Eyes Like the Sea — 14 - Chapter 12, part 2
Thus we were alone on the summit of the Pagan Altar, crouching together beside a fire of burning embers, and dividing a piece of toast and a slice of bacon--I and the former mistress of my heart.
That "former" was not so very long ago.
It was scarcely three years since the golden thrushes mingled their songs with our chats.
The idyllic contemplation of the matter, however, was considerably disturbed by the concrete circumstance that, during these three years, a third masterpiece of creation had found in my former paragon the rib that had been subtracted from him while he slept.
Her first venture was a fashionable fop, her second an Antinous of the wilderness, her third was now a stage Othello.
And our feelings were still further subdued by the disagreeable tension occasioned by the approach towards us of two armed men, who kept on popping up before us in the clearings of the forest, now here, now there, but continually drawing nearer to the Pagan Altar.
There could not now be a doubt that they were making towards us.
"It would be as well if I set to work and sketched something in my album while they are approaching," said I, "in case they inquire what I am doing here."
With that, I sat down on the steep rocky ledge, placed my sketch-book on my knee, and designed the contours of my picture on a grand scale.
The lady sat down close beside me, and observed how I looked now on the hills and now on my paper--but never into her fine eyes.
We did not exchange a word with each other, not a single word.
At last, however, I grew impatient of the silence, and without looking up from my sketch, I said to her: "I really thought that by this time you and Peter Gyuricza had filled the whole world full of butter and cheese."
But then, with both her hands, she seized my sketching hand, so that I had to leave off my work, and said, with a mournful voice: "You have the most sovereign contempt for me now, eh?
But if I were to tell you what frightful calamities I have gone through since last we met, then I am sure you would have compassion on me."
I told her that if she liked to speak, I could now listen, as I had plenty of time.
"You remember when last we met, don't you?
When you banged the door in my face, I mean--though, God knows, I only meant to do you good then.
I
never meant to make you so angry, and immediately made the best of my way home to the hut of Peter Gyuricza.
Ah!
how sorry I then was that I had not pleaded my cause with you better.
I had another reason for going to you.
When the lawyers took up my case, the fair-haired partner offered me a little money, which I might repay him, he said, when I gained my suit.
But I chose to ride the high horse, and rejected the proffered money, although I had really nothing about me but three _huszases_,[71] which I had saved from the proceeds of the butter.
That was not even enough for the steam-boat.
A couple of florins or so would have done.
But, of course, when you drove me out of your room I had to do without."
[Footnote 71: The _husza_--20 kreutzers.
] "I am very sorry that I did not guess your need."
"Still more sorry was I. I was obliged, in my straits, to climb into the cart of a poulterer who was going to Vienna, and who, for two of my _huszases_, found a place for me among the hen-coops.
I still had a few _garashes_[72] for my journey, which were sufficient to pay for the straw on which I slept at the inns where we descended.
On the third day I arrived safely at Uj-Szöny, and by that time I had eaten the last bit of bread and cheese in my basket.
In front of the inn stood a lame and paralysed beggar, who begged alms of me in God's name.
I had only two kreutzers still left.
I kept back one kreutzer from the beggar, for I knew that I should have to pay a toll on the bridge.
Now, that was your fault, look you.
You might have inserted a paragraph in the Twelve Articles of Pest abolishing the tolls."
[Footnote 72: A _garash_--3 kreutzers.
] I was furious.
I had to erase half my drawing.
Bessy laughed at my misfortune, and at her own also.
Then she proceeded:-- "From thence I had to make my way home on foot.
I could go right along by the banks of the Danube without entering the town.
I did not meet a single acquaintance.
In front of me I saw a large group of National Guards in blue attilas, hastening rapidly towards the fortress amidst the beating of drums.
It must have been a serious business which prevented them from looking at a pretty woman.
Then I went nicely and quietly along the well-known way.
Like the egg-selling woman in the fairy-tale, I began to consider what I would do when I got back my patrimony.
I would go with my Gyuricza right away into Transylvania, there I would buy him a property, where he might rear as many cattle as he liked.
I myself would learn to spin like the Pákular[73] women: my husband should wear clothes of my own weaving.
