of nauseousfluid.
"You see! he won't drink it! he kno
ws there is poison in it."
"Pull him off his horse!" cried a voice from the midst of the crowd.
"We ought to hang him up where the Hetfalusy squires are going to behung!" roared the others.
The dirty lout, who had offered her brandy, quickly seized the horse'sbridle, and several of the mob stretched out their hands towards Maria.
These savage menaces acted like a stimulant upon the Polish lady, sherecovered her presence of mind instantly. She brought down the roundknob of her riding-whip like lightning on the head of the fellow who wastrying to hold her horse back, and he fell like a log prone to theground. Then giving her good steed the spur she leaped clear of theencircling mob. A bludgeon came whizzing after her just above her head,and the belated sweeping strokes of a couple of scythes just missed her.One or two agile young ruffians even set off after her, and as two largewaggons lay right across her path a little further on, they made sure ofovertaking her there. But the lady, with a single bound, leaped over theobstacle, whereupon her pursuers remained behind, but as she turned herback upon them they sent after her a horrible yell of laughter. "That'sright, go on!" she heard them cry, "you are going to a good place, whereyou'll be well looked after--ha, ha, ha!"
Maria had only proceeded a few hundred paces when she was thunderstruckto perceive that her horse was beginning to limp. More than once itstumbled heavily, and suddenly it went dead lame.
The good steed, when it leaped the obstruction, must assuredly havesprained its front leg.
Presently it could scarce put one foot before the other, and Maria wasobliged to tighten the reins continually to relieve the poor beast andprevent it from stumbling as much as possible. It was as well that herpursuers had abandoned the chase, for she could scarce have hoped toescape from them now.
But what sort of disorderly mob could this be? Maria, now growingthoroughly alarmed, began to ask herself; a mob which had the audacityto indulge in such excesses in the midst of a civilised, constitutionalstate, in despite of all law and order? She had not the remotest ideathat it was a widespread rebellion of the most horrible description.
Meanwhile, that black curtain had been drawn right across the sky, thewhole region was in pitch-black darkness, one star after another hadbeen blotted out, the horse hung its head and frequently whinnied. Mariafelt that she could no longer remain safely in her saddle, fearing asshe did that the horse might at any moment fall head foremost. So shedismounted, and letting the reins hang over her arm, led the horse alongbeside her.
It was hard to discern the grass-grown path in the darkness, and Mariaimmediately directed her footsteps towards a bright light in front ofher a long way off, which seemed to proceed from the windows of somewayside house.
As she drew nearer to this house it seemed to her as if masses of menwere flitting backwards and forwards, and the din of many voices struckupon her ear.
And now it suddenly dawned upon her why her pursuers had laughed soloudly when they saw her take refuge in this direction, here also theroad was barred.
For an instant she stopped short. Feminine weakness for a moment tookpossession of her heart, and a shudder ran suddenly through her wholebody; it was one of those instinctive feelings of panic which we cannotexplain to ourselves. Where can I take refuge? she thought. Shall Iforsake the road and venture amidst the strange woods beyond? Then shebethought her on what errand she had come, and she trembled no longer,but drew forth her pistols from her holsters, looked well to theirpriming, placed one under her arm, took the other in her hand, and tyingthe horse to a tree by the roadside (for, indeed, of what further usewas he now?), resolutely directed her steps towards the noisy mob.
It was now so dark that it would have been easy to have avoided themaltogether by making a short circuit, but that sort of perilouscuriosity which often urges men to thrust themselves into the verysituations from which they instinctively shrink, would not now permither to turn from her purpose of penetrating those howling masses thereand then.
Only when she was already in the midst of them did they become aware ofher.
"Stop!" resounded on every side of her, and the point of a scythepressed against the breast of the intruder.
In the moment of danger Maria recovered in an instant all her presenceof mind.
"Give me room! two paces at the least!" she cried with a clarion-likevoice. "A step nearer and I shoot! What do you want here?"
At the sight of the pistol the sordid mob drew back. If she had wishedto proceed the path now lay clear and unobstructed before her.
But now she had changed her mind. This nocturnal spectacle had put itinto her head that here was some evil plot afoot against the Hetfalusyfamily. She must find out what it was, and if possible defeat it. So sherepeated her question:
"What are you doing here?"
At that moment the door of the wayside house opened, and out came ThomasBodza with a lamp in his hand.
"Who is talking here?" he asked, peering all around him into thedarkness.
Some timorous peasant lads behind the door pointed out to him the newarrival, at the same time calling his attention to the fact that thestranger had a pistol in his hand, and it was therefore not advisable togo near him.
