TIT FOR TAT
It may seem strange to us that the rumour of Fatia Negra's nocturnal
adventure was not spread abroad in these parts, but as a matter of fact
nobody did speak of it. It seemed as if everybody who knew anything
about it, died out of the world before he could pass the news on to his
neighbour.
The dwellers in the hut in the Ice Valley had vanished without leaving a
trace behind them. The herd, untended by a shepherd, was scattered to
the winds by wolves. Nobody could say what had become of Juon Tare and
Mariora. The person who shewed least of all tell that she knew anything
about this midnight adventure was Anicza herself. She had sobbed out the
whole story before Henrietta, but after that she kept her own counsel
and kept a good countenance also when folks looked at her. But there was
venom at the bottom of her heart, and she nourished it there.
In a fortnight's time Fatia Negra visited her again. There was now
nothing the matter with him, all traces of the life and death struggle
had disappeared. Anicza was more affectionate towards him than ever. She
did not even ask him where he had been all this time, nor did she notice
the scar on his neck which had not been there before.
Fatia Negra came to her at night, as he always did. The famous
adventurer was very cautious. Anicza knew for certain that whenever he
came to visit her in a populous place like this, before him and behind
him went faithful henchmen who stood on guard at the corners of the
streets and gave a signal at the approach of any danger. Only amongst
the snowy mountains was he wont to go alone. He was also very wary in
other ways. Thus, he never drank wine: there was really no getting at
him. And if once he had his weapons handy, then he could always cut his
way through his enemies, even if he were completely surrounded.
"Fatia Negra," said the girl, throwing her arms round his neck, "last
night I had an evil dream. I dreamt that the smallpox had ruined my
face. Would you love me if I were pockmarked?"
"Yes, I would still love you," replied the adventurer.
"Well, as it happens I am not. Kiss me! Then I dreamt another dream. I
dreamt that all our property was destroyed. I was a ragged wandering
beggar with my head tied up. Would you love me if I were a ragged
beggar?"
"Little fool, of course I should love you."
"Then embrace me nicely. After that I dreamt that some one had shut me
up in prison for some great offence; they had condemned me to many
years' imprisonment, condemned me to spend all my youth behind
iron-barred windows and they would only let me free again when I had
become a wrinkled old hag. Would you love me if I was in prison? Would
you come and stand outside my iron bars and speak to me now and then?"
"Stop this foolish chatter! Who is able to answer such questions?" and
in order that she should obey the more readily he closed her mouth with
kisses.
But as soon as the kisses were over, she began to prattle again:
"But after that I went on dreaming again, and I dreamt what made me very
angry with myself. I dreamt that I married someone else and forgot you.
Would you still love me if I were to deceive you and wed another?"
"Yes, I would love you even then, Anicza,--and my love for you would
make me shoot you through the heart."
How the girl laughed when he said this!
"Wait a bit," said she, "and you will see that it will all come to pass.
I shall grow sick and ugly. I shall become a poor beggar. They will send
me to prison and make a slave of me. I shall deceive you and wed
another. Then we shall see whether you will love me; then we shall see
whether you will kill me."
Anicza thought all this so amusing that she laughed aloud. The noise
brought old Onucz into the room. His daughter turned towards him
smilingly. "Isn't it true, father, that three suitors are courting me?"
she asked. "I was asking Fatia Negra which of the three I should take."
Old Onucz scratched his nose pretty hard at this question. He would have
liked to have said: "whichever you like, as long as it is the right
one!" but he was afraid of offending Fatia Negra.
"Well, Domnule," said he at last, "truth is truth, after all. I'm
getting an old man now, and what's the good of my scraping together and
piling up all these ducats if nothing comes of it all? I have indeed an
only daughter, a pretty girl and a good girl, too, but what's the use of
that? You are not her husband. If I only knew of some corner of the
world quite out of your reach, I would gather together all my
belongings, seek it out and settle down there; but it would be of no
avail, you would always find me out and befool my girl again, so I have
to stay where I am."
