espair, and with the iron strength of frenzy he tore
himself loose from the grasp of the corporal who fell prone into the
fireplace with a fearful crash.

"Whoever touches me is a dead man!" screamed Imre, with a voice full of
fury and defiance, and tearing open his vest he drew forth with one hand
a dagger and with the other a large hussar pistol. The broken-winged
young eagle had turned upon its pursuers, hacking at them with its
wounded beak and flapping its still uninjured pinion in their faces.

The soldiers began to fall back before the infuriated youth, who, with
bloodshot eyes and foaming mouth, followed hard upon them, and either
from fear or compassion opened a way before him.

Then the white-headed old man seized from behind the youth's murderous
uplifted arms, and held him back.

When the young man felt the touch of those cold tremulous hands upon his
arm, he let fall the weapons from both his own hands, his arms fell down
benumbed by his side, his whole body collapsed; nerveless and swooning
he sank in a heap upon the ground. The soldiers lifted him upon their
shoulders, removed him from the room, put fetters upon his hands and
feet, and carried him off.

The old man looked coldly after them. When they had gone, he again knelt
down close to the two coffins, his white locks falling about his face,
raised his clasped hands to his tremulous but impotent lips, and kept
gazing, gazing fixedly first at one of his dear departed and then at the
other.

Not a tear, not a single tear fell from his eyes.

CHAPTER VI.

TWO FAMOUS PAEDAGOGUES.

The first of these famous paedagogues was the cantor, worthy Mr. Michael
Korde.

The second was the rector, Thomas Bodza.

Apart from the fact that he had an extraordinary liking for wine and
never could quite distinguish the forenoon from the afternoon, Mr.
Michael Korde was a man of refinement to the very tips of his toes.

In his time he had worn out a great many stout hazel switches, it being
the custom of his establishment to make each pupil provide his own rod.
This was no doubt an extra item in the curriculum, but, on the other
hand, there was something to show for it; all those who passed through
his hands when they subsequently fell into the clutches of the Law could
endure as many as five-and-twenty strokes from the hardest bludgeon
without so much as wincing. They had been case hardened by their
previous education.

The schoolhouse was the _vis