The master, however, boldly advanced towards Maria, and held the lamphigh above his head the better to read the intruder's face.
"What a fine head that young squire has," growled shaggy Hanak behindhis back, "it would look very well on the point of my scythe."
"Hush!" said the master. "I want to speak to him! Who are you, sir, andwhat do you want?"
"That is what I don't mean to tell to the first blockhead I meet. Firstof all I should like to know who you are. If you are robbers I shalldefend myself against you to the best of my ability; if you are fools Ishall try to enlighten you; if you are brave and honest men I will shakehands with you."
The last idea only occurred to Maria when she caught sight of Bodza'sface. She had encountered such enthusiasts before now, and had hadopportunities of studying them.
Bodza's eyes sparkled.
"We are neither robbers, nor fools, but brave men in very deed, who arebattling for one great brotherhood, from the icy sea to the warmsea."[11]
[Footnote 11: _I.e._, From the White Sea to the Black Sea; he meant theSlavs.]
Maria at once stuck her pistol into her breast-pocket andconfidentially extended her hand to the master.
"Then I greet thee, my brother, I have just come from Russia."
Thomas Bodza squinted suspiciously at Maria, and holding the iron ringon his little finger right in front of her eyes, inquired:
"Dost thou then know the meaning of these three letters: U. S. S.?"
Maria answered with a smile:
"_Ud slovenske stridnosce._"[12]
[Footnote 12: "Member of the Slavonic League;" the language is Slovak.]
Then the master did indeed press the hand offered to him.
"Come inside!" said he, himself escorting the stranger, whilst thepeasants, obsequiously raising their caps, made a way for them right upto the door.
The master dismissed everyone from the room, and when they two werealone asked excitedly in Russian:
"You come from Russia, you say? From what part of Russia?"
"From the eternal city where stand the golden gates of the Kremlin,"answered Maria, also in the Russian tongue.
All Bodza's doubts instantly disappeared.
"What news in the Empire since the death of Romulus?"
Maria knew very well whom was meant by Romulus. It was none other thanMuraviev, who was to be the builder of the walls of the new Rome, whichwas ere long to be the Lord of the whole earth.
Maria was no proselyte of this extravagant confederacy, but, living, asshe did, nearer to the main source of it all, she was better able, withthe assistance of current rumours and her own lively imagination, toamuse Thomas Bodza with more fables than he could have told her.
"Romulus is not dead, Romulus is still alive," whispered she to theinter
rogator mysteriously.
"How so?" asked Bodza, much surprised; "where is he then?"
"He has disappeared--like Romulus. The Gods have taken him!"--and Mariasmiled enigmatically, as if she could reveal a great deal more if sheonly chose.
Bodza seized her hand violently.
"And in his own time he will appear again, eh?"
The only answer Maria gave was to press his hand significantly.
"Then it is true that they have not beheaded him?" continued the masterexcitedly, "and one of his good spiritual brethren sacrificed himself inhis stead?"
"It was my own brother," said Maria, covering her eyes with her hands.Then she suddenly placed her hand on the master's shoulder. "Weep notfor him!" she cried. "Look! _I_ do not weep, and yet he was my brother.Romulus still lives and demands sacrifice and obedience from us all."
The master pressed Maria's hand still more warmly.
"What is thy name, my beloved brother?"
"My name is Fabius Cunctator!" said Maria, well aware of the weakness ofthese visionaries for classical names.
"_My_ name is Numa Pompilius," said Bodza, tossing back his head withproud self-consciousness. "Numa Pompilius, ever true to the good cause,fervent in action, lucid in counsel, pitiless in execution, and fearlessin peril."
And again they pressed each other's hands in a fiery masonic grip, andall the while Maria was thinking: how I long to seize the dry skinnythroat of this fervent, pitiless, and fearless man while he is spoutinghis finest, and throttle him on the spot.
"So you have raised the standard of revolt, eh?" inquired Maria of thevaliant Numa Pompilius, "who gave you the signal?"
"Heaven and Earth," replied the master. "Heaven which sends death downupon the people, and Earth which opens her mouth to receive their deadbodies. Never was there a better opportunity than now. The terribledestroying angel is going from house to house, and striding from villageto village, bringing with him wherever he goes sorrow and terror. Menperceive that life is cheap and that it can't last long. Desperation hassevered every bond between masters and servants, creditors and debtors,superiors and inferiors. It needs but one spark to ignite the wholemass. That spark has already been kindled."
"How?"
"A blind rumour has begun to circulate among the masses to the effectthat the gentry are about to poison their peasants _en masse_."
