The Strange Story of Rab Ráby

  CHAPTER XVII.

  This catastrophe was destined to affect Raby's mood in a fateful way.When he went home he told his wife all that had happened, and shequickly guessed the sequel.

  "Now you will be more intent than ever on pursuing your mad enterprise,"she said.

  "And shall I let myself be shamed into abandoning it by the fate of anignorant boor, who, little idea as he had of the higher virtues, wasready to sacrifice his life in order to save his fellow-citizens frombeggary?"

  "You will drive me to exasperation," cried Fruzsinka.

  "I would rather have your anger than your contempt, dearest."

  "And is our love nothing to you at all?"

  "Better that the whole world hate me for my determination, than to earnyour love through cowardice. I know that your very opposition to my workis a proof of your love, and therefore, I pray you, my angel, Fruzsinka,listen to me. If I leave this place, I shut every door to a futurecareer. It is now or never, I must go to Vienna. If I write and tellthe Emperor that the struggle is of no avail, he will dismiss me at oncefrom my post."

  But Fruzsinka answered nothing, she only wept.

  That meant of course that Raby ought to have stayed at home, for only aheart of stone could leave a weeping woman and refuse to comfort her.But Mathias Raby had just that heart of stone, and he was quite preparedto leave his wife in tears, so to Vienna he went. For you could travelthere quickly enough, as there was a famous diligence which carried itspassengers in a day to the Austrian capital.

  Moreover, no one except Fruzsinka knew he had gone to Vienna.

  There he showed himself nowhere. He knew that the Emperor was accustomedto walk every morning in the so-called "meadow garden," where, clad in asimple short coat and plain hat, he was often taken for one of his ownequerries. There Raby could speak to him, and tell him how matters stoodin Hungary.

  The Kaiser commended what Raby had already done and encouraged him to goon and prosper. He gave him every aid in his power to help him,including a special pass, wherein all to whom he showed it, were adjuredto respect the bearer's person. But he advised Raby only to show thisletter in a case of extreme necessity, and begged him not to tell anyoneof the interview he had just had.

  Then Raby hastened homewards, feeling he had ordered his affairs for thebest.

  On the return journey he arranged to reach Pesth in time to attend themeeting of the County Assembly.

  First, he proceeded to the Assembly House to look out certain documents.

  The first person he met was the pronotary, Tarhalmy.

  Tarhalmy was more friendly, yet more gruff than ever. He called Rabyinto his room, and when they were alone, exclaimed:

  "You come at the right time, my friend, for we have already cited you asa 'runaway noble,' as the legal phrase has it."

  "Cited me! What in the world for, I should like to know?"

  "Yes, my friend, you are impeached. And guess wherefore! They say youare Gyongyom Miska himself, and actually dare to accuse you of robbingthe Jew Rotheisel three days ago in the Styrian forest."

  Raby hardly knew whether to laugh or to be indignant at such a charge.

  "But surely that is a very poor joke!" he protested.

  "I quite agree that it is. But they have only just brought theaccusation, and you can easily get out of it by proving an _alibi_."

  Raby reddened in spite of himself.

  "But I cannot lower myself so far as to disprove so preposterous anallegation," he said. "Besides, you have only to call Abraham Rotheiselto give testimony that it was not I who robbed him. I shall prove no_alibi_."

  "My dear fellow, I know you won't. Simply, because you won't own up towhere you have been for three days past, and the person who could proveyour _alibi_ could not be called as a witness. I shall not be the judge:you know that the chief notary only acts as referee of the tribunal insuch cases. You will naturally never confess where you have been theselast three days. But there are people who want to know, and that is theserious side of the jest."

  "Rotheisel will be quite ready to disprove it; he knows me well enough."

  "I know it. But the testimony of a Jew only counts in our law when he issworn."

  "Won't Rotheisel swear?"

  "I am not so sure. The Jew very rarely takes an oath if he can help it.The Talmud makes it very difficult for him. But you can depend upon it,Abraham Rotheisel will be as anxious as possible to clear you from suchan absurd accusation, directly he hears of it."

