THE WHITSUN KING.
And now we are home again in poor dear Hungary.
It is the red dawn of a Whitsun Day, and a real dawn it is. Very early,
soon after the first cock-crow, a band of brown musicians began marching
along the roads of Nagy-Kun-Madaras, and in front of them, with a long
hazel-wood wand in his hand, strutted a sworn burgher of the town, whose
face seemed full of angry dignity because he was engaged on an important
official function before ever a drop of _pálinka_ had crossed his lips.
The worthy sworn burgher was honourably clad in blue, which well becomes
a man in his official capacity; his spiral hat was adorned by a couple
of large peonies in full bloom; in his button-hole was a posy of pinks
and vine leaves; his silk vest had silver buttons; his face was red, his
moustache pointed, his boots shaggy and spurred. He kept raising his
feet as gingerly as if he were walking on eggs, and not for all the
world would he have looked on either side of him, still less upon the
gipsy minstrels behind his back; only when he came in front of the door
of any burgher or town councillor he would signify, by raising his
stick, that they were to walk more slowly, while the trumpets blared all
the louder.
Everywhere the loud music aroused the inhabitants of the streets.
Windows and blinds were thrown open and drawn up, and the young women,
covering their bosoms with aprons, popped their heads out and wished Mr.
Andrew Varju a very good morning. But Mr. Andrew Varju recognized
nobody, for he was now the holder of a high office which did not permit
of condescension.
But now he reached the houses of the civic notabilities, and here he had
to go indoors, for he had particular business with them. This particular
business consisted of a drink of _pálinka_, which awaited him there, and
whose softening effect was visible on his face when he came back again.
This accomplished, the most important invitation of all remained to the
last, to wit, that of his honour the most noble Master Jock, which had
to be given in due order.
Now, this was no joke, for Master Jock had the amiable habit of keeping
tame bears in his courtyard, which devour a man without the slightest
regard to his official position; or the poor man might stray among the
watch-dogs, and be torn to ribbons. Fortunately, however, on this
occasion a red-liveried menial was lounging about the gate, from whom it
was possible to get a peaceful answer.
"Is the most noble Master Jock up yet?"
"Deuce take it, man! What are you shivering at? Why, he hasn't lain down
yet!"
Mr. Varju trotted on further. He had now to report himself to their
worships at the community-house, which he accomplished without any
beating about the bush by simply saying, "I have done everything."
"It is well, Mr. Varju."
And now let us take a look at these famous men.
In the worshipful community-room, hanging in long rows on the walls,
were the painted effigies of the local and civic celebrities, with room
enough between for the arms of these defunct patrons, baillies,
curators, and charity-founders also. On the table were tomes of
tremendous bulk, pressed down by a large lead inkstand. The floor
beneath the table was nicely covered with ink-blots--it was there that
the pens were usually thrown.
The bell of early dawn was only now beginning to ring, and yet their
worships were already assembled in the room, with their elbows planted
in a circle all round the long table. The judge presided--a worthy,
stout man.
Near the door stood a group of young men in short, strong, baggy
knee-breeches and broad-buttoned pelisse-like dolmans. Every one of them
had a bright kerchief in his button-hole, and spurred boots upon his
feet.
Prominent amongst all the youths stood the Whitsun King of the year
before. He was a tall, lanky stripling, with a large hooked, aquiline
nose, and a long moustache triply twisted at the ends and well stiffened
with wax. His neck was long and prominent and burnt black by the sun
where it was not protected by his shirt. Below his shirt it looked as
though it had been cut out of another skin. His dress was different to
that of the common folks. Instead of linen hose, he wore laced trousers
tucked into boots of Kordovan leather from which long tassels dangled
down. The sparkling copper clasp of his broad girdle was visible beneath
his short silken vest. A bright kerchief peeped out from every pocket of
his dolman, and was tied at one corner to his buttons; and his fingers
were so swollen with hoop and signet-rings that he could scarce bend
them. But what distinguished the youth more than anything else was a
large umbrageous wreath on the top of his head. The young girls had
twined it out of weeping-willow leaves and flowers in such a way that
the pretty chains of pinks and roses flowed a long way down the youth's
shoulders like long maidenhair, leaving only his face free, and thus
forming a parting on both sides.
Will he win this wreath again? Who can tell?
"Well, Martin," said the judge, "so here we have red Whitsun-Day again,
eh?"
"I know it, noble sir. To-morrow I also shall be in church, and will
listen."
"Then you intend to remain Whitsun King this year also?"
"I shall not be wanting to myself, noble sir. This is only the sixth
year that I have been Whitsun King."
"And do you know how many buckets of wine you have drunk during that
period, and how many guests you have chucked out of feasts,
sow-dances,[5] and banquets?"
[Footnote 5: A dance given at sow-slaughtering time.]
"I cannot say, noble sir. My one thought was not to miss one of them,
and so much I may say, neither man nor wine has ever floored me."
"Mr. Notary, read to him how many pitchers of wine and how many broken
heads stand to his account!"
And it appeared from the register that Martin, during the year of his
Whitsun Kingship, had cost the community seventy-two firkins of wine,
and more than a hundred heads broken for fun. He had also made an
innkeeper quite a rich man by smashing all his glasses every week, which
the town paid for.
"And now, answer me further, little brother: How many times have your
horses come to grief?"
"I have not troubled myself about them. I leave all that to my
underlings."
"How many girls have you befooled?"
"Why should they let themselves be befooled?"
"How much of ill-gotten goods has passed through your hands?"
"Nobody has ever caught me."
"But thy Whitsun Kingship has cost the town a pretty penny."
