A GLANCE INTO A PISTOL-BARREL
The weather changed very rapidly, for all the world as if two evil
demons were fighting for the earth: one with fire, the other with ice.
It was the middle of May; it had become so sultry that the earth, which
last week had been frozen to dry bones, now began to crack.
The wanderer who disappeared from our sight we shall find on that plain
of Lower Hungary, where there are as many high roads as cart-ruts.
It is evening, but the sun had just set, and left a cloudless ruddy sky
behind it. On the horizon two or three towers are to be seen so far
distant that the traveller who is hurrying before us cannot hope to
reach any one of them by nightfall.
The dust had not so overlaid him, nor had the sun so tanned his face
that we cannot recognize in these handsome noble features the pride of
the youth of Pressburg, Lorand.
The long journey he has accomplished has evidently not impaired the
strength of his muscles, for the horseman who is coming behind him, has
to ride hard to overtake him.
The latter leaned back in his shortened stirrups, after the manner of
hussars, and wore a silver-buttoned jacket, a greasy hat, and ragged red
trousers. Thrown half over his shoulders was a garment of wolf-skins;
around his waist was a wide belt from which two pistol-barrels gleamed,
while in the leg of one of his boots a silver-chased knife was thrust.
The horse's harness was glittering with silver, just as the ragged,
stained garments of its master.
The rider approached at a trot, but the traveller had not yet thought
it worth while to look back and see who was coming after him. Presently
he came up to the solitary figure, trudging along, doggedly.
"Good evening, student."
Lorand looked up at him.
"Good evening, gypsy."
At these words the horseman drew aside his skin-mantle that the student
might see the pistol-barrels, and consider that even if he were a gypsy,
he was something more than a mere musician. But Lorand did not betray
the slightest emotion: he did not even take down from his shoulder the
stick, on which he was carrying his boots. He was walking bare-footed.
It was cheaper.
"Oh, you are proud of your red boots!" sneered the rider, looking down
at Lorand's bare-feet.
"It's easy for you to say so," was Lorand's sharp reply; "sitting on
that hack."
But "hack" means a kind of four-footed animal which this rider found no
pleasure in hearing mentioned.[54]
[Footnote 54: The Magyar word has a double meaning; besides a horse it
means a peculiar whipping-bench with which gypsies used to be
particularly well acquainted.]
"My own training," he said proudly, as if in self-defence against this
cutting remark.
"I know. I knew that even in my scapegrace days."
"Well, and where are you hobbling to now, student?"
"I am going to Csege, gypsy, to preach."
"What do you get from the 'legatio' for that, student?"
"Twenty silver florins, gypsy."
"Do you know what, student? I have an idea--don't go just yet to Csege,
but turn aside here to the shepherd's where you see that fold. Wait
there for me till to-morrow, when I shall come back, and preach your
sermon to me: I have never yet heard anything of the kind, and I'll give
you forty florins for it."
"Oh no, gypsy; do you turn aside to yonder fold. Don't go just now to
the farm, but wait a week for me; when I shall come back; then you can
fiddle my favorite tune, and I'll give you ten florins for it."
"I am no musician," replied the horseman, extending his chest.
"What's that rural fife doing at your side?" The gypsy roared at the
idea of calling his musket a "rural fife!" Many had paid dearly so as
not to hear its notes!
"You student, you are a deuce of a fellow. Take a draught from my
'noggin.'"
"No, thanks, gypsy; it isn't spiritual enough to go with my sermon."[55]
[Footnote 55: Lorand really quoted a sentence from a popular ditty, but
it is impossible in such cases to do proper justice to the original.
The whole passage between Lorand and the gypsy is full of allusions
intelligible only to Hungarians, _in Hungarian_, a proper rendering of
which, in my opinion, baffles all attempts. Of course the force of the
original is lost, but it is unavoidable.]
The gypsy laughed still more loudly.
"Well, good night, student."
He drove his spurs into his horse and galloped on along the high-road.
Then the evening drew in quietly. Lorand reached a grassy mound, shaded
by juniper bushes. This spot he chose for his night-camp in preference
to the wine-reeking, stenching rooms of the way-side inns. Putting on
his boots, he drew from his wallet some bread and bacon, and commenced
eating. He found it good: he was hungry and young.
