by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SENTENCE OF DEATH.
The candles were burning on the table though it was broad daylight, thebells were tolling though nobody was sick, the coffin had also been madeready though nobody was dead.
The hard sentence had been pronounced over the poor sinner, he must die.The law demanded his head. If his dear father and mother and all hisbrothers and sisters were to plead for him all day long they could notwash away the strict letter of the law with their tears.
All those who sat by the long table, the captains, lieutenants, andcommon soldiers, all of them wished, longed, to avoid uttering the fatalword. The General himself covered his face with his hands as he utteredthe words:
"With God there is mercy!"
In his hand he held a little staff, a little white staff. From time totime he glances at it, it is still whole, still smooth and unbroken.
The old sergeant-major approaches him, his shako on his head, hisstorm-belt strapped down over his shoulder, one hand by his side, theother touching the band of his shako.
"Mercy, General, for the poor condemned prisoner!"
"With God only there is mercy."
Again the sergeant-major raises the tip of his palm to the cord of hisshako and makes his petition.
"Mercy, General, for the poor condemned criminal!"
A third time he utters his appeal.
"With God only there is mercy," is the General's reply.
The little white staff falls to the ground broken in two. The condemnedman gives a sigh of relief, thanks the gentlemen present for the troublethey have taken, the good sergeant-major for interceding on his behalf,and the rigorous judge for pronouncing over him the sentence of the law.
Then they take him away to the house of mourning, give him a whiteuniform to put on, and set meat and drink before him that he may eat anddrink for the last time.
That day the iron man was afraid to go to his own quarters.
Suppose Cornelia were to ask him what sentence he had pronounced uponthe son of his enemy?
He durst not go home, he was actually afraid.
He was still brooding there when the gaoler came to tell him that thecondemned man wished to say a few words to the General privately.
Vertessy hastened to him at once.
"You defended yourself badly," said he reproachfully on entering, "youmade it impossible for us to pronounce any other sentence."
"I know that, I wished it so," replied the youth with a bright, calmcountenance. "That is all over now, General; it was a soldier's duty tocondemn me. In three days' time I am to die. Take it as if I was verysick, and the doctors had told you beforehand that I had only three moredays to live."
"I will send the sentence to His Majesty."
"It would be useless. Why, even you can advance nothing in my defence,and I have myself nothing to allege in mitigation of my sentence."
"But I know everything. Others have come forward to defend you, and ifyou had not cut the ground from under my feet by your defiant answersbefore the court-martial, I might have devised some means of savingyou."
"I am surprised that anyone should have defended me. I know of none whomight bear me in mind."
"Indeed yes. First of all there was my wife."
"Ah! General, such knowledge will make my death the easier."
"Then there was the man you fired at in your stupid jealousy."
"Then he did not die after all?" exclaimed the youth joyfully. "It doesme good to hear that."
"That's all one so far as you are concerned. You have in any casecommitted a capital offence."
"But my heart is the easier, nevertheless. A load has been removed fromit. I thank you. What you have said will shorten my last moments."
"Your third advocate was your father."
"What?" stammered the youth with trembling lips--"my father, did yousay?--my own father?"
"Your own dear father. He wrote to me with those trembling hands of his,those hands which have barely recovered from a paralytic stroke. Hewrote to me himself--do you realise what that means?"
"He wrote on my account!" whispered the condemned man, clasping hismanacled hands together and closing his heavy eyelashes over his moisteyes.
"Your fourth advocate was Count Kamienszki, whose sister you willdoubtless remember."
The youth looked up in astonishment.
"I have no recollection of such a person. _She_ had no brother."
Vertessy shrugged his shoulders.
"He himself told me so, he was with me here to-day."
A struggle with a torturing suspicion seemed to be going on in the youngsoldier's troubled mind; presently, however, he turned to the Generalwith a radiant countenance and said to him with a smile:
"All these things, General, will alleviate my chastisement and I thankyou for telling them to me. I regret that my misfortune will causeothers to shed tears which I did not expect, which I do not desire;still, they will greatly ease my affliction. I am sure that you too, atthe bottom of your heart, forgive me and my poor family--you do forgiveus, General, do you not? Will you not even go further and protect thatpoor old man who has now got nobody to stand by him?--will you not behis protector if any danger, yes, any great danger should threaten him?"
The General pressed the young man's extended hand--the chains rattled onthe hand that he held in his.
"And now, General, may I speak to you of a very serious matter? Wouldyou be so good as to hear me out?"
"Say on."
