THE PANIC OF NAGYENYED.
While the priests were girding swords upon their thighs, while the lame
and the halt were flying to arms in defence of their homes and altars,
the chief commandant of the town of Klausenburg, Mr. Ebeni, was calmly
sleeping in his bed.
The worthy man had this peculiarity that when any of his officers awoke
him for anything and told him that this or that had happened, he would
simply reply "Impossible!" turn over on the other side, and go on
slumbering.
Magyari was well aware of this peculiarity of the worthy man, and so
when he arrived home, late at night, safe and sound, he wasted no time
in talking with Mr. Ebeni, but opened the doors of the church and had
all the bells rung in the middle of the night--a regular peal of them.
The people, aroused from its sleep in terror at the sound of the
church-bells at that unwonted hour, naturally hastened in crowds to the
church, where the reverend gentleman stood up before them and, in the
most impressive language, told them all that he had seen, described the
danger which was drawing near to them beneath the wings of the night,
and exhorted his hearers valiantly to defend themselves.
The first that Mr. Ebeni heard of the approaching mischief was when ten
or twenty men came rushing to him one after another to arouse him and
tell him what the parson was saying. When at last he was brought to see
that the matter was no joke, he leaped from his bed in terror, and for
the life of him did not know what to do. The people were running up and
down the streets bawling and squalling; the heydukes were beating the
alarm drums; cavalry, blowing their trumpets, were galloping backwards
and forwards--and Mr. Ebeni completely lost his head.
Fortunately for him Magyari was quickly by his side.
"What has happened? What's the matter? What are they doing, very
reverend sir?" inquired the commandant, just as if Magyari were the
leader of troops.
"The mischief is not very serious, but it is close at hand," replied the
reverend gentleman. "A band of freebooters--some seventeen companies
under the command of a robber chief--have burst into Transylvania, and
with them are some regular horse belonging to the garrison of Szathmar.
At this moment they cannot be more than four leagues distant from
Klausenburg; but they are so scattered that there are no more than four
hundred of them together anywhere, so that, with the aid of the
gentlemen volunteers and the Prince's German regiments, you ought to
wipe them out in detail. The first thing to be done, however, is to warn
the Prince of this unexpected event, for he is now taking his pleasure
at Nagyenyed."
"Your Reverence is right," said Ebeni, "we'll act at once;" and, after
dismissing the priest to look after the armed bands and reconnoitre, he
summoned a swift courier, and, as in his confusion he at first couldn't
find a pen and then upset the inkstand over the letter when he _had_
written it, he at last hurriedly instructed the courier to convey a
verbal message to the Prince to the effect that the Szathmarians, in
conjunction with the freebooters, had broken into Transylvania with
seventeen companies, and were only four hours' march from Klausenburg,
and that Klausenburg was now preparing to defend itself.
Thus Ebeni gave quite another version to the parson's tidings, for while
the parson had only mentioned a few horsemen from the Szathmar garrison
he had put the Szathmarians at the head of the whole enterprise, and had
reduced the distance of four leagues to a four hours' journey which, in
view of the condition of the Transylvanian roads, made all the
difference.
The courier got out of the town as quickly as possible, and by the time
he had reached his destination had worked up his imagination to such an
extent that he fancied the invading host had already valiantly covered
the four leagues; and, bursting in upon the Prince without observing
that the Princess, then in an interesting condition, was with him,
blurted out the following message:
"The Szathmar garrison with seventeen bands of freebooters has invaded
Transylvania and is besieging Klausenburg, but Mr. Ebeni is, no doubt,
still defending himself."
The Princess almost fainted at these words; while Apafi, leaping from
his seat and summoning his faithful old servant Andrew, ordered him to
get the carriage ready at once, and convey the Princess as quickly as
possible to Gyula-Fehervar, for the Szathmar army, with seventeen
companies of Hungarians, had attacked Klausenburg, and by this time
eaten up Mr. Ebeni, who was not in a position to defend himself.
Andrew immediately rushed off for his horses, had put them to in one
moment, in another moment had carried down the Princess' most necessary
travelling things, and in the third moment had the lady safely seated,
who was terribly frightened at the impending danger.
The men loafing about the courtyard, surprised at this sudden haste,
surrounded the carriage; and one of them, an old acquaintance of
Andrew's, spoke to him just as he had mounted the box and asked him what
was the matter.
