Then the castle horn again sounded. The Princess’s first messenger had arrived, and demanded admittance in her Highness’s name.
Csaky rushed hastily upstairs, and just as Banfi, after half reassuring his consort, was about to quit her, suddenly burst open the door, and cried—
“Why so long a leave-taking? Get ready! The sentence stays for execution!”
Lady Banfi with a piercing scream rose from her couch, and stretching out both her arms towards Banfi, gazed speechlessly at him for a moment, then, clutching at her heart, fell back dead upon her pillow with wide-open eyes.
Banfi looked at his enemy with the bitterness of death, his streaming eyes hurled more curses at him than any lip could have uttered.
“Base, cowardly wretch!” he moaned, “was it then part of your mandate to murder my wife also?”
Csaky turned his head away, and said in a hoarse voice—
“Hasten! the time is short!”
“Short for me, but it shall be long for you! For a time is coming when you will curse the day of your birth, and will not be able to die as calmly as I do!—Leave me!—I would fain pray; but I cannot call upon my God while you are nigh!”
Csaky, overcome despite himself, quitted the room.
Banfi laid his hand on his forehead and prayed.
Outside the heavens were thundering.
“O God! who dost thunder on high, take my blood as a sacrifice for my sins, but let not a drop of it fall on the heads of those who shed it! Suffer not my native land to pay the price of my blood! Guard this poor land from every ill! Visit not this people in Thy anger, but be their refuge and their sure defence in the evil day! Forgive my enemies my death, as I forgive them!”
The thunder roared terribly. God was wroth that day. He would not hearken to such a prayer.
“Is your Excellency ready?” inquired Csaky impatiently, whilst the Princess’s messengers hammered furiously at the gates, and demanded instant admission.
Banfi stepped up to his lifeless consort and kissed her cold, pale face for the last time; then, turning calmly to Csaky, he said—
“Yes; I am ready now!”
A quarter of an hour later Csaky admitted the messengers.
“What do you bring?” he asked the pantler.
“The Prince’s pardon for the prisoner.”
“You are too late!—And you?”
“A cerecloth for the corpse!”
“You have brought it very opportunely.”
The highest head of the Transylvanian nobility had already fallen in the dust.
The tragedy ends with the hero’s death.
The tide of history brings other shapes and other leaders to the surface. The fate, the fashion, and the history of Transylvania are no longer the same.58 The sword-stroke which slew Banfi cut short an epoch only half begun. The body of that dominating form reposes in the crypt of the church at Bethlen, and no one has inherited his spirit.
But the chronicles say that whenever danger threatens Transylvania, the blood of the buried patriot flows from his simple tomb, a terror to the people, and a wonder to the world.
Endnotes
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Dolman. An Hungarian pelisse. A more magnificent kind, worn only on state occasions, is called the attila. ↩
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Kalpag or Calpak. A tall, skin cap of Tartar origin, part of the Hungarian national costume. ↩
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The Amazon was Helen Zrinyi. She married first the young cavalier with whom we now meet her, Francis Rakoczy, and subsequently the famous Emerich Tököly, whose acquaintance we shall make presently. Her spirited defence of the fortress of Mohacz, 1689, against the Emperor is well known. ↩
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Eljen! Long live! ↩
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Some pretend that this shot was fired by a secret assassin sent from Vienna. Many doubt whether a shot was fired at all. ↩
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It is not without reason that Jókai alludes to Zrinyi as “the hero.” He was one of the greatest warriors of his day (1618–1666), and his victories over the Turks were many and brilliant. As a poet he stands high, even judged by a modern standard. His chief works are his great epic, Szigeti veszedelem, and his religious poems, Keresztre, “On the Cross!” ↩
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George Rakoczy I, Prince of Transylvania, 1630–1648. ↩
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Mente. A fur pelisse. ↩
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Szeklers (Siculi). The Szeklers were originally a military colony placed, at the beginning of the twelfth century, in the waste lands of Transylvania, which they engaged to defend against the incursions of the pagan Pechenegs, on being exempted from every other obligation. ↩
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John Kemeny, Prince of Transylvania, 1661–1662. ↩
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Csárdás [pr. chárdásh]. The national dance of Hungary. It is danced in ¾ time by single couples, who improvise the figures. It commences with a very slow and stately movement, gradually quickening into a furious gallop. ↩
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Csalmak [pr. chalmak]. A low, skin turban. ↩
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Aga. An honorary title among the Turks, here equivalent to lieutenant. ↩
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Asper. A small silver coin worth about fifteen to twenty kreutzers. ↩
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Nishan Order. A Turkish order of merit for valour, instituted by Selim III. It consisted of a gold medallion bearing the Sultan’s effigy. ↩
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Banderia. The mounted gentry of the county. ↩
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Firman. A decree issued by the Sultan and proclaimed by the Grand Vizier. ↩
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Divan. The Sultan’s council. ↩
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Maria. An old Hungarian coin worth about thirty-five kreutzers. ↩
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Odalisque, from Turkish Odalyk = chambermaid. Applied particularly to the chief concubines of the Sultan. ↩
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Bayaderes. Indian singing and dancing girls. A Portuguese word. ↩
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Oglan, the Turkish for boy. ↩
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Viz. the
