What was really the matter with Raby the police never learned; but we
can tell the reader.
When at about three hours after midnight, they had brought him to the
Assembly House, the whole gang of his enemies was awaiting him,
including the gaoler.
He was received with a shout of derisive laughter, as he came into the
room, thick with tobacco-smoke.
"So the Emperor has given you decorations, has he?" thus they jeered at
him. "Well, we'll see what sort of ornaments we can procure for your
worship," and such like remarks, were freely fired off at him.
But Raby bore all the jeers of his tormentors in a dignified silence,
and quietly submitted to the searching process, whereby he was stripped
of all his valuables, and fetters slipped over his wrists and ankles,
the gold lace being cut off from his new coat so that he might not hang
himself with it! Then he was led back into the cell he had formerly
occupied, and left to himself.
But, he reflected, his captivity could not last long. The two
police-officers must be still there, and when all was said, they were
the masters. And failing all else, had not the Emperor himself promised
to come? Up till then, he would have patience. The visit of his friends
on the following day did not give him much hope that their help would
avail him.
On the third day, the prison doctor sought him out, and with the help of
the gaoler, began to subject him to a long process of disinfecting,
which he said, was necessary for every prisoner who came from across the
frontier, seeing that in Turkey the oriental plague was raging.
We have seen how the two Viennese officers were smoked out of the city.
This left the coast clear for Raby's examination the following day. His
earlier trial had taken place before the district commissioner as a
political offender: now he was haled before the ordinary assizes as a
common criminal.
The indictment which set forth how Raby by the help of diabolic arts,
had forcibly broken out of custody, and fled to another country, was
read. It called for five and twenty years' solitary imprisonment,
together with public chastisement; which should allow of his being at
appointed intervals set in the public stocks, with a placard showing the
nature of his crime hung round his neck.
Raby, in his defence, demanded that the judges should call one of the
twenty men who had forcibly seized him the night of his flight; this
was, he said, exacted by the Emperor in his instructions as to the
trial.
Laskoy struck the table with his fist. "That is not true," he said, "it
is not in his Majesty's instructions."
"I have seen it myself," said Raby, "the Emperor gave it into my own
hands to read."
At these words there was a perfect outburst of wrath and indignation
from the whole company, so that Raby could not speak for the uproar;
when the noise had quieted down, he went on:
"The men who freed me are not forthcoming as witnesses. But there are
two at least, who must know what happened that night, and this is the
heyduke who stood before the door of my cell, and the other who kept the
gate. Though I did not see them I know what their names were, for I
heard the castellan address them as Sipos and Nagy."
"Let them be brought in," said Laskoy to the castellan with a meaning
grimace.
But it was Raby's turn to be astonished when the witnesses entered. For
there before him, stood his two travelling companions, the pretended
pig-dealer, Kurovics, and his comrade, who had accompanied him to
Vienna! And these, it appeared, were the two heydukes who had been
commissioned to play this trick upon their unsuspecting victim. Raby's
brain fairly reeled at the thought of the lying fraud to which he had
been forced to lend himself.
But the examination of Sipos was beginning. "It seems you were the guard
at the door of the prisoner's cell, the night of his escape?" questioned
the judge. "Do you know what happened?"
The witness groaned, and murmured something incoherent.
"Tell us what you know. The truth, out with it!" as the man hesitated.
"Ah, how can I say it!" exclaimed the fellow, while the gaoler shook his
fist at him menacingly.
"I'll tell all," he said, "just as it happened. The gaoler ordered four
and twenty of us heydukes to disguise ourselves as Turks, then to break
open the door of the prisoner's cell, and put on him a peasant girl's
dress and escort him to Vienna in this disguise. He gave us money for
the journey, and told us the Pesth magistracy had ordered it."
At this outspoken testimony, Raby could hardly contain himself, he
stamped on the floor till his irons rang again. So the whole intrigue
was manifest! His enemies themselves had hatched this conspiracy against
him, and now they dared to condemn the victim of their own wicked plot!