Maria looked at the master in amazement.
"But is there anyone who believes such a thing?"
"The tales of wayfarers first spread the rumour, the thoughtless speechof a drunken apothecary's assistant established it, intercepted letterswritten by the gentry to one another served as confirmatory testimony."
"And the gentry actually wrote to each other that they were about topoison the peasants?"
"No, but those who read out these letters to the people, took care tofind therein things that had never been written down."
In her horror and disgust Maria had been on the point of betrayingherself.
"Oh! I see. You read out forged letters to the illiterate people. A veryjudicious expedient, I must say. Village folks can be got to believeanything. But how about the townsfolk?"
"Oh! in the towns there is even more fear than in the country, and moreterrifying rumours too. But one loud cry and the walls of Jericho willfall down--fall down where nobody expected it."
An idea suddenly flashed like lightning through Maria's brain.
"Have our brethren who dwell on the banks of the Drave[13] and amongthe mountains of Chernagora[14] been informed of this movement?" sheasked.
[Footnote 13: The Croats and Serbs.]
[Footnote 14: The Montenegrins.] The master, somewhat confused, repliedthat they had not.
"Then all our fine preparations will lead to nothing," rejoined Maria,with self-assumed despondency. "While you are awake in one place theyare asleep in another; in one spot the flames are bursting forth, inanother they are being extinguished. Why, they ought to have flashedforth everywhere at once. Have you issued proclamations?"
"No," replied Bodza shamefacedly.
"Then, Numa Pompilius, you know not what you are about," cried Maria."Why, that was the first, the one absolutely indispensable thing to bedone. You should have sent proclamations in every direction, you shouldhave kept the local leaders fully informed of what was going on, youshould have concentrated the whole force of the movement, you shouldhave thoroughly systematized the whole concern. Ah! Numa, I see you arebut a neophyte after all. Why did you begin without inviting the aid ofthe Poles? This is just the sort of thing a Pole would understand! Haveyou writing materials handy?"
Startled into obsequiousness, Bodza produced ink and paper from somesecret receptacle. He was humbly silent now. He felt himself in thepresence of a man wiser than himself.
"And now sit down and write!"
Bodza obeyed mechanically. Maria dictated to him what he was to write,while she herself, at the same time, was writing something else onanother piece of paper.
"BRETHREN!
"The long expected hour has at length struck. The flag is unfurled. The gentry want to extirpate us by means of poison, we will extirpate them with fire and sword. The brave shall live, the cowards shall die. Ye, who see your children, your parents tormented and grovelling in the dust, snatch up your arms and avenge them. Fear not the soldiers, they also will be on our side. Let none go who has short-cropped hair. Two deputies must proceed forthwith from every village to Hetfalu, which is to be the centre of our operations, and there await our further instructions. Valour and concord.
"Given at our headquarters near Hetfala."
"Write your name beneath it: 'Numa Pompilius, praetor of UpperPannonia.'"
Thomas Bodza, with a spasmodic grin, accepted this title of distinction,and added his sprawling signature to the dangerous document.
Then Maria snatched up a pen, and subscribed it with the name: FabiusCunctator, quaestor of Volhynia.
Then both documents were sealed with the famous signet ring, bearing thethree mysterious letters, and also with Maria's family seal.
"And now send one of the documents by a rapid horseman to the Nyitradistrict, while I hasten with the other towards Slavonia. Meanwhile, youwill organize here a standing army. You have already arranged, Isuppose, to procure provisions and uniforms?"
Thomas Bodza confessed with a blush that he had _not_ taken thought forthese things.
"Well, write as soon as possible an open order to the presidents of theTailor and Cobbler Guilds of Kassa and Rozsnyo, commanding each of themto provide, without fail, within ten days four thousand pairs of bootsand just as many dolmans and szuers,[15] and send them in carts toHetfalu, otherwise you will levy upon them a grievous contribution."
[Footnote 15: A szuer is a sheepskin mantle such as the peasants wear.]
This letter also Thomas Bodza wrote as he had been told. "These Poleshave had such lots of practice in such matters," thought he to himself.
"And now despatch one of these open orders by a swift courier toRozsnyo, and the other I will take charge of. Do not forget to havenumerous copies made of these proclamations for instant distributionthroughout the length and breadth of the kingdom."
Bodza promised to make his pupils copy out the documents in questionearly on the following morning.
