Neath the Hoof of the Tartar Part 2

As for Dora's own room, her father had done all that he could think of to make it pleasant and comfortable; and though many a village maiden in these days would look on it with disdain, Dora was well satisfied. There were even a few pictures on the bare white walls, though of course they were not in oil; but the special luxury of her little apartment was that the window was filled with horn, which was almost as transparent as gla.s.s, and was, moreover, decorated with flowers and designs, painted in bright colours.

Window gla.s.s was not unknown at this date, but it was too precious to be commonly used, and was reserved for churches and the palaces of kings and magnates. Bladders and thin skins were in ordinary use, or, where people were very wealthy, plates of horn; but there were plenty of gentlemen's houses in which the inhabitants had no light at all in winter but such as came from the great open hearths and fireplaces, for the windows were entirely closed up with reeds or rush mats.

One of the additions made to the original building had been what was called a "far-view" or "pigeon tower," much higher than the house itself, and the top of which could not be reached without the help of a ladder. This tower, which was more like a misshapen obelisk in shape, was roofed in with rough boards. In the lower storey there was a good-sized room, with a door opening from it into the large hall. It contained a wooden, four-post bedstead, clean and warm, and a small table; and all along the walls were clothes-pegs and shelves, such necessaries as we call "furniture" being very uncommon in the days we are speaking of. Dora's chests had been placed here, and served the purpose of seats, and there were also a few chairs, a praying-desk, and a few other little things. The walls were covered with thick stuff hangings, and the lower part of them was also protected by coa.r.s.e grey frieze to keep out the cold and damp. This was Dora's own room.

Like all gentlemen of the time, even if they were reduced in means, Peter had a considerable train of servants, and these were lodged in the very airy, barn-like buildings already mentioned.

The courtyard was enclosed by a wall, high and ma.s.sive, provided with loopholes, parapet, bastions, and breastwork; and the great gate, which had not yet been many weeks in its place, was so heavy that it was as much as four men could do to open and close it.

Master Peter had been anxious to have his horses as well lodged as they had been at his brother's; but, after all, the stables, which were just opposite the house, were not such as horses in these days would consider stables at all. They were, in fact, mere sheds with open sides, such as are now put up to shelter the wild horses of the plains.

When all this was done there still remained the digging of a broad, deep ditch or moat, in which the master himself and all his servants took part, a.s.sisted by some of the neighbouring peasants; and in about three months' time all was finished, and the curious a.s.semblage of irregular buildings was more or less fortified, and capable of being defended if attacked by any wandering band of brigands.

It merely remains to add that Master Peter's castle stood in a contracted highland valley, and was surrounded by pine-woods and mountains. Behind it was the village, of which some few straggling cottages, or rather huts, had wandered away beyond it into the woods.

The inhabitants were not Hungarians, except in so far as that they lived in Hungary; they were not Magyars, that is, but Slovacks, remnants of the great Moravian kingdom, who had retired, or been driven, into the mountains, when the Magyars occupied the land. The Magyars loved the green plains, the lakes--full of fish, and frequented by innumerable wild fowl--to which they had been accustomed in Asia; the Slovacks, whether from choice or necessity, loved the mountains.

These latter were an industrious, honest people, no trouble to anyone, and able to make a living in spite of the hard climate. They had suffered in more ways than one by the absence of the family; for the gentry at the great house had as a rule been good to them; and when they were away, or coming but seldom, and then only for sport with the bears, boars, and wolves which abounded, the poor people were treated with contempt and tyranny by those in charge of the property. They no doubt were glad when Master Peter came to live among them, and as for their landlord, time had pa.s.sed pleasantly enough with him in spite of his being so far out of the world.

What with looking after the estate, in his own fashion, hunting, riding, sometimes going on a visit or having friends to stay, he had found enough to occupy him; but being a hospitable soul, he was always delighted to welcome the rare guests whom chance brought into the neighbourhood, and considered that he had a right to keep them three days--if they could be induced to stay longer, so much the better for him!

As for companionship, besides Dora, who could ride and shoot too, as well as any of her contemporaries, he had Talabor the page, who had come to him a pale, delicate-looking youth, but had gained so much in health and strength since he had been in service that his master often pitied him for not having parents better able to advance his prospects in life.

They were gentry, originally "n.o.ble," as every free-born Magyar was, but they were poor gentry, and had been glad to place their son with Master Peter to complete his education, as was the custom of the time. The great n.o.bles sent their sons to the King's court to be instructed in all manly and courtly accomplishments; the lower n.o.bility and poor gentlefolk sent theirs to the great n.o.bles, who often had in their households several pages. These occupied a position as much above that of the servants as beneath that of the "family," though they themselves were addressed as "servant," until they were thought worthy the t.i.tle of "_deak_," which, though meaning literally "Latinist," answered pretty much to "clerk" or "scholar," and implied the possession of some little education.

Master Peter was so well satisfied with Talabor that he now always addressed him as "clerk" in the presence of strangers. He was growing indeed quite fond of him, and was pleased to see how much he had gained in strength and good looks, and how well able he was to take part in all the various forms of exercise, the long hunting excursions, the feats of arms, to which he was himself devoted.

CHAPTER II.

