While Bethlem Gabor became every day more confirmed in his antipathy
against me, I reposed in him an unsuspecting confidence--a confidence
more extensive than I had, since the singular and fatal acquisition I
had made, reposed in any other man. Frequently for a considerable time
together he resided under my roof; frequently we went forth together
in those excursions which either my projects or his views rendered
it necessary for us to make. In his character of a nobleman of great
consideration in his native country, he was now rising like a phœnix
from its ashes. His castles were repairing; his property was restored;
the list of his retainers daily became more numerous; he revived and
carefully recruited the martial band, which, in the first exacerbations
of his despair, he had dismissed from his service. My purse and all
that I had were his; he never made a demand upon me that I did not
instantly supply; I reaped a particular pleasure from the largeness and
frequency of his requisitions; there was nothing for which I was more
anxious, than to bind him to me in indissoluble ties of gratitude and
affection.
Little, alas! did I understand the compound of tenderness and ferocity,
of decisiveness and inscrutability, with which I was now concerned.
My friend, such I esteemed him, had been absent some time; I expected
his return to my residence at Buda; and anxious to pay him every mark
of attention and respect, I set out to meet him. It was scarcely safe,
during the existing hostilities between the Austrians and the Turks, to
travel any where without a guard; I had the precaution in the present
instance to take with me an attendance of twenty men.
It was after having partaken of a slight and early dinner that I set
out on my excursion. The season was remarkably fine, and the air genial
and balsamic. I scarcely ever commenced any tour with more agreeable
sensations. The harvest was already ripe; and, as I passed along, I
saw reapers from time to time entering upon the first essay of their
interesting occupation. I felt that I had at length surmounted one of
those difficulties, with which I had been so strongly assailed, and to
which I had refused to yield. If I were not free from apprehensions
from the arbitrary nature of the government under which I lived,
I believed however that I had nothing further to dread from the
misconstruction and animosity of the nation I preserved. My anxiety as
to whether I should be able to substantiate the benefit I had sought to
confer, was at an end; and I had little doubt that, with the plenteous
crops which were on the point of being gathered, my popularity would
return, and the gratitude of my clients become more ardent than ever.
It was a delicious enjoyment that I now experienced; the pleasures that
the eye unavoidably takes in from the spectacle of a luxuriant autumn,
became blended in my mind with the ideas of famine put to flight, my
own rectitude vindicated, and the benevolent purposes realised, the
prosecution of which had cost me so profound a heartache.
We at length passed the lines of the soldiers planted for the defence
of the soil against the depredations of the enemy. I had calculated
that I should meet my guest a few leagues from Buda; I was deceived
in my estimate. The day however of his arrival was fixed; I could not
be mistaken in his route; I resolved not to turn back without meeting
him. The road I took led upon the borders of that part of Hungary which
owned the Austrian yoke; the shades of night were fast gathering round
us, and we heard at a distance the alarm-guns and the drums of the
enemy. I was not however a novice in the appearances of a country, the
seat of military excursions and war; and, if my mind were not wholly
free from perturbation and uncertainty, I at least resolved not to be
turned aside from my purpose. We travelled two hours longer; still
no notice of the approach of Bethlem Gabor. At length a question was
started whether we were still in the right road, and I thought it
advisable to hold a sort of council of war to deliberate respecting our
further proceedings. Having assembled my attendants for that purpose,
I was now first struck with the apprehensions and timidity which they
unanimously betrayed. They had been drawn out rather for show, and to
keep accidental stragglers in awe, than with the expectation of actual
service. I became sensible that nothing was to be hoped from their
resistance in the event of an action; and the utmost I could aim at was
in the mean time to hold them together by the sentiment of a common
danger.
It was resolved to return; I began to be apprehensive that Bethlem
Gabor had been prevented by some unexpected occurrence from observing
his appointment. Scarcely had we faced about, before we heard a body of
cavalry approaching us. I called to my party to halt. I soon discerned,
from symptoms not difficult to be remarked by a careful observer, that
the party at hand was composed of Austro-Hungarians. We had every thing
to fear from them. I held myself bound under these circumstances first
to make experiment of the fleetness of our horses. I however charged my
people to keep together, and not to suffer the enemy, by means of our
inadvertence and folly, to make an easy prize of us one after another.
In a short time I found that our pursuers sensibly gained ground upon
us. I was mounted upon an excellent beast, and could easily have rode
away from my troop, while they would have been placed as a sort of
intercepting object between me and the enemy. But I had too much of a
military spirit not instantly to reject so inglorious an expedient. I
called a second time to my attendants to halt. I judged that the party
of our antagonists was less numerous than ours. I was convinced that
our common safety depended upon our concerted resistance. Filled with
the gallantry that my situation inspired, I did not perceive, till it
was too late, that my present call to halt was attended to by few; even
those few rather hung back, divided between apprehension and shame. I
was the foremost, and, before I was aware, I found myself, through
the means of the darkness, enveloped by the enemy. From my appearance
they judged that I was the master, and the rest my attendants; they
contented themselves therefore with the prize they had made, and did
not give themselves the trouble to pursue the fugitives. They eagerly
enquired of me who I was; and, comparing my answers with various
circumstances which rumour had brought to their ear, they easily
concluded that I was the rich stranger of Buda. The character they had
heard of me did not produce in these freebooters any sentiments of
forbearance, or demonstrations of respect; the only point about which
persons of their habits were concerned, was how they should make the
greatest advantage of what the fortune of war had thrown in their way.
