After the foregoing experiments, it was time for Raby to seek for
exterior means to attain his purpose, and he determined to extort an
avowal from the Rascian "pope," who alone now knew the hiding-place of
the great coffer, and if this was revealed, the whole intrigue could be
unmasqued. The heaped-up treasure and large number of bonds, which
represented a large amount of money, constituted irrefragable proof
against the guilty.
It was to this end that Raby sent for the "pope" to come and meet him at
Pesth.
This time our hero did not alight at a frequented hostelry, but put up
at an inn where the country people were wont to go, and chartering a
room there, only went out at night.
But none the less had his enemies ferreted him out, without his having
the slightest suspicion that two or three spies were on his track
wherever he went.
One morning, Raby was able to write to the Emperor and tell him that the
"pope" was ready to present himself in Vienna, and divulge all, as soon
as he received direct instructions from his Majesty. He read the
missive to the "pope" before sealing it up, so that the good man might
approve of it throughout, and carried it himself to post, so that it
should pass through no strange hands. Then he invited the ecclesiastic
to dine with him, taking care to provide that worthy's favourite
national dishes, a savoury Paprika stew and the Servian "Csaja."
As they sat there doing justice to them, who should come in but Judge
Petray.
It was surely some unlucky chance which led Petray to Raby's table.
They exchanged greetings with a certain amount of embarrassment, and
Petray's contemptuous tone in opening up the conversation (which Raby
had willingly avoided), was not lost on the other.
"Well met, friend! I beg pardon for disturbing you, but you are the very
man I wanted to see," said Petray, as he sat down beside them. "Yes," he
went on, "about that letter which you have written to the Emperor."
"What do you mean?" cried Raby, beside himself with astonishment.
"Why, you know well enough that the municipal council has forbidden
complaints to be formulated to the Emperor regarding any matter
affecting its internal regulations."
"But who can possibly know what my correspondence contains, I should
like to know?"
"Well we happen to know, because we intercepted the letter at the
post-office, you see."
"What, you have dared to intercept my correspondence!" cried Raby
enraged.
"Yes, and what's more, we have opened the letter and read it, and have
submitted it to a committee of inquiry."
"But this is an unheard-of insult!" exclaimed Raby, rising from his seat
in uncontrollable anger.
"Oh, you are getting angry, are you? I guessed you would be, when you
heard it; that's why I begged your pardon when I came in. But it doesn't
alter the fact that I am sent to arrest you in the name of the
municipality, on a charge of treason against the authorities, and am
ordered to commit you to prison forthwith."
Petray said all this in such a jesting tone, that the "pope" who had
kept his seat at table, imagined he was simply joking. He poured out a
glass of wine and offered it to the judge, saying as he did so:
"Here have done with your jests, and drink this, your worship; no one
believes what you are saying! Come, let us toast one another!"
The "pope" was a vigorous, dignified looking man in the prime of life,
with a round rosy face. He beamed again with benevolence as he pledged
the judge.
Yet Petray did not take the proffered glass, but stiffened himself and
stood in a judicial attitude, with his hand on the hilt of his sword,
while he said in a stern tone:
"Here there is no matter for jesting, I am sent by the Pesth County
Assembly to arrest Mr. Mathias Raby as a criminal, wherever I may find
him."
And with that he stepped to the door and pushed it open. Without, stood
half a dozen heydukes armed with swords and carbines and the town
provost.
At the sight of them, the "pope" turned suddenly pale; his rubicund face
became a ghastly grey, his hairs seem to bristle in terror. There was a
rattling sound in his throat, and then he fell back senseless on the
floor in an apoplectic fit. In vain they strove to revive him. He was
dead! Fright, or rather the apoplexy had killed him. And as he was the
only living soul who had known the secret of the buried treasure, his
death forbade the entrance ever being discovered.
Yet Raby had not seen what had happened, for as soon as ever Petray had
opened the door, the provost had immediately arrested him with the
threat that if he did not yield, he would be put into irons.
Raby simply answered that he would not oppose armed force, and that he
put his trust in a Providence that would bring truth and justice to
light. And with that they marched him off, and led him down out into the
street.
Before the gate stood three coaches. They made him take the front seat
in the first, and placed two guards opposite him with their swords
pointed against his breast. The others followed in the remaining
vehicles. So they drove through the streets of Pesth till they reached
the Assembly House, where Petray ordered Raby's conductors to "obey
orders."
So they proceeded to "obey orders." First they loosened his
silver-hilted sword from his side, took his purse and gold watch from
his pocket, drew the signet ring from off his finger, and searched him
from head to foot. In the breast-pocket they found the passport of the
Emperor, commanding that Mr. Mathias Raby should pass unmolested
wherever he went. The provost read it through with a mocking laugh. Then
he brought out fetters, rivetted them on his prisoner's hands and feet,
opened a narrow iron-barred door, and without further ceremony, pushed
him into "cell number three."
From that moment they called Mathias Raby with justice, "Rab Raby,"[1]
for does not "Rab" mean in Hungarian, a prisoner?
[Footnote 1: I cannot but help feeling that the sudden death of the
"pope" in this last chapter will strike the reader as a somewhat bold
license, even for the novelist, seeing how closely it follows on that of
the notary. I am aware that as romance it could not be justified, but
seeing that this is a true story which I am telling, I cannot do
otherwise than follow the facts however extraordinary they may appear,
seeing they are set forth in the hero's own autobiography.--(AUTHOR'S
NOTE.]