Raby's persecutors were getting tired of their unavailing efforts to
break the prisoner's spirit, so they determined on softer measures, and
three days after the Emperor had left Pesth, his dungeon was broken
open, and Laskoy and Petray arrived to make personal investigations into
their victim's state.
Truly it was a pitiable spectacle that met their gaze when at last a
breach was made in the masonry and they penetrated into the cell. A
wasted and attenuated figure they saw half-buried under the snow that
had drifted in on to his straw bed through the grating--snow that was
stained red with the blood that had streamed from the captive's wounds.
"Take the irons off!" ordered Petray, "and wrap the prisoner up in warm
coverings."
And the order was not unnecessary, for it was some time ere the
locksmith could be found, and, meantime the victim was benumbed nearly
to death with cold.
Even the locksmith, as he filed off the fetters from Raby's bleeding
wrists and ankles, could not suppress a murmur of pity, for he was only
a public servant who did as he was told, and had a kind heart.
When at last Raby was freed from his chains, he could not stand, and had
to be carried by two heydukes to a neighbouring cell, which was one of
those he had formerly occupied.
"Let him rest for a little," ordered Petray, "and then I will have a
word with him, and meantime, you may bring him some egg-broth with
wine."
And the broth revived the wretched prisoner, half-starved and frozen as
he was, with new life, and he eagerly swallowed it. He was conscious of
a feeling of anger against himself for thus being so ready to accept
alleviation for his miserable body, that so little emulated his strong,
unconquered soul. One thing alone lightened the memories of his
sufferings, and that was the voice that had cheered his loneliness with
its encouraging whisper. And lulled by the unaccustomed warmth, he sank
into a comforting slumber, and at his awakening, only had his bandaged
limbs to remind him of his irons. Yet the remembrance that it was to
Petray, of all people, that he owed this amelioration of his misery,
stung him as with a lash.
But just then the door opened, and in walked his enemy himself. He came
up to Raby's couch and asked the prisoner how he had slept, and whether
he felt better. But the captive answered these hypocritical enquiries by
never so much as a word.
"You have to thank me for this change, you know," pursued Petray, "for I
have been chosen as your advocate when you appeal against your
sentence."
"What?" cried Raby, in his excitement springing up, in spite of his
weakness, from the couch. "You to be my defender! You who are already
gravely impeached in the indictment I have formulated! Why such a false
position is impossible; it is you who must stand at the bar. Do you mean
to say you, who are my worst enemy, are entrusted with my defence?"
Petray smiled. He knew well enough he had a sick man to deal with, who
was physically incapable of attacking him.
"Now you see how unjust it makes you, this misunderstanding. You shall
know that the accused must have a counsel when he is confronted by the
indictment. There are two of us, myself and the lieutenant, who have to
take your case in hand; which do you prefer, him or me?"
"Neither," cried Raby indignantly. "I am my own counsel, and I know how
to defend myself, and do not need any of your help."
"My dear friend, be reasonable; see how unjust this is," said Petray in
a wheedling voice. "You think I would defend you badly. But it is
because I want to prevent you running your head against a wall that I am
doing this. Listen, I'll read you the points of your defence."
And Petray proceeded to read the document in which he had set forth
Raby's case with such cunning adroitness, that black appeared white in
his representations, and white wholly black. Such a web of sophistries,
in fact, had he woven, that it had been difficult for a hearer to
disentangle the truth. In it all the guilt was laid at the door of the
dead "pope," and Raby appeared as a too confiding victim of his wiles
and misrepresentations. It was a tissue of false statements, yet Raby
listened to the end.
Then he said indignantly: "So you really believe I need all that for my
justification, do you, that the guiltless are to be blamed and the
criminal cleared, in order that the truth be made manifest; that I
withdraw the impeachment already made against you, that I allow
peaceable and harmless peasants to be attainted as rebels; that I
disavow the responsibility of redressing their grievances, and that for
this, a dead yet innocent man be blamed, and his memory be defamed. No
such defence for me, thank you!"
Petray laughed patronisingly.
"My good friend, you are an idealist and always will be. What does the
'pope's' reputation matter to you, since he is dead? Do you suppose he
troubles as to what men say of him now? And as for the peasants, we can
make short work of them by putting them in irons. The defence is
perfectly in order; you only have to sign that you accept it."
"Let my hand wither in its chains first," cried the prisoner, "ere I
subscribe to such infamy!" and he stretched his wasted hand to heaven.
"Think twice, Raby, before you decide thus," said his tormentor. "If
you refuse, you may no longer rely on my help, and then you will just go
back to the place you came from."
"Take me there," cried his victim, "but torture me no further, rather
kill me outright. But as long as my soul is master of my body, no pains
or persecutions shall cause me to forswear my honour and give the lie to
truth!"
His anger lent the prisoner an unwonted energy, and Petray fairly
quailed as Raby dashed up to him and attempted to tear the document from
his hand; between them it was torn in two, but the leaves were stained
with blood!
Petray was beside himself with rage; he hastily called for the gaoler
and the heydukes, who shortly entered, followed by Laskoy.
"He is an abandoned wretch, a traitor, a madman," cried Petray. "He has
flown at me, and tried to murder me. Put him in irons again directly!"
"Out with the fetters," cried Laskoy. "Where are the heaviest ones?"
And they tore off the bandages from Raby's wounded limbs, and called the
locksmith to rivet them afresh.
But that functionary revolted at this fresh act of cruelty against a
helpless invalid. "I won't do it," he said defiantly. "From this hour I
serve the authorities no longer; I will have no part in such cruel
injustice!" And so saying he left them, never to appear again.
At last, after searching Pesth in vain, they found a locksmith in Pilis
to do the work.
But when they thrust Raby back again into his icy dungeon, he cried, as
the door closed upon his tormentors, "I am not dead yet."