"I know this much, that it does not come out of the coffers of the town,
but out of the pockets of our dear father, the noble John Kárpáthy,
whose worthy phiz I see hanging up on the wall yonder. He it is who has
presented a sum of money to the community to keep up our old customs,
and to improve the breed of our horses by gathering together all our
young riders, in order that they may run races with one another. I also
know that whoever proves to be the victor on that occasion has the
privilege of getting drunk gratis at every hostelry in the town, while
every landlord is bound to look after his horses, and whatever damage
they may do they are not to be impounded, but the sufferer has to make
good the damage for not looking after them better. Besides that, he has
the free run of all festivities and junketings that may be going on; and
if sometimes, in the exuberance of high spirits, he knocks any one about
a bit, he is not to be punished either by corporal chastisement or
imprisonment."
"Bravo, little brother! you would make an excellent advocate. Where did
you learn to speak so fluently?"
"For the last six years I have remained the Whitsun King," answered the
youth, haughtily sticking out his chest, "and so I have had plenty of
opportunities of learning my rights."
"Come, come, Martin!" said the judge, reprovingly. "Bragging does not
become a young man. You have now got so accustomed to this sort of life
that you'll find it a little difficult to fall into the ranks again,
drink wine that you've paid for, and be punished for your offences if
to-day or to-morrow you are deposed from your Whitsun Kingship."
"The man is not born who will do that," replied Martin, lifting his
eyebrows, twiddling his thumbs, and hitching up his trousers with great
dignity.
The councillors also perceived that the Whitsun King had made a mistake
in answering so rashly, but as it would have been unseemly to have
offended the dignity of so considerable a personage, they devoted
themselves exclusively to the preparations for the entertainment.
Four barrels of wine, each of a different sort, were piled upon waggons;
another waggon was full of freshly baked white rolls; fastened behind
the waggons by their horns were the couple of yoke oxen that were going
to be slaughtered.
"That's not the right way of going about it!" cried Martin. It was not
his natural voice, but he was so accustomed to a peremptory tone now
that he could use no other. "We want more pomp here. Who ever heard of
the festal oxen being tied to a cart's tail? Why, the butcher ought to
lead the pair of them by the horns, one on each side, and you ought to
stick lemons on the tips of their horns, and tie ribbons round them!"
"Bravo, little brother! He knows how it ought to be done."
"And then four girls ought to sit on the top of each barrel, and dole
out the wine from where they sit in long-eared rummers."
"Any more commands, Martin?"
"Yes. Let the gipsy musicians strike up my tune as we march along; and
let two heydukes hold my horse when I mount."
These commands were punctually obeyed.
The people, after a short religious service, made their way towards the
fields. In front trotted two sworn burghers with ribbon-bedizened
copper axes in their hands; after them came a cart with the gipsy
musicians, roaring out Martin's song as if they meant to shout the
heavens down. Immediately upon their heels followed two gaily
tricked-out oxen, led by a couple of bare-armed butcher's lads; and then
came the provision-waggons; and last of all the wine-carts, with sturdy
young bachelors astride every barrel. Then followed Mr. Varju. Fate had
raised him still higher, for he was now sitting on horseback, holding a
large red banner, which the wind kept flapping into his eyes every
moment. From the satisfied expression of his face he evidently thought
to himself that if Martin was the Whitsun King, he himself was at least
the Whitsun Palatine.
Last of all came the Whitsun King. His horse was not exactly beautiful,
but it was a large, bony beast, sixteen hands high, and what it wanted
in figure was made up to it in gay trappings and ribbons woven into its
mane; its housings too were of fox-skin. Martin did not ride badly. He
rolled about a bit, it is true; but this was due, not so much to
anything he had taken at breakfast, as to his usual habit of swaggering;
indeed, for the matter of that, he sat as firmly in his saddle as if he
had grown to it.
On both sides of him trotted a couple of burghers with drawn swords, who
had to look well after themselves all the time, for Martin's horse,
whenever he perceived any other horse half a head in front of him, would
bite at it till it screamed again.
After him, in a long row, came the competing youths. In every face was
to be seen a confident gleam of hope that he, perhaps, would be the
winner.
The rear was brought up by a crush of carriages and carts, raising
clouds of dust in their efforts to overtake the horses in front,
adorned with green branches and crammed with merry holiday-folks with
bright, streaming neckerchiefs.
At that moment the report of a mortar announces that the prime patron of
the festivities, the rich nabob, Master Jock, has departed from his
castle. The crowd takes up its position in the cemetery and the gardens
adjoining. The wary horsemen stand out in the open; some of them make
their horses prance and curvet to show their mettle, and lay bets with
one another. Shortly afterwards a cloud of dust arising from below the
gardens declares that Master Jock is approaching. No sooner are the
carriages visible than they are welcomed by a thundering huzzah, which
presently passes over into peals of merry laughter. For Master Jock had
hit upon the joke of dressing the gipsy Vidra in a splendid costume of
cloth of gold, and making him sit in the family state-carriage drawn by
four horses, while he himself came huddled up in a common peasant-cart
immediately afterwards, and the honest country-folks loudly applauded
the gold-bedizened costume till they perceived that there was only a
gipsy inside it, whereupon the laughter grew louder still, which greatly
amused the good gentleman.
With him came, besides his court jesters, those of his boon companions
whom he liked the best. Number one was Miska Horhi, the owner of an
estate of five thousand acres or so at the other end of the kingdom, who
would skip over to his crony in March and stay till August, simply to
ask him who he thought would be the next vice-lord-lieutenant of the
county, leaving word at home that the crops were to be left untouched,
and nothing was to be done till he returned. Number two was the famous
Laczi Csenkö, the owner of the finest stud in the _Alföld_, who, rather
than tire his own beautiful horses, preferred to go on foot, unless he
could drive in somebody else's conveyance. Number three was Lörincz
Berki, the most famous hunter and courser in the county, who told
falsehoods as glibly as if he lied from dictation. Number four was
Friczi Kalotai, who had the bad habit of instantly purloining whatever
came in his way, whether it were a pipe, a silver spoon, or a watch.
