Azrael hastily filed right round the whole of the link which Ha.s.san's smith had thought good to form of silver only on the outside, thinking that the fraud would never be discovered, and behold, the hard impervious substance which resisted the file was nothing but--gla.s.s.

"Ah!" said Azrael, "all the better for us, the work will be quicker;"

and seizing an iron candlestick, she broke in pieces with a single blow the whole of the gla.s.s chain which was only covered by a light varnish of silver, only the two locked golden manacles remained in their hands.

"We shall be ready all the sooner," she whispered to Mariska, "now we must make haste and get you off."

But Mariska still stood before her like one who knows not what is befalling her.

"Hast thou thought how we are to escape?" she inquired of Azrael. "The guards of Ha.s.san Pasha stand at every door, and all the doors have been locked by his own hand. In front of the gates of the fortress the sentinels have been doubled. I heard what commands he gave."

"I have nought to do with doors or guards; we are going to escape through the window."

Mariska looked at Azrael incredulously; she fancied she had gone mad.

She could see nothing in the room by which they could descend from the window, and below stood the thickly planted sharp stakes.

"Help me to let down this gobaea ladder!" said Azrael, and quick as a squirrel herself, she leaped on the edge of the great porcelain tub, and thrust aside the vigorous shoots of the plant from its natural ladder within, which grew right up to the roof and thence descended again to its own roots.

Mariska began to see that her companion knew what she was about. She hastened to give her a.s.sistance, lowered the pliable trunk, and, looking round to see if anyone was watching, bent the branches towards the window.

But still it was too short. The longest creepers only reached to the edges of the palisade, and one could not count upon the green sprouts at the end of the creepers. Even if the ladder which formed the flower were attached to it, it would still not reach to the bottom of the trench.

Azrael looked around the room to see if she could find anything.

Suddenly she had hit upon it.

"Give me those scissors," she said to Mariska, and when the latter had returned to her, the odalisk had already let down her flowing tresses.

Four long locks as black as night, reaching below her knee, the crown of a woman's beauty which make men rejoice in her, were twining there on the floor.

"Give me the scissors!" she said to Mariska.

"Wouldst thou cut off thy hair?" asked the Princess, holding back.

"Yes, yes, what does it matter? It is wanted for the rope, and it will be quite strong enough."

"Rather cut off mine!" said Mariska. With n.o.ble emulation she took from her head her small pearl haube, and loosened her own tresses, which, if not so long and so full of colour, at least rivalled those of her comrade in quant.i.ty.

"Good; the two together will make the rope stronger," said Azrael; and with that the two ladies began clipping off their luxurious locks one by one with the little scissors. One marvellously beautiful tress after another flowed from the head of the odalisk. When the last had fallen, a tear-drop also followed it.

Then she picked up the splendid tresses and began plaiting them together into strong knots.

"Wouldst thou ever have thought," said Azrael, "that the locks of thy hair would be so intermingled?"

Mariska gratefully pressed the hand of the odalisk.

"How can I ever thank you for your goodness?"

"Think not of it. Fate orders it so--and someone else," she muttered softly.

And now the attached ladder was long enough to reach the bottom of the palisades. Then they pitched down all the pillows and cushions of the divans till they covered the sharp stakes, so that their points might not hurt the fugitives. Moreover, Azrael tied the tough shoots of the gobaea to the cross piece of the window with the wraps of her turban and girdle.

"And now let me go first," said the odalisk, when all was ready; "if the branches of the creeper do not break beneath me, then thou canst come boldly after me, for thou and the child together are not heavier than I am."

The sky was dark and obscured by clouds; no one saw a white shape descending from one of the black windows of the fortress down the wall, lower and lower, till at last it got to the bottom and vanished in the depths of the ditch.

Mariska was waiting above there with a beating heart till the odalisk had descended; a tug at the gobaea-rope informed her that Azrael was already below, and Mariska could come after her.

A supplicating sigh to G.o.d ascended from the anxious bosom of the Princess at that supreme moment of trial; then she fastened to her breast with the folds of her garment the little one, who, fortunately, was still sound asleep, and stepping from the window entrusted herself to the yawning abyss below.

And, indeed, she had need of the most confident trust in G.o.d during this hazardous experiment, for if the child had awoke, the Komparajis pacing the bastions would have heard his tearful little wail at once, and it would have been all over with the fugitives.

Nothing happened. Mariska reached the ditch in safety, together with her child. Azrael a.s.sisted her to descend, and then they began to creep along among the trenches on the river's bank. It was not advisable to clamber upon the trenches, as there they might have encountered a sentinel at any moment.

At last they came to the end of the ditch where two bastions joined together, forming a little oblique opening, through which one could look down on the town of Pesth.

Before the little opening stood a Komparaji leaning on his long lance.

As his back was turned towards them, he did not notice the women, while they started back in terror when they saw him. The man stood right in front of the opening completely barring their way, and was gaping at Pesth, facing the steep declivity.

Azrael quickly caught Mariska's hand and whispered in her ear:

"Remain here! Sit down with the child, and see that he does not make a noise."

And with that, quitting her companion and pressing against the wall of the bastion, she slowly and noiselessly began creeping along behind the back of the Komparaji.

The sentinel remained standing there, as motionless as a statue, gazing at the Danube flying in front of him, when suddenly, like the panther leaping upon its prey, the odalisk leaped upon the Komparaji, and before he had time to call out, pushed him so violently that he plunged over into the abyss.

Then quickly seizing Mariska's hand, the odalisk exclaimed:

"And now forward quickly!"

Like two spirits the forms of the women flitted across the bastions. In Azrael's hand was the key of the castle garden; in a few moments they reached the subterranean staircase, and when Azrael had locked the door behind her she turned to Mariska and said:

"Now thou canst pray, for thou art saved."

The report had already spread through the two towns that early at dawn someone would be executed, and here and there people whispered that it would be the Princess of Moldavia.

The population living outside the town were able to give full reins to their imagination, for the gates of the fortress, by Ha.s.san Pasha's command, were already locked fast at six o'clock in the evening, and after that time n.o.body was allowed to enter out or in except the sentinels outside, and these only by the s...o...b..t gate.

The later grew the hour the more numerous became the crowd a.s.sembled in front of the gates thus unwontedly bolted and barred, consisting for the most part of people who lived inside the town of every rank, who thus waited patiently for the chance of reaching their houses again. Knocking at the gates was useless, the guards had been ordered to take no notice of such demonstrations.

The darker grew the night, the more numerous became the throng before the gate, and the more closely they pressed together the plainer it became to them all that they would have to sleep outside.

The largest concourse was in front of the Fejervar gate, for that was the chief entrance.

It was already close upon midnight, when some dozen hors.e.m.e.n, in the uniforms of Spahis, arrived at the gate, forcing their way through the throng, led, apparently, by a handsome youth (it was too dark to distinguish very clearly), who thundered at the gate with the b.u.t.t-end of his lance.

"You may bang away at it till morning," said a cobbler of Buda, who was lying p.r.o.ne, chawing bacon at his ease, "they won't let you in."

"Then why are you all here?" cried the youth in the purest Hungarian.