"And you will not take what I am about to tell you as the mere ravingsof a disordered brain? Many men's brains grow disordered at the approachof death I know; you will not imagine that I am simply delirious, willyou? You will believe that I am well and with all my wits, sound both inheart and mind, will you not?"
The General nodded.
"First of all I would beg you not to postpone my execution for the usualthree days. Let it take place sooner. I do not ask this for my own sake.I am as good as dead already, my time has run."
"Why do you make this request?"
"I will tell you presently. Then I would beg you not to conduct meoutside the town; the execution could take place just as well inside thecourtyard of the barracks."
"Very well, I will promise you that."
"And, finally, announce the execution for the afternoon and have itcarried out in the morning, early, at break of day, before anyone isawake."
"What are your reasons for so extraordinary a request?"
"I will tell you, General. You know right well what terrifying rumourshave been circulating through the land in consequence of theextraordinary, unprecedented epidemic now raging there. I had anopportunity of discovering, involuntarily, the designs of sundrymalevolent persons who looked upon this terrible time as an excellentoccasion for carrying out their nefarious designs. The dregs of thepopulation have been roused to action, and only await the signal to pourtheir ignorant, brutal herds all over the kingdom. This is no idle taleI am telling you, General. I have heard their seditious mutterings, Ihave read their letters, I have seen the lists of the names of those whoare to fall the first victims. My father's name stands at the very topof the list. His peasants have always hated him as much as they haveloved me. One of the leaders of these secret conspirators was formerly afellow-soldier with me, since then he has been compelled to quit theservice. I accidentally met him in Galicia, where he was pursuing hissecret plans. He promised to hide me away, and, immediately afterwards,went and denounced me. It is part of his infernal plan, when I am ledoutside the town and a large crowd of people have come together to seethe execution, to incite the mob to riot, overpower the little band ofsoldiers guarding me, release me, proclaim me far and wide as a hero,and use my name as the means of provoking a general rising. You can see,General, with what horror I so much as mention this affair, you can seethat I have neither dreamt nor imagined it, but shudder at it, and forthat very reason would hasten on my exit from this world."
The General r
eally did believe that the youth was not quite in his rightmind.
The young man perceived the cold smile on the General's face, andconvulsively grasping his hand with his own manacled hands, exclaimeddespairingly:
"General! they would murder my father, they would destroy my house, mynation!"
"Who forsooth?" inquired the General with an expression of unutterablecontempt. "These skulking loafers, eh? I will not presume to deny thatthey may, perhaps, intend to do what you say, such ideas may and dooccur at times to some blockhead or other. But I do not believe that thetime will ever come for the realisation of such projects. But if anybodyshould attempt to move in the matter, I solemnly assure you that at thevery first outcry he will be a dead man!"
And he tapped his sword with proud self-consciousness.
At that moment an adjutant hastily entered the room and announced thatthere were suspicious gatherings of the people in the market-place andthe streets of the town. They were exclaiming loudly against the gentryand the soldiers, and were goading one another on with incendiaryspeeches. It had been found necessary to bar the gates of the town hallagainst them, and the windows of an apothecary's shop had already beensmashed. Apparently they meant to give most of their attention to thebarracks and the town hall.
The General had no sooner hastened out of the corridor than he alreadyheard in the adjacent streets, that vague hubbub whose chaotic voicesounds so terrifying in the ears of the faint-hearted, who know notwhether it is an alarm of fire or a hue and cry after a murderer.
On the present occasion, however, there was both fire and murder in thesound--it was a riot.
In a distant part of the town some over-zealous guardians of publicorder had set ringing the alarm-bells, whose strident semi-tones roseabove the low hideous murmur of the mob.
The General hastened into the courtyard. The soldiers were alreadystanding there under arms.
There was scarcely more than two hundred men there, the rest were a longway off, forming part of the far-stretching military cordon.
This, however, was quite enough for Vertessy's purpose.
What had he to fear? It was impossible to conceive that the honestscythe and saddle makers of the town, the peaceful citizens who had onlyto do with planes and awls and shuttles, would dare to attack himforcibly and compel him to retire before them.
Swiftly, but with the utmost _sang froid_, he made his preparations.
Half a battalion took up a position outside the gate guarding everyapproach, the rest remained within the courtyard.
The rifles of the soldiers outside the gate remained unloaded.
At three rolls of a drum the remaining column also marched out into thestreet.
A single word of command would suffice for subsequent tactics.
It was also considered necessary to close the gates of the neighbouringhouse, and two sentries were posted outside it with loaded muskets.
All this was done in the most perfect order, there was no hurry, nobustle.
In that house opposite dwelt the General's wife; one could reach it fromthe barracks across a garden.