"And now, my brave Numa, don't forget that our watchword is: 'Valour andConcord!' Of valour we have no lack, but as regards concord I wouldfirst of all have you know why they call me Fabius Cunctator. Myprinciple is: judicious procrastination! It was a premature signal, youwill remember, which ruined the plots of Romulus II. If only he hadwaited for another half day, for another six hours, his enterprise wouldhave been a triumphant success. Only over-hastiness ruined us then. Lesta similar risk should befall us now, I would strongly advise you topostpone the general rising till to-morrow afternoon. To-morrowafternoon all the soldiery will quit Kassa for Eperies, and they willnot be relieved for two whole days.
You will now understand thereforewhy I want the rising postponed till to-morrow afternoon."
The master turned very pale.
"Too late now!" said he.
"How so?" exclaimed Maria confounded.
"All my orders have been distributed already."
"Then they must be recalled."
"It's impossible, impossible," cried the master, wringing his hands; andhe glanced anxiously, from time to time, through the window, throughwhich a far distant reddish light was beginning to illuminate the room."They have already fired the house of the headsman."
"What!" cried Maria beside herself.
"That was to be the beginning of it. It is impossible now to hold themback any longer."
"Oh, fools and madmen!" hissed the lady. Her immediate impulse was torush from the room. At the door, however, she recovered her _sangfroid_, and, turning back, clutched Bodza by the arm and whispered inhis ear:
"There is now only one remaining way of gaining a complete victory."
"What is that?"
"We must revolt the county-town also. If we succeed we shall have theGeneral as a hostage, if we do not, at least we shall give the soldierssomething to do."
Thomas Bodza, with his teeth all chattering, approved of this project.He would, however, have very much liked to know who would undertake thisdangerous enterprise.
Never had Maria had to exercise such self-control as now, when, gazingthrough the window into the night, she watched with the utmost _sangfroid_ the distant conflagration which was lighting up the room.
For an instant the thought of what was happening there and what might behappening elsewhere flashed through her brain. She saw vividly beforeher all those midnight horrors, and all the time she had to affect anenthusiastic interest in the affair.
"Numa Pompilius, we must make haste! Have you a good steed handy here?Mine I have left behind on the road, it was no longer of any service tome."
"Be it so, Fabius! It was my first care to seize all the post-horses inorder that the authorities should not send forth couriers forassistance. You see that I am provident. Choose the best horse foryourself and hasten whither you would. I entrust this province to you."
Bodza was magnanimous. The department of greatest danger and the gloryof conquest he entrusted to another.
"I will hasten," cried Maria, flinging open the door--and for somemoments she remained standing on the threshold. "Numa!" she cried atlast, "you would let me depart alone?"
"Why not?"
"You are making a mistake. The popular leaders might be suspicious.Suppose they took me for a spy or a traitor? Never put your wholeconfidence in a single person. Always send forth your emissaries incouples, that one of them may be a check upon the other. That is ageneral rule. I am surprised that you have not learnt it hitherto."
Thomas Bodza admitted his mistake, but of course Fabius had had so muchmore experience in these matters. An escort he must have certainly.
Maria, on the other hand, required an escort in order to avoid beingagain detained by the mobs of rustics encamped in front of the _csarda_.
"Bring hither two good horses!" cried Bodza to the boor mounting guardin the corridor, and with that the pair of them stepped forth amidst thepeasant host.
The peasants were scattered about in groups. Here and there some of themwere engaged in sharpening their scythes. Others were standing roundexcited stump-orators, or making a frightful uproar over a few pencewhich they had found upon some poor Jewish tramp and would not dividefairly.
"My friends!" cried Maria, stepping into the midst of them, and speakingin a friendly confident tone, "can I find among you half a dozenstouthearted dare-devils who are ready, if necessary, to go through fireand water?"
The gaping rioters did not respond very willingly at first, but whenThomas Bodza assured them that they now saw before them one of the mostpowerful leaders of the movement, ten or twenty of them forced their wayto the front, boasting loudly that they were prepared to face anydanger.
"Remember this is no joke, my sons," continued Maria. "Are you ready toadventure yourselves with me in the county-town, read the proclamationin the streets, stir up the people there, provide yourselves withweapons and powder, and seize all the bigwigs at one stroke like a packof wolves in a spinney?"
This little speech somewhat abated the ardour of the more clamorousheroes, yet two or three youths, well soaked with brandy, stillpersisted in beating their breasts with their fists, and declared thatthey were men enough for anything.
Maria selected from among them shaggy Hanak. The fellow had a face asbroad as it was long, one half of which was covered with hair, the otherwith bristles; it was impossible not to take to him at once.
"You shall come with me. Mount on the other horse."
Shaggy Hanak did not wait for a second invitation. He managed somehow toscramble on to the horse's back, and could not help smiling with joy atthe thought that at last he had a good steed beneath him.