I would adorn my bedchamber with embroidered napkins, hang varnished vases all round, and there should be rows of pewter dishes on every shelf.
We should have our plum-orchard too, and from the plums I would make _palinka_.
I would keep bees, and make mead, and bake honey-cakes, which Peter loves so much when he can get them at the fair.
All this time I had never noticed that I was getting quite close to the hut.
It was drawing towards evening, and smoke was coming from the chimney.
No doubt the little serving-maid was cooking supper according to my directions.
How surprised Peter would be when I brought his flesh-pot out to him in the pastures!
When I entered the hut I found by the hearth--nobody.
I went into the room.
What do I see?
My Peter Gyuricza sitting at the table--with his wife; and they were supping sweetly together out of the same dish, like two turtle-doves!"
[Footnote 73: A village in Transylvania, chiefly inhabited by Wallachs.
--TR.
] ("Aha!"
I murmured, "poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not have devised a happier _dénouement_."
) "Everything became green and blue before my eyes.
My throat contracted.
I was incapable of uttering a word.
But the tongue of the little peasant woman wagged all the brisker.
No sooner did she see me than she bounced from her place, cocked her _haube_ on the side of her head, stuck her arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.
"'Ah, ha!
my dear precious lady!
I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you come masquerading hither like that!
Perhaps you've come because you've lost something here, eh?
A shawl, perhaps?
A very pretty little ladyship, that I _will_ say!
Haven't you got a nice enough lord and master of your own at home?
Must you befool the poor peasant also?
Or if your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose another from among the cavaliers of your own rank?
You hanker after laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh?
You ought to be ashamed of yourself!'
"I was dumbfoundered.
This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of its head, robbed me of all my pluck.
In my despair and doubt I looked at Peter.
"He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and swallowing one dumpling after another.
"'Is this justice, Peter?'
stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me be treated like this?'
"At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at his wife: 'Woman!
Shut up!
Hold your tongue!
Sit down at that table and fill your stomach!
I'll speak now.'
"The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking, she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as: 'She has worn out my dress, too!
--I didn't steal that!
My lovely chintz dress!
How she has rumpled it!
Just as if she had been tumbling it about in every pot-house!'
"But Peter spoke very sagely.
"'My lady, I beg pardon!
I know what honour is.
I was once a soldier.
I
know my duty.
What won't match can't match.
A horse and an ox won't draw together.
A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a gentleman.
Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your ladyship?
You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined the butter?
You never moistened the maize.
The pigs wouldn't eat it because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
This won't do, you know!
When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to them?
And who is there to clean out the furnace?
The mice have gnawed away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags.
Besides that, I have got into the way of saying, "Hie, you Jutka!
d'ye hear?"
and then she knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no bones about it, either.
I couldn't live without thrashing her occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and she always knows how to come round me again.'
" I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself down on my back, I laughed so much.
How could I help laughing?
Bessy laughed too.
"I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words were so many lashes.
At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.
"'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'
"'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed.
I am an upright man.
His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'
"My heart was ready to break at these words.
"Ten head of oxen indeed!
For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort.
I had made the earnest resolve to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things, suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all to him, make him a gentleman according to _his_ notion of a gentleman, and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!"
I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
Verböczy[74] says: "_Raptor solvat decem juvencos.
_"--"The seducer must pay ten oxen."
[Footnote 74: The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the most eminent statesmen of his day.
His _opus magnum_, entitled "Tripartitum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungariæ," was first published in 1517. --TR.
] Bessy then proceeded:-- "Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.
"'My lady, I've only one thing to say.
Go back to his lordship.
God's my witness that nothing will befall you.
Say now, Jutka--come, on your soul be honest--have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you came back?
His lordship, too, knows all about it.
He will close one eye.
Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together, and first one had had a fall and then the other.
One box on the ears deserves another.
So it is among men of honour!'
" "Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!"
said I to Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.
"I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation even now."
"Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!"
Bessy continued:-- "But then the woman began talking nicely to me, which was ever so much worse.
'Come, come, my dear, good, pretty lady, have respect for your nice, handsome, lawful lord.
Why, what a fine gentleman it is!
Why, if I hadn't my Peter ...'
