they
could write. They were to sign nothing, and if they were asked if such
a one in Bondathal had houses and fields, and, above all, sons, they
were not to give any answer.

The deputation started in a couple of days after the meeting, under
the guidance of the abbe. Peter Saffran went also. He had been named
one of the twelve, for he was specially wanted in Vienna.

A day or so later Ivan was cited before the military officer
commanding the district; he was accused of having acted against the
law by causing the "Reichstag" to be lowered in the eyes of the
people, of having kept the people, especially his own workmen, from
taking part in legal demonstrations, of having insulted members of the
legislature, and of having allied himself with secret societies. He
was cautioned to avoid anything of the sort in future. The next time
things would be more serious; he was at liberty to go this time
unpunished.

Ivan knew perfectly well from what quarter this denunciation had come.
To destroy his business utterly it would be necessary to place its
owner for a year in confinement; his innocence would then be
established, and he would be allowed to go scot-free. In the meantime
his property would be ruined. It was lucky for Ivan that on this
occasion the jailer's wife was ill. It would have been necessary to
remove her from the rooms which were set apart for prisoners under
suspicion, and so Ivan was allowed to go his way.

* * * * *

Ah, it was a great day when the twelve men from Bondathal, in the
twelve new suits of Halina cloth, arrived in the metropolis. Here they
are! Here are the Hungarians, the indomitable sons of the soil. A
deputation to the Reichsrath, an acknowledgment of the February
patent, the first pioneers! They deserve three times three.

All the newspapers hastened to congratulate them; the leading articles
of all political shades were full of this new and remarkable
demonstration.

The minister gave the deputation a private audience, where the abbe
set forth their demand in a well-expressed speech, laying great stress
upon the fact that it was the people themselves who wished to free
their country from its present condition, having learned to
distinguish their real benefactors from those false prophets who
wished to condemn them to a baneful and ruinous inactivity. The abbe
dwelt expressly upon the great intelligence of the men who formed the
deputation. In return his ex