in to supplicate,
call them by their name."

Ivan nodded his head approvingly at these sage suggestions. Bodza will
certainly deserve a plume of feathers in his cap, thought he.

"You will go at night to all the shepherds, one after the other, and
bring them together in front of the lonely inn near the main-road. I
will not tell you what you are to do, you must be guided by your own
common-sense. You must not all remain on the high road however, some of
you must march towards the village."

"The best hiding-place will be the headsman's dwelling."

"Will not the Zudar woman betray us?"

"Not till she has burnt down the castle of Hetfalusy, at any rate."

"Does she hate them then as much as her mother, the old crone?"

"As much! far more. The old crone is all talk."

"I have often heard her say that Hetfalusy seized her property, but one
can't go by what she says. She says that one wing of the castle is built
upon her land."

"It was like this. Dame Anna's husband was a poor gentleman who had a
little plot of land in the neighbourhood of the castle, which was the
occasion of an eternal squabble between him and the lord of the manor.
One day, Hetfalusy--you know how overbearing these great gentlemen
are!--suddenly fell upon this poor gentleman as he was walking on this
little plot of land of his and gave him a sound drubbing. The result was
a great lawsuit. Hetfalusy questioned Dudoky's gentility, and the
latter could not make good his claim to be regarded as an _armiger_. He
lost his case in the local court, and the suit dragged on for years. The
heavy law costs soon swallowed up all the appellant's means, till at
last his little property was put up to auction to defray his expenses.
Hetfalusy acquired it for a mere song, and even while the suit was
proceeding, he revenged himself on his adversary by building a new wing
to his house on the very plot of land the ownership of which was still a
matter of dispute. Then Dudoky had an apoplectic stroke which carried
him off. His orphan daughter took service for a time in town. Thence she
got into a house of no very extraordinary reputation where somebody
suddenly found her and offered her his hand in marriage. The wretched
woman agreed and accepted him. And who, you will ask, was the luckless
creature who sought out a wife in such a place? _She_ only discovered it
on the wedding-day. It was the headsman of Hetfalusy. Thus Barbara
Dudoky became the headsman's bride. If