When I had made known my rank and quality, I was assigned a room--a very
comfortable one--in one wing of the castle, and no more notice taken
of me than if I had been a guest at an inn. The house was filled with
visitors; but the master, with some six or seven others, was away in
Transylvania boar-shooting. As it was supposed he would not return
for eight or ten days, I had abundant time to look about me, and learn
something of the place and the people.
Schloss Hunyadi dated from the fifteenth century, although now a single
square tower was all that remained of the early building. Successive
additions had been made in every imaginable taste and style, till
the whole presented an enormous incongruous mass, in which fortress,
farmhouse, convent, and palace struggled for the mastery, size alone
giving an air of dignity to what numberless faults would have condemned
as an outrage on all architecture.
If there was deformity and ugliness without, there was, however,
ample comfort and space within. Above two hundred persons could
be accommodated beneath the roof, and half as many more had been
occasionally stowed away in the out-buildings. I made many attempts, but
all unsuccessfully, to find out what number of servants the household
consisted of. Several wore livery, and many--especially such as waited
on guests humble as myself--were dressed in blouse, with the crest of
the house embroidered on the breast; while a little army of retainers
in Jager costume, or in the picturesque dress of the peasantry, lounged
about the courtyard, lending a hand to unharness or harness a team,
to fetch a bucket of water, or “strap down” a beast, as some weary
traveller would ride in, splashed and wayworn.
If there seemed no order or discipline anywhere, there was little
confusion, and no ill humor whatever. All seemed ready to oblige;
and the work of life, so far as I could see from my window, went on
cheerfully and joyfully, if not very regularly or well.
If there was none of the trim propriety, or that neatness that rises to
elegance, which I had seen in my father's household, there was a lavish
profusion here, a boundless abundance, that, contrasted with our mode
of life, made us seem almost mean and penurious. Guests came and went
unceasingly, and, to all seeming, not known to any one. An unbounded
hospitality awaited all comers, and of the party who supped and caroused
to-night, none remained on the morrow, nor, perhaps, even a name was
remembered.
It took me some days to learn this, and to know that there was nothing
singular or strange in the position I occupied, living where none knew
why or whence I came, or even so much as cared to inquire my name or
country.
In the great hall, where we dined all together,--the distinguished
guests at one end of the table, the lesser notabilities lower down, and
the menials last of all,--there was ever a place reserved for sudden
arrivals; and it was rare that the meal went over without some such. A
hearty welcome and a cordial greeting were soon over, and the work of
festivity went on as before.
I was soon given to understand that, not only I might dispose of my time
how I pleased, but that every appliance to do so agreeably was at my
disposal, and that I might ride or drive or shoot or sledge, just as I
fancied. And though I was cautious to show that my personal pretension
were of the very humblest, this fact seemed no barrier whatever to my
enjoyment of all these courteous civilities.
“We 're always glad when any one will ride the _juckers_,” said a Jäger
to me; “they are ruined for want of exercise, and if you like three
mounts a day, you shall have them.”
It was a rare piece of good luck for me that I could both ride and
shoot. No two accomplishments could have stood me in such request as
these, and I rose immensely in the esteem of those amongst whom I sat
at table when they saw that I could sit a back-jumper and shoot a
wood-pigeon on the wing.
While I thus won such humble suffrages, there was a higher applause that
my heart craved and longed for. As the company--some five-and-twenty or
thirty persons--who dined at the upper table withdrew after dinner, they
passed into the drawing-rooms, and we saw them no more. Of the music and
dancing, in which they passed the evening, we knew nothing; and we in
our own way had our revels, which certainly amply contented those who
had no pretensions to higher company; but this was precisely what I
could not, do what I might, divest myself of. Like one of the characters
of my old favorite Balzac, I yearned to be once more in the _salon_, and
amongst _ces épaules blanches_, where the whole game of life is finer,
where the parries are neater, and the thrusts more deadly.
