His Excellency looked at the speaker as a fencer measures his antagonist.
"Urgent, are they?"
The district commissioner looked puzzled.
"Your Excellency," he began, "this affair is not done with. His Majesty has sent a second letter to me by special courier, and I have read it.
He orders me in it to come to you immediately, and express the gravest disapproval that Mathias Raby, notwithstanding the imperial safe conduct, has been made a prisoner and placed in the dungeon of the a.s.sembly House, among the sc.u.m of convicted criminals. I am to take care that he is released, and that he is allowed to defend himself as a free man without hindrance."
"That procedure won"t be according to our laws."
"Perhaps not, but in view of the accusation brought against Raby, his Majesty orders that he be detained in a place of confinement more befitting his rank and calling."
"That shall be done," said his Excellency, and therewith he rang the bell.
The lackey answered it, and he gave him the order:
"Go at once to the a.s.sembly House at Pesth, and tell the lieutenant he is to wait on me immediately."
Then he turned to his interrupted dictation as a sign his guest could go.
An hour after this, Mr. Laskoy was announced. He had come to represent the Council, as the latter was engaged over the vintage.
His Excellency looked ready to eat his visitor.
"What is all this foolery in the dungeon of the a.s.sembly House, pray? Is this the way you keep order? Mathias Raby has only been imprisoned four days, yet already the Emperor has had a letter from him, telling him all about the thieves" den where he is shut up. Could you not manage things better, and fetter him so that he could not write a letter, even if he had pencil and paper?"
Mr. Laskoy stammered and stuttered and lamely excused himself, and finally got enraged, and vowed to himself he would soon find a way out of this business.
He tramped back to the a.s.sembly House, and after a short confab with the gaoler, new arrangements were soon made regarding Raby.
Among the underground vaults was a cell where wood was kept, but this was hastily turned out. The little vault had an iron door, with a tiny air-hole in the middle, so small it could hardly be seen, and the door could be locked fast. A more fitting place for Raby could not be found.
Our hero had already pa.s.sed four days in the company of criminals, and was counting the minutes and hours till the Emperor"s orders should arrive which were to free him from this frightful hole. And now the time as it seemed had come.
He was eating his supper of rice soaked in water--the usual prison fare--when they came to fetch him. But they only rivetted shorter fetters on his hands and feet alike, led him down into a deeper vault, and thrust him into a cold, dark, mouldy cellar, wherein not a single ray of sunlight, nor the sound of a human voice could penetrate.
Yes, this was a worse place than that he had longed to escape from.
Above there, they might be evil men, but at least they had had human faces. Their words had been hateful indeed, but they had been human voices that uttered them.
When they clanged the door behind him, and the cold, dark, deathlike silence closed around him, Raby lost consciousness.
In the afternoon the district commissioner again called on his Excellency, who was engaged in his favourite game of billiards.
"Dare I venture?" began his visitor.
"It is all right. Raby is transferred into another cell. Now just watch, my friend, what a good shot I shall make."
"Yes, but perhaps they"ve put him in a worse one still?"
But his Excellency was looking after his ball, for he knew what he was about at billiards, and scored heavily.
The next day the district commissioner went to the a.s.sembly House to investigate the sort of cell Raby had been removed to. But when he could not find it, and moreover, could, by no means whatever obtain from the officials where the prisoner might be housed, he went again to the governor to demand an explanation.
This led to recriminations between the two functionaries as to the respective limits of their jurisdictions, and they parted on very cool terms.
"I don"t envy his next visitor," whispered the secretary to one of his colleagues, "whoever it is, he won"t get a warm welcome."
And sure enough, one was just then announced.
The governor was busy writing to the Kaiser, and he resented this intrusion.
"Excellency, it is a pet.i.tioner," ventured the secretary timidly.
"Send him to the devil, then!"
"But it is a young lady, Excellency."
"I don"t want any young ladies here. What the deuce does she want with me, I should like to know?"
But the secretary whispered a name that caused the angry governor to spring up hastily, and ask:
"What is she doing here? Has anyone come with her?"
"Excellency, she is alone."
"Alone? Let her come in, then."
It is easy to guess who the stranger lady was. She wore her ordinary morning-gown, just as she had slipped out from her household duties, without anyone knowing, but in her blue eyes lay woe unutterable.
And it was only with those same eyes that she spoke; not a word did she utter; not a gesture did she make. She sank at the feet of that hard man, and seized his hands in both of hers, and hid her face and wept at his feet.
"Come, come, this won"t do, little one! I can"t have tears! Now, child, tell me" (he was her G.o.dfather), "what brings you here alone? How if anyone met you in the street? What is it? What is the matter? Can you not say a word? Shall I have to talk instead? Shall I guess what it is you want? You come here on behalf of that scoundrel, Raby, eh? Nay, there"s no dungeon deep enough for him, the rogue, the graceless knave, the good-for-nothing that he is----"
But Mariska--for it was she--suddenly pressed both hands over the speaker"s mouth to stop his denunciations.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed his Excellency maliciously. "So you"ve come in case I am treating him too harshly, have you? Never mind, he shall carry fifty pounds weight of chains on his feet before we"ve done with him."
But at these words the poor girl pressed her hands to her heaving breast in dumb entreaty, and her breath came in short gasps.
"Come now, don"t cry, it"s all right," whispered the stern old man, as softened by her grief, he kindly drew her to him. "Foolish child, were you really so fond of him? There, there, rest easy, we will deal gently with him. Eh? if you go on like this, I shall want to throttle the fellow outright. Silly child, can"t you forget him? Ah, Raby, you may thank your stars you"ve got such an advocate, otherwise the Emperor himself hadn"t been able to help you."
His visitor uttered a little smothered cry of joy:
"My dear, good, kind G.o.dfather!" she murmured, as she covered the h.o.r.n.y hand with grateful kisses.
"Why, how pleased she is! Silly child that you are!"