CHAPTER IV.
IN THE ROBBER'S NEST.
Great men--especially the very few who are great even in theirnight-shirts, as the saying is, which was the case with King Matthias,if it ever was with any one--great men are, by their very natures,strongly attached to their own ideas and opinions. It is not easy toshake them when once they have made up their minds about a matter; fortruly great men are not given to hasty judgments. They are firm in theirconvictions, but they have some reason to be so.
Now the king had a sort of instinct or power of reading character, andhe felt convinced that the beggar boy whom he had come across sostrangely would either succeed in getting into the castle, or wouldnever be heard of again. He had firm faith in him.
There were a good many matters, as we have seen, requiring hisattention in Hungary just then, and therefore, though he was extremelyangry with Samson for his contemptuous behaviour, he decided to put offpunishing him for a time. He felt that, after General Zokoli'sdiscomfiture, it would be wisest not to take any further steps againstthe clever robber until he could be certain of success; and he resolvedon all accounts therefore to wait until Miska made his appearance, or atleast until the six months had expired.
Of course there were some who believed that Miska would never be seenagain. The king had taken a fancy to him, that was all; but he was onlya beggar boy, when all was said and done, and most likely he had soldhis new clothes to the first Jew he came across, and was in rags againby this time!
When three months, four months, five months, passed away withoutbringing any news, those who knew anything about the matter shruggedtheir shoulders and shook their heads more than ever.
But one fine morning, just six months after Miska had left Visegrad, andwhen every one but the king had given him up, it was announced that astranger had arrived in Buda, giving no name, but saying that he hadbeen entrusted with special business by the king, and could not giveaccount of it to any one else. The king's whims were so well known atthe court that the stranger was admitted without difficulty, and wasushered into the king's presence forthwith. Matthias was alone, and atonce recognized his man, who stepped into the room, looking very spruce,and as sound as an acorn.
"It's you, Miska! You have brought good news; I can see it in your eye.You're a man--speak!"
Miska bowed, and when he had a little recovered himself--for there wassomething about the king which was rather awe-inspiring in spite of hisgood nature--he drew a deep breath and said,--
"I have been there, Mr. King--in the castle with Mr. Samson--and I knowall about it!"
"Let us hear," said the king, with delighted and eager curiosity. "But,little brother, try and tell your tale in an orderly way. First say howyou got into the castle, and then tell me what you saw and heard. Bebold, my friend, and speak without reserve."
"Mr. King," began the ex-beggar, "I knew I should never get in byasking, and it might be the worse for me into the bargain; besides,there was neither door nor window, nor any one to speak to. 'Well,' Ithought to myself, 'I shall never get in this way; I must keep watchand find out about those Jews. They get in somehow, though they neverget out again--so people say.'"
"Right!" said the king; "go on."
"Well, Mr. King, I waited about there for ten weeks. I spied about allround the castle, and often went hungry; for I had no time to get food,though, thanks to you, I had the means. But it was all to no purpose. Atlast I began to think that perhaps Mr. Samson was dead, and that YourHighness would soon be thinking that I had eaten and drunk up my moneyand gone off. I was sitting on the trunk of a tree just outside thewood, but not very far from the castle, one evening, and I was feelingrather downcast about it all, when I fancied I saw two people coming.They were not coming _from_ the castle, it is true, but were creepingthrough the thicket. 'Ho, ho!' I thought to myself. 'Now, Miska, haveyour wits about you! Suppose these night-birds should be on their way tothe castle.' But being one alone against two, I took out my two pistolsand waited to see what might happen."
Miska now opened his dolmany, and showed a steel coat of mail which hewore beneath it. "I had got myself this," he said, tapping it with hisfinger, "for I thought it might save me from being mortally wounded ifI should happen to get caught anywhere by Samson's men, and I bought twopistols besides."
"You were wise," said the king.
"Well, it was not long before the men came quite close to me; butinstead of going on towards the castle, they turned off in the directionof a little hollow. I had stood still till then, so that they should notnotice me suddenly; and perhaps they would have gone on, if anabominable great long-eared owl which was just above my head had notbegun its dismal evening song at that moment. They were just withinabout four steps of me when she gave a long, melancholy hoot, and one ofthe two men looked up and caught sight of me at once. The next moment helifted his cap to me as humbly 'as if he could not count up to three.'His companion, too, turned and looked about carefully, and I fancied Icaught a glimpse of the glitter of a knife. So I just drew out one of mypistols and said coolly, 'See what I have got for you.'"
"Eh! what?" exclaimed Matthias in surprise.
"Why, of course, Your Highness; for I thought it would be much better tobe beforehand with them."
The king laughed.
"Well, and I think, Mr. King, that I did not reckon amiss: for by doingas I did, I made them suppose that I was a highwayman, and just as badas themselves--supposing they belonged to the castle; and besides that,it gave me an opportunity of finding out whom I had to do with."
"Go on," said the king; "this is very interesting. Let us hear more."