An accident gave me what all my ingenuity could not have effected. A
groom of the chambers came suddenly, one evening, into the hall where we
all sat, to ask if any one there could play the new _csardas_ called
the “Stephan.” It was all the rage at Pesth; but no copy of it had yet
reached the far East. I had learned this while at Pesth, and had the
music with me; and of course, offered my services at once. Scarcely
permitted a moment to make some slight change of dress, I found myself
in a handsome _salon_ with a numerous company. In my first confusion I
could mark little beyond the fact that most of the persons were in the
national costume, the ladies wearing the laced bodies, covered with
precious stones, and the men in velvet coats, with massive turquoise
buttons, the whole effect being something like that of a splendid scene
in a theatre.
“We are going to avail ourselves of your talent at the piano, sir,” said
the Countess Hunyadi, approaching me with a courteous smile. “But let me
first offer you some tea.”
Not knowing if fortune might ever repeat her present favor, I resolved
to profit by the opportunity to the utmost; and while cautiously
repressing all display, contrived to show that I was master of some
three or four languages, and a person of education, generally.
“We are puzzled about your nationality, sir,” said the Countess to me.
“If not too great a liberty, may I ask your country?”
When I said England, the effect produced was almost magical. A little
murmur of something I might even call applause ran through the room; for
I had mentioned the land of all Europe dearest to the Hungarian heart,
and I heard, “An Englishman! an Englishman!” repeated from mouth to
mouth, in accents of kindest meaning.
“Why had I not presented myself before? Why had I not sent my name to
the Countess? Why not have made it known that I was here?” and so on,
were asked eagerly of me, as though my mere nationality had invested me
with some special claim to attention and regard.
I had to own that my visit was a purely business one; that I had come to
see and confer with the Count, and had not the very slightest pretension
to expect the courtesies I was then receiving.
My performance at the piano crowned my success. I played the _csardas_
with such spirit as an impassioned dancer alone can give to the measure
he delights in, and two enthusiastic encores rewarded my triumph.
“Adolf, you must play now, for I know the Englishman is dying to have a
dance,” said the gay young Countess Palfi; “and I am quite ready to be
his partner.” And the next moment we were whirling along in all the mad
mazes of the _csardas_.
There is that amount of display in the dancing of the _csardas_ that not
merely invites criticism, but actually compels an outspoken admiration
whenever anything like excellence accompanies the performance. My
partner was celebrated for the grace and beauty of her dancing, and for
those innumerable interpolations which, fancy or caprice suggesting,
she could throw into the measure. To meet and respond to these by
appropriate gesture, to catch the spirit of each mood, and be ready for
each change, was the task now assigned me; and I need not say with what
passionate ardor I threw myself into it. At one moment she would advance
in proud defiance; and as I fell back in timid homage, she would turn
and fly off in the wild transport of a waltz movement Then it was mine
to pursue and overtake her; and, clasping her, whirl away, till suddenly
with a bound she would free herself, again to dramatize some passing
emotion, some mood of deep dejection, or of mad and exuberant delight It
was clear that she was bent on trying the resources of my ingenuity to
the very last limit; and the loud plaudits that greeted my successes
had evidently put her pride on the mettle. I saw this, and saw, as
I thought, that the contest had begun to pique; so, taking the next
opportunity she gave me to touch her hand, I dropped on one knee, and,
kissing her fingers, declared myself vanquished.
A deafening cheer greeted this finale, and accompanied us as I led my
partner to her seat.
It is a fortunate thing for young natures that there is no amount of
praise, no quantity of flattery, ever palls upon them. Their moral
digestion is as great as their physical; and even gluttony does not seem
to hurt them. Of all the flattering speeches made me on my performance,
none were more cordially uttered than by my beautiful partner, who
declared that if I had but the Hungarian costume,--where the clink of
the spur and the jingle of the hussar equipment blend with the time,--my
_csardas_ was perfection.
Over and over again were regrets uttered that the Empress, who had seen
the dance at Pesth done by timid and un impassioned dancers, and
who had, in consequence, carried away but a faint idea of its real
captivation, could have witnessed our performance; and some even began
to plot how such a representation could be prepared for her Majesty's
next visit to Hungary. While they thus talked, supper was announced;
and as the company were marshalling themselves into the order to move
forward, I took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed to my room, well
remembering that my presence there was the result of accident, and that
nothing but a generous courtesy could regard me as a guest.
