Eyes Like the Sea — 15 - Chapter 13, part 1

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT

When she again lifted up her face, her eyes were like a somnambulist's gazing fixedly in the moonlight.

They appeared absolutely dark-blue, so much were the irises distended.

Her voice was quite low.

"The whole picture is still vividly before my eyes.

The greater part of the town was in flames.

It must have been evening.

The sound of the clock in the Calvinist church tower mingled with the peal of the alarm-bells.

The clock struck eight, the alarm-bells five.

The people counted the strokes: exactly thirteen.

The sun shone no longer, but the whole vault of heaven was alight; the fiery reflection of the thick clouds of smoke made a hellish daylight, and in the midst of this terrible illumination, like some dread idol, rose the tower of the Calvinist church, with its large copper roof, and its spire with the great gold ball and star.

Star and ball glowed like phantoms from the world beyond the grave.

The crackling of the fire roared down the howling of the beasts and the cries of ten thousand terrified men.

In that part of the town where the carters dwelt, carts, horses and oxen, and their owners were all huddled together in one dense mass.

To move was an impossibility.

Then upon this howling, cursing, blaspheming multitude came pouring that mass of men which had fought its way from the banks of the Danube through the burning town, with the terrifying cry, 'The enemy has attacked the town!'

By this time the alarming rumour had gained such proportions that there were those who said they had actually seen the enemy's soldiers entering the town.

'They are burning, they are plundering--fly!

fly!'

Some even exclaimed, 'They are about to bombard the captured town from the fortress!'

All at once the whole street, as far as the Waag bridge, was filled with flying vehicles.

In my terror I had clutched hold of the mud-splasher of one of these vehicles as it came tearing along, and ran along after it till there was scarcely a breath left in my body.

My light buskins were completely worn off my feet and full of gravel.

I had no time to stop and empty them.

This particular carriage had excellent horses in it, and the coachman did not spare his whip.

Two women, dressed in peasants' hoods, were sitting in this carriage.

I was astonished that they should wrap themselves up so closely in their hoods, and cover their heads with big kerchiefs, when such an infernal heat was blazing all around us, from the earth, from the sky, and from every side of us.

"The coachman reached the Waag bridge safely before the other fugitive carriages had blocked up the way.

At the entrance they had to stop, for there the custom-house officers demanded the bridge-tolls.

That the whole town was in flames mattered not a button to them, all they wanted was their tolls.

One of the women handed them an Austrian bank-note for 100 florins.

The toll-collector could not give change.

A queer sort of peasant woman, truly, who had no smaller change than a bank-note for 100 florins!

While they were haggling about it, it occurred to me that I was now wearing my genteel clothes, and that in the pockets there was sure to be a silver _tizes_[76] for any beggar I might chance to meet on my way.

So I went up and said to the peasant women: 'I've got a _tizes_ which I'll give to the toll-collector; all that I ask is that you will take me in your carriage--there's room for me beside the coachman.

I

don't mind where you take me.'

At this, one of the women called to the coachman: 'Don't let that girl get up, we won't have her.'

Then they told the toll-collector that he might keep the 100-florin note if he couldn't give them change, if only he would let their coachman go on.

I

was horrified at such inhumanity.

What a heartless woman it must be who, in such a time of peril, could refuse a fugitive girl a place in her carriage, and who, rather than do so, preferred to sacrifice a bank-note for 100 florins, peasant though she was!

In my indignation I tore the big muffling clout from the head of the peasant woman and discovered her face.

And now my blood froze to ice.

I recognised my own mother!

'Mother, dear mother!'

I cried, 'don't you know me?

I am your own little girl, Bessy!'

Then my mother, pulling up the collar of her mantle over her face, said, in a simulated peasant voice: 'Be off!

Don't bother us!

I don't know the girl.

I'm not your mother.

Let go my kerchief!'

[Footnote 76: The tenth part of a florin.

] "I thought I was going mad.

My own mother wouldn't know me!

She wouldn't let me get into her carriage.

Like lightning the thought flashed through my mind that she it was whom the people were cursing so.

No doubt they were cursing her unjustly, but in such times as these that mattered little.

Whomsoever the popular fury points out is condemned already.

I

could not betray my own mother.

I hastily threw my silver coin to the toll-collector that they might let the carriage go on.

I thought that if once we got beyond the bridge, and my mother had no further fear of pursuit, she would take me into the carriage.

So catching hold of the back part of the vehicle, I ran on beside the carriage till we had got beyond the trenches of the fortress and out upon the highway.

Then I again began to supplicate, so far as my gasping voice would allow me: 'Mother, dear, good mother!

take me into the carriage; I am dropping.

I

can go no farther.'

They would not hear me.

They only cursed and scolded: 'Be off!

