CHAPTER XLV.
"But I'll take care that you soon will be," muttered the gaoler, as hefettered the prisoner afresh to the wall, "and I've orders to visit youtwice every day, so that you may not carry on any of your accursednecromancy in the cell."
The next time his rations were brought him, it occurred to Raby that thebread was strewn with a white powder. He had often complained of it notbeing salted, but this did not look like salt, and as he was not hungry,he did not attempt to eat it.
That evening when it was dark, he heard the well-remembered voice againfrom the floor above.
"Poor Raby," it whispered, "are you there?"
And on his ready answer, came the caution: "Do not eat of the bread theyhave brought you, it is poisoned."
The prisoner had suspected as much, but what was he to do? There wasnothing for it but to die of hunger, it seemed.
"Examine the cane I am pushing down" came the voice again, and a minuteor two later, appeared the cane whose hollow had already brought him somuch. This time it was filled with chocolate, and there was enough tolast him till the morning. But what was he to drink?
"Pour the water out of the pitcher, and through the cane I will fill itwith fresh," suggested the voice, and he hastened to obey.
The next morning the gaoler saw with dismay that his prisoner was stillalive, and apparently uninjured by his supper, yet it would have killedmost men. However, he had not eaten much of it to be sure, judging bythe little that had disappeared.
And when his back was turned, once more came the voice calling to Raby,and this time it brought bad news indeed.
"The Emperor has gone," it said, "he sought for you, but could find notrace of you. They told him you had been released, so he left in thatbelief."
"Only give me writing materials," pleaded Raby earnestly.
"I cannot, as soon as you are convicted of having them in the cell, youare to be beheaded immediately. Besides, no one knows where the Emperoris; they say he is in Turkey."
The threat was for Raby but one more spur to action, and he was defiant,and pleaded no longer with his protectress. He had hidden a morsel ofpaper in his wretched bed, and on this he wrote with a straw for pen,with a drop of his own blood for ink, for he had no other. When it wasdry, he rolled it up and concealed it in a straw-stalk.
Then he waited till the next time his cell was being swept out by aheyduke, who was the one who had formerly brought him the pitcher withthe false bottom. Raby gave his missive to him, and whispered, "This isworth a hundred ducats." The man understood, and took the straw.
That was Mathias Raby's last attempt at freedom.
From that day forward, all sorts of threats were used to make him signPetray's paper, and sometimes they kept him so long under examination inthe court, that he fainted from sheer exhaustion.
One night the door opened, and Janosics appeared with three men, one ofwhom bore a brazier of burning coals, another a pair of pincers, and inthe third he recognised the public executioner of Pesth.
"I'll soon make the stubborn fellow yield," cried the castellanbrutally; "let's see if this won't bend him! Now, gentlemen, do yourduty; strip him, and torture him till he confesses his crimes."
Raby was dumb with horror. They tore his clothes from him, but the sightof the prisoner's haggard face and emaciated figure smote the heart evenof the executioner with a sudden pity.
"My good Janosics," he said, "I won't torment the poor wretch, not ifyou give me the whole Assembly House for doing such work."
And with that, he put on his coat, seized the water-pitcher which stoodby Raby's bed, and extinguished the coals, so that the cell was plungedin sudden darkness. Then the whole crew withdrew quarrelling amongthemselves.
When Raby brought the occurrence to the notice of the court thefollowing day, they only laughed, and said he had been dreaming!