  "He is a good kind of man," said Raby, "and I am certain that he willswear."

  "I hope he may. But anyhow, it will be decided to-day, as the tribunalis sitting even now."

  "And shall I have to stand in the dock?" said Raby anxiously.

  "Yes, I am afraid you must. So I advise you to stay here and see thebusiness through."

  "With your permission I will first write a letter."

  "Pardon me, dear friend, but in this room you may neither write nordespatch a letter."

  "Am I then a prisoner already?"

  "Not exactly, but you are accused, so that I cannot officially be aparty to any correspondence you carry on. Meanwhile, I would suggest youjust go upstairs to my own private rooms, where you will find mydaughter who will give you pen, ink, and paper, wherewith to write;moreover, she will gladly carry it to the post herself. Then, seeingthat the business will be prolonged till evening, you will, I hope,share our homely dinner with us."

  A blow in the face could hardly have hurt Raby more than this kindlyproposal. For would it not mean meeting Mariska again?

  But Raby had a ready excuse for not accepting Tarhalmy's hospitableoffer.

  "I am grateful indeed for your kind invitation, but I am being strictlydieted just now for a nervous complaint, and hardly dare eat anythingbut dry bread."

  "Nervous complaint, eh? Why, what does that mean?"

  "Well, for one thing, I cannot sleep at night."

  Tarhalmy was just going to give him some good advice, when the tensionwas broken by the entry of a heyduke coming to announce the arrival ofthe Jew, who had to be carried in a litter to the court, as he was stillweak from the wounds he had received, and could not stand.

  At the announcement that Abraham was ready to give his testimony onoath, the tribunal formally cited the defendant to appear before them.

  Raby recognised a good many of his acquaintances sitting round thetable. The tribunal was presided over by Mr. von Laskoy, whose usuallymerry mood had become serious for awhile. He asked the partiesimplicated their creed and calling, and all the customary questions.

  Then a young man, in whom Raby recognised an old school-fellow, rose,and read out the formal indictment in which Mr. Mathias Raby of Raba andMura, gentleman, and an inhabitant of Szent-Endre, was accused ofdisguising himself as a highwayman named Gyongyom Miska, and of robbingpeaceable travellers. How on a particular day he had waylaid the Jew,Abraham Rothesel _alias_ Rotheisel, in the Styrian wood, had stunned himwith a blow on the head, and had stolen from him the sum of fivethousand gulden. The proof whereof being that whilst the said MathiasRaby was in the neighbourhood without anyone knowing his exactwhereabouts, the depredations of the redoubtable robber had been goingon. Moreover, it was known to all, that, though Mathias Raby hadinherited no great wealth from his parents, he had, nevertheless,scattered money lavishly on all sides--which fact greatly strengthenedsuspicion against him. But the most convincing testimony of all would befurnished by the Jew's own driver, who would swear to the identity ofthe accused with Gyongyom Miska. The prosecutors now asked for thewitnesses to be sworn, and demanded that the said Mathias Raby, ifconvicted, might be hanged, or if his rank forbade that, beheaded.

  The reading of this impeachment was received by all present with theseriousness befitting the situation. The president then turned to Raby.

  "Will the accused deny this impeachment by proving an _alibi_?"

  "I abstain from making such a defence," answered Raby, "and only ask tobe confronted with my accu
ser."

  The first witness for the prosecution stepped forward in the person ofthe coachman, whose appearance betokened him to be a rogue of the firstwater, and obviously ready to swear to anything, provided he were wellpaid for it.

  According to the customary formula, he was questioned as to hisantecedents, and owned up unconcernedly to having himself been ninetimes in prison.

  When asked if he recognised in Raby the robber who had waylaid the JewRotheisel, he answered promptly:

  "Recognise him again, I should just think so! There can be no questionof their not being one and the same. Only then he happened to be wearinga black wig, and a curly moustache, with a peasant's cloak over hisshoulder. But I knew it was Mr. Raby directly I heard his voice."