Maria leaped lightly on to the second horse. It was a somewhat lean andbony beast of great powers of endurance.
"To-morrow about this time you shall hear of us," she said, addressingherself to Bodza. "Till then avoid every decisive step. Whomsoever youmay capture keep a strict watch upon them, and see that no harm befallthem. Do you take me? It is possible that the captives may attempt toput an end to their own lives. But we shall require them all on accountof their confessions. Therefore take care of their lives. We must judgeeach one of them separately. Numa! take care to be ubiquitous. Valourand vigilance!"
Then, after pressing Thomas Bodza's hand once more, Maria put spurs toher horse and galloped briskly along the high road. As for the horse ofher comrade it had to be almost dragged out of the courtyard, as itshowed a disposition to force its rider to return to the stable. Onlywith the utmost difficulty did Hanak succeed in overtaking Maria,pursued by the yells of encouragement and exultation of the mob he hadleft behind him.
Maria pounded along the highway, glancing aside from time to time in thedirection of the burning house, the conflagration of which lit up theovercast sky, tinging the clouds with an angry purple. The wind drovethe lurid smoke hither and thither. There was as steady a glare as if awhole village was in flames. As they sped further and further away theflames lit up the road and the wayside trees, and the towering masses ofclouds ever less and less. At last all that was to be seen was a largeblood-red star rising from the plain, a mere point of light far, faraway. Then even that vanished. Soon afterwards day began to dawn. Thecinder-grey sky reduced the nightly glare to ashes, and a dark greycolumn of smoke, standing out against the pale yellow horizon, was theonly sign left of the conflagration.
On approaching the next _csarda_, Maria allowed Hanak to draw nearer toher; her escort had to explain to the mob of peasants drinking in frontof the door on what errand they were speeding. He did so in his usualboisterous bombastic fashion.
"We are going to town," bawled he. "We are going to read theproclamation and collar the soldiers and the bigwigs, and bring backwith us guns and gunpowder, and lots of money. This is the courier."
Hoarsely bellowed "Eljens!" greeted this magnanimous resolution. Aguffawing scytheman, moreover, pressed with his horny palm the hand ofMaria, for whom shaggy Hanak, in the fervour of his enthusiasm, couldfind no more important title than that of "courier."
As the day slowly began to dawn, the sobering breath of the freshmorning breeze blew full in the faces of the horsemen, and the towersof the county-town stood out plainly before them in the distance. Andnow Maria began to observe that her companion was lagging behind her ata considerable distance. More than once she had to shout back to him:
"My brother! don't drop behind so!"
"My horse is tired out," stammered Hanak, and he kept on mopping up thesweat from his towzled poll.
"Give him the spur, then!"
"I would if I had 'em."
"Then ride in front of me, and I'll whip him up from behind."
And so they
went along pretty well for some time, but when the towersand steeples of the county-town drew very much nearer, shaggy Hanakbegan to complain that his saddle was nearly falling off.
"Dismount, then, and fix it tighter!"
The fellow dismounted accordingly, but he was fumbling about with itsuch a long time that Maria, growing impatient, herself leaped to theground and tightened his saddle-girths.
"And now up you get and off again!"
Shaggy Hanak stuck all five fingers into his hairy poll and scratchedhis head all round beneath his cap, then suddenly, with an artful grin,he turned his face towards Maria.
"Hark ye! Are we really going into the town?"
"Of course we are."
"And you really intend to read out the proclamation, to seize theGeneral, take away the guns, and capture the barrack?"
"Yes, and much more besides, when the business has been fairly begun."
Shaggy Hanak began to scratch his head still harder, and seemed to havea thousand and one things to put to rights in the horse's trappings. Atlast he came out with the following proposition:
"Listen, comrade! Don't you think it would be better if, when you wentinto the town, I remained outside and read the proclamation to all thepeople coming to market?"
"You can read then?"
"Read! A pretty sort of sexton I should be if I couldn't read!"
"Very well. I rather like your idea;" whereupon Maria drew from herside-pocket a couple of cigars wrapped up in part of an odd number ofthe Leutschau county newspaper, and gave the sheet to her valiantcomrade, who glanced over it with the air of a connoisseur, and, afterdeclaring aloud that he quite grasped its meaning, folded it neatly up,and stuck it in the braiding of his cap.
"I'll read it in my best style," said he, "and will come to yourassistance at the head of a fresh band of them."
Maria approved of his design, and, whipping up her horse, gallopedtowards the town at such a rate that shaggy Hanak felt constrained topray Heaven that his comrade might not break his neck before he gotthere.