"Don't grumble, old chap, there is a time for all things. This black
mask shall not always cover my face; when I come to see you, my name
shall not always be Fatia Negra. The day will come when a carriage and
four shall drive into your courtyard, a sabre-tashed heyduke will then
leap from the box and open the silver-plated coach and a cavalier in
cloth of gold will step out who comes to you as a suitor. If you see
this ring on his finger you will know that it is I, and there will no
longer be a Fatia Negra in the wide world. We will go together to
Bucharest, a true Roumanian city, where folks will respect us and then
our happy days will begin."
"If only that could be soon! But you have been telling me this for a
long, long time."
"That is because we cannot put an end to our work yet. There are very
many people who still expect much from us. If I do not satisfy them they
will remain a perpetual danger to us. That is why I am compelled to wear
this mask a little longer. When once I have taken it off, he who used to
wear it is dead and has nothing more in common with me."
"Then you really mean to break away from everything one day?"
"Yes, it is high time. My little finger whispers that someone wants to
betray me. But say that to nobody. We must not frighten our own people.
The Government is getting suspicious at the disappearance of so much
gold. It is sniffing about, but at present it is on a wrong track. The
Jews of Hungary are suspected and they happen to know nothing at all
about it. But it is quite enough that suspicion _has_ been aroused. So
far they fancy that only about fifty to sixty pounds of gold a year are
unlawfully made away with. They don't know yet that it amounts to five
or six hundredweight, which is coined into ready money underneath the
ground. This business must be put a stop to. This year the mines yielded
a rich profit. Next Saturday there will be a last delivery of gold in
the Lucsia cavern. As soon as the coins are struck, we shall divide the
profits, wish one another 'buna nopte!'[30] and depart our respective
ways. We shall destroy the machinery, blow up the smelting furnaces with
gunpowder, break down the aqueducts and close up the mouth of the
cavern. After that everyone can do as he likes with his gold. I shall
wash my hands of it."
[Footnote 30: Good night.]
"Well said!" cried old Onucz, "that is as I would have it also. The
whole lot of us who are partners in the concern will meet once more in
the Lucsia cavern. There we will listen to what you say and swear to
each other that we will not say a word of what has gone on down below
there. Then everyone will do as you bid, for you are the most prudent of
us all."
"Then I shall only have to wait another week?" enquired Anicza, winding
the locks of Fatia Negra round her fingers.
"For what?" asked the adventurer.
"Nay, but surely you know?"
"Aha! of course!" said he smiling. "You mean you will only have to wait
another week for me to cease to be your husband under a mask and become
your real, true husband, eh? That is the end of all your thoughts, eh?"
"Yes, yes!" said the girl, but she thought within herself: "I shall only
have to wait a week to give up your masked head into the hands of the
hangman!"
So Fatia Negra unsuspiciously rocked the girl up and down on his knee
and reflected complacently: "Girls are made in order that they may
believe the lies which men choose to tell them."
But Anicza was a Wallachian girl and Wallachian girls are jealous,
revengeful and artful.
* * * * *
That Saturday had arrived.
Seven hundred torches lit up the Lucsia Grotto. In between, from out of
the corners of the cavern Bengal lights burst forth from time to time
flooding for a few moments the whole of that gloomy palace with green,
blue, white and rose-coloured flames to which the red flame of the
pitch-torches with their black smoke formed a spectral contrast.
The great company of coiners had arranged for the last evening before
their separation a sumptuous feast in this subterranean hall. The floor
was strewn with white sand and all round about tents were erected in
which roast and baked meats were piled up into veritable hillocks on
broad beech-wood dishes. In order to show the wealth at their command an
ox was roasting whole on a flaming fire, revolving as it roasted, while
two men, one on each side, basted it well with bacon fat held on iron
forks. Close behind it was a gigantic vat of wine, everybody was free to
drink out of it as much as he chose. Right in front of the smithy, too,
was another gigantic vat holding about fifty firkins, filled to the brim
with the finest eau de vié. A couple of young fellows lolled in front of
the vat; they were already too lazy to dip their glasses into the fluid,
they sucked it in from the brim of the vat itself.