Nevertheless, this habit of his was not without its advantages, for
whenever his acquaintances lost anything, they always knew exactly where
to look for it, and would simply seize him by the neck and turn out his
pockets, without offending him the least bit in the world. Last of all
came Bandi Kutyfalvi, the most magnificent tippler and swash-buckler in
the realm, who, in his cups, invariably cudgelled all his boon
companions; but he had the liquid capacity of a hippopotamus, and nobody
had ever seen him dead-drunk in his life.
On the arrival of these distinguished guests, the brown musicians blew a
threefold flourish with their trumpets, and the principal jurors
measured the racecourse, at one end of which they stationed Mr. Varju
with a red flag: this was the goal. At the other end the horsemen were
arranged in a row, having previously drawn their places by lot, and so
that the gentry might survey the race from their carriages in the most
comfortable manner possible. The course was a thousand paces in length.
Master Jock was just about to signify, by a wave of his gold-headed
cane, that the mortars were to be fired--the third report was to be the
signal for the race to begin--when far away on the _puszta_ a young
horseman was seen approaching at full tilt, cracking his whip loudly,
and galloping in the direction of the competitors. On reaching the two
jurors--and he was not long about that--he reined up, and, whipping off
his cap, briefly expressed the wish to compete for the Whitsun
Kingship.
"Don't ask me who or what I am. If I am beaten I shall simply go on my
way, but if I win I shall remain here," was all that the jurors could
get in answer to their questions. Nobody knew the youth. He was a
handsome, ruddy young fellow of about six and twenty, with a little
spiral moustache twisted upwards in _betyár_ fashion, flowing curly
locks gathered up into a top-knot, black flashing eyes, and a bold
expressive mouth, slight of build, but muscular and supple. His dress
was rustic, but simple almost to affectation; you would not have found a
seal on his white bulging shirt, search as you might, and he wore his
cap, with a tuft of meadow-sweet in it, as gallantly as any cavalier.
Wherever he might have got the steed on which he sat, it was a splendid
animal--a restive Transylvanian full-blood, with tail and mane long and
strong reaching to the ground; not for an instant could it remain quiet,
but danced and pranced continually.
They made him draw lots, and then placed him in a line with the rest.
At last the signal-guns were fired. At the first thundering report the
steeds began to rear and plunge; at the second they grew quite still,
alertly pricking up their ears; one or two of the old racers slightly
pawed the ground. Then the third report sounded, and the same instant
the whole row plunged forward into the arena.
Five or six immediately forged ahead of the rest. These were the more
impetuous horsemen, who are wont to spur their horses to the front at
the outset, only to fall behind afterwards: among them was the
last-comer also. The Whitsun King was in the centre group; now and then
he snapped his fingers, but as yet he had not moved his whip. Only when
three hundred paces had been traversed did he suddenly clap his spurs to
his horse's flanks, lash out with his whip, utter a loud cry, and in
three bounds was ahead of the others.
Then, indeed, began a shouting and yelling and cracking of whips. Every
horseman lay forward on the neck of his horse, caps fell, capes flew,
and in mid-course every one fancied he was going to win. One steed
stumbled beneath his rider; the rest galloped on.
From the carriages it was easy to see how the Whitsun King was galloping
along among the rest, his long chaplet of flowers streaming in the wind
behind him. One by one he overtook those who were galloping in front of
him, and as often as he left one of them behind he gave him a crack with
his whip, crying derisively, "Wire away, little brother!"
By the time three quarters of the course was traversed he had plainly
left them all behind, or rather all but one--the stranger-youth.
Martin hastened after him likewise. His horse was longer in the body,
but the other's was as swift as the wind. And now only two hundred paces
were between them and the goal. The youth looked back upon his
competitor with a confident smile, whereupon the gentlemen in the
carriages shouted, "Hold fast!" which warning applied equally to both
competitors. Master Jock actually stood up to see better, the contest
had now become exciting.
"And now he's laying on the whip!" cried he. "Something like, eh! And
now he gives his horse the spur! One lash, and it flies like the storm!
What a horse! I'd give a million for it; and how the fellow sticks on!
Well, Martin, it will be all up with your Whitsun Kingship immediately.
Only a hundred paces more. 'Tis all over; he'll never be able to catch
him up!"
And so, indeed, it proved. The stranger reached the goal a whole
half-minute before Martin, and was already standing there in front of
the flag when he came up. Martin, however, as he came galloping in,
quickly snatched the flag out of Mr. Varju's hand, and cried
triumphantly to the youth--
"Don't suppose, little brother, that you have won; for the rule is that
whoever seizes the banner first, he is the Whitsun King, and you see it
is in _my_ hand."
"Indeed!" said the youth, serenely; "I did not know that. I'll take care
to remember that at the second race."
"Really, now," cried Martin. "You appear pretty cock-sure that you'll
get in before me again. I tell you, you'll not. You only managed it this
time because my horse got frightened and shied. But just you try a
second time, and I'll show you who is the best man."
Meanwhile the other competitors had come up, and Martin hastened to
explain how it was that the stranger had got in quicker than himself. He
had a hundred good reasons for it at the very least.
The stranger allowed him to have his say in peace, and, full of good
humour, returned to take his place again in the ranks of the
competitors. His modest self-reliance and forbearance quite won for him
the sympathy of the crowd, which was disgusted at the arrogance of
Martin, and in the carriages of the gentry wagers began to be laid, and
the betting was ten to one on the stranger winning all three races.
The mortars were again loaded, the youths were once more placed in a
row, and at the third report the competing band again plunged forward.
