take it into their heads to formally besiege the place,
and, had it only depended upon his will to do so, he would assuredly
have made the attempt.

But it never came to that. On returning to the place of combat Fatia
Negra found his horsemen still searching in the mud and darkness for the
lost ducats, and made an attempt to reorganize his band, which did,
indeed, do a little maurauding on its own account; but when the news
reached him, through one of his paid spies, that four hundred infantry
with a cannon had reached Szaszvar from Szeb--the very word "a connon"
had such an effect upon the robbers that they scattered in every
direction as if a tempest had dispersed them. Next morning there was not
a trace of them anywhere.

CHAPTER XXI

THE HUNTED BEAST

Such a piece of audacity could not be overlooked.

That a robber horseman should in the middle of the nineteenth century
and within the confines of a civilized state take it into his head to
attack, in broad daylight, post wagons defended by a strong escort of
regular soldiers--was a thing unheard of.

The news spread like lightning through the six confederated counties and
everyone seized his sword and musket. So old Gerzson Satrakovics whom
everybody had laughed at, was right after all. It was universally agreed
that a stop must be put to this sort of thing once for all. There was no
waiting now for the meetings of Quarter Sessions. The lord-lieutenants
of the counties proclaimed the _statarium_,[47] called out the
_banderia_[48] and gathered together the county _pandurs_[49] and the
militia, in order by their combined efforts, to extirpate the evil
without having recourse to the assistance of the military--a measure
always repugnant to the freedom-loving Magyars.

[Footnote 47: A decree authorizing summary procedure.]

[Footnote 48: Mounted gentry.]

[Footnote 49: Police.]

Squire Gerzson was elected the leader of this vast hunt, whose area
extended over hundreds of square miles, by all the six counties
concerned--it was generally felt that this was but due to him for the
neglect of his warnings--and Mr. Gerzson proved on this occasion that if
he was not a great strategist, at any rate he was a great beater up of
game. His plan was to occupy all the mountain roads and passes leading
out of the six counties with armed bands of militia, while at the same
time he himself advanced slowly along the highroads with his
gentlemen-volunteers joining hand