The old man swore and struggled, but Panna would not release him.

"Father, be sensible, we are not living among robbers, an innocent man
is not shot down unpunished. You need not split his lordship's head,
another will do that, a greater person than you or he. There is a law,
there is a court of justice."

Her father grew calmer, his distorted face began to relax. Panna now
released his arm, sat down on the boundary-stone beside which they had
been standing, and, gazing fixedly at the ground, while rolling the hem
of her apron between her fingers, she continued, speaking more to
herself than to him,

"We certainly know best that punishment will not fail. They shot our
poor Marczi, and he only gave a man a blow. If you ever had a little
quarrel with any one in the tavern, they imprisoned you for weeks and
months. I, too, have atoned for the crime I committed; nothing remains
unpunished, and the nobleman will get his deserts, as we have always
received ours."

The sun was setting, and the notes of the vesper-bell echoed from the
distance. The old man picked up his hoe, which he had left in the
furrow and, lost in thought, walked home with his daughter in silence.
Panna prepared the bed she had used when a girl in her father's hut,
and went to rest early. It is not probable that she slept during the
night. At least she was already completely dressed when, very early
the next morning, the parish-beadle knocked at the door of the hut, and
it was she who opened it.

He asked for the key of her house, because the corpse must be carried
to the town-hall.

"Why?"

"Because, early in the forenoon, the committee and the district
physician will come from the city to hold the coroner's inquest."

"Will he be present?"

"Who?"

"The--Herr von Abonyi."

The beadle shrugged his shoulders and said,

"I don't know."

Panna did not give up the key, but went with the beadle herself, and
was present when the latter appeared, with three other men and a bier,
and bore the corpse away.

The coachman Janos, and another servant, also came to fetch the wheels
and poles on which they had brought the dead man home the day before,
and which belonged to the castle. Panna locked her door behind them,
and followed the corpse to the town-hall.

In the centre of the court stood a long black table, surrounded with
all sorts of pails and various utensils, and near it a small one with
writing materials and a chair before it