The glare of the smelting oven no longer shone from the windows of the
stone building in the midst of the cavern, the smoke intermingled with
sparks no longer welled out of the flue, the subterranean hubbub no
longer accompanied the stroke of the hammers, the machinery was silent,
its work was done.
Two hundred and fifty thousand coined ducats await distribution; of
these, fifty thousand belong to Fatia Negra and twenty thousand to old
Onucz.
The smithy to-day is adorned with green twigs and bright ribbons, and on
its massive chimneys all the requisites for a pyrotechnical display have
been heaped up; it is from these that the rockets will ascend, it is
here the blue and red Catherine wheels will revolve. The vaulted ceiling
of the cavern is so high that the rockets in their highest flight will
not graze it. An orchestral-like balustrade has been provided for the
musicians. The shareholders themselves will do their best to enliven the
festivities with fiddles, flutes and bagpipes. The guests are already
appearing, singly and in groups, down through the machinery of the mill.
The men are all accompanied by their womenkind in gala costumes.
Before the appearance of Fatia Negra, mirth and uproar have full swing.
Everyone gives free course to his jollity till the chief comes whose
black mask is sufficient to quiet everyone's good humour.
And to-day brings with it its own peculiar festivity. After the great
distribution of money, Fatia Negra will take the daughter of Onucz by
the hand and plight his troth to her in front of a crucifix placed on a
high pedestal. The oath of betrothal will be an invention of Fatia Negra
himself, filled with well assorted curses and promises. And he will
swear to regard Anicza as his lawful bride from this day forth until
such time as he can, without any mask or disguise, conduct her before a
priest and solemnize his wedding in another place and before other
people. For a long time this ceremony has been the pet idea of old Onucz
and now Fatia Negra has agreed to it.
Gradually all the partners have assembled in the cavern. Amongst the
last to arrive are old Onucz and his daughter with the bridesmaids.
Anicza is dressed as usual with her girdle and embroidered bodice and a
round hat on her head. The only difference is that now she sparkles all
over with gold and jewels and her pig-tail is interwoven with real
pearls. Amongst all the picked beauties who have gathered together here,
she is still the most beautiful.
Only the bridegroom still keeps the good folks waiting. He is a long
time coming, as becomes a great man. Nay, it is quite possible he may
be there already without anyone seeing him. Perchance he is walking
along there behind the bride in an invisible mantle and only when he
throws it off, then only and not till then will the people see him.
Anicza screams aloud--perhaps with joy! Everyone is thunderstruck; they
imagine their leader must be in league with the devil himself, for he
comes up from out of the earth!
And with what splendour does he ascend! The purple robe that he wears is
scarce discernible for gold lace; a long embroidered mantle, like the
mantle of a prince, floats down from his shoulders and on his head he
wears a golden helmet from which the mask depends.
The top of this helmet is set all round about with diamonds, and one of
his comrades makes the remark that the spike of this helmet is somewhat
muddy. He wore no weapon by his side, not even a dagger. Naturally,--one
generally lays aside one's arms when one is about to swear solemnly
before an altar. Onucz approached him obsequiously and kissed the hand
of his mysterious leader with profound respect, whilst Anicza approached
him with roguish archness, adroitly feigning a superstitious fear of her
magician of a sweetheart.
"I am not afraid of you, Fatia Negra! though you come and go unseen. I
fear you come not in God's name."
"That is true. We are nearer methinks to the Kingdom of the Devil."
"Hush! say not so!"
"Why not? If these men had imagined that I came down from Heaven, they
would have betrayed me long ago. They would have carried me bound to
Fehervár; but because they fancy I came from below and am acquainted
with the devil, they fear me and are faithful. It is the same with you:
you love me because you fear me."