Scarcely had he finished his repast when, along the same road on which
the horseman had come, rapidly approached a five-in-hand. The three
leaders were supplied with bells and their approach could be heard from
afar off.
Lorand called out to the coachman,
"Stop a moment, fellow-countryman."
The coachman pulled up his horses.
"Quickly," he said to Lorand, with a hoarse voice, "get up at once, sir
'legatus,' beside me. The horses will not stand."
"That was not what I wanted to say," remarked Lorand. "I did not want to
ask you to take me up, but to tell you to be on your guard, for a
highwayman has just gone on in front, and it would be ill to meet with
him."
"Have you much money?"
"No."
"Nor have I. Then why should we fear the robber?"
"Perhaps those who are sitting inside the carriage?"
"Her ladyship is sitting within and is now asleep. If I awake her and
frighten her, and then we don't find the highwayman she will break the
whip over my back. Get up here. It will be good to travel as far as
Lankadomb in a carriage, 'sblood.'"
"Do you live at Lankadomb?" asked Lorand in a tone of surprise.
"Yes. I am Topandy's servant. He is a very fine fellow, and is very fond
of people who preach."
"I know him by reputation."
"Well, if you know him by reputation, you will do well to make his
personal acquaintance, too. Get up, now."
Lorand put the meeting down as a lucky chance. Topandy's weakness was to
capture men of a priestly turn of mind, keep them at his house and annoy
them. That was just what he wanted, a pretext for meeting him.
He clambered up beside the coachman and under the brilliance of the
starry heaven, the five steeds, with merry tinkling of bells, rattled
the carriage along the turfy road.
The coachman told him they had come from Debreczen: they wished to reach
Lankadomb in the morning, but on the way they would pass an inn, where
the horses would receive feed, while her ladyship would have some cold
lunch: and then they would proceed on their journey. Her ladyship always
loved to travel by night, for then it was not so hot: besides she was
not afraid of anything.
It was about midnight when the carriage drew up at the inn mentioned.
Lorand leaped down from the box, and hastened first into the inn, not
wishing to meet the lady who was within the carriage. His heart beat
loudly, when he caught a glimpse of that silver-harnessed horse in the
inn-yard, saddled and bridled. The steed was not fastened up, but quite
loose, and it gave a peculiar neigh as the coach arrived, at which there
stepped out from a dark door the same man whom Lorand had met on the
plain.
He was utterly astonished to see Lorand.
"You are here already, student?"
"You can see it with your own eyes, gypsy."
"How did you come so quickly?"
"Why, I ride on a dragon: I am a necromancer."
By this time the occupants of the carriage had entered: her ladyship and
a plump, red-faced maid-servant. The former was wrapped in a thick fur
cloak, her head bound with a silken kerchief; the latter wore a short
red mantle, fastened round her neck with a kerchief of many colors,
while her hair was tied with ribbons. Her two hands were full of cold
viands.
"So that was it, eh?" said the rider, as he perceived them. "They
brought you in their carriage." Then, he allowed the new-comers to enter
the parlor peacefully, while he himself took his horse, and, leading it
to the pump, pumped some water into the trough.
Lorand began to think he was not the rascal he thought him, and he now
proceeded into the parlor.
Her ladyship threw back her fur cloak, took off the silken kerchief and
put two candles before her. She trimmed them both, like one who "loves
the beautiful."
You might have called her face very beautiful: she had lively, sparkling
eyes, strong brown complexion, rosy lips, and arched eyebrows: it was
right that such light as there was in the room should burn before her.
In the darkness, on the long bench at the other end of the table, sat
Lorand, who had ordered a bottle of wine, rather to avoid sitting there
for nothing, than to drink the sour vintage of the Lowland.
Beside the bar, on a straw mattress, was sleeping a Slavonian pedler of
holy images, and a wandering jack-of-all-trades; at the bar the
bushy-headed host grinned with doubtful pleasure over such guests, who
brought their own eatables and drinkables with them, and only came to
show their importance.
Lorand had time enough calmly to take in this "ladyship," in whose
carriage he had come so far, and under whose roof he would probably live
later.
