"Where are their guns?"
"I left them. They were percussion muskets, which would not serve us on account of lack of caps."
"Good! Then?"
"It was market-day; I stopped the pa.s.sers-by."
"How many?"
"One hundred and forty-two persons."
"And thou hast brought----?"
"About a thousand francs," naming the sum.
"Seven francs per head! It is small!"
"It is good. They were peasants."
"They had not, then, sold their goods?"
"Some had sold, others bought."
The man opened a heavy sack which he carried under his arm; he spread out the contents before the secretaries, who began to count the amount.
The receipts were from thirty to forty Mexican piastres, some handfuls of Austrian zwanzigs and an enormous quant.i.ty of copper coins. Some crumpled papers were among the money. They were bank notes of ten francs each.
"Thou hast no jewels?" asked the King.
"No!"
"Were there no women, then?"
"I found nothing worth bringing away."
"What is that on thy finger?"
"A ring."
"Gold?"
"Or copper; I do not know which."
"Where didst thou get it?"
"I bought it two months ago."
"If thou hadst bought it, thou wouldst know whether it was gold or copper. Give it to me."
The man took it off with bad grace. The ring was immediately locked up in a small coffer full of jewels.
"I pardon thee!" said the King, "because of thy bad education. The people of thy country disgrace theft by mixing knavery with it. If I had only Ionians in my band, I would be obliged to place turnstiles in the roads as they do at the Exposition in London, so that I might count the visitors and the money. The next!"
He, who came forward now, was a tall young man, well-proportioned, and with a most pleasing face. His round eyes beamed forth rect.i.tude and good-nature. His lips, half-opened with a pleasant smile, showed a magnificent set of teeth; I was greatly taken with him, and I said to myself that if he had been led astray by evil a.s.sociations, he must surely return, some day, to the right path. My face must have pleased him, for he saluted me very politely, before seating himself in front of the King.
Hadgi-Stavros said to him: "What hast thou done, Vasile?"
"I reached Pigadia, yesterday evening, with my six men; it is the village of the Senator Zimbellis."
"Well!"
"Zimbellis was absent, as usual; but his relatives, his farmers, and his tenants were all at home, and in bed."
"Well!"
"I entered an inn; I awakened the landlord; I bought twenty-five bundles of straw, and for payment I killed him."
"Well!"
"We carried the straw to the houses, and spread it around; the houses are of wood or osier, and we set fire to seven places at once. The matches were good; the wind from the north; everything went."
"Well!"
"We retired quietly to the wells. The whole village awakened and rushed out, shouting. The men came running with their leather buckets to get water. We drowned four whom we did not know; the others escaped."
"Well!"
"We returned to the village. There was no one, only an infant forgotten by his parents, and who cried like a little raven fallen from its nest.
I threw him into a burning house, and he cried no more."
"Well!"
"Then we took fire-brands, and placed them around the olive trees. The thing was well-executed. We then started for the camp; we supped and slept about half-way here, and we arrived at nine o"clock, in prime condition without even a burn."
"Good! The Senator Zimbellis will not discourse against us again! The next!"
Vasile withdrew, saluting me as he pa.s.sed, as politely as the first time; but I did not return his bow.
He was soon replaced by the great devil who had taken us. By a singular caprice of chance, the first author of the drama in which I was called to play a part, was named Sophocles. At the moment when he began his report, I felt the blood congeal in my veins. I supplicated Mrs. Simons not to risk an imprudent word. She replied, that she was English, and that she knew how to behave herself. The King asked us to be silent, and allow the man to speak.
He first spread out the booty which he had taken from us; then he drew from his belt forty Austrian ducats, which made a sum of four hundred and seventy francs, at the rate of 11 francs-15c.
"The ducats," he said, "came from the village of Castia; the rest was taken from these n.o.bles. Thou didst tell me to scour the boundaries, I began with the village."
"Thou hast not done well," replied the King. "The people of Castia are our neighbors, they must not be molested. How can we live in safety, if we have enemies at our door? Moreover, they were brave people who have given us aid when occasion demanded."
"Oh! I took nothing from the charcoal burners. They disappeared into the woods, without giving me time to speak to them. But the padre had the gout; I found him at home."
"What didst thou say to him?"