I had not been many minutes in my room when I heard a footstep in the
corridor. I turned the key in my lock, and put out my light.
“Herr Engländer! Herr Engländer!” cried a servant's voice, as a sharp
knocking shook the door. I made no reply, and he retreated.
It was clear to me that an invitation had been sent after me; and this
thought filled the measure of my self-gratulation, and I drew nigh my
fire, to sit and weave the pleasant-est fancies that had crossed my mind
for many a long day.
I waited for some time, sitting by the firelight, and then relit my
lamp. I had a long letter to write to Mademoiselle Sara; for up to then
I had said nothing of my arrival, nor given any account of the Schloss
Hunyadi.
Had my task been simply to record my life and my impressions of those
around me at Hunyadi, nothing could well have been much easier. My
few days there had been actually crammed with those small and pleasant
incidents which tell well in gossiping correspondence. It was all, too,
so strange, so novel, so picturesque, that, to make an effective tableau
of such a life, was merely to draw on memory.
There was a barbaric grandeur, on the whole, in the vast building;
its crowds of followers, its hordes of retainers who came and went,
apparently at no bidding but their own; in the ceaseless tide of
travellers who, hospited for the night, went their way on the morrow, no
more impressed by the hospitality, to all seeming, than by a thing
they had their own valid right to. Details there were of neglect and
savagery, that even an humble household might have been ashamed of,
but these were lost--submerged, as it were--in that ocean of boundless
extravagance and cost, and speedily lost sight of.
It was now my task to tell Sara all this, colored by the light--a warm
light, too--of my own enjoyment of it. I pictured the place as I saw
it on the night I came, and told how I could not imagine for a while
in what wild' region I found myself; I narrated the way in which I
was assigned my place in this strange world, with Ober-jagers and
Unter-jagers for my friends, who mounted me and often accompanied me
in my rides; how I had seen the vast territories from hill-tops and
eminences which pertained to the great Count, boundless plains that in
summer would have been waving with yellow corn, and far-stretching woods
of oak or pine lost in the long distance; and, last of all, coming down
to the very moment I was writing, I related the incident by which I
had been promoted to the society of the castle, and how I had passed my
first evening.
My pen ran rapidly along as I told of the splendors and magnificence
of the scene, and of a company whose brilliant costume filled up the
measure of the enchantment. “They pass and repass before me, in all
their gorgeous bravery, as I write; the air vibrates with the music,
and unconsciously my foot keeps time with the measure of that _csardas_,
that spins and whirls before me till my brain reels with a mad
intoxication.”
It was only when I read over what I had written, that I became aware of
the questionable taste of recording these things to one who, perhaps,
was to read them after a day of heavy toil or a sleepless night of
watching. What will she think of me, thought I, if it be thus I seem
to discharge the weighty trust confided to me? Was it to mingle in
such revelries I came here, or will she deem that these follies are the
fitting prelude to a grave and difficult negotiation? For a moment I had
half determined to throw my letter in the fire, and limit myself simply
to saying that I had arrived, and was awaiting the Count's return! but
my pride, or rather my vanity, carried the day; I could not repress
the delight I felt to be in a society I clung to by so many interesting
ties, and to show that here I was in my true element,--here breathing
the air that was native to me.
“I am not to be supposed to forget,” I wrote, “that it was not for these
pleasures you sent me here, for I bear well in mind why I have come,
and what I have to do. Count Hunyadi is, however, absent, and will not
return before the end of the week, by which time I fully hope that I
shall have assured such a position here as will mainly contribute to my
ability to serve you. I pray you, therefore, to read this letter by the
light of the assurance I now give, and though I may seem to lend myself
too easily to pleasure, to believe that no seductions of amusement, no
flatteries of my self-love, shall turn me from the devotion I owe you,
and from the fidelity to which I pledge my life.” With this I closed my
letter and addressed it.