She must be a lively, good-natured creature. She shared every morsel
with her servant, and sent what remained to the coachman. Perhaps if she
had known she had another nameless travelling companion, she would have
invited him to the repast. As she ate she poured some rye-whiskey into
her tin plate; to this she added figs, raisins and sugar, and then
lighted it. This beverage is called in our country "krampampuli." It
must be very healthy on a night journey for a healthy stomach.
When the repast was over, the door leading to the courtyard opened: and
there entered the rogue who had been left outside, his hat pressed over
his eyes, and in his hand one of his pistols that he had taken from his
girdle.
"Under the table! under the bed! all whose lives are dear to them!" he
cried, standing in the doorway. At these terrible words the Slavonian
and the other who were sleeping on the floor clambered up into the
chimney-place, the host disappeared into the cellar, banging the door
after him, while the servant hid herself under the bench; then the
robber stepped up to the table and extinguished both candles with his
hat, so that there remained no light on the table save that of the
burning spirit.
The latter gave a weird light. When sugar burns in spirits, a sepulchral
light appears on everything: living faces look like faces of the dead;
all color disappears from them, the ruddiness of the countenance, the
brilliance of the lips, the glitter of the eyes,--all turn green. It is
as if phantoms rose from the grave and were gazing at one another.
Lorand watched the scene in horror.
This gay, smiling woman's face became at once like that of one raised
from the tomb; and that other who stood face to face with her, weapon in
hand, was like Death himself, with black beard and black eyelids.
Yet for one moment it seemed to Lorand as if both were laughing--the
face of the dead and the face of Death, but it was only for a moment;
and perhaps, too, that was merely an illusion.
Then the robber addressed her in a strong, authoritative voice:
"Your money, quickly!"
The woman took her purse, and without a word threw it down on the table
before him.
The robber snatched it up and by the light of the spirit began to
examine its contents.
"What is this?" he asked wrathfully.
"Money," replied the lady briefly, beginning to make a tooth-pick from a
chicken bone with her silver-handled antique knife.
"Money! But how much?" bawled the thief.
"Four hundred florins."
"Four hundred florins," he shrieked, casting the purse down on the
table. "Did I come here for four hundred florins? Have I been lounging
about here a week for four hundred florins? Where is the rest?"
"The rest?" said the lady. "Oh, that is being made at Vienna."
"No joking, now. I know there were two thousand florins in this purse."
"If all that has ever been in that purse were here now, it would be
enough for both of us."
"The devil take you!" cried the thief, beating the table with his fist
so that the spirit flame flickered in the plate. "I don't understand
jokes. In this purse just now there were two thousand florins, the price
of the wool you sold day before yesterday at Debreczen. What has become
of the rest?"
"Come here, I'll give you an account of it," said the lady, counting on
her fingers with the point of the knife. "Two hundred I gave to the
furrier--four hundred to the saddler--three hundred to the grocer--three
hundred to the tailor:--two hundred I spent in the market: count how
much remains."
"None of your arithmetic for me. I only want money, much money! Where is
much money?"
"As I said already, at Koermoecz, in the mint."
"Enough of your foolery!" threatened the highwayman. "For if I begin to
search, you won't thank me for it."
"Well, search the carriage over; all you find in it is yours."
"I shan't search the coach, but you, too, to your skin."
"What?" cried the woman, in a passion; and at that moment her face, with
her knitted eyebrows, became like that of a mythical Fury. "Try
it,"--with these words dashing the knife down into the table, which it
pierced to the depth of an inch.
The thief began to speak in a less presumptuous tone.
"What else will you give me?"
"What else, indeed?" said the lady, throwing herself defiantly back in
her chair. "The devil and his son."
"You have a bracelet on your arm."
"There you are!" said the woman, unclasping the emerald trinket from her
arm, and dashing it on the table.
The thief began to look at it critically.
"What is it worth?"
"I received it as a present: you can get a drink of wine for it in the
nearest inn you reach."
"And there is a beautiful ring sparkling on your finger."
"Let it sparkle."
"I don't believe it cannot come off."
"It will not come off, for I shall not give it." At this moment the
thief suddenly grasped the woman's hand in which she held the knife,
seizing it by the wrist, and while she was writhing in desperate
struggle against the iron grip, with his other hand thrust the end of
his pistol in her mouth.