Now also the two rival horses drew away from the other competitors. In
the middle of the course they were a length ahead of the foremost
racers, and side by side urged their steeds strenuously towards the
goal. Almost to the very end of the course neither was able to outstrip
the other; but when they were scarce fifty paces from the flag, the
stranger suddenly gave a loud smack with his whip, whereupon his steed,
responding to the stimulus, took a frantic bound forward, outstripping
Martin's steed by a head, and this distance was maintained between them
unaltered to the very end of the race, though the Whitsun King savagely
laid about his foaming horse with his whip-handle. The stranger was at
the banner before him, and so vigorously tore it out of the hand of Mr.
Varju, that that gentleman fell prone from his horse.
Martin, beside himself with rage, lashed at the ravished flag with his
whip, and made a great rent in its red centre. Useless fury! The umpires
hastened up, and, removing the floral crown from the head of the Whitsun
King, who was quivering with passion, placed it on the head of the
victor.
"I don't want that!" cried the vanquished horseman, huskily, when they
offered him a cap. "I mean to win back my wreath."
"You had better let it rest where it is," came a voice from the
carriages.
"No need of that," replied Martin, defiantly. "Neither I nor my horse is
tired. We will run, if we die for it. Eh, Ráró?"
The good steed, as if he understood what was said to him, pawed the
ground and arched his head. The sworn umpires placed the youths in line
again. Most of them, however, seeing the uselessness of competing with
these two horsemen, fell out of the line and mingled among the
spectators, so that scarce six others remained on the ground with the
two rival heroes. All the more interesting, therefore, the contest; for
there will be nothing to distract the attention of the onlookers.
Before engaging in the contest for the third time, the stranger-youth
dismounted from his horse, and cutting a supple willow sapling from a
tree in the cemetery, stripped it of its leaves, and thrusting it into
his whip-handle, mounted his horse again. Hitherto he had not once
struck his steed.
But now, when the noble animal heard the sharp hiss of the thin willow
wand, it began to rear. Standing on its hind legs, it fell to savagely
worrying its bit, and careering round and round. The spectators began to
fear for the youth, not that he would fall from his horse--that was out
of the question--but that he would be too late for the contest, for the
second report had now sounded, and the others were all awaiting the
signal with loosely held reins, while his horse was curveting and pawing
the ground.
When the third report resounded, the stranger suddenly gave his horse a
cut with the willow switch, and let the reins hang loosely.
The smitten steed scudded off like a tempest. Wildly, madly, it skimmed
the ground beneath its feet, as only a horse can fly when,
panic-stricken, it ravishes its perishing rider along with it. None, no
none, could get anywhere near it; even Martin was left many yards behind
in mid-course. The crowd gaped in amazement at the fury of the steed and
the foolhardiness of the rider, especially when, in the midst of his mad
career, the long chaplet of flowers fell from the youth's head, and was
trampled to pieces beneath the hoofs of the other horses panting after
him. He himself did not notice the loss of his chaplet till he reached
the goal, where he had to exert all his strength to rein up his maddened
steed. He had reached the goal; but he had lost his crown.
"Look! he has lost his crown: he cannot therefore be the Whitsun King!"
cried many voices.
But who was to be the king, then? The crown was irrecoverably trampled
to pieces in the dust.
"That is not fair!" exclaimed the majority. Many proposed a fresh race.
"I am ready for anything you like," said the strange youth.
"Stop, little brother!" replied Martin, in a subdued, husky voice, which
quivered with rage. "We want to prove which of us two is the better man.
I confess that on level ground you go quicker than I. You have the
better horse, and a fool may win if his horse be quick enough. But, come
now, show us whether you are a man where standing one's ground, not
running away, is the great point. There's a nice lot of people here, you
see, and for all these folks they have only brought hither two
bullocks--and little enough too. If you're a man, come with me and fetch
a third. We shall not have to go far. Among the reeds yonder is a stray
bull, which has been prowling in these parts for the last fortnight,
killing people, scattering flocks and herds, destroying the crops,
overturning the carts on the high-road, and chasing the labourers out of
the fields into the town. Not one of the drovers, or _gulyás_, in the
place can cope with him single-handed. Let us go after him together, and
the one that drags him hither shall be the Whitsun King."
"There's my hand upon it," said the strange youth, clapping the palm of
his rival without even taking time for reflection.
Those who happened to hear this proposal showed signs of retiring
precipitately. "They must be fools to bring a mad bull among the people
on a holiday like this," murmured these waverers.
"You need have no fear," said Martin. "By the time we bring him here he
will be as gentle as a lamb, or else we shall be lying where he is now."
Quick as wildfire spread the rumour of this mad idea. The more timorous
part of the crowd tried to get behind the nearest fenced and ditched
places; the bolder spirits took horse and rushed to follow and see the
hazardous enterprise. All the gentlemen present began betting on the
issue forthwith, and Master Jock himself hastened after the youths in
his rustic cart. Possibly he thought that even the wild animal would
know how to treat a Kárpáthy with due respect.
Scarce half an hour's journey from the town began the enormous morass
which extends as far as Püspök-Ládany and Tisza-Füred, in which not
merely a wild bull but a hippopotamus could make his home comfortably.
On one side of it extended rich wheat-fields, on the other side the
rich, dark green reeds marked the water-line, only a narrow dyke
separating the meadow from the swamp.
It was easy to learn at the first of the shepherd huts scattered along
the border of the morass where the errant bull happened to be at that
moment. Amongst the shrubs of the little reedy island opposite he had
made his lair; there you could see him crouching down. All night long he
would be roaring and bellowing there, only in the daytime was he silent.
First of all, however, you must know what sort of a character the beast
known as an "errant bull" really is.