"Ho, ho, ho! We shall see. I fear nobody, not even you. It was a joke
when I said just now: I am afraid. You did not see that."
"Come now, I'll put you to the test at once. You see that crucifix on
the altar? On that we will swear fidelity to each other and everyone
here present will also swear to preserve eternal secrecy. As, however,
we coiners cannot call God to witness, for by our trade we have rejected
him, our oaths cannot ascend to Heaven but must descend elsewhere. In
order then that our oath may be effectual, go if you have the courage,
turn the crucifix and return it to its place--only upside down."
For an instant the girl grew pale and trembled, then she advanced boldly
up to the altar, seized the crucifix and lifting it up, turned it round
and thrust it upside down into a hole that happened to be on the altar,
so that its pedestal stood up in the air.
All who were present looked on with wonder and horror.
As the girl raised the cross and put it down again reverse ways, a
mechanical involuntary jolting motion of her arms was discernible,
though her face betrayed nothing. An electrical machine hidden beneath
the altar was the cause of this shock.
"Well?" enquired Fatia Negra as she returned to her place.
"The crucifix struck me when I seized it, and struck me again when I put
it down," whispered the girl; and as she said these words she was very
pale.
"And yet you did what I told you," said Fatia Negra, placing his hand on
Anicza's shoulder. "You are a brave girl, and worthy of me."
"Comrades!" the leader of the adventurers now cried with a thundrous
voice, "come and listen to me!"
Everyone thereupon abandoned his booth, his table or his diversion and
stood in a circle round Black Mask.
"Ye know," he began, "the name of that place which is under the earth!
Its name is the grave. Ye are all of you at this moment in the grave
with me and if I wish it, dead men. Whoever would see once more the
bright sunlight of the upper world where dawn is now breaking, he must
swear that he will never at any time, drunk or sober, tell to any man
what has happened, what he has seen or heard in this underground tomb,
but will regard it all as a dream which he has forgotten on awakening.
Swear this with me in this hour! I myself will first of all repeat the
oath and ye must say whether ye are content therewith or not."
Thereupon he approached the altar whose basement formed the glass
isolating "island" which all of us who have ever seen an electrical
machine know so well. The electric machine itself, a battery of Leyden
jars was hidden under the altar and connected by a piece of clockwork
with that opening covered with metal in which the crucifix had been
planted.
Black Mask stood silently for a moment on the basement of the altar
after removing his helmet from his head, and those who stood nearest
were horrified to observe that single hairs of his long flowing mane of
hair rose slowly and remained stiffly suspended in the air. There was a
deep silence, the silence that prevails under the earth--among the Dead.
And now Fatia Negra began to recite the words of the oath in a solemn
ghostly voice: "I, the bearer of the Black Mask, Fatia Negra, as they
call me, swear in the subterranean midnight by the living fire which
falling like rain reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes; by the flood
which killed all the dwellers upon earth; by the gaping gulf which
swallowed up the traitorous bands of Dathan and Abiram; by the spirit
which announced the death of King Saul; by the Angel Lucifer who by
reason of his rebellion was cast down from Heaven; by the angel Malach
Hamovesh who carries in his hands the sword of violent death; by the
twelve plagues of Egypt with which Moses visited the land of the
Pharaohs; by all these things and by the star under which I was born do
I swear secresy--and may I perish in fire and water, may I be buried
alive in the bowels of the earth, may I become a pillar of salt, may the
wild beast of the forest tear me to pieces, may my own weapon turn
against me in the evil hour, may I be terrified by midnight spectres and
hag-ridden, may my body be smitten with leprosy, my eyes with blindness,
my tongue with dumbness, my bones by rottenness, if ever I speak one
syllable to anybody, be it priest, or child, or father, or condemning
judge, or threatening headsman, of anything I have seen, heard or learnt
in this place, or write it down with my hand or put anybody on the track
of it! May every drop of my blood become curse-laden; may my remotest
posterity anathematize me; may I awake in my grave and go about again as
a spectre, if ever I act in anyway contrary to what I now swear! May all
those who are under the earth and above the earth be the witnesses of
this my oath!"