While they were consulting, and various expedients were started by
one and another for this purpose, a second alarm was given, and one
of the party being despatched to reconnoitre, presently returned with
intelligence, that the persons approaching were horsemen of the enemy,
and that they amounted, as he guessed, to forty in number. Upon this
information the party whose prisoner I was, agreed to return with
all expedition by the way they had come, and commanded me upon pain
of death to proceed in their company. This menace had not the effect
to deprive me of courage or presence of mind; and I easily conceived
that the readiest way to deliver myself from my embarrassment would be
to join at the first opportunity the band of Turco-Hungarians, whose
approach had occasioned our sudden retreat. The darkness of the night
was favourable to my purpose; and, taking advantage of a sudden winding
in the road, I slackened all at once the pace of my horse without being
observed by my companions, who, as the enemy approached, had now their
thoughts almost wholly intent upon the safety of their retreat. They
passed me; and I no sooner perceived that to be the case, than, covered
from their observation by the intervening inclosure, I turned my horse,
and gradually, as my distance from my keepers increased, urged him to a
fuller speed. It was not long before I came up with the band which had
produced our alarm; and hailing them with the acclamation, “Long live
the mighty sultan!” was without difficulty admitted into their troop. I
instantly understood to my great joy that this was the party of Bethlem
Gabor that I had come out to meet.
He received me with much cordiality, and seemed greatly rejoiced that
fortune had made him the instrument of my rescue. He proposed however
that, having met on the road, I should now, instead of proceeding to
Buda, return with him to his northern castle, from which our distance
was scarcely greater than from the metropolis. The proposal was such
as I had not expected, nor could I well comprehend the purpose with
which it was made. But the habitual demeanour of Bethlem Gabor neither
accorded with his minutely assigning a reason for what he did, nor
was calculated to encourage enquiry in another. I saw no material
objection, and therefore felt little scruple in yielding to his
desires. Our brief consultation on this point passed at some little
distance from the rest of the troop.
When the morning broke, the first thing that excited my attention was
the appearance of his followers. They were full forty in number, well
mounted, of a large and athletic figure, with sun-burnt faces, immense
whiskers and a ferocious countenance. I thought I had never seen so
tremendous a band. To me they were every one of them strangers; of
all the persons that surrounded me, the only one of whom I had the
slightest knowledge was Bethlem Gabor himself. I know not why it was,
but I no sooner beheld my situation than I was struck with alarm. I
saw myself completely in the power of a man who three months before
was ignorant even of my existence. I had not a single attendant of
my own, not an individual with me over whom I had personal authority
or command. I had no reason to distrust my host; towards me his
demeanour had ever been frank, confidential, and manly; I had every
imaginable claim upon his generosity and his gratitude. But our senses
are often the masters of our mind, and reason vainly opposes itself
to the liveliness of their impressions. Every time that I lifted my
eyes, and saw myself hemmed in by these barbarians, my heart seemed
involuntarily to fail me. Bethlem Gabor too appeared to neglect me;
he had never shown himself so little obliging and attentive as at this
moment; and, aided by the rest of the scene, I thought I had never
beheld him so deformed or so tremendous. I was more than half inclined
to wish myself again a prisoner with the Austrians.
When we arrived at the castle, we were all of us fatigued and hungry;
we had roamed during the whole night. A repast was prepared; we sat
down to partake of it. “Excuse me,” said Bethlem Gabor, in a low voice
as he passed me, “that I this night offer you the fare of a soldier;
to-morrow you shall be accommodated in a different manner.” The words
were innocent; the proceeding natural; but there was a mysterious
gloom, at least as I thought, in the tone in which he spoke, that
electrified me. The hall in which we supped was spacious and lofty; the
naked walls and rafters were imbrowned with age. Though it was daybreak
as we entered, the windows were still darkened, and the apartment was
illuminated only by the partial glare of lamps depending from the roof.
As I sat at table with the troop of my host, I appeared to myself as if
inclosed in a cavern of banditti. Though excellent partisans, skilful
in execution, and perfect in their discipline, they were unpolished
in their manners and brutal in their conversation. I had been inured
from infancy to all the refinement that the age in which I lived had
any where to boast; and, amidst the various evils I had suffered, that
of being associated with the vulgar and the base had never presented
itself. While they uttered, now a loathsome jest, and now a sanguinary
ejaculation, I became ashamed of my species, and the pride of manhood
perished within me. They however paid little attention either to my
feelings or my person; and, accustomed as I had been, whether with
friends or enemies, to be regarded as of some importance, I found
myself unaccountably and suddenly dwindled into a cipher. I felt it
like a release from the state of a galley-slave, when Bethlem Gabor
proposed that we should break up our meeting and retire to rest.