This awful scene had till now made upon Lorand the impression of the
quarrel of a tipsy husband with his obstinate wife, who answers all his
provocations with jesting: the lady seemed incapable of being
frightened, the thief of frightening. Some unnatural indifference seemed
to give the lie to that scene, which youthful imagination would picture
so differently. The meeting of a thief with an unprotected lady, at
night, in an inn on the plain! It was impossible that they should speak
so to one another.
But as the robber seized the lady's hand, and leaning across the table,
drew her by sheer force towards him, continually threatening the
screaming woman with a pistol, the young man's blood suddenly boiled up
within him. He leaped forward from the darkness, unnoticed by the thief,
crept toward him and seized the rascal's right hand, in which he held
the pistol, while with his other hand he tore the second pistol from the
man's belt.
The highwayman, like some infuriated beast, turned upon his assailant,
and strove to free his arm from the other's grip.
He felt he had to do with one whose wrist was as firm as his own.
"Student!" he snarled, with lips tightly drawn like a wolf, and gnashing
his gleaming white teeth.
"Don't stir," said Lorand, pointing the pistol at his forehead.
The thief saw plainly that the pistol was not cocked: nor could Lorand
have cocked it in this short time. Lorand, as a matter of fact, in his
excitement had not thought of it.
So the highwayman suddenly ducked his head and like a wall-breaking,
battering ram, dealt such a blow with his head to Lorand, that the
latter fell back on to the bench, and while he was forced to let go of
the rascal with his left, he was obliged with his armed right hand to
defend himself against the coming attack.
Then the robber pointed the barrel of the second pistol at his forehead.
"Now it is my turn to say, 'don't stir,' student."
In that short moment, as Lorand gazed into the barrel of the pistol that
was levelled at his forehead, there flashed through his mind this
thought:
"Now is the moment for checkmating the curse of fate and avoiding the
threatened suicide. He who loses his life in the defence of persecuted
and defenceless travellers dies as a man of honor. Let us see this
death."
He rose suddenly before the levelled weapon.
"Don't move or you are a dead man," the thief cried again to him.
But Lorand, face to face with the pistol levelled within a foot of his
head calmly put his finger to the trigger of the weapon he himself held
and drew it back.
At this the thief suddenly sprang back and rushed to the door, so
alarmed that at first he attempted to open it the wrong way.
Lorand took careful aim at him.
But as he stretched out his arm, the lady sprang up from the table,
crept to him and seized his arm, shrieking:
"Don't kill him, oh, don't!"
Lorand gazed at her in astonishment.
The beautiful woman's face was convulsed in a torture of terror: the
staring look in her beautiful eyes benumbed the young man's sinews. As
she threw herself upon his bosom and held down his arms, the embrace
quite crippled him.
The highwayman, seeing he could escape, after much fumbling undid the
bolt of the door. When he was at last able to open it, his gypsy humor
returned to take the place of his fear. He thrust his dishevelled head
in at the half-opened door, and remarked in that broken voice which is
peculiarly that of the terrified man:
"A plague upon you, you devil's cur of a student: student, inky-fingered
student. Had my pistol been loaded, as the other was, which was in your
hand, I would have just given you a pass to hell. Just fall into my
hands again! I know that...."
Then he suddenly withdrew his head, affording a very humorous
illustration to his threat: and like one pursued he ran out into the
court. A few moments later a clatter of hoofs was heard--the robber was
making his escape. When he reached the road he began to swear godlessly,
reproaching and cursing every student, legatus, and hound of a priest,
who, instead of praising God at home, prowled about the high-roads, and
spoiled a hard working man's business. Even after he was far down the
road his loud cursing could still be heard. For weeks that swearing
would fill the air in the bog of Lankadomb, where he had made himself at
home in the wild creature's unapproachable lair.
To Lorand this was all quite bewildering.
The arrogant, almost jesting, conversation, by the light of that
mysterious flame, between a murderous robber and his victim:--the
inexplicable riddle that a night-prowling highwayman should have entered
a house with an empty pistol, while in his belt was another,
loaded:--and then that woman, that incomprehensible figure, who had
laughed at a robber to his face, who had threatened him with a knife as
he pressed her to his bosom, and who, could she have freed herself,
would surely have dealt him such a blow as she had dealt the
table:--that she, when her rescuer was going to shoot her assailant,
should have torn aside his hand in terror and defended the miscreant
with her own body!
