Raby could hardly bear the delay in getting home. When the open verdict
was pronounced, a coach was already at the door of the Assembly House,
to bear him on his way: he threw himself into it, while the sparks flew
under the swift hoofs of his horses.
Szent-Endre was not, after all, the other side of the world, but the
distance seemed endless. On the way, he racked his brains as to how he
would find Fruzsinka. Yet he could not have possibly dreamed of what his
actual home-coming would be.
As he sprang from the vehicle, to knock at his house-door, he found the
summons of the court nailed under the knocker, with all the
misdemeanours and crimes whereof he had been falsely accused before the
tribunal, set forth at length. As is well known, these kind of summonses
were fixed to the house-door, were there no means of presenting them to
the person cited.
Rage drove every other thought from Raby's mind when he found this
disgraceful document fluttering over his door. He tore it down
indignantly, and beat with hand and foot at the entrance to gain
admission.
Poor Boske, the maid-servant, at last opened it, looking white and
frightened. "Why had they allowed this thing to be fastened to the
door," he inquired angrily.
"I humbly beg pardon," stammered the girl, "the gentleman who brought it
nailed it there with a hammer, and said if I tore it down I should be
hanged."
"Why did your mistress not do it?"
"The gracious lady-mistress?"
"Yes, my wife, where is she then?"
"Ah, my dear kind master, how shall I tell you? Please don't kill me for
it! The gracious lady-mistress has left home."
"Stuff and nonsense! She has only probably gone to pay a visit."
"Ah, no indeed, she has not done that, she has, oh how shall I say it,
run away. The very day the gracious master went, the lady-mistress wrote
a letter and gave it to the gipsy Csicsa to carry. She did not wait for
an answer, but packed up, called a coach, loaded it with her luggage,
and drove off without saying a word about the dinner."
"Perhaps she has gone to her uncle's at the prefecture?"
"No, indeed, she went in the other direction; I watched her from the
street-door down the road, as far as I could see."
Raby went into the parlour. The girl had spoken the truth, that was
evident. All the chests stood open; Fruzsinka had packed up all her own
belongings when she went; she had not even left a single souvenir
behind.
Raby was completely nonplussed; it was indeed a horrible situation for a
man who hastens home on the wings of love to find his house destitute of
all that made it home for him. He could think of nothing better than to
seek out his uncle, the old postmaster, from whom, since his marriage,
he had been somewhat estranged.
Raby entered the old man's room without speaking a word, where he sat
down and stretched out his legs in gloomy silence. He shrewdly suspected
that his host knew what had happened, and why he was there. How should
he not, considering everyone in Szent-Endre knew by this time. The old
gentleman shrugged first one, and then the other shoulder expressively,
whilst he coughed and cleared his throat in visible embarrassment.
"H'm, h'm!" he said, significantly, "these fashionable ladies have not
much feeling. Besides, you can never take them seriously. Therefore you
must not let the grass grow under your feet."
"If I did but know where she has gone to?" sighed Raby.
"Now just wait! I fancy I can help you to find out. For two days past a
letter has been lying here addressed to your wife. There--take it and
read it." And he handed Raby a sealed missive.
"I, how can I open a letter which is directed to my wife?" he asked
anxiously.
"Yes, indeed, why not? Are not man and wife according to the Hungarian
law one flesh? A letter addressed for the one can legally be opened by
the other, and I would do it, if I incurred the galleys for it, my
friend, if I were in your place. Just read it, and I will be the
guarantee that I delivered it into your hands."
Raby opened the note with trembling fingers.
It was in the handwriting of the judge, Petray, and though short, was
quite intelligible.
"My darling Fruzsinka,
"From your own letter I see that you find it
impossible to put up with your tyrant any longer. I
thought as much long since. You do quite right in
leaving him, and the sooner you get away from him the
better; the man will come to no good. My house, as you
know, will ever be a safe asylum for you. I await you
with open arms.
"Your devoted friend,
"PETRAY."
Raby's eyes were no longer glazed and staring as heretofore; they shot
sparks now.
"Read it, my friend," he said, as he handed it to Mr. Leanyfalvy.
"Well, at any rate, now you know where you are."
"Know it, indeed I do," answered Raby, as he grimly folded up the note,
and placed it in his coat pocket.
"And pray what do you mean to do?"
"First, I would have a four-horse coach."
"You shall have it sure enough. And then----?"
"Then I'll go home and fetch my pistols and sword; look for a second,
and then--either he or I are dead men."
"That's it! It's the only way. Only see to it that you think it out
accurately. Suppose your opponent wants to fight with swords? Perhaps
he's an out-and-out swordsman."
"What does that matter? The sword will satisfy equally the duelling
regulations, and will merely prove which of us can fence the better."
"Good! But take this much warning. The judge is a very cunning man; you
will have to be on your guard. Be careful not to be the first to draw
the sword, else he'll be hanging round your neck an attainder in
pursuance of an antiquated law which rules that 'he who first draws the
sword shall be held to incur blood-guiltiness.'"