When there are two bulls in a herd, especially if one of them be only a
growing calf, they are quiet enough, and even timid all through the
winter. If they meet each other they stand face to face, rubbing
foreheads, lowing and walking round and round each other; but if the
herdsman flings his cudgel between them they trot off in opposite
directions. But when the spring expands, when the spicy flowers put
fresh vigour and warmer blood into every grass-eating beast, then the
young bulls begin to carry their horned heads higher, roar at each other
from afar, and it is the chief business of the _gulyás_ to prevent them
from coming together. If, however, on a warm spring day, when the
herdsmen are sleeping beneath their _gubas_, the two hostile chiefs
should encounter each other, a terrible fight ensues between them, which
regularly ends with the fall or the flight of one of them. At such a
time it is vain for the herdsman to attempt to separate them. The
infuriated animals neither see nor hear him; all their faculties are
devoted to the destruction of each other. Sometimes the struggle lasts
for hours on a plot of meadow, which they denude of its grass as cleanly
as if it had been ploughed. Finally, the beast who is getting the worst
of it, feeling that his rival is the stronger, begins with a terrific
roar to fly away through the herd, and runs wild on the _puszta_; with
blood-red eyes, with blood-red lolling tongue, he wanders up and down
the fields and meadows, frequently returning to the scene of his
humiliation; but he mingles no longer with the herd, and woe betide
every living animal he encounters! He begins to pursue whatever meets
his eye in the distance, and he has been known to watch for days the
tree in which a wayfarer has taken refuge, until casually passing
_csikóses_ have come up and driven the beast away.
From the information given by the _gulyáses_, it was easy to trace the
lair of the bull. Two distinct paths led to it among the tall reeds, and
the two youths, separating, chose each of them his path, and waded into
the thicket in search of the furious beast. Meanwhile, the horsemen, who
had come to see the sport, scrambled on to the high dyke, from whence
they could survey the whole willow wood.
Martin had scarce advanced a hundred paces among the reeds when he heard
the snorting of the bull. For a moment he thought of calling to the
stranger youth, who had taken the other path, but pride restrained him.
Alone he would subdue the beast, and he boldly sought the spot from
whence the snorting proceeded.
There lay the huge beast in the midst of the reeds. He had buried
himself up to the knees in the swamp, and, whether from rage or for
amusement, had trampled down a large area of rushes all round about him.
When he heard the clatter of the approaching hoofs, he raised his head.
One horn, prematurely developed, bent forwards, the other stood up
straight and pointed. His sooty black forehead was covered with prickly
water-burrs, across his snout was the scar of a large and badly healed
wound.
On perceiving the approaching horseman, he immediately raised himself on
his fore feet and uttered a wild prolonged roar. Martin, who wished to
entice the beast on to solid ground, where he could grapple with him
better than in the midst of this unknown morass, and also, by way of
provocation, cracked his long whip loudly. Maddened still more by this
exasperating sound, the wild beast arose from his resting-place and
rushed upon the horseman, who immediately turned his horse and fled out
of the swamp, enticing after him the infuriated bull.
When the wild beast came out into the plain, looked about him, and saw
all the people standing on the dyke, as if guessing what they wanted to
do with him, he suddenly turned tail again, and snorting as he went,
angrily lay down again on the border of the swamp. Martin followed after
him, and again cracked his whip over the beast's head.
The bull roared at him, but did not budge from the spot. On the
contrary, he burrowed with his snout among the reeds, and however much
the young man might crack his whip, he only responded by beating the air
with his tail.
This supreme indifference irritated Martin, and, creeping closer to the
wild bull, he gave it a cut with his whip. The hooked steel wire plaited
round the end of the whip cut out a whole patch on the skin of the
savage beast, but it did not move. Another cut reached its neck,
chipping away the skin with a sharp crackle. The bull only grunted, but
did not stand up, and buried its head among the reeds to avoid being
lassoed by the halter-line which the horseman held handy.
But now it was the huntsman's turn to grow angry, and he kept on
flicking away at the obstinate animal without being able to move it from
the spot, and presently a whole mob of horsemen began to assemble around
him, profoundly irritated by the cowardice of the bull, and tried to
arouse it by making as great a din and racket as possible.
Suddenly a flick from the whip chanced to hit the bull in the eye. Quick
as lightning the beast leaped to its feet, shook its head, and frantic
with rage, rushed upon the horseman, and before he had had time to
escape, struck him sideways, and with frightful force hurled him to the
ground, horse and all, and began trampling them both in the dust.
The other horsemen scattered in terror. The overthrown charger made
frantic efforts to regain its feet; in vain! The savage beast transfixed
its loins with his horn. Never again will the noble animal run races in
the fields. Bleeding profusely, it falls back again, crushing its rider,
who, with his feet entangled in the stirrups, was unable to liberate
himself.
The baited bull stood on the plain roaring terribly, and tearing up the
ground with his hoofs, while the blood from his cut-out eye trickled
down his black breast. He did not pursue the fugitives, but, turning
back, and seeing the overthrown horse and rider still wallowing on the
ground, he began taking short runs at them, like goats often do,
throwing up the earth here and there with his horns. God be merciful to
the poor youth beneath him!
At length Martin succeeded in extricating himself from his steed. No
sooner did the bull perceive that his enemy was on his feet again, than,
in a fresh access of rage, he rushed straight at him. A shriek of horror
filled the air; many hid their faces. In another moment all would be
over.
At that instant, when the savage beast was not more than a yard's
distance from its victim, it stopped suddenly, and threw back its head
with a jerk. A skilfully thrown noose had gripped it round the neck, and
the end of that noose was in the hands of the stranger youth, who now
emerged from among the reeds. Hearing a sound like bull-baiting, he had
hastened to the spot, and did not arrive a moment too soon. Another
second and his rival would have been trampled to death.