What could be the solution of such a riddle?
Meanwhile the lady had again lighted the candles: again a gentle light
was thrown on all things. Lorand gazed at her. In place of her previous
green-blue face, which had gazed on him with the wild look of madness, a
smiling, good-humored countenance was presented. She asked in a humorous
tone:
"Well, so you are a student, what kind of student? Where did you come
from?"
"I came with you, sitting beside the coachman."
"Do you wish to come to Lankadomb?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps to Sarvoelgyi's? He loves prayers."
"Oh no. But to Mr. Topandy."
"I cannot advise that: he is very rude to such as you. You are
accustomed to preach. Don't go there."
"Still I am going there: and if you don't care to let me sit on the box,
I shall go on foot, as I have done until to-day."
"Do you know what? What you would get there would not be much. The
money, which that man left here, you have by you as it is. Keep it for
yourself: I give it to you. Then go back to the college."
"Madame, I am not accustomed to live on presents," said Lorand, proudly
refusing the proffered purse.
The woman was astonished. This is a curious legatus, thought she, who
does not live by presents.
Her ladyship began to perceive that in this young man's dust-stained
features there was something of that which makes distinctions between
man. She began to be surprised at this proud and noble gaze.
Perhaps she was reflecting as to what kind of phenomenon it could be,
who with unarmed hand had dared to attack an armed robber, in order to
free from his clutch a strange woman in whom he had no interest, and
then refused to accept the present he had so well deserved.
Lorand saw that he had allowed a breach to open in his heart through
which anyone could easily see the secret of his character. He hastened
to cover his error.
"I cannot accept a present, your ladyship, because I wish more. I am not
a preaching legatus, but an expelled school-boy. I am in search of a
position where I can earn my living by the work of my hands. When I
protected your ladyship it occurred to me, 'This lady may have need for
some farm steward or bailiff. She may recommend me to her husband.' I
shall be a faithful servant, and I have given a proof of my
faithfulness, for I have no written testimonials."
"You wish to be Topandy's steward? Do you know what a godless man he
is?"
"That is why I am in search of him. I started direct for him. They
expelled me from school for my godlessness. We cannot accuse each other
of anything."
"You have committed some crime, then, and that is why you avoid the eyes
of the world? Confess what you have done. Murdered? Confess. I shall not
be afraid of you for it, nor shall I tell any one. I promise that you
shall be welcomed, whatever the crime may be. I have said so. Have you
committed murder?"
"No."
"Beaten your father or mother?"
"No, madame:--My crime is that I have instigated the youth against their
superiors."
"What superiors? Against the magistrate?"
"Even superior to the magistrate."
"Perhaps against the priest. Well, Topandy will be delighted. He is a
great fool in this matter."
The woman uttered these words laughingly; then suddenly a dark shadow
crossed her face. With wandering glance she stepped up to the young man,
and, putting her hand gently on his arm, asked him in a whisper:
"Do you know how to pray?"
Lorand looked at her, aghast.
"To pray from a book--could you teach some one to pray from a book?
Would it require a long time?"
Lorand looked with ever-increasing wonder at the questioner.
"Very well--I did not say anything! Come with us. The coachman is
already cracking his whip. Will you sit inside with us, or do you prefer
to sit outside beside the coachman in the open? It is better so; I
should prefer it myself. Well, let us go."
The servant, who had crawled out from under the bench, had already
collected the silver and crockery; her ladyship paid mine host, and they
soon took their seats again in the carriage:--and both thought deeply
the whole way. The young man, of that woman, who playfully defied a
thief, and struggled for a ring; then of that robber, who came with an
empty pistol, and again of that woman, who when he spoke of the powers
that be, understood nothing but a magistrate, and had inquired whether
he knew how to pray from a book;--and who meanwhile wore golden
bracelets, ate from silver, was dressed in silk and carried the fire of
youth in her eyes. While the woman thought of that young man who could
fight like a hero; was ready to work like a day laborer, to throw money
away like a noble, to fascinate women like an angel, and to blaspheme
the powers that be like a devil!