GOOD NEWS OR BAD?

Father Roger had been shown all over the house, had seen all the additions and improvements, inside and out, and now felt as much at home in Master Peter's castle as he had done in Master Stephen's.

It had been finally settled that he should start for Pest the next morning, and Master Peter insisted on supplying him with a horse and an armed escort.

"And then," said he, unconsciously betraying the curiosity which was devouring him, in spite of his a.s.sumed indifference, "then, when you send the horses back, you know, you can just write a few lines and tell me what the King wants to see you about."

Peter was quite anxious for him to be off that he might hear the sooner; but it struck him that, as Father Roger would be in Pest long before the end of the month if he made the journey on horse-back, and yet could not present himself at Court until the time appointed, he might perhaps be glad of a lodging of his own, though, of course, there were monasteries which would have received him. He offered him, therefore, the use of an old house of his own (in much the same condition, he confessed, as his present dwelling had been in), but in which he knew there were two habitable rooms, for he had lived in them himself on the occasion of his last visit to the capital.

All was settled before supper-time, and Master Peter was just beginning to wonder when that meal would make its appearance, when the sharp, shrill sound of a horn gave him something else to think of.

"Someone is coming! They are letting down the drawbridge," he exclaimed, with much satisfaction at the prospect of another guest; and shortly after, ushered in by Talabor, there entered the hall a young man, somewhat dusty, but daintily apparelled. His black hair had been curled and was shining from a recent application of oil, and in his whole appearance and demeanour there was the indescribable something which tells of the "rising man."

"Ah, Clerk, it is you, is it?" said Peter, without rising from his seat.

"My brother is well, I hope?"

"Master Stephen was quite well, sir, when I left him three days ago,"

returned the youth, as he made an elaborate bow to the master, another less low, but delivered with an amiable smile to Dora, and bestowed a careless third upon Father Roger.

"Well, and what is the news?"

"Both good and bad, Mr. Szirmay," was the answer, with another bow.

"Out with the bad first then, boy," said Master Peter quickly, knitting his brows as he spoke. "Let us have the good last, and keep the taste of it longest! Now then!"

"You have heard, no doubt, sir, what rumours the land is ringing with?"

began the clerk with an air of much importance.

"We have!" said Peter, shrugging his shoulders; "let them ring till they are tired! If that is all you have jogged here about, gossip, you might as well have stayed quietly at home."

"Matters are more serious than you are perhaps aware, sir," said the clerk; and with that he drew from his breast a packet done up in cloth, out of which he produced a piece of parchment about the size of his first finger. This he handed proudly to Master Peter, who s.n.a.t.c.hed it from his hand and pa.s.sed it on to Father Roger, saying:

"Here, Father, do you take it and read it! I declare if it does not look like a summons to the Diet! There, there! blowing the trumpet, beating the drum in Pest already, I suppose!"

"Quite true, sir, it is a summons to the Diet," said Libor. "His Majesty, or his Excellency the Palatine, I am not certain which of the two, was under the impression that you were still with us, and so sent both summonses to Master Stephen."

"With _you_!" laughed Master Peter. "All right, _kinsman_, we shall obey his Majesty's commands, and I hope it may not all prove to be much ado about nothing."

With kindly consideration for his host's imperfect Latin, Father Roger proceeded to translate the summons into Hungarian.

The King never made many words about things, and his order was plain and direct. The Diet was to be held on such a date, at such a place, and it was Master Peter's bounden duty to be present; that was all!

"Ah, didn't I tell you so, Father?" said he gravely; "we shall be lighting our fires before the cold sets in, and pitching our tents before there is any camp! People are mad! and they are hurrying on that good King of ours too fast. Well, _kinsman_," he went on sarcastically, "tell us all you know, and if there is any more bad news let us have it at once."

"Bad news? it depends upon how you take it, sir; many call it good, and more call it bad," returned Libor, a trifle abashed by Master Peter's mode of address.

"And pray what is it that is neither good nor bad? I don't like riddles, let me tell you, and if you can't speak plainly you had better not speak at all!"

"Sir," said Libor, "I am only telling you what other people say----" and then, as Master Peter made a gesture of impatience, he went on, "Kuthen, King of the Kunok, has sent an emba.s.sy to his Majesty asking for a settlement for his people----"

"Ah! that's something," interrupted Peter, "and I hope his Majesty sent them to the right-about at once?"

"His Majesty received the amba.s.sadors with particular favour, and in view of the danger which threatens us, declared himself ready to welcome such an heroic people."

"Danger! don't let me hear that word again, clerk!"

"It is not my word," protested Libor, with an appealing glance at Dora, intended to call attention to Master Peter's injustice.

"It's a bad word, whosesoever it is," insisted Peter. "Well, what more?

are we to be saddled with this horde of pagans then?"

"Pagans no longer! at least they won't be when they come to settle. They are all going to be baptized, the King and his family and all his people. The amba.s.sadors promised and were baptized themselves before they went back."

"What!" cried Father Roger, his face lighting up, "forty thousand families converted to the faith! Why, it is divine, and the King is almost an Apostle!"

The good Father quite forgot all further fear of danger from the Kunok, and from this moment took their part. He could see nothing but good in this large accession of numbers to the Church.