"'You manage to forget that, though, pretty often!'
intervened Peter.
"The long and short of it all was that I had to resume the clothes I had left behind me, and restore to Jutka the draggle-tail rags which she had charged me with spoiling.
But what objection could I make?
What belongs to another is his, so I began to strip off my frock and neckerchief before the pair of them straightaway.
"The other woman then got a bit ashamed on my account.
'Let us go into the inner room,' said she; and drew me into the little chamber, and took out of her wardrobe the lordly raiment I had left there, and then helped me to dress.
And all the time she was so mild, so friendly, and quite lost herself in rustic caresses and flatteries: 'Why, what a nice slim waist!
What a shame that a mere clown should clasp it round!
What lovely white shoulders!
What a sin to ruin them by carrying about heavy loads!
And how swollen the little feet are from much walking!
Why, they'll scarcely go into the old dress-boot, I do declare!
Why fly into such tantrums about such trifles!
Good gracious me!
suppose every lady who caught her lord with a little milkmaid were to carry on with the first clown that fell in her way!
Things like that should not be taken so seriously.
A man is but a man, especially if he is a gentleman!
Why, I've seen _countesses_ even, whose husbands went on the loose.
You expect too much, my dear!
Chocolate is the nicest dish in the whole world; but if one were to give one's husband nothing but chocolate every day, he would soon loathe the very sight of it.
Come, come!
go home, dear heart, my darling ladykin, to your dear good lord and master, and you'll see how heartily he'll receive you!'
"I replied that I would never go back to him again.
I wept for shame.
The woman guessed the cause of my tears.
"'Come, come, good heart!
Why, my lady, we'll all of us agree to deny that this little holiday ever happened.
We were talking about it just now.
We'll lie the thing away, and say that your ladyship only wanted to frighten the good gentleman, and that you were hiding the whole time at the house of the local magistrate.'
"And how about the flower-selling in the market-place, and the promenade through the waters?'
"'We'll say that that was only done out of spite.
How should a dirty clown like my husband presume to cast his eyes on such a precious treasure as your ladyship?
Why, anybody who could believe such a thing would be called a downright fool.
We'll put it all to rights finely.'
"'But a separation suit is already going on?'
"'Your ladyship needn't trouble your head about that.
His honour has withdrawn his complaint.
Yes, I declare he has.
He told me he was in great embarrassment.
He had been deprived of his tithes and land tax, and did not know whither to turn for money.
The gentlemen up at Pest had reintroduced the _morgatorium_, or whatever the plaguy thing is called, which as good as said that all the old debts were not to be paid, but that no new debts were to be made.
Now, if he is divorced from your ladyship, he will have to pay you back your 100,000 florins, and then he'll be ruined.
That's a fact.'
"A light began to dawn upon me.
This garrulous little peasant woman had let out the secret why my idyll had terminated so abruptly.
A very pretty twice-two certainly!
They receive me back like a pupil returning to school after the vacation.
For that very reason I resolved I would _not_ go back.
"When I was dressed again in my old clothes, she opened the little door and readmitted me into the larger apartment.
Peter was now tricked out in his grandest array.
He had donned his Sunday mantle, drawn on his new boots, and stood before me hat in hand.
He was as humble as a lackey.
He kissed my hand, and I noticed now for the first time how very bristly his chin was.
When he spoke it sounded like the whining voice of a burnt-out beggar-man who stands at the stable-door and begs an alms.
"'I kiss your gracious hands, my lady.
I humbly beg pardon if I have offended you in any way.
I didn't mean to do it.
Forgive me my fault, and I'll never do it again.'
"At this I knew not whether to laugh or to cry.
"Then he got quite touched, and wiped his eyes with the flapping sleeves of his shirt.
"Behind the door stood a stout willow-wood stick, which he laid hold of.
I wondered what he was going to do with it.
Would he give it to me as a staff for my pilgrimage?
"'Permit me, your ladyship, to accompany you as far as the castle.
Some evil might befall you on the way.
There are bad men about.
The dogs might bark at you, and the bull is quite savage.'
"'But I am not going to the castle,' I said.
"He gaped at me.
'Whither away, then?'
"'That's my business!
The road goes up, and the road goes down.