"Alas!" replied Andrew, "the army of Szathmar has invaded Transylvania,
has devastated Klausenburg with 17,000 men, and is now advancing on
Nagyenyed."
Well, they waited to hear no more. As soon as they perceived the
Princess's carriage rolling rapidly towards the fortress of Fehervar,
they scattered in every direction, and in an hour's time the whole town
was flying along the Fehervar road. Everyone hastily took away with him
as much as he could carry; the women held their children in their arms;
the men had their bundles on their backs and drove their cows and oxen
before them; carts were packed full of household goods; and everyone
lamented, stormed, and fled for all he was worth.
Just at that time there happened to be at Nagyenyed the envoy of the
Pasha of Buda, Yffim Beg, who had been sent to the Prince to hasten his
march into Hungary with the expected auxiliary army, and who absolutely
refused to believe Teleki that they ought to remain where they where, as
it was from the direction of Szathmar that an attack was to be feared.
The worthy Yffim Beg was actually sitting in his bath when the
panic-flight took place; and, alarmed at the noise, he sprang out of the
water, and wrapping a sheet round him rushed to the window, and
perceiving the terrified flying rabble, cried to one of the passers-by:
"Whither are you running? What is going on here?"
"Alas, sir!" panted the breathless fugitive, "the Szathmar army, 27,000
strong, has invaded Transylvania, has taken everything in its road, and
is now only two hours' march from Nagyenyed."
This was quite enough for Yffim Beg also. Hastily tying the
bathing-towels round his body and without his turban, he rushed to the
stables, flung himself on a barebacked steed and galloped away from
Nagyenyed without taking leave of anyone; and did not so much as change
his garment till he reached Temesvar, and there reported that the
countless armies of Szathmar had conquered the whole of Transylvania!
Thus Teleki had gained his object: the Transylvanian troops had now good
reasons for staying at home. Yet he had got much more than he wanted,
for he had only required of Kaszonyi a feigned attack, whereas the band
of Koekenyesdi had ravaged Transylvania as far as Klausenburg.
The fact that the worthy friar and Mr. Ladislaus Magyari had captured
the leader of the freebooters made very little difference at all, for
the crafty adventurer had bored his way through the wall of his dungeon
that very night, and had escaped with his three comrades.
Early next morning, on perceiving that his captives had escaped, Father
Gregory was terribly alarmed, imagining that they would now bring back
the whole robber band against him; and, hastening immediately to collect
the whole of the pilgrims, loaded wagons with the most necessary
provisions and the treasures of the altar, conducted them among the
hills, and there concealed them in the Cavern of Balina, carrying the
sick members of his flock one by one across the mountain-streams in
front of the cavern and depositing them in the majestic rocky chamber,
which more than once had served the inhabitants of the surrounding
districts as a place of refuge from the Tartars, having a large open
roof through which the smoke could get out, while a stream flowing
through it kept them well supplied with drinking-water. In an hour's
time fires and ovens, made from fresh leaves and mown grass, stood ready
in the midst of the place of refuge; and on a stone pedestal, in the
background, always standing ready for such a purpose, an altar was
erected.
Meanwhile Koekenyesdi had hastened to overtake his bands which had
scattered at the word of the brother in order to re-unite them before
the people of Klausenburg could capture them in detail. Szenasi he
dispatched to call back the wanderers who had been sent to the cellars
of Eger and besiege the monastery.
When Szenasi returned with the two hundred hungry men he only found
empty walls, and to make them emptier still--he burnt them down to the
ground.
He then sat down, and by the light of the conflagration wrote a
sarcastic letter to Teleki, in which he informed him with a great show
of humility that he had made the required diversion against
Transylvania, that he kissed his hand, that he might command him at any
future time, and that he was his most humble servant.
He had scarcely sent off the letter by a Wallachian gipsy, picked up on
the road, when he saw a company of horsemen galloping towards the
burning monastery, and recognised in the foremost fugitive Koekenyesdi.
"It is all up with us!" cried the robber chief from afar, "we are
surrounded. All the parsons in the world have become soldiers, and
turned their swords against us as if they were Bibles. The Calvinist
pastor, the Catholic friar, the Greek priest, and the Unitarian
minister--every man jack of them has placed himself at the head of the
faithful, and are coming against us with at least twenty thousand men:
students, artisans and peasants, the whole swarm is rushing upon us. I
and fifty more were set upon by the whole Guild of Shoemakers, who cut
down twenty of my men; they were all as mad as hatters, and when the
peasants had done with us, the gentlemen took us up: they united with
the German dragoons, and pursued my flying army on horseback. Every bit
of booty, every slave they have torn from us; this Calvinist Joshua is
always close on my heels, not a single one of our infantry can be
saved."