This drastic formula satisfied everybody. In those parts the people much
prefer such unmeaning self-objurgation to our legal oaths as taken in
the presence of the judges and they are considered a hundred times more
binding. Meanwhile numerous single hairs had seemed to detach themselves
from Black Mask's long locks and now stood upright all around his head
like some spectral crown. Those who stood around regarded him with deep
horror. Many believed that a supernatural marvellous power was in his
words; only the girl did not believe in him at all.
In order to increase still further this terrified respect the adventurer
beckoned towards him the old men of the assembly.
"Come hither, that ye may see for yourselves how well acquainted with
the words of the oath are those in that other place where knowledge
needs must be; stretch out your hands towards me, touch me with the tips
of your fingers and ye will discover there is something else present
here besides yourselves."
Old Onucz tremblingly stretched out his hand in the direction of Fatia
Negra and the next moment collapsed with fear when he perceived sparks
crackle forth from his leader's garments which burnt his finger tips.
More than one elder was afraid at first to put out his hand till
curiosity made him venture everything. Several wanted to convince
themselves personally of this miracle, which they could not credit from
the hearsay of others and the juggler himself encouraged those standing
near him to touch him wherever they chose and fire would spring from his
body. Sparks sometimes leaped forth from his neck and sometimes from
the tips of his ears and everyone was persuaded that the curse had
already made its way into every drop of his blood.
Anicza alone did not draw near him.
"Are you afraid of me, then?" enquired the imposter.
"No."
"Come and kiss me then!"
Anicza approached and allowed herself to be kissed.
Immediately afterwards a shudder ran through her.
"Well? What did you feel?"
"Your mouth burnt my mouth," replied the girl, and Fatia Negra happening
to look aside just then, she furtively crossed herself.
Fatia Negra was completely satisfied with the success of this comedy.
Their awe of the mysterious and the unintelligible had made his comrades
his slaves; he need have no more scruples concerning them.
"Give me your right hand, Anicza," said he, "and give your other hand to
your next neighbour, and let everyone take the hand of the person next
to him."
Thus he made them form a long chain, the extreme end of which was
brought up by old Onucz in whose hand he placed a slender conducting rod
which hung down from the altar. Then he recited the fantastic oath
before them all once more, whilst they repeated every syllable of it
after him. The comedy was concluded by a violent electric shock which
instantly sent a spasm of pain through the muscles and sinews of every
member of the living chain. The poor untaught creatures all imagined
that the devil himself was flying through their limbs and with tears and
groans they begged Black Mask not to put them to any further test.
"And now, Fatia Negra," said old Onucz respectfully, "the moment has
come in which you also must keep your word. Will you really take my
daughter to wife?"
"I will not see the light of day again until I have done so."
"Will you swear to be her husband in the way you promised to swear?"
"You shall hear me."
"Then have I something else to say to you. Over there, as you see,
stands the great weighing machine, in one of the scales I will place
Anicza and in the other as many piles of ducats as will make her kick
the beam. I will give my girl as many gold ducats as she weighs."
Thereupon the two bridesmen produced a large wooden platter, placed the
bride on it, raised it high in the air and carried it to the huge
weighing machine. Onucz bade them place both bride and platter in the
scale that it might weigh the heavier. Then they piled up into the other
scale as many of the sacks of ducats sealed with the seal of Onucz as
were necessary to establish an absolute equipoise between the two
scales, and then while both the girl and the gold, balancing each other
were floating in the air, old Onucz, his face beaming with triumph,
poked Fatia Negra in the side with his elbows and said: "And now all
that is yours."
The adventurer rushed to the weighing-machine, not indeed to the scale
on which the gold was, but to where the girl stood and lifted her down
on his arm as if she were a child. The other scale, losing its balance,
rushed earthwards and the sacks filled with gold ducats toppled off it
left and right.