I'll go whichever way the wind blows.'
"Then he rallied all the wisdom he possessed, and preached a sermon to me with all the unction of an Old Testament patriarch.
"'Don't do that, my dear good lady!
Don't grieve your good and loving lord!
There's not a better man in the world.
Allow me to accompany you home.
I'll keep well behind--twenty yards if you like.'
"I stamped my foot impatiently, and bawled at him to come away from the door and let me go my way.
"Then it was that Peter showed his true colours.
"'My lady, this cannot be!
The good and worthy squire, when he gave me the ten oxen to take back my wife, said this to me: "Well!
Peter Gyuricza, if you bring my wife home also, ten young calves shan't stand between us."
' (The rocks and woods re-echoed with my laughter.
I couldn't keep it back.
) "Then my fury boiled over.
You know that when I fly into a rage I am a perfect lioness, don't you?
I snatched the stick from Peter Gyuricza's hand.
'Lubber, lout!
I'll give you your ten young calves!
There you are, take them!'
I don't know whether I gave him exactly ten blows.
I didn't count them.
And the big lout of a man turned tail, rushed into the room, dodged round the table, and roared like a hippopotamus, while I broke the stick over his shoulders.
His consort thought it best not to interfere, but leaped upon the bench and looked on.
It was a real luxury for her to meet with some one who could thoroughly trounce her tyrant.
"I only wish my previous journey had not fatigued me so much.
"I began to recover a little when I found myself out in the fields, and the breeze blew the heat out of my head.
My idyll had come to a pretty end.
What was I to do now?
One thing was certain, I could not return to Muki Bagotay.
"But whither was I to go, then?
"Before me lay the beautiful Danube.
The road by the dam ran all the way along it.
From time to time I leaned against an old willow-tree and looked at the great living-water.
Now and then a fish would leap up into the air with a loud splash.
I was not afraid of the water, but of the fishes I was afraid.
I could not kill myself.
I should have rejoiced, if that had been true with which they used to frighten us in our childish days when we leaned over the bank and looked into the water: Beware of the devil who lurks behind you and will push you in!
But he didn't push me in.
The devil can do nothing now.
He cannot compete at all with the sons of men.
But was it really worth while to kill myself for the sake of two such men as Muki Bagotay and Peter Gyuricza?
No, my death would then have been as ridiculous as my life!
"I thought I would go home to my mother.
She couldn't exactly turn me out of doors.
Let her punish me as she will--I'll humble myself; I'll bow down before her; I'll endure her wrath.
After all, is she not my mother, and am I not her only child?
She cannot but love her little one.
From any one else I could not expect to find pity or love.
Why, I even hated myself!
"With these thoughts I set off towards the town.
"It was baking hot.
A strong south wind was blowing, as dry and burning as if it had come out of a stove.
Clouds of sand covered the whole region, and whenever a gust came, I had to take refuge under a willow-tree, lest I should be hurled into the dam.
I can't say what time of the day it was, but I know that it was the forenoon to me, for I had eaten nothing yet that day.
The Gyuriczas had forgotten to invite me to sit down to their dumplings....
To quench my thirst, I descended once or twice to the Danube and drank some water out of the palm of my hand.
On the road-side I found a flower which I thought was a cheese-poppy.
I
tasted it, but it was very nasty.
Weary as I was, I must hasten to get to the town as soon as possible.
I should have been glad even of such a piece of bread as I used to distribute to the beggars at home on Friday.
"I was hastening on towards the town, when suddenly a kind of darkness rose up before me in the sky, and on looking at it more attentively, I was horrified to observe that in the town a fire had broken out, the black smoke of which was rolling up into the dust-clouded sky.
"The burning simoon blew back the black smoke upon the town.
Great Heaven!
the whole town will be reduced to ashes.
"And now I began to run.
I forgot that I was weary, I forgot that I was hungry.
Fear lent me fresh strength.
The nearer I got to the town the higher the smoke rolled up.
Now, however, it was not black, but red.
Millions of sparks shot flashing upwards, and huge fragments of flaming roofs were to be seen flying in the midst of them.
When a tiled house caught fire, the burning tiles shivered like fiery rockets in every direction.
