It really looked as if Raby's flight had been a predetermined affair, so
that allowing him to get off in woman's clothes, the authorities might
recapture him to lead him back to Pesth in triumph, more degraded than
ever in the public eyes, only that the appearance of Villam Pista
somewhat disturbed this hypothesis.
Villam Pista, otherwise Fruzsinka, in fact, had learned from spies that
Raby had escaped from prison, having pitched her camp in the
neighbouring forest--a fitting abode for the half-crazed woman who now
lived at enmity with all the world, though she boasted that what she
robbed the rich of she divided among the poor--a sentiment which caused
the ten thousand ducats to be taken off Gyongyom Miska's head and set on
hers. But when she heard of the pursuit of Raby, her heart smote her
with pity for the man she had so cruelly wronged, who was now a
persecuted fugitive.
With her companions she had lain concealed in the forest near the inn,
till the arrival of the Pesth heydukes warned her that the time for
reprisals had come--with what results we have seen.
But she only learned in what disguise Raby had fled, when she saw him.
In an instant her plan was formed. The Pesth pursuers were all around;
if Raby escaped them, he would be taken at the Austrian frontier, where,
seeing the Hungarian trappings of his horse, they would relegate him to
the Pesth authorities to deal with. And meditating on this thought, she
re-entered the inn. "She has escaped me," she cried, "and has dashed off
on one of the heyduke's horses."
"You don't mean to say my cousin has run away!" cried Kurovics
anxiously. And he made as though to follow the fugitive Serb maiden.
"Not so fast, my friend," exclaimed the robber-chief, "besides you have
not told me your name." And she questioned the two closely as to their
antecedents--questions which they did their best to evade.
"Well, by way of passing the time, suppose I teach you how to dance!
We'll just see what you can do?"
And with that, the pretended brigand took out an axe from under his coat
and dexterously threw it at Kurovics, so that he jumped up nervously as
it fell with its edge close to him.
But the noise of shots fired without, arrested these diversions. Villam
Pista did not stop even to pick up the axe, but snatching the rifle from
the table bounded out to face this new alarm.
Outside there stood her horse, which quickly mounting, she shouted to
her followers who were awaiting her orders, and galloped away into the
night. The fresh party of heydukes, with this new enemy to run down,
forgot all about Raby (for on his head only two hundred ducats were set,
while it was a matter of ten thousand with Villam Pista). And that
chieftain was thinking that this delay would give Raby time to cross the
river, while the frontier guards' attention would be distracted by the
shots fired. Two of the pursuers at last succeeded in running down
Villam Pista, and in cutting him off from his comrades.
They were closing upon him in a thicket, and no outlet remained.
"Is it the ten thousand ducats you are seeking?" laughed their enemy
contemptuously, as she took two pistols out of the holster, and seized
the while her horse's bridle in her mouth. And just as the assailants
approached closer, the robber fired, aiming not at the riders, but at
their steeds. Both beasts fell, the one with his rider under him, the
other on his knees, so that the heyduke was thrown over the horse's
head.
Villam Pista clapped his hands and laughed aloud. "Now you can overtake
my husband," cried the false highwayman, and for the moment the old
Fruzsinka asserted herself.
Then she vanished into the thicket, the gathering fog hiding all trace
of her, even as might disappear some wild valkyr of the old legends.