  Raby, addressing the court, now spoke in Latin, knowing that thepeasants were ignorant of that language,

  "I protest against the evidence of this witness; I know him for thecoachman who drove the official who came to bribe me. This witnesstherefore is not impartial."

  The prosecutor replied that this could not be proven, but Rabyinterrupted him whilst he turned to the witness and said to him inMagyar,

  "Pray how could you have recognised my voice since I have never spokento you in all my life?"

  "Ay, does not the worshipful gentleman remember that I drove Mr. Paprikainto his courtyard in the new coach and four. The gentleman talked soloudly then, that the deafest man must have heard him."

  And thereby the case against Raby fell to the ground.

  It must in fairness be admitted that on this, as on later occasions,many upright and honourable men sat in the jury who were quite ready totake Raby's part, though they were in a minority. One such hereprotested against such a witness being heard on oath, and the coachmanwas consequently discharged.

  Now, however, old Abraham, supported by his two sons, entered the room,his head still bound up on account of his wound, his legs tremblingvisibly under him.

  "Abraham Rotheisel," said the president, "tell us plainly, how was theattack on you made?"

  "I tell nothing of the kind," retorted the Jew. "I have not come here tolay a complaint. Gyongyom Miska is not here. You have summoned mesimply to bear witness that it was not Mr. Raby who robbed me, and thatI willingly do."

  "Think of what you are doing, Abraham! It was dark, you could not seeyour assailant's face, remember."

  "Ay, if it had been but Egyptian darkness, and if I had been as blind asTobit, nay, if the highwayman and Mr. Raby had been as like to oneanother as two peas, yet I will swear it was not Mathias Raby, whom Ihave known from his childhood, ever since he was a baby. Moreover,neither his face nor figure resembled in the least those of the man whorobbed me."

  Here the Jew was questioned as to his assailant's appearance, butpersisted that in no wise did the robber resemble Raby. The "worshipfulgentleman" who robbed him was, he said, very different looking.

  "Why do you call him a 'worshipful gentleman,'" asked the president.

  "How do I know he might not have been one? I have seen highwaymen andgentlemen very much alike indeed," answered the Jew, "and in time maysee still more. But I keep my convictions to myself."

  Raby's counsel here observed that one witness contradicted another, andthus tended to invalidate the evidence.

  "Naturally," returned Laskoy, "only kindly remember that according toour laws, the testimony of a Jew against that of a Christian can only beaccepted on oath."

  At the sound of the word "oath," Abraham's two sons began to tear theirgarments, and throwing themselves at the feet of the magistrate, theyimplored him not to allow their father to be sworn, as it was contraryto the Talmud.

  "I fear I cannot help you in this matter," answered Laskoy. "I mustcarry out the law regarding Jews witnessing against Christians. If youwould free your father from the need of swearing, you must ask Mr. Raby;one word from him obviates the necessity of an oath. He has only toprove an _alibi_, and the case is immediately dismissed."

  Whereupon the two young Jews dashed across to Raby, fell on their kneesbefore him, and begged and implored him with might and main, to set upthis _alibi_--it was only a matter of speaking one word.

  But old Abraham flew into a mighty rage.

  "Get up both of you, and be off directly, and leave a brave man inpeace. Who called you to come hither, running after me as the foalsafter the mare? Hold your miserable cackle, and away with you! Be kindenough, Mr. heyduke, to turn these two noisy fellows out of the court.Go home at once, you boys, I don't need your support, or your teachingin this matter. And I beg pardon, gentlemen, for the behaviour of thesetwo good-for-nothings. Now I am ready to be sworn."

  So after the two young Jews had been turned out, Abraham was sworn,though he took the oath in Hebrew, so that none present could followthe formula.

  When it was over, Abraham prepared to leave the court, for Mathias Rabywas free. This time at least had he escaped the dungeon his enemies hadprepared for him.