At this the company was delighted. Fatia Negra's manly tenderness was
appreciated by everyone and old Onucz, radiant with joy, turned towards
his cronies: "You see it is not my money but my daughter that he is
after!"
And yet if Fatia Negra had only been able to foresee what was about to
happen the next instant, if only he had been able to guess what would
happen during the first few moments of the first approaching quarter of
an hour, could he but have heard one step, one bump which might have
told him what was going on just then above his head, instead of
extending his hands towards the girl, he would have done much more
wisely if he had grasped in each hand one of the sacks lying on the
other scale and made off with it somewhere through that dark corridor
which nobody knew of but he himself, under the special protection of the
devil. Just now, however, the devil was evidently not looking after him
as carefully as usual, for he returned to the altar with the girl in his
arms and deposited his load on the altar steps. The girl knelt down.
"Strew over her corn moistened with honey!" whispered old Onucz to the
bridesmaids;--he considered this old custom as of the highest
importance. Possibly it was a symbol of fruitfulness.
Anicza wanted Fatia Negra to bend down to her. She had something to
whisper in his ear. He leant over her as she desired, drew her pretty
face close up to his, and the girl timidly whispered:
"Are you going to take me away under the earth?"
"Are you afraid I shall do so?"
"With you I will go wherever you choose and will fear nothing."
"I take you at your word."
"I don't care. Whither lies the way, to the right or to the left?"
"To the left. Everything which brings luck must be done lefthandedly."
"Is the door underneath the coining-shop?" asked the girl carelessly.
"Yes, if you must know."
"I am ready. Say the oath that I may hear it!"
Fatia Negra repeated his hocus-pocus, kneeling down beside Anicza on the
steps of the altar, and raising his eyes towards the black vault of the
cavern as he recited the words of a new oath, which kept all the
listeners spellbound, so full it was of grisly images and hellish
fancies. So deep indeed was the general attention that nobody observed
in the meantime that, in the dark background formed by the distant walls
of the cavern, a multitude of strange faces were popping up. First two
men descended through the machinery of the mill and then two others
until, gradually, a hundred of them had assembled. They were all armed
and dressed in uniform, but their arms were concealed beneath their
mantles, that they might not glimmer through the darkness. And then they
quietly formed into ranks like supernumeraries on the stage of a theatre
whilst the chief comedian is ending his monologue in front of the
footlights. Only Anicza had observed them. During the whole course of
the oath, she had not once looked at Fatia Negra's cursing lips, but at
the groups forming in the darkness above his head.
The oath over, Fatia Negra seized the reversed crucifix and an electric
shock again jolted the hand of the girl which he held fast in his own
right hand. "Now, you swear it also!" cried he.
The only reply the girl gave was to passionately tear her hand out of
the adventurer's. Rising from her knees, and with her handsome face full
of rage, scorn and hatred, she turned upon him, who knelt at her feet,
gnashing her pearly teeth as she spoke: "Wretched play-actor! masked
imposter! You have deceived everybody, but nobody so much as me. Do you
remember that night in the ice valley and how shamefully you betrayed me
there? Know then that I was present in that hut, that it was I who blew
the horn and brought back the jealous husband from the forest. I saw the
tussle that followed and I swore, there and then, that I would be your
ruin. Just now you swore that if ever you betrayed me, thus might you
yourself be betrayed by whomsoever you trusted most. You said: 'Let
water pursue; let fire seize me, let the axe of the headsman descend
upon me and the dogs drink up my blood!' Be it so, then--here is fire in
front of you and water behind you and the headsman's sword above your
head! The dogs that are to lick your blood are already barking for it. I
have betrayed you. Look behind you!"
The armed band of soldiers, moving forward in line, like a piece of
machinery, suddenly disclosed a row of bayonets glittering in the light
of the torches. "We are lost!" howled the mob, whilst the voice of the
officer in command (it had a strong foreign accent), rose above the din:
"Down with your arms! no resistance!"
