Part 69 (1/2)
”The consequences? Oh, I am aware that my conduct leads me to the scaffold!” replied the notary, pa.s.sionately. ”Let them do their worst; and may my blood be on their heads! I am not their first victim, nor indeed the last.”
”And your family!” cried Volgyeshy. ”What is to become of your wife and children?”
Tengelyi covered his face and wept. At last he said, with a trembling voice:--
”What is it you wish me to do? Am I to kneel to Skinner? am I to bribe false witnesses? or have recourse to some equally infamous means? I know that these things have more effect in our courts than the musty legal remedies which they taught us at college. We adopt a h.o.m.opathic treatment to cure wickedness. If you are accused of a crime, you may save yourself by committing a crime. Our Dustbury magistrates wish to prove their oriental descent, by extorting presents from the suitors in their courts. I know it all; but how can you ask me to condescend to sue and to bribe?”
”My dear friend, you are unreasonable!” said Volgyeshy, seizing the notary's hand.
”Unreasonable!” cried Tengelyi. ”I, of all men, have cause to be so. I commenced life as an enthusiast, I grant it; but were its lessons lost upon me? No! All I have latterly wished for was, to be a useful and humble member of the community, and to end my life in peace. But even this is denied me. My wife is not likely to survive my misfortune; my daughter's grief, though less avowed, is not less acute. My son has to enter life with a dishonoured name: and after all this, I am expected to abandon my principles! Is it not enough to drive a man mad?”
”No!” replied Volgyeshy; ”for no honest man was ever in so distressing a situation, and without his own fault too. I admit all you complain of; but what I say is, that there is no humiliation in your asking the lord-lieutenant and Rety to adjourn the decision in your case.”
The notary shook his head, and replied,--
”My asking them to delay the sentence, what is it but a confession that I doubt the justice of my own cause?”
”By no means. It is a proof that you do not consider the case ripe for decision. We cannot but admit, as it stands at present, that all the evidence is against us. Public opinion is in your favour. n.o.body doubts your innocence, though there is no evidence we can adduce in support of our statement of the case. If you were to be judged by a jury of your countrymen, I am sure I would not hesitate to appeal to their verdict.
But the judges cannot travel out of the record, and they cannot but decide against us. Time may do a great deal for us. That Jew is now dying of typhus fever; who knows but he may recover, and our promises may induce him to confess the truth? Perhaps we may find out Viola, and defeat the accusation by producing him; perhaps some circ.u.mstance may turn up----”
Here the advocate's argument was interrupted by Janosh, the hussar, who had quietly entered the room and listened to the latter part of the conversation. Yielding to the entreaties of his son, the sheriff had consented to let Janosh wait upon the notary in prison; a duty which the old trooper fulfilled with so much alacrity, that even Tengelyi was moved by the devotion and kindness of his new servant.
”I say, sir,” said the hussar, approaching the table at which Volgyeshy and the notary were seated, ”is it a fact that they cannot injure you if we manage to produce Viola?”
”Certainly!” replied Volgyeshy; ”if Viola could be induced to appear and to confess that it was he who killed the attorney, there can be no doubt but that the decision would be in our favour.”
”Then the great thing is to find him?” said the hussar.
”We have tried it in vain,” replied the advocate, with a sigh. ”We have sent orders to all the justices, we have written to all the counties, but nothing has come of it.”
”Well, sir, no wonder he dodged you,” said Janosh, shaking his head; ”who the deuce thinks of sending a drummer to catch rats? Viola won't leave his address at a justice's, I promise you.”
”But what are we to do? Do you know of any other way?”
”Of course I do! it's the only way to do the thing. If you hunt after your watch, some thief will tell you where it was last heard of. If you wish to find Viola, you had better speak to some of his cronies.”
”We have asked the Liptaka, and Peti the gipsy?” replied the lawyer.
”Well, as far as the gipsy is concerned,” said the hussar, ”I'll be bound that cunning creature could give us a hint or two, if he thought proper. But who knows whether he was not a party to the murder of the attorney? Besides, he is Viola's sworn brother, and thinks, perhaps, they would hang him, if they had him fast and sure.”
”As for the hanging part of the business,” said Volgyeshy, ”Peti knows very well that Viola is not to be tried by court-martial. A common court will not condemn him to capital punishment, since he is not guilty of any other great crime besides the a.s.sa.s.sination of Catspaw; and, especially, since he has once gone through his agonies.”[30]
[Footnote 30: See Note II.]
”That's what the sheriff may say; but Peti won't believe it. A gallows is an ugly concern to joke with. But there are others--”
”Who?” asked Volgyeshy.
”Why, sir, any of the robbers that are now in gaol. An honest man does not know his fellow, but a robber does. For instance, there is Gatzi, sir, the Vagabond; give him leave of absence for two or three weeks. I will put on a peasant's dress and go with him, and I'll promise you I'll keep him safe. Now, I tell you, if he and I don't bring Viola to this place! you may call me a liar, even when I tell you that we beat the French at Aspern.”
Volgyeshy, who was aware of the uninterrupted correspondence in which the captive robbers in Hungary stand with their comrades out of doors, volunteered at once to solicit the dismissal from custody of Gatzi the Vagabond, and he proposed that the two men should start early the next morning.