The robber chief behaved as the leader of robber bands usually do
behave. When he had to fight, he fought among the foremost; but when he
had to run, then also he was well to the front. When he was beaten, he
cared not a jot whether the others got off scot-free, he only thought of
saving himself.
When he had announced the catastrophe from horseback to the terrified
Szenasi, he clapped spurs to his nag, and, without looking back to see
whether anyone was following him, he galloped off, and left Szenasi in
the lurch with the footmen.
The fox is always most crafty when he falls into the snare. The
perplexed hypocrite perceived that however quickly he might try to
escape, the cavalry would overtake him at Grosswardein and mow him down.
Unfortunately, he knew not how to ride, and therefore could not hope to
save himself that way. Already the trumpets of the Transylvanian bands
were blaring all around him; fiery beacons of pitchy pines were
beginning to blaze out from mountain-top to mountain-top; on every road
were visible the flying comrades of Koekenyesdi, terrifying one another
with their shouts of alarm as they rushed through the woods and valleys,
not daring to take refuge among the snowy Alps, where the axes of the
enraged Wallachians flashed before their eyes; and there was not a
single road on which they did not run the risk of being trampled down by
the Hungarian banderia and the German dragoons.
In that moment of despair Szenasi quickly flung himself into the
garments of a peasant, climbed up to the top of a tree, and as soon as
he perceived the first band of German horsemen approaching him, he
called out to them.
"God bless you, my noble gentlemen!"
They looked up at these words and told the man to come down from the
tree.
"No doubt you also have taken refuge from the robbers, poor man!"
"Ah! most precious gentlemen! they were not robbers, but German soldiers
in Hungarian uniforms who had been sent hither from Szathmar. Take care
how you pursue them, for if your German soldiers should meet theirs, it
might easily happen that they would join together against you. I heard
what they were saying as I understand their language, but I pretended
that I did not understand; and while they made me come with them to show
them the road, they began talking among themselves, and they said that
they had had sure but secret information from the Klausenburg dragoons
that they were going to attack the town. The Devil never sleeps, my
noble gentlemen!"
The good gentlemen were astounded; the intelligence was not altogether
improbable, and as, just before, a vagabond had been captured who could
speak nothing but German, a mad rumour spread like wild-fire among the
Magyars that the dragoons had an understanding with the enemy and wanted
to draw them into an ambush; and so the gentlemen told the students, and
the students told the mechanics, and by the time it reached the ears of
Ebeni and the parsons, there was something very like a mutiny in the
army. The gentry suggested that the Germans should be deprived of their
swords and horses; the students would have fought them there and then;
but the most sensible idea came from the Guild of Cobblers, who would
have waited till they had lain down to sleep and then bound and gagged
them one by one.
Master Szenasi meanwhile went and hunted up the dragoons, whom he found
full of zeal for the good cause entrusted to them, and had a talk with
them.
"Gentlemen!" said he, "what a pity it is, but look now at these
Hungarian gentlemen! Well, they are shaking their fists at you, so look
to yourselves. Someone has told them that you are acting in concert with
the people of Szathmar, so they won't go a step further until they have
first massacred the whole lot of you."
At this the German soldiers were greatly embittered. Here they were,
they said, shedding their blood for Transylvania, and the only reward
they got was to be called traitors! So they sounded the alarm,
collected their regiments together, took up a defensive position, and
for a whole hour the camp of Mr. Ebeni was thrown into such confusion
that nothing was easier for Master Szenasi than to hide himself among
the fugitives. All night long Mr. Ebeni suffered all the tortures of
martyrdom. At one time he was besieged by a deputation from the Magyars,
who demanded satisfaction, confirmation, and Heaven only knows what
else; while the worthy parsons kept rushing from one end of the camp to
the other, with great difficulty appeasing the uproar, enlightening the
half-informed, and in particular solemnly assuring both parties that
neither the Hungarian gentlemen wanted to hurt the Germans nor the
Germans the Hungarians, till light began to dawn on them, and the
reconciled parties were convinced, much to their astonishment, that the
whole alarm was the work of a single crafty adventurer who clearly
enough had gained time to escape from the pursuers when they had him in
their very clutches.