Vertessy had just completed his preparations when Cornelia's maid camehastening up to him and whispered something in his ear.
For a moment a smile of delight flashed across the General's face, whichimmediately afterwards, however, formed into still darker folds thanbefore.
Hastily transferring the command to his first lieutenant, he hastened tohis dwelling, promising to be back in a moment.
It must indeed have been a matter of importance to have constrainedVertessy to quit the post becoming a soldier at such a moment.
He hastened as fast as he could go to his wife's bedchamber.
The curtains had been let down, in the semi-obscure alcove lay a palewoman, seemingly a corpse which, nevertheless, was suffering thetorments of life.
Domestics were gathered round the bed, at a table sat the doctor writingsomething.
Vertessy had already unfastened his sword outside so as to avoid makinga clatter. He now rushed to Cornelia's side, seized her trembling,sweat-covered hand, and, pressing it to his lips, inquired:
"How do you feel?"
"On the threshold of death," answered the lady, and with her other armshe drew down her husband's head towards her that she might kiss it. Herwhole face was as white as marble, and the cold sweat stood out upon herforehead like pearly beads.
"The coming hour has secrets of its own, Vertessy," lisped the lady,pressing Vertessy's hand in her own, "whether it be good or evil, joy ordeath."
Vertessy's eyes interrogated the doctor as if he hoped for somecomforting reassurance from him.
The doctor beckoned him aside.
"She is suffering tortures," he whispered, "but she would hide it fromyou."
"She may hide it in her voice, but I can tell it is so from herbreathing. Is the danger great?"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders.
"Pretty much as usual. She is very nervous, and besides that, there issomething on her mind."
"What can it be?"
"It would be as well, General, if you ascertained. At such a time peaceof mind is a matter of life or death, and fear or any feeling of anxietymight have a bad effect upon--a new life."
At the words "a new life" that involuntary gleam of joy flashed acrossVertessy's lips once more. He went back to his wife and knelt down onher tapestried cushion.
"Cornelia, how are you?"
"In God's hands," whispered the lady, raising her glorious eyes. "Godchastises and is merciful as it seemeth Him good."
Her convulsive pressure showed Vertessy what she must be suffering.
"There is mercy with God," faintly murmured the lady once more.
Vertessy felt his heart tremble at these words. An hour before he alsohad said: "With God there is mercy," and that to a man who had promisedhimself a long life.
The lady turned towards him with a languid look, pressed both herhusband's hands to her breast, and looking long and painfully into hiseyes, she asked:
"Will God be merciful to me?"
"To thee, my angel?--yes!--oh yes!" stammered the General.
"And have you also been merciful to him who begged you for mercy?"
Vertessy could not meet that look, he could find no words to answer thatquestion.
"Vertessy! One death demands another, judgment is requited withjudgment. I am standing on the edge of the grave, do not let me die."
"What am I doing, what can I do?" said her husband with a falteringvoice.
"You see," replied his wife, winding her arm round his like a tendercreeping plant round a sturdy oak, "if you slay, I must die also. Whatthe condemned man in the neighbouring house suffers that I also mustendure--his terror, his despair, his death-struggle. Oh! my husband,have pity upon me. Be merciful now to him who has offended, that I alsomay find mercy with God!"
Vertessy's mind was much disturbed. And now the doctor approached himand solemnly observed:
"General, I fancy it would not be the first instance of a capitallycondemned felon being pardoned on the plea of such a sufferer."
Vertessy regarded him abstractedly as if to beg him to proceed.
"I knew of a similar case when I was in service at the fortress ofComorn, when a youth, who had thrice deserted the ranks, was pardoned inconsequence of a similar petition."
"And do you believe that it would do good?"
"My dear sir, when the exaltation of the nerves has reached such adegree as this, the imagination is omnipotent, good news may give life,bad news death. A soothing thought in such cases is worth all the drugsin the world."
Vertessy kissed the forehead of his pale, suffering well-beloved, andcried with a manly emphasis, which instantly inspired self-confidence:
"I will save him!"
The lady raised her trembling hands and her pale features to Heaven, hereyes slowly closed, and a smile of joy passed over her white face.
Outside resounded the threefold roll of the d
rums.
The General arose, hastened to the door, tied on his sword, and rushedtowards the barracks.
The noise, the hubbub, was now quite close at hand, and he fella-thinking how he could best, with fair words, persuade these turbulentcitizens to go back to their homes and begin weaving linen and stitchingboots again, though he longed all the time to storm forth amongst themand like a tempest scatter them in every direction.