Decamp!'

And when I still persisted in clinging on, they at last seized my fingers, which were still clutching the splasher, violently wrenched them off, and gave me a rough push so that I fell at full length into the highway.

Then the carriage rolled on farther.

"I had held out till then, but now my strength failed me.

I trembled so that I could no longer stand upon my legs.

Utterly crushed in mind and body by the sufferings of that terrible day, I dragged myself on my knees to the edge of the wayside ditch.

My instinctive fear of death told me that I must avoid the middle of the road if I didn't want to be trampled to death.

There then I lay clinging to a roadside poplar, gazing apathetically at the dreadful scene.

The fugitive vehicles dashed madly along the highway in threes and fours, colliding every moment.

The cursing and swearing were something awful.

Every now and then one conveyance overturned another into the ditch, and the women who were sitting in them screamed and cried most piteously.

One coachman hit upon the foolhardy idea of forcing his way through the ditch into the open field, and others followed his example.

They came so close to me as to all but run over me, and I had not sufficient strength left to draw up my legs out of reach of their revolving wheels.

"Then the blast of trumpets mingled with the hurly-burly.

A regiment of Hussars was trying to cut its way through the fugitive carriages with a convoy of hay-waggons, which, as was explained to me later on, the Commandant of the fortress was transferring from the burning town to the village of Izsa across the Waag.

The commanding officer was cursing and swearing, and striking all the coachmen he met with the flat of his sword for stopping his soldiers' way.

'Damned rascals!

instead of putting out the fire, you all take to your heels.

What the devil is the matter with you?

There's no enemy behind you!

Would that the souls of your ancestors could revivify you!'

"The voice seemed familiar to me, but the face I had never seen before.

A spiral moustache, a French beard, a Hussar uniform, and a plumed hat--I had never seen _that_ figure before.

"Thus he appeared before me like the dragon-slaying hero of a fairy tale.

"Hitherto, of all those who scurried past me, not one had noticed the wretched creature lying in the ditch.

Some girl or other quite past help, they thought, perhaps.

Nobody took any notice of me.

"This officer _did_ notice me.

In the midst of the greatest turmoil he perceived a woman lying beneath his horse's feet.

He hastily reined in his charger, and called me by my name.

'My lady Elizabeth!

how ever did you come here?

In Heaven's name, what has befallen you?'

"I recognised him by his mode of addressing me.

There was only one man who used to address me in this way, the man who taught me my _rôle_ at those famous amateur theatricals that you remember.

"'Mr. Bálványossi!

Mr. Director!'

I stammered, in my joy.

"'No, no!

Captain Rengetegi is my name.

Why, where is your mother?

Run away?

She did well.

Get up, my lady, into my carriage, and I'll take you now to a place of safety.'

"'I cannot get up.'

"Then he hastily dismounted from his horse, gave his bridle to his orderly, went up to me, raised me in his arms, carried me to his carriage, and laid me down there among sweet-smelling hay.

"I felt just as if I had been placed in Paradise.

"Then he threw his mantle over me.

It was cold outside now, and a strong wind was blowing.

"But his care for me went even further than that.

"'There is food in my knapsack, lady Elizabeth.

I suppose you have had no supper to-day?

Take whatever you find there.

There's some drink, too, in my flask.

It will do you good.

You have nothing more to fear.

The finger-pointing virgin still stands there on the bastions of our fortress.'

"Then he mounted his horse again, and continued commanding his men loudly and authoritatively to force their way through the crush of carts and carriages with their convoy of hay.

I fancied that I saw before me an archangel.

"I didn't wait to be asked twice.

As soon as I was able to get hold of the knapsack of victuals, I stuffed myself indiscriminately with all it contained--ham, cake, rolls.

I gorged like a wild beast broken loose from a menagerie.

I verily believe that if my bliss in Heaven had depended upon it, I would have renounced it for that couch of soft straw and those greedily devoured delicacies.

"When I had satisfied my appetite as I had never done before, I unscrewed the top of the flask and put it to my mouth.

I didn't taste what was in it, but I gulped and gulped so long as I had any breath in my body, as much as my thirst craved.

I fancy it must have been brandy.

When I couldn't drink any more I looked all about me.

The burning town was a grand illumination; in the midst of it was the Calvinist church tower--only it was now not one tower, but three.

The silly thing was dancing a _pas seul_, and wagging its head now to the right, and now to the left, and all the people, and the horses, and the coachmen, and the hay-carts were leaping and dancing, like wedding-guests considerably the worse for liquor.

"When next day I awoke out of a twenty-hours' sleep, I found myself in the room of a peasant's house.

Two men were holding a consultation over me--the camp-surgeon and 'he.'

'How do you find yourself, lady Elizabeth?

