the conversation
of this gentleman and myself in a language which you can't understand
must be very tedious to you, we had better give it up."

"Keep on with it," said the jockey, "I shall go on listening very
contentedly till I fall asleep, no bad thing to do at most times."

CHAPTER XXXIX

The Hungarian.

"Then you are a countryman of Tekeli, and of the queen who made the
celebrated water," said I, speaking to the Hungarian in German, which I
was able to do tolerably well, owing to my having translated the
Publisher's philosophy into that language, always provided I did not
attempt to say much at a time.

_Hungarian_. Ah! you have heard of Tekeli, and of L'eau de la Reine
d'Hongrie. How is that?

_Myself_. I have seen a play acted, founded on the exploits of Tekeli,
and have read Pigault Le Brun's beautiful romance, entitled the "Barons
of Felsheim," in which he is mentioned. As for the water, I have heard a
lady, the wife of a master of mine, speak of it.

_Hungarian_. Was she handsome?

_Myself_. Very.

_Hungarian_. Did she possess the water?

_Myself_. I should say not; for I have heard her express a great
curiosity about it.

_Hungarian_. Was she growing old?

_Myself_. Of course not; but why do you put all these questions?

_Hungarian_. Because the water is said to make people handsome, and
above all, to restore to the aged the beauty of their youth. Well!
Tekeli was my countryman, and I have the honour of having some of the
blood of the Tekelis in my veins, but with respect to the queen, pardon
me if I tell you that she was not an Hungarian; she was a Pole--Ersebet
by name, daughter of Wladislaus Locticus King of Poland; she was the
fourth spouse of Caroly the Second, King of the Magyar country, who
married her in 1320. She was a great woman and celebrated politician,
though at present chiefly known by her water.

_Myself_. How came she to invent it?

_Hungarian_. If her own account may be believed, she did not invent it.
After her death, as I have read in Florentius of Buda, there was found a
statement of the manner in which she came by it, written in her own hand,
on a fly-leaf of her breviary, to the following effect:--Being afflicted
with a grievous disorder at the age of seventy-two, she received the
medicine which was called her water, from an old hermit whom she never
saw before or afterwards; it not only cured her, but restored to her all
her former beauty, so t