f the Dunau you will find the Sclaves and their language. Czernavoda is
Sclavic, and means black water; in Turkish, kara su; even as Tzernebock
means black god; and Belgrade, or Belograd, means the white town; even as
Bielebock, or Bielebog, means the white god. Oh! he is one great
ignorant, that Valter. He is going, they say, to write one history about
Napoleon. I do hope that in his history he will couple his Thor and
Tzernebock together. By my God! it would be good diversion that.'

'Walter Scott appears to be no particular favourite of yours,' said I.

'He is not,' said the Hungarian; 'I hate him for his slavish principles.
He wishes to see absolute power restored in this country, and Popery
also; and I hate him because--what do you think? In one of his novels,
published a few months ago, he has the insolence to insult Hungary in the
person of one of her sons. He makes his great braggart, Cour de Lion,
fling a Magyar over his head. Ha! it was well for Richard that he never
felt the grip of a Hungarian. I wish the braggart could have felt the
grip of me, who am "a' Magyarok kozt legkissebb," the least among the
Magyars. I do hate that Scott, and all his vile gang of Lowlanders and
Highlanders. The black corps, the fekete regiment of Matyjas Hunyadi,
was worth all the Scots, high or low, that ever pretended to be soldiers;
and would have sent them all headlong into the Black Sea, had they dared
to confront it on its shores; but why be angry with an ignorant, who
couples together Thor and Tzernebock? Ha! ha!'

'You have read his novels?' said I.

'Yes, I read them now and then. I do not speak much English, but I can
read it well, and I have read some of his romances, and mean to read his
Napoleon, in the hope of finding Thor and Tzernebock coupled together in
it, as in his high-flying Ivanhoe.'

'Come,' said the jockey, 'no more Dutch, whether high or low. I am tired
of it; unless we can have some English, I am off to bed.'

'I should be very glad to hear some English,' said I; 'especially from
your mouth. Several things which you have mentioned have awakened my
curiosity. Suppose you give us your history?'

'My history?' said the jockey. 'A rum idea! however, lest conversation
should lag, I'll give it you. First of all, however, a glass of
champagne to each.'

After we had each taken a glass of champagne, the jockey commenced his
history.

CHAPTER XLI

THE JOCKEY'S TALE--THIEVES' L