You are in my little room.'

"So ever since then I have been the lady Elizabeth."

With these words Bessy rushed to the edge of the steep rock, crossed her two hands over her breast, and looked over her shoulder at me.

"I have now told you everything, and you must judge me.

You have no need to push me.

Give but a signal with your finger and I'll put an end to myself!"

Horrified, I grasped her hand, and snatched her away from the dizzying rocky ledge.

"Do not tempt God!

Be reasonable!"

And, not without some little force, I made her sit down by the hot embers.

"But do you call this _life_?"

"Come, come, calm yourself!

Look, these armed men are close upon us!"

They were not gendarmes.

They were two worthy foresters belonging to the domain of the Forests of Diosgyör--a grey-bearded old man with a youthful assistant.

No hostile intentions had brought them thither.

They could see, too, that our picnic beside the fire was a very innocent diversion.

In the album left upon the rock was my unfinished landscape.

They greeted us cordially, and I returned their greeting in like manner.

I asked the elder man whether I was injuring any one's proprietorial rights by making a fire with other people's wood.

If so, I said, I would make good the trespass.

To which the old man replied that he had no quarrel with me on that score.

The stuff was there for the poor man to gather, and he cited the classical German ballad in which the evil-minded forester robbed the peasant of his bundle of faggots.

He must needs be a lover of letters, then!

Then he told us why they had come.

"We perceived the smoke from below, and knew, therefore, that there were visitors on the Precipice Stone.

We thought it our duty to come up.

Wolves are about in the forest.

We wished to tell you so."

"I thank you for your great kindness; but, from what I am told, wolves will not attack a man."

"But they've become very aggressive since they discovered that the Government has confiscated all muskets, leaving only a pair or two with us.

They avoid men in the day time, I know; but at dark or in a snowstorm they are very impudent."

"We do not intend to remain here till evening.

I only wanted to finish the drawing, for the sake of which I scrambled up hither."

"But I would call your attention, sir, to the fact that we shall have a fall of snow here before night.

I know the signs of the weather.

When such a vast mist lies over the country in the morning, and then rises suddenly, and is quickly followed by darkness, then we may expect a snowstorm the same day.

That is an old experience of mine."

"We will hasten home."

"Do you live at Tordona, or at Malyinka?"

"I live at Tordona."

"God bless you, sir.

I know every one there."

He didn't ask who I was.

We shook hands, and with that the pair of them went on their way.

"Was it worth while creeping into the cave for this?"

said Bessy, when the foresters had withdrawn.

"There are men who can face a great danger and hide away from a little one."

"And you think, then, that our friend there is a fire-eater?

--I thought so too for a long time.

It was no unexampled thing in those extraordinary times for men to become suddenly transformed.

Those who were looked upon as mere carpet knights became veritable heroes; lawyers became colonels: war has an ennobling influence on so many types of character.

I really believed that Rengetegi had changed his whole nature with his name.

When others had to be aroused, there was no such orator as he.

I was absolutely proud that we belonged to each other.

When the Austrian troops invested the fortress, and hurled the first bomb into the market-place, the whole of our social life was suddenly turned upside down.

There was now no such thing as etiquette.

The families of great magnates left their houses (those, that is, whose houses were not burnt down already), pitched their tents in the Gipsy-field and dwelt there.

The guns of the Monostor batteries did not carry so far as that.

In the barracks, moral law disappeared.

An officer was a great personage then, and to walk about the streets leaning on his arm was a much-coveted glory.

Whether the lady on his arm was his wife was not the question--he was a fine fellow, a gallant fellow.

That was the main thing.

And if I met an acquaintance I introduced Rengetegi as my future husband.

Every one knew that I had begun a suit against Muki Bagotay.

But where were the courts, the advocates, the judges?

--every one was either wearing a sword or serving a gun.

When people asked me where I lived, I said 'in the fortress!'

To dwell in the fortress was an enviable position.

The rooms there were fire-proof.

I really think that there were more who envied than pitied my fate.

I also got familiar with the ways of a soldier's life.

They gave concerts, and I fiddled while Rengetegi declaimed.

When the enemy was hurling away his bombs at the fortress, we took our band out on the ramparts, and there, with a great flourish of trumpets, we danced _csárdáses_.

How that did aggravate the Germans!

I had a great reputation as a _rakétás_[77] dancer."

[Footnote 77: Rocket-dance.

] I must frankly admit that I was not much edified by this turn in the conversation.

Bessy perceived that I was not well pleased with her doings in camp.

"Ah, my dear friend!"

she said, "don't fancy by any means that this episode of my life consisted entirely of rioting and revelry, there was a little intermezzo in it also.

You know, of course, that, during the winter, things at Comorn were very bad indeed.