The bewildered beast, feeling the suffocating pressure of the lasso
about its neck, turned towards its new opponent, but he also now turned
his horse's head, and throwing the lasso-line across his shoulder, set
off at the top of his speed across the plain.
That was something like a gallop! The heavy wild beast was constrained
to run a race with the swiftest of steeds. The cord was pressing tightly
round its neck, and blindly, helter-skelter, it had to go in a perfectly
straight direction till it dropped.
The youth galloped with it straight towards the racecourse, and then
suddenly sprang to one side. The bull bounded away right on, and now the
horse remained behind, while the bull flew on in front. By this time it
had lost all count of where it was.
The horseman now drew forth his long whip, and began to cut and lash out
from behind at the bull, which rushed on even quicker and quicker. The
trampling of the horse's hoofs, the cracking of the whip, the shouting
of the people, confused it into utter stupidity. It could only run on
and on, the blood trickling from its nose and mouth, its whole front
flaked with foam, its tongue lolling forth, till, on reaching the
racecourse, which was covered with a roaring mob, its strong legs gave
way beneath it, and, unable to hold itself up any longer, it collapsed
in a ditch, and, rolling a good distance, rooted up the ground with its
snout, then stretched itself out at full length on the sward, and ceased
to breathe.
Shouting and huzzahing, the mob escorted the new Whitsun King along all
the streets of the town, for he was in duty bound to stop before the
houses of the chief magistrate and town councillors, and there drink
their healths in a good bumper, which admirable custom goes to prove
that the Whitsun King had need to be not merely a good runner, but a
good drinker too; and this latter quality was all the more necessary,
owing to the circumstance that, when he had done with the rest of them,
he had, last of all, to go up to John Kárpáthy's castle in the company
of all the sworn jurors, and drink again there.
Now, when the sworn jurors brought in the new Whitsun King to introduce
him to Squire John, the great man ordered every one to leave the room
incontinently, so that they two might be quite alone together.
Master Jock was sitting in an armchair, with his feet in a large tub of
water, chewing a couple of bitter almonds. All this was by way of
preparation for the evening's debauch.
"What is your name, little brother?" he inquired of the Whitsun King.
"Michael Kis, at your service, your honour."
"Well, Mike, you are a fine young fellow. You please me greatly. So now
you are going to be Whitsun King for a whole year, eh? What will you do
with yourself all that time?"
The youth twisted his blonde moustache upwards, and steadily regarded
the ceiling.
"I really don't know. I only know that I shall be a bigger man than ever
before."
"And if at the end of the year you are deposed?"
"Then I shall go back to my stable at Nadudvár, from whence I came."
"Have you neither father nor mother?"
"I have no belongings at all. I have never seen either father or
mother."
"Then stop where you are, Mike. What if I make a bigger man of you than
you yourself have any idea of; make you take your place in genteel
society here; give you as much money as you like, to drink and play
cards with; and turn you into Michael Kis, Esq., lord of the manor of
Nadudvár?"
"I shouldn't mind, but how to conduct myself so that they may take me
for a gentleman, I don't know."
"The bigger blackguard you are, the greater gentleman they'll take you
to be. It is only our rustics who are modest and respectful nowadays."
"If that be all, I am ready."
"I'll take you with me everywhere. You shall drink, dice, bully, brawl,
cudgel the men, and befool the women to the top of your bent. At the end
of twelve months your Whitsun Kingship will be over, you will doff your
genteel mummery, and become the leader of my heydukes. You shall then
don the red _mente_, and wait upon those very gentlemen with whom you
have been drinking and dicing for a whole year; you shall help into
their carriages the same little wenches with whom you used to make
merry. I consider that a very good joke. I don't know whether you think
so, too? How the gentlemen will curse and the ladies blush when they
find out who you were!"
The youth reflected for a moment; but then he threw back his head, and
cried--
"All right! I don't care."
Master Jock looked at his watch. "It is now a quarter to four. Remember
that. At a quarter to four twelve months hence your gentility, your
nobility, will cease. _Till_ then you are just as much a gentleman as
the rest of us. Every month you will receive from me a thousand florins
plunder money. The first thousand is in this reticule. Now be off! My
heydukes will dress you. When you are ready, come down to my
drinking-room. Be rude to the servants, especially as they know you to
be but a boor, and call the gentry by their nicknames only--Mike, Andy,
Larry, Fred, Ned, for instance. Me they call Jock, remember."
Half an hour later Mike was back again, dressed as a gentleman.
In the drinking-room there was fun enough going on already even without
him; for there the rule was, Welcome everybody, and wait for nobody. The
master of the house introduced the newly arrived guest as Michael Kis,
Esq., lord of the manor of Nadudvár, who, "like a jolly good fellow,"
had come disguised as an ostler to the Whitsun Kingship competition, and
there acquitted himself like a man.
Every one thought this a most original joke. It was plain to every eye,
moreover, that he was a gentleman and no boor. All his movements,
whether he lolled back on a chair, or leaned his elbows on the table, or
chucked his cap in a corner--_betyár_ tricks every one of them--was
proof positive that he must have been brought up in good circles. A real
_betyár_ would never have dared to lift up his head here; but this
fellow, metaphorically speaking, buttonholed everybody. In a few
moments, in fact, Mike had drunk good-fellowship with the whole company,
and become as familiar as if he had lived among them all his life.
Meanwhile the eternal bumper began to circulate, and Mike fell to
singing a new drinking-song which none of them knew, and the company
took it up with spirit; and, more than that, it was better than any they
had ever sung before.
Within an hour Mike had become a perfect hero in that genteel circle. In
his cups he far outstripped them all; and when it came to card-playing,
he won whole heaps of money from all and sundry without moving a muscle
of his face, raking the dollars in with as much _sangfroid_ as if he had
sacks of them at home. Nay, he even lent a lot to Franky Kalotai,
thereby obviously displaying an utter contempt for money, for it was
notorious that Franky never paid anything back.
