ound that the shutters were
nailed down over them. What horrified me most of all, however, was that
nobody came from the castle to put the fire out. Then I began to roar
for help and while I was roaring and running up and down looking for an
axe with which to batter in the door--'burum! burum!' I heard two shots
and the bullets whistled to the right and left about my ears. At that
all my pluck went down to my heels; I rushed under the shelter of the
barn, cut the tether ropes of the horses, swung myself up on to the
saddle horse, driving the others before me, and trotted into Arad
without once stopping to water them."

So he had reached home more quickly than Squire Gerzson himself.

"Well, my son," said Gerzson, "all that you have told me is gospel truth
I have no doubt, but say not a word of it to anybody, or else . . ."
(and here he uttered the threat which the ordinary Hungarian common folk
fear most of all)--"or else the affair will come before the courts and
you will have to give testimony on oath."

After that he was sure of the fellow's silence.

CHAPTER XIX

THE SHAKING HAND

Whoever in an evil hour encountered Fatia Negra had a shaking hand for
the rest of his life.

Ever since that meeting at the _csarda_ Henrietta's hand also trembled
to such an extent that it was only with the utmost difficulty that she
could sign her own name.

What happened to her after that meeting? Whom did she recognize in Fatia
Negra? How did she get home?--all these things remained eternal secrets.
The lady was never able to tell it to anybody. Perchance she herself
regarded it as a dream.

The poor lady used now to pray all day. For hours at a time she would
kneel before the altar of the castle chapel returning thence to her
perpetual walking to and fro, to and fro, kneeling down to pray again
when she was tired out. And so she went on from morning to evening, nay,
till late into the night, sometimes till midnight, sometimes till the
dawn of the next day, up and down, up and down, between four walls, and
then on her knees again a-praying.

She never appeared in the dining-room; her meals were sent to her room.
She scarcely touched them, it was difficult to understand how she kept
body and soul together.

She only quitted her chamber to go to chapel. At such times she would
frequently meet domestics or strangers in the castle corridors, but she
looks at nobody and says not a word. She does not notice that they a