"Many thanks, I'll remember your good advice."
"Ah! if you had always done so! Yet I am right glad that you don't look
askance at me any longer. You are another man since you made up your
mind to fight! How a wife demoralises a man to be sure! There is nothing
wanting now, except a sword and a pair of pistols. You need not go home
for those. I have a rare old blade which was used at the storming of
Buda, and will cut through iron itself; it is worth a good deal more
than your parade-sword. And here are my pistols, each is loaded with
three bullets; if you understand what shooting straight means, you can
kill three enemies at once. So good luck, my young friend, I am glad
you are going."
The old gentleman embraced his nephew as if he were going to face the
enemy, and had his best horses put in for him, and they brought Raby to
the judge's house in less than an hour.
The uninvited guest just caught the judge going out.
"Come back with me to the house," said his visitor, "I want to have a
word with you."
Petray guessed from the speaker's tone that it was on no friendly
business that he had come, though he affected not to perceive it, and
treated Raby with his accustomed familiarity.
When they had come into Petray's parlour, Raby drew the letter out of
his pocket and held it before his host's face.
"Do you recognise this writing?"
Petray drew himself up.
"What presumption is this, pray? To open a letter directed to someone
else, it is unheard of!"
"It is perfectly legal," said Raby. "Your protest is useless. In the
eyes of the law, a letter written to my wife is a letter written to me."
"It is, I say, a great piece of presumption, to attack a man like this
in his own house."
"You need not make such a noise! You may see I carry pistols in my
belt." Then adopting a more familiar tone, Raby added, "It comes to
this, either you take one of these two pistols, and we fire according to
the prescribed rules, or if you refuse me the satisfaction of a man of
honour, I shoot you dead without further ado, as I would a wolf who
attacks me on the highway."
The cowardly bully grew pale with fear. To look at him, you would have
deemed him a powerful foe to be reckoned with, but he was a very coward
at heart, like the braggart that he was.
"All right, I'm not afraid of you, or of anybody else, for that matter.
But all this is idle talk! A gentleman does not fight with pistols. That
kind of duel exacts no skill. A schoolboy can fire off a pistol. I only
fight with swords; so with my sword I am at your service to have it out
in proper fashion. Out with yours, and we'll see who is the best man of
the two."
"Very well, with swords, so be it," said Raby quietly, replacing his
pistols again in his belt.
"And now you had better make your will, for you don't leave this place
alive."
"That our weapons will decide. I have nothing further to say," answered
Raby.
"So, you will venture to draw your sword on me, will you, you silly
fellow?"
"With you, or after you. I would not have it said that I drew my sword
on an unarmed man," answered his antagonist.
"Don't provoke me, Raby! I tell you we will have it out here."
"Well, draw then!"
Petray thus urged, endeavoured to draw his sword in earnest from his
belt, but that otherwise excellent weapon had never been used since the
last Prussian war, and stuck so fast in its sheath that the most
powerful tugs quite failed to move it.
Come out it would not. Mr. Petray pulled and tugged to no avail; the
blade would not yield an inch.
"Good heavens," cried Raby impatiently, "hand it over to me, I will make
it come out."
And hereupon the two opponents pulled away with might and main at the
refractory weapon; Raby seizing the sheath, and Petray the handle,
indulged in a very tug-of-war, but to no purpose; the sword stuck where
it was, and did not budge, while the two adversaries were bathed in
perspiration with their unavailing efforts.
Had anyone ever seen such an absurd struggle?
Petray was foaming with rage.
"Deuce take the thing! If you want to come to grips, let's fight it out
with our fists! There I can be sure of my resources. I'll smash you up,
I promise you, so there won't be anything left of you."
"All right," retorted Raby, and lifting up the sleeve of his dolman, he
put himself into a boxer's attitude, and struck Petray two ringing blows
with his bare muscular arm, that sent his opponent fairly reeling from
sheer astonishment.
Now the judge set great store by his appearance. He therefore reflected
that by such methods as these, his enraged antagonist might end in
breaking his nose, or knocking out his teeth, and these were both
contingencies to be avoided.
"Ah, leave me in peace," he cried piteously. "I am no boxer, I am a
judge, a man of the law. If you have anything to bring against me, let
it be at the tribunal, I'll meet you there fast enough. But I will
neither fence, nor shoot, nor box on your wife's account. If you think I
am the first whom your wife has fooled, I am not, by a long way. If you
want to fight, look up Captain Lievenkopp--he lives out yonder at
Zsambek. You have a bigger score to settle with him than with me, if you
did but know it. He's ready for either swords or pistols. As judge, it's
my duty to hinder a fight, not to promote it by myself taking part in
one. Go to the tribunal, and I'll give you satisfaction there fast
enough."
He spoke rapidly, but Raby did not wait to hear the end. He clapped his
hat on, and jumped into his coach, and cried to the driver to drive to
Zsambek.