The old soldier, who had some secret misgivings about the honesty of his errand, felt uncomfortable at this question.
"Why," said he, scratching his head, "I wanted to call on you,—that is to say, I wanted to find you. I've some important matters to talk to you about. But don't be frightened, man!" added he, on seeing Viola's astonishment; "I have indeed promised to find you, but I have not promised to tell them where you are. I'll have my palaver with you, that's all, and you may afterwards do as you please. As for the worshipful magistrates, they shall never get any thing out of me; no! not even if they'd skin me alive! I'm not the man to blow upon a deserter! Bless you! I never did that sort of a thing!"
Viola's curiosity was heightened by the words and the manner of Janosh; and his desire for an account of the sudden and mysterious appearance of the latter was at length gratified by a circumstantial statement of all the events which had taken place at Dustbury and Tissaret, since the assassination of Mr. Catspaw. The impression which this news produced upon Viola was fearful.
When Janosh told him of Tengelyi's situation, he cast a despairing look to heaven, and cried:—
"I am a cursed being! I am born to destroy all who come near me, no matter whether they are my friends or my foes!"
And covering his eyes with his hands, he gave himself up to a transport of grief.
His distress moved the old hussar, who endeavoured to comfort him in his own rough manner.
"Don't you think," said Janosh, "that Mr. Tengelyi is very badly off! Nonsense, man! he isn't even in gaol."
"But where is he?"
"Why he is not exactly in gaol; but he's in a room of his own in the prison. He has plenty to eat and to drink, for it's I who wait upon him; and you might have known that I am not a man who would give Master Akosh's father-in-law cause to complain. He's all right and comfortable, and there's no reason why he should not walk away, if they had not got that accursed criminal process (for that's the name they give it, I believe,) against him. But there's the rub! Unless his innocence is proved, they'll sentence him—Heaven knows to what! And you see——"