after listening to his tale, only shook their
heads, and remarked to one another, what a horrible thing it is when a
man is so fond of wine that it takes more than three days to make him
get sober again.

It occurred to nobody that there might be some truth in the matter after
all. It was not the first time that Mr. Korde had had visions of
copper-nosed owls and other horrors.

"As if a man could believe everything that Mr. Korde said!"

CHAPTER VII.

A MAN OF IRON.

General Vertessy had for many years been the commandant of a military
station in Hungary. After such a long time as that, men get to be
acquainted with one another, and the soldier comes to be regarded as
quite a member of the family. The townsfolk, too, begin to speak of him
as a member of the upper classes; no great entertainment is considered
complete without him, and the ordinary civilian exchanges greetings with
him as a man and a brother in all places of public resort. The county
makes him a magistrate on account of his numerous distinguished
services; he receives the freedom of the city for the same reason; and,
finally, the only daughter of a most distinguished patrician family,
impressed by the gallant soldier's noble qualities, consents to become
his wife; and thus the general, as citizen and magistrate, as husband
and landlord, becomes rooted by the strongest ties to the soil which it
is his duty as a soldier to defend.

His acquaintances in general have the greatest confidence in him; his
tenants allude to him gratefully, for he deals mercifully with them; the
citizens regard him with respectful astonishment when, on the outbreak
of a fire, he orders out his soldiers, and is himself the first to
clamber to the top of the burning roof, distributing his commands in the
midst of danger as if his life was worth no more than the life of any
broken-down, invalided old soldier; the school children rejoice at the
sight of him, for he is always sure to be in his place on the occasion
of any public examination, to distribute sixpences and shillings to
those scholars who give the best answers, and exhort them to hold up
their heads and stand upright like good little men! When then, after
this, they meet him in the street, the little fellows throw back their
heads and stick out their chests so that it does you good to look at
them. For the General dearly loves children. Very frequently they break
his windows with their tops and balls, but he