The Commandant had not the capacity for the problem before him, which included the defence of such an important fortress.

The garrison was lazy and mutinous.

Whispers of treachery arose, and the chief of the artillery was deprived of his post.

It was necessary to inform the Hungarian Government at Debreczin of the dangerous state of things at Comorn, and to beg for a new Commandant who should be a distinguished officer.

But how was it possible to carry a message from Comorn to Debreczin?

Who would undertake the risky enterprise of carrying the despatch from Comorn, through so many hostile armies, and bringing back the reply to it again?

They had sent one messenger already, but he had been unable to get back.

It was a joke which might cost a man his head.

"One evening, Rengetegi came to my little room in the barracks, and said: 'Elizabeth, the hour has come for us to part!'

"I immediately thought that he was tipsy.

"'You haven't played me away at cards, I hope?'

"'It is not you, but my own head that I have lost.

I have accepted the mission to Debreczin.

I've run my head against a wall, I know.

It's neck or nothing now.

And they've pressed a thousand florins into my hand to make the way before me quite secure.'

"'And you have lost it all at cards this evening?'

"'How did you find that out?'

"'I have made it my study.

I know well those Hippocratic countenances.

Well, and what are you going to do now?'

"'Save my honour!

I'll go on my way without money.'

"'Listen to me!

I believe that you would be very glad to get out of this bombarded fortress--but I've no very ardent belief that you'll ever come back again.

I tell you what: give me the official despatch which has to be taken, and I'll take care that it reaches the hands of the Government.'

"'But how?'

inquired Rengetegi, immensely delighted.

"'That I shall not tell you.

I've been turning the matter over for some time.

You have only a passive part to play here.

You hide yourself in the village of Izsa, which the enemy has not occupied, because it lies within the range of the guns of the fortress, and wait for me there till I return from Debreczin with the answer of the Government.'

" "And Rengetegi actually accepted the proposal?"

I inquired.

I now began to admire this woman.

"He jumped at it.

He gave me soul-stirring examples of the heroic women of history, who had gone to the wars along with their husbands....

He vowed that if I ever returned in safety from my mission he would henceforth call me 'Queen Zenobia.'

"By the evening of the same day I was ready for the enterprise.

I made Rengetegi dye his hair, moustache, and beard black, so that it was almost impossible to recognise him."

"So that was your idea!"

I cried.

"Then I stowed him away in a peasant's hut at Hetény, with strict instructions not to emerge from his prison till I tapped at the door.

Next I set to work to thoroughly disguise my own person.

I was to be the leader of a gipsy band.

Ah!

if you could only have painted my portrait!

Then, indeed, I really was lovely!

I smeared my face with the juice of green walnut-shells till it was so black that I could pass for a gipsy among the gipsies themselves; I clipped my hair till it only reached down to my shoulders; I put on a jacket which some gentleman or other had worn threadbare before giving it away; hose that certainly were never intended for me, and a shirt that had never been washed: and so I transformed myself into as filthy a shape as ever led a wandering gipsy band."

Here I could not forbear from pressing her hand.

What sacrifices will not a woman make for her country and for her lover!

"But all this was a mere joke to what followed.

I now had to get together a band.

If they catch a gipsy alone they arrest him as a spy;

but if he be one of a quartet he may go on his way rejoicing.

I provided myself with a violoncellist, a clarinet-player, and a contra-bass.

It was easy to persuade them to quit the bombarded town, into which the gentry who had robbed them of their poor hovels had forced them to go.

Bread and meat were getting dearer and dearer, and there was nothing to be earned.

Who had the heart to pay for music amidst such a frightful carnival?

"Thus, with my little band of three, I set out upon my long and uncertain journey on foot.

Gipsies only ride in sledges when a magnate sends for them, and there was no such magnate in the whole district.

If on our way we fell in with a cart laden with dried reeds taken out of the swamps for firewood, we would ask for a lift in it.

But our legs nearly froze there, and we were glad to get down again and walk.

"In the very first village we came to, O-Gyalla, we fell in with a division of the Austrian investing army, German cuirassiers.

The patrol brought us to the major in command.

He was indeed a merciless personage.

He roared at us, and asked us how we dared to leave the town.

We naturally did not understand a word of German, and all four of us, in true gipsy fashion, began to raise objections at the same time: we could not remain in the town, the Honveds posted us right in front of the bombs, and made us play music at the very top of the bastions; all the cannons had fired at us, and that was a thing that gipsies couldn't stand.

'_Was sagen die Spitzbuben?

_' inquired the major of his auditor.

The auditor understood Hungarian, and expounded unto him: 'Nix da, you rascals!

You are spies, and must be searched.

Come!

you must undress.'

I was not a little alarmed, I can tell you.