Onucz rushed roaring towards his sacks of ducats, the women scattered
screaming among the tents. For an instant Fatia Negra stood petrified
before Anicza, like a devil caught in a trap, and gazed vacantly at the
girl's flaming face.
Anicza now turned quickly towards the armed soldiers and cried with a
piercing voice: "Hasten Juon Tare! Seize the smelting-oven entrance,
else this devil will still escape us!"
That was why she wanted to know from Fatia Negra which way they would go
underground.
At these words, however, the adventurer recovered himself. He saw a
pitiless enemy and a troop of armed men hastening to the door of the
smelting-furnace and that way of refuge was consequently closed. The
same instant an infernal idea occurred to him.
Hastily snatching up a burning torch from the altar with a couple of
vigorous bounds he approached the smelting-furnace. Twenty bayonets and
a long axe in the hands of Juon Tare were raised against him--and he was
unarmed.
But it was not to the door he wished to get. With a spring sideways he
reached the huge vat filled with brandy, threw the burning torch down in
front of it and placing his muscular shoulders against the vat, with a
desperate exertion of strength scattered its contents on to the floor of
the cavern from end to end.
In an instant the whole cavern was in flames!
The floor was of stone so that it could not absorb the spirit as it
leaked out and it flashed up as it caught the flame of the torch close
at hand. It spread rapidly like a lake of fire that has burst its dams.
The blue spirit-flame filled the whole of the empty cavern with a pale,
ghastly glare, the air, the empty space itself seemed to burst into
flame. Hundreds of torches, burnt down to their very roots, flickered
luridly in the midst of this blue fire of hell, and the heaped-up fire
works,--the Bengali pyramids and the rockets and crackers--flamed,
fizzled and banged about in the midst of the terrible heat. And in the
thick of this infernal blaze black figures, like the souls of the
Accursed, were running frantically about, howling, shrieking and
toppling over one another and seeking a refuge on the higher rocks
whither the flames, spreading through the air, leaped after them. Juon
Tare lost his eyesight in the flames. The others tried to find a refuge
in the aqueduct running through the cavern, but the pursuing alcohol
rushed after them like a living cataract of fire. Everyone seemed bound
to perish at this hellish marriage feast.
Only two people did not lose their presence of mind; only two knew what
ought to be done, and one of these was Fatia Negra. When the armed
soldiers scattered from before the door of the smelting-furnace, he had
boldly waded through the burning spirit; he knew very well that it could
not set fire to clothing immediately and he took care to hold his hands
in front of his eyes to save himself from being blinded. He tore the
door open and hastily vanished through it.
The other was Anicza, who, when she saw that in the hundred-fold
confusion everyone had lost his head and was running desperately to
certain death, quickly snatched up an axe, rushed to the gigantic beer
vats and staved in their bottoms. The neutral fluid streamed down upon
the floor like a water fall and, gradually gaining ground, forced the
flaming _palinka_[31] back further and further, till at last the
infernal blue light was gradually extinguished.
[Footnote 31: Hungarian brandy.]
By that time, however, the beautiful bride was a sight of horror, her
face was burnt out of all recognition.
Every member of the party had received injuries from the fire. Some of
them, already blinded, writhed in agony on the ground and dipped their
faces in the cool puddles formed by the flowing beer. Old Onucz had not
a hair of his head left, but for all that he was still sitting on a heap
of ducats, which were rolling in every direction out of the half charred
sacks. His scorched hands he dug down deep among his ducats, and
thought, perhaps, that they would assuage his pangs.
Both of Juon Tare's eyes had been burnt out by an explosion of
gunpowder, and two of the soldiers had also received serious injuries.
Only after the general terror had subsided a little, did it occur to
someone that now that the fire had been brought under, Fatia Negra might
be pursued. This someone was the bride.
It was she who seized a new torch, it was she who cried to the soldiers:
"After me!" and was the first to tear open the door of the
smelting-furnace. Within was darkness. By torchlight they explored every
corner of that underground world--but Fatia Negra was nowhere to be
found.