LACHIAN HOSPITALITY 137

XV. BALYIKA CAVE 158

XVI. A DESPERATE HAZARD 179

XVII. IN PORLIK GROTTO 188

XVIII. TOROCZKO 198

XIX. A MIDNIGHT COUNCIL 213

XX. MIRTH AND MOURNING 231

XXI. THE SPY 245

XXII. THE HAND OF FATE 256

XXIII. OLD SCORES 266

XXIV. A CRUEL PARTING 292

XXV. SECRETS OF THE COMMISSARIAT 302

XXVI. SOLFERINO 307

XXVII. AN HOUR OF TRIAL 314

XXVIII. A DAY OF RECKONING 318

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

A few words of introduction to this striking story of life in
Szeklerland may not be out of place.

The events narrated are supposed to take place half a century ago, in
the stirring days of '48, when the spirit of resistance to arbitrary
rule swept over Europe, and nowhere called forth deeds of higher heroism
than in Hungary. To understand the hostility between the Magyars and
Szeklers on the one hand, and the Wallachians on the other,--a state of
feud on which the plot of the story largely hinges,--let it be
remembered that the non-Hungarian elements of the kingdom were
exceedingly jealous of their Hungarian neighbours, and apprehensive lest
the new liberal constitution of 1848 should chiefly benefit those whom
they thus chose to regard as enemies. Therefore, secretly encouraged by
the government at Vienna, they took up arms against the Hungarians. The
Croatians and Serbs, under the lead of Ban Jellachich and other imperial
officers, joined in the revolt. The most frightful atrocities were
committed by the insurgents. Hundreds of families were butchered in cold
blood, and whole villages sacked and burned. These acts of massacre and
rapine were especially numerous on the eastern borders of Transylvania,
among the so-called Szeklers, or "Frontiersmen," in whose country the
scene of the present narrativ