He attempted to protest, but the whole crew shouted him down. "Hold your
peace, traitor!" they cried! "Hold your peace! Not a word will we hear
from you!"
And their anger was not less hot against the witness whom they called a
liar and false swearer, and then and there ordered him to receive fifty
strokes with the lash, and this was Sipos' reward for telling the truth.
"Let the other witness appear," cried Laskoy. "Now, Janos Nagy, you are
an honest man, and will tell us what happened, so out with it!"
Nagy, otherwise the false Kurovics, had the example of his comrade
before him, and bethought himself in time of what he might expect if he
was too truthful, so he took his line accordingly.
"This is the true history, your worships. When, on the sixth of December
last, I was keeping guard before the door of the gate of the prison, and
my comrade stood before the prisoner's cell, I heard a loud cracking
noise; then the door of Mr. Raby's dungeon flew open, and he came out in
a fiery chariot drawn by six black cats, whilst on the box sat a demon
in a red dolman, who gave first my comrade, and then me, such a switch
in the face with his long tail, that we could hear and see nothing
further--so stunned were we. And then with a noise like thunder, the
prisoner disappeared in a flash."
Raby was astounded--not at the witness, but at his hearers.
"Is it possible, is it credible," he cried, "that you gentlemen, can
accept such testimony as this?"
"Be silent, and don't interrupt the witness," yelled Laskoy, "we don't
want you to teach us. You know we have laws against witchcraft, and we
mean to enforce them. Mr. notary," he cried, turning to Tarhalmy,
"please take the depositions of the witness."
And Raby saw with amazement that Tarhalmy did not hesitate to do as he
was bidden. And suddenly there flashed across the prisoner what Mariska
had written to him. Here the wise and fools alike seemed to be leagued
against him. In vain he protested his innocence in the Emperor's name,
and that of the law and common-sense: it availed nothing. Finally they
led him out of the room while they debated on his sentence.
It was not long before he was conducted back again to hear it. Of the
several indictments against him, several had not been verified, but one
at least they indeed had proved, and that was, that by diabolic agency
he had escaped from the dungeon. That was enough to condemn him, and
"death by the axe" was awarded accordingly.
When Raby heard it, he could contain his indignation no longer:
"Gentlemen, and you my most worshipful judges," he cried, "hear me
before I depart, for there is no tribunal on earth so tyrannical that it
will not allow the criminal to justify himself. Why am I condemned? Why
have such punishments, ending with the death-penalty itself, been meted
out to me? Why have I suffered thus? Simply because I strove to heal the
woes of the oppressed; just because the Emperor has sent me hither to
inquire into the grievances of the people, whose cry has reached him.
The poor were no rebels against the law; they sought only justice, and I
desired to help them to attain it. Do you remember what authority is
given to you, when you are placed in the seat of law? Is it not a divine
commission to defend the right of the individual, as of the people,
alike? If you are confident in the success of your cause, I am equally
so in that of mine, for my conscience is clear, I have broken neither
the laws of God nor of man, and to my convictions I will never be false.
I only ask one thing for my people, that they may be freed from the yoke
of the oppressor. Is that a crime deserving the death penalty? Well, let
my head fall; my blood be on those who shed it!"
Several of the judges could not restrain their tears. Tarhalmy hid his
face in his hands; was it that he could not face the prisoner?
Raby's last words rang with such intense sincerity that not one of those
present had dared to interrupt his speech. Laskoy was the only one to
speak when the accused had ended his defence, and all he said was, "Take
the prisoner away!"
"I appeal then against the judgment of the court," said Raby as he was
being led out.
"That is permitted; meantime, he who is under sentence of death must be
heavily ironed till the hour of execution."
"Against that likewise I protest," said Raby firmly. And they led him
out and called for the prison locksmith.