"Well, things might have gone very crooked," proceeded Miska; "for I hadno sooner given the alarm than they were both down on me at once asquick as lightning, and I felt two daggers strike my mail coat.
"Fortunately for me I was quite prepared, and I did not lose my presenceof mind. I fired one pistol just as they fell upon me, but of course Idid not hit either of them. But my armour had done me good service; forthe two fellows were disconcerted when they found that their daggers hadtouched metal, and I had time to jump on one side and point my secondpistol at them.
"There was a little pause; my men had not given up their designs uponme, as it seemed, but were consulting, I suppose, how to escape thesecond charge of peas, and they seemed to mean to separate and come onme from both sides at once. 'But,' thought I, 'if you have, so haveI--wits, I mean--and as from all I had heard of Samson's rascallyassociates I was quite sure that I had found my gentlemen, I tookadvantage of the short pause, and cried out,--
"'May seventy-seven thousand thunderbolts strike you! Hear what I haveto say, and don't rush upon a fellow like mad dogs!
"'I am wanting to come across Mr. Samson; I am tired of living on my ownbread, and I should like to enter his service. If you belong to thecastle, it would be better for you to take me to him, instead ofattacking me; for I am not in the least afraid of you--and, what's more,a couple of chaps like you won't outwit me.'
"As soon as I had said my say with all possible speed, but in a firmrough voice, one of the scamps looked me all over from top to toe, as ifhe were going to buy me of a broker. The man was a sturdy, stout-limbedfellow, and as black as the darkest gipsy; and standing only a span fromthe muzzle of my pistol, without winking an eyelid, he said,--
"'Who are you, and what do you want with Mr. Samson? If you have come tospy, you may say your last prayer, for you won't see the sun again.'
"The man said this in such a soft, drawling voice, and so deliberately,that it suddenly struck me he was imbecile; for I had my finger on thetrigger all the time, and one touch would have stretched him on theground. However, I won't deny that his cool composure made me shudder alittle.
"I answered as coolly as I could, 'I want to enter his service, sir, forI fancy he is a fine brave man; and a fellow like me, who cares nothingfor his life, might be useful to him.'
"My man kept his eye upon my every movement. At last he said,--
"'I don't know who you are yet.'
"I hesitated half a moment, for I did not want to tell him my real name,and then I said they called me Alpar Janos, that I was an orphan, andthat until now I had made a poor living by doing just anything that cameto hand--which was true enough.
"As far as I could see in the twilight, the man's face began to clear;he whispered a few words to his companion in a language I did not know,Slovack or Latin, then looked me over again from top to toe, and said,--
"'Good! then you can come with us. We will show you the way in; it willbe your own affair how you get out again, if you grow tired of scantydinners.'
"Here our conversation ended," said the lad; while the king, who hadlistened to his preface with lively interest, said, "Very good. So yougot in. And now tell me what the castle is like inside."
And here perhaps it will be better to take the words out of Miska'smouth and describe in our own way what he saw.
The castle, as has been said, was built round the four sides of asquare, and, as was often the case with old strongholds, a wide coveredgallery, or corridor, ran along each side, surrounding the courtyard.There was not a sign of stables anywhere, for there was no way ofgetting horses in except by lowering them over the walls by a windlass.The ground-floor consisted of store-rooms and living-rooms; the keys ofthe former being always kept by the master, who allowed none but themost trusty persons to go into them, for they contained valuable goodsof every sort and kind. Mr. Samson regularly visited these vaults, onthe fifteenth of every month at midnight, when he was accompanied bytwelve Jews. But how these latter got in, where they came from, andwhere they went to, was known to no one but Mr. Samson himself. The menlooked like merchants, and he gave stuffs and ornaments, in certainquantities and of certain values, to each. Then he took them into alarge empty room lighted by a four-cornered lamp which hung from theceiling, and here for a couple of hours they were all busy countingmoney at a stone table. This was packed into various bags, and when Mr.Samson had given a purse to each of his agents, the Jews took theirdeparture amid a shower of compliments, and in what appeared to be avery well satisfied frame of mind, Mr. Samson escorting them and showingthem the way. But whither they went, and why, and how, and by whatway--that heaven alone could tell.
In the upper story of the castle there were some fine, cheerful, andwell-lighted rooms; which is not a little surprising, for their windowsall looked into the covered gallery, and from that into the courtyard.However, this may be explained to some extent by the fact that thewindows of these upper rooms were wide and lofty, the walls were paintedsnow-white, and were covered with some sort of varnish which doubled thelight.
The furniture was in accordance with the taste of the day, and chosenrather for its good wearing qualities than for comfort; but the brightcolours produced a pleasing and cheerful effect on the whole.
Mr. Samson kept an entire half of this story for the use of himself andhis only relation, a young girl of fifteen named Esther, and an oldwoman who lived with her. Of the two other sides of the square, one wasoccupied by servants, the other was furnished but unused.