And now the heads of most of the gentlemen engaged in this drinking-bout
began to loll about unsteadily. Everybody had got beyond the limit where
the good humour begotten of good wine ends and drunkenness begins; when
a man no longer tastes his wine, and is only sensible of a giddy
hankering for more. At such times Bandi Kutyfalvi was wont to exhibit
his ancient _tour-de-force_, which consisted in swallowing with
outstretched neck a whole bumper of wine at one gulp or, to use his own
technical expression, without a single hiccough. Now, such a feat
naturally requires for its performance an extraordinarily concave and
well-practised throat, and, with the exception of Bandi, there were not
above one or two others who could successfully accomplish it.
"Why, that's nothing at all!" cried Mike Kis, accomplishing the feat
without the slightest exertion. "But now, let any one try and do what I
can do--sing a song and at the same time drain a bumper without leaving
off singing."
Now, this was an entirely new trick, and an extremely difficult one to
boot; for, to be properly performed, it required not only that the
glottis should remain immovable during the passage of the vinous torrent
down the throat, but also that the throat should give forth at the same
time a clear, uninterrupted voice. Yet Michael Kis performed this feat
with masterly dexterity, to the general astonishment, and gave back the
bowl for the next man to imitate him.
Naturally they all came to grief. Every bumper of wine was a fresh
occasion of shame, and the drinkers laughed heartily at one another, for
every one of them was obliged to interrupt his song while he drank.
Michael Kis had to show them once more how it was done.
"A bumper here!" cried Bandi at last, and gallantly buckled to the
attempt; but the song only proceeded a little way, and then a drop of
wine managed to get into his windpipe, and immediately, like a whale
rising to the surface of the sea to blow, or like a stone triton
spouting forth the water of a fountain, a violent upward rush of
imprisoned breath discharged through every aperture of the suffocating
wretch the wine that filled his throat.
The whole table arose, the company bursting with laughter, while Bandi,
gasping and coughing, shook his fists at Mike during every brief respite
his lungs allowed him, and cried, "I'll kill you I'll kill you!" And at
last, when he began to feel better, he rolled the sleeves of his shirt
up his big bony arms, and yelled hoarsely, "I'll kill you! I'll kill
you! Look out, I say, for I'm going to kill the whole company."
At these words there was a general rush for the door. Every one knew
Kutyfalvi's way of going to work, and it was just as well, at such
times, either to fly before him or to lie down, for he had this in
common with the bear race, that he never hurt any one whom he found
lying on the ground. The heydukes hastily removed Master Jock outside
also. All the rest who had still the slightest command over their legs
crept under the table.
Kutyfalvi was a big, strong brute of a man. He could take up three
bushel sacks of wheat with his teeth and fling them over his head; he
could bite a thaler piece in two; he could pull a wild horse to the
ground single-handed--all of which feats inspired his comrades with such
a respect for him that a very advanced stage of drunkenness was
necessary before even the strongest of them would venture a bout with
him, especially as all such foolhardiness generally resulted in the
monstrous Cyclops mangling his weaker antagonist out of all recognition.
No wonder, then, if every living soul in the room sighed, "Woe to thee,
Mike Kis!" when they beheld him draw down upon his devoted head the
wrath of this giant, who, infuriated at the failure of the
wine-swallowing experiment, now rushed upon him with open arms, in order
to pound him to pieces, pitching all the chairs out of his way as he
rushed along.
But the ennobled ostler was used to such encounters, and when his
antagonist had come quite close to him, he deftly ducked beneath his
arms, and then gave him a lesson in the stable dodge. With one hand he
caught hold of his opponent's collar, twisting it so tightly that he
gasped for breath, at the same time tripping up his legs, and then, with
the other hand, he threw him over his knee. That is the stable dodge,
which can be safely employed against even the strongest rowdies.
Meanwhile those of his cronies who ventured to peep back through the
doorway, heard a great bang as Bandi Kutyfalvi's huge carcase smote the
floor, and saw the big, powerful man lying motionless beneath his
opponent, who kept him down with his knee, and pummelled him from head
to foot, as he had been wont to pummel others when they quarrelled with
him in their cups. Every one was delighted that his turn had now come,
and when at last Mike Kis let go his collar and left him lying at full
length on the floor, they carried the avenger of their long years of
contumely round the room, and drank his health in bumpers till break of
day.
Kutyfalvi, however, whom, after this little joke was over, the servants
removed from the room and tucked up nicely in bed, dreamt that he fell
down from the top of a high mountain into a quarry, the jagged stones of
which smashed all his limbs into little bits, and, on waking, was
greatly astonished that he should still feel the effects of his dream.
From that day forth Mike Kis became Master Jock's prime favourite, and
the sworn comrade of every gentleman who lived in the neighbourhood.
Nay, even when the Hungarian Diet assembled at Pressburg in 1823, and
Master Jock, with great reluctance, forsook his dogs, his cronies, his
zanies, his heydukes, and peasant-wenches, in order to attend to his
legislative duties, he could not find it in his heart to part with Mike,
so he took the lad along with him to Pressburg. This, however, may only
have been part of the joke. How comical it would be, for instance, to
introduce the pseudonymous young gentleman to the various noblemen and
gentlemen assembled there! Nay, better still, some young countess or
other might fall over head and ears in love with the handsome youth,
and what a capital jest it would then be to exhibit the fellow in the
scarlet livery of a heyduke, whose duty it is to climb up behind the
carriage when his master goes out for a drive!
So Michael Kis made his appearance in the midst of the elegant society
of Pressburg, and his merry humour and handsome, manly figure, backed up
by the best letters of introduction, made him a general favourite.
