In which it is shown by an edifying example that he
who pursues the path of evil must needs fall into
the ditch.
They all arrived safely at Kassa. Dame Sarah with the captive Turk
had got home even sooner than her son.
"Do you know, Valentine," said she, "this Turk is a very good, pious
fellow! He is as gentle as a lamb, and can speak Hungarian like a
native. He learnt it at Grosswardein. All the way home I was holding
up to him the glory of the Christian religion, and he listened to me
with the greatest attention. How nice it would be if only I could
convert him to the true faith!"
"Anything but that, dear mother!" cried Valentine, in consternation.
"Pray don't get it into your head to convert this Turk, or he'll
remain where he is, and I shall lose his ransom, and be two hundred
ducats out of pocket in consequence."
His impious speech scandalized worthy Dame Sarah greatly.
"But, but, my son, are these two hundred ducats more to you than the
soul of a converted heathen? How can you speak so impiously? Suppose
the Apostles had thought as you do! And why lay such stress upon
these two hundred ducats? If you want money, here hang the keys at
my girdle. I'll give them to you. Thrust your arm into the great
money chest, take the whole treasure away with you if you will, for
we have an honest trade which brings us in as much gold and silver
as we want. But if you must earn money, at all events don't earn it
by offering men's flesh for sale. Say! Will you have the keys?"
"God bless you, my dear mother! I don't want your gold. I'll spend
no money but what I've earned, piece by piece, by the sweat of my
brow."
"Eh, eh, young fellow! I see what it is. You have something on your
mind which you don't want your old mother to know. Come, sir,
confess that you're in love! Out with it, don't be shamefaced! Your
father was just such another mealy-mouth. For two whole years he was
dangling after me without the pluck to open his mouth, till at last
I was forced to take pity on him. Come, now, speak the truth! You
are in love?"
"Perhaps I am."
"Who's the lady?"
"That's more than I can tell you."
"Some poor lass, I suppose of lowly birth perhaps? Perhaps a
peasant's daughter, or maybe, even a serving-maid? I don't care. Let
her family be what it may, if only she herself is a virtuous virgin,
you may bring her to my house without fear. If she is clumsy, I'll
gladly shut one eye and only see that she loves you. If she knows
absolutely nothing at all, I'll be her teacher, and she shall learn
from me everything which a right-minded housewife ought to know.
Come, now! Who is it?"
"I cannot say, my good mother!"
"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Dame Sarah, threatening her son with
the large carving-knife which she always kept hanging by her side.
"You are after no good thing. You love a woman who has already got a
husband. Don't deny it! I see by your sudden change of color that
I've hit the mark. Valentine, you are walking in evil ways! Bethink
you what is in store for you--here on earth the sword of the
headsman, and in the next world the fires of hell! You know that in
matters of morality our laws don't jest! I have seen with my own
eyes many a head, quite as comely as yours, roll in the sand--the
sole offense of these poor sinners was presuming to cast sheep's
eyes at women who had no business to have lovers at all. But I pray
God that he'll place an obstacle in your path at the very outset,
which will make it impossible for you to go any further on the way
where shame, death, and damnation await you. God will hear me!"
But Valentine reflected that he too had recommended his affairs to
God. Had he not said that if he returned safe and sound from the
battle, it should be a sign that his intention of seeking out his
beloved in her misery was right and pious? And, lo! the blessing of
God had followed hard upon his footsteps; he had not only returned
home safe and sound, but had brought back with him a captive whose
ransom would enable him to face all manner of unknown perils with
far more courage than if he only had an empty purse. Therefore he
impatiently waited for the kinsfolk of his prisoner Achmed to send
him the ransom from Grosswardein. But it was just at this time that
Dame Sarah was moving heaven and earth to convert the Turk. Every
day she read to him extracts from the Gospels, and taught him to
sing hymns. He had even got so far as to renounce those articles of
his creed which prohibited the drinking of wine and the eating of
ham, when he one day put to Dame Sarah the ticklish question,
whether a converted Turk might not keep all four of his wives? The
worthy dame smote her hands together in horror.
"What! you have four wives, you d----d Turk? Well, then, you may
remain in your heathenish faith for all I care. Go with your four
wives to your Turkish hell, but don't contaminate ours." And with
that she washed her hands of him altogether.
A few days later the Turk's ransom reached the hands of Captain
Hommonai, who paid over the money to Valentine, and Achmed was sent
off to Grosswardein.
So Valentine had at last enough money to carry out what he had so
long been brooding over.
His first step was to beg Captain Hommonai for a short furlough for
himself and his comrade Simplex, which furlough he very easily
obtained, inasmuch as my lord count was just then in the middle of
his honeymoon, and therefore ill disposed to engage in martial feats
for some time to come. The Turks also were keeping very quiet in
that part of the country.
The two hundred ducats Valentine already had in his pocket. All that
he now required for his journey was a good cloth mantle, a stout ax,
a flask, and a knapsack.
It was also of no small assistance to our two honest comrades that
the general ordered the squadron of cavalry to which they belonged
to proceed to Onod (which was half-way to Zeb), for Valentine was
thereby able to conceal from his mother the fact that he had
obtained leave of absence. So they reached Onod safely, and thence
made their way across country to seek Michal.
Yet the prayers of Dame Sarah were more efficacious than the
resolutions of the two friends, for as they were passing through the
Onod forest, out of the bushes sprang twelve of those miscreants who
then pursued the accursed trade of kidnaping Christian men and women
in order to sell them to the Turks. Valentine indeed made a good
fight for it, and broke no end of jaws and noses; but at last he was
overpowered by numbers. Then the robbers gagged him, and tied him
with his comrade to a tree, and naturally left him very little of
the two hundred ducats which they found upon his person. Then they
separated to seek fresh booty. In the evening they returned with a
woman and a young girl, and at dusk they tied the captives to their
saddles and haled them away.
Thus Dame Sarah's pious wish that her son Valentine might light upon
an obstacle which should hinder him at the very outset from pursuing
his evil way, was exactly fulfilled.