Polite society had a peculiar phraseology in those days. Rudeness used
to be called frankness; bad language, originality; violence, manliness;
and frivolity, nonchalance. To Mike, therefore, was attributed a whole
host of good qualities, and the only alteration required of him was that
he should wear an _attila_ instead of a _mente_. He was a gentleman by
birth, and that was enough. Every one admired, not his mind,
indeed--they troubled themselves very little about that in those
days--but his manly bearing, his rosy cheeks, his muscular figure, his
sparkling eyes, his black moustache, which are of far more account than
any amount of learning. And all the while Master Jock was laughing in
his sleeve, for the red Whitsun Day was drawing near, and most of the
young noblemen were hail-fellow-well-met with Mike Kis; and here and
there you might even hear dear, thoughtful mammas making inquiries about
the circumstances of the fine young fellow whom they were by no means
indisposed to see hovering around their darling daughters; nay, more
than one of them confided in a whisper to her bosom friends that she had
good cause to suspect that the fine young fellow in question had serious
intentions.
Such secrets have a way of spreading like wildfire, and old Kárpáthy
began to suffer from the drollest paroxysms. Sometimes, in the gravest
society, he would commence ha-ha-ha-ing at the top of his voice. At such
moments he was reflecting that in a very few days the much-befêted
cavalier would turn out to be nothing but his heyduke! Many a time he
would sit up in bed to laugh; nay, once, in the House itself, in full
session, when the galleries were filled with the _élite_ of society, and
the protocols were being read, the old gentleman, observing how the
ladies were regarding the handsome figure of Mike, as he stood amongst a
group of young nobles, with all their eyes--the old gentleman, I say,
was so overcome thereby that he burst into an irrestrainable fit of
laughter on the spot, for which he was called to order and fined. He
paid the fine immediately, but he had to pay it over double before the
day was over, for he could not restrain his laughter when he bethought
him of the near-approaching _dénoûment_ of this humorous masquerade.
And at last rosy Whitsun Day, most comical of days, arrived. Kárpáthy
had ordered a great and costly supper to be laid in the park beyond the
Danube, to which he invited every one who was at all intimate with Mike.
What a splendid joke it will be to present the hero of so many a triumph
to the company as--a lackey! Master Jock would not have parted with his
joke for an empire.
The clock had just struck a quarter to four. According to the compact,
the Whitsun King ought now to be waiting there in the antechamber, and
Master Jock ordered him to be shown in.
"What new sort of manners do you call this?" cried Mike as he entered
the room, flinging himself into an armchair; "why do you keep an
honourable man waiting ten minutes in your antechamber?"
There was a pipe in Master Jock's mouth, and he was engaged at that
moment in filling it with tobacco.
"Halloa! Mike my son!" said he with infinite slyness, "just you get out
of that chair and light my pipe for me--d'ye hear?"
"Light it yourself!" replied Mike; "the flint and steel is close beside
you."
Master Jock stared at him with all his eyes. The lad himself had clearly
forgotten what day it was. All the more piquant then to startle him out
of his insolent security.
"Then, my beloved little brother, are you not aware that to-day is red
Whitsun Day?"
"What's that got to do with me? I am neither a parson nor an
almanac-maker."
"Eh, eh! Recollect that at a quarter to four your Whitsun Kingship
ceases!"
"And what then?" inquired Mike, without the slightest perturbation,
polishing the antique opal buttons of his _attila_ with his silken
handkerchief.
"What then?" cried Jock, who was beginning to get warm; "why, from this
instant you cease to be a gentleman."
"What am I then?"
"What are you, sirrah? I'll tell ye. You're a boor, a _betyár_, a
good-for-nothing rascal, a runaway ragamuffin, that's what you are! And
you'll be glad enough to kiss my hand, and beg me to make you one of my
lackeys, to save you from starvation or the gallows."
"Excuse me," replied Mike Kis, deftly twisting his moustache, "but I am
Michael Kis, Esq., proprietor of Almasfalva, which I purchased the day
before yesterday from the trustees of the estate of Kázmér Almásfalvi,
for 120,000 florins, with the full sanction of the Court, wherefore my
title thereto is unexceptionable."
Master Jock fell back in astonishment. "One hundred and twenty thousand
florins! When and where did you pick up all that money?"
"I got it honourably," said Michael Kis, smiling. "I won it at cards one
evening, when I and a few of my gentlemen friends sat down to play
together. To tell you the truth, I won a good deal more than that, but
the balance will do to build up a splendid castle on my estate, where I
can reside during the summer."
To Master Jock this part of the matter was quite intelligible; much
larger sums than this used to be lost and won during the sessions of the
Diet at Pressburg. But one thing he could not understand at all.
"Pray how did you get your diploma of gentility?" he asked; "you are not
a gentleman by birth."
"That was a very simple matter. When Whitsun Day was only a week off, I
strolled into one of the trans-Danubian counties, and there advertised
that a prodigal member of the Szabolcs branch of the noble Kis family
was in search of his relations, and if there were any noble Kises who
remembered that branch of the family, and had certificates of nobility
in their possession, which they were willing to transfer to the
undersigned in exchange for one thousand florins, would they be kind
enough to communicate with him. In a week's time fifteen members of the
Kis family remembered their Szabolcs kinsmen, and brought me all kinds
of certificates of nobility. All I then had to do was to select the one
which had the prettiest coat of arms; whereupon we kissed each other all
round, and traced out the genealogy. I paid down the thousand florins;
they recognized me as their kinsman, and advertised the diploma
throughout the county; and so now I am a landed gentleman. Look, here on
my signet-ring is my crest."
This joke pleased Master Jock even more than his own. Instead of being
angry, he covered with kisses the astute adventurer who had more
foresight than any one else, had got the better of those who thought
they were getting the better of him, and had accepted in good earnest
the part which had been thrust upon him by way of a joke.