“But how is it,” I asked, “that you speak modern English so fluently, if you were a Hungarian and died so long ago, before we had any modern English?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he replied. “One of the great advantages of a spiritual existence is the ability of perfect adaptation to any language that is used by the person to whom a visualization is accorded. You have undoubtedly seen instances of this at seances conducted by spiritual mediums. While they are mostly ignorant fakes and their methods entirely irregular, you have no doubt observed that Julius Caesar, who only talked Latin when he was alive, and Napoleon, who only talked Corsican and bad French, always speak the language or dialect peculiar to the region in which the seance is conducted.
“Up to three or four years ago probably no two spirits were more popular or more imposed upon. They were called on hundreds of times every night by mediums all over the world. They used every known tongue from Choctaw to Chinese, and the funny part of it was that they seemed to like it.
“They talked with a pronounced Scotch dialect in Glasgow, their tongues became thick in Cork, and down among the negro spiritualists in Alabama you would think that they were both born in Dahomy and died in Mobile.
“They have been latent now for some time. The recent war in Europe has clouded them over and rendered them quite obsolete. Nobody will have to listen to the stories of their exploits when they were alive for a good many years. The mediums are now invoking an entirely new class of spirits, and they are beseeching such peaceful shades as Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allen Poe to come forth, and lots of people are asking for the late Czar of Russia. They all want to know what really happened to him. Even the spiritual fraternity has become very tired of Caesar and Napoleon. I know both of these shades well and have no more trouble in communicating with them than I have with you. Don’t give yourself any further uneasiness regarding spirit language.
“I hope you will pardon my digression. We must get back to Hungary. I was one of the Magyar generals who fought in the wars of King Mathias Corvinus. For many years I was a baron, but afterwards I became a duke and had special privileges over quite a large domain. It will interest you to know that I happen to haunt this tower for the reason that its builder used my old baronial tower in Hungary as a model, and I will tell you later how I happened to discover it. It looked so familiar and so much like home that I concluded to make it my headquarters as long as it stands.
“It was my custom to keep sentinels posted in the top of my old tower who watched for small parties of travelers and single wayfarers on the roads crossing my lands. When they appeared my horsemen would go out and relieve them of two thirds of the money and other valuables that they happened to have with them. They would then be provided with a token which they could show to the minions of neighboring vassals of the king, over whose lands they might have occasion to pass, and these tokens would insure immunity from further high financing—to use a modern expression. We always respected these tokens from other domains, so you see the system enabled the traveling public to retain quite a decent portion of gold and worldly goods, considering the opportunities offered to business enterprise. We were called robber barons at that time, and the term may sound a little harsh, but we were universally respected throughout the country. Nowadays our practices would be called mild profiteering, and leaving the wayfarers a third of their pelf when there was a chance to get it all would be considered magnanimous charity.
“In return for these privileges from the crown it was my custom to send a wagon load of Turk’s heads to the King about once a month, and this was a source of great gratification to him. I was enabled to collect the trophies by frequent sorties with my forces against small bodies of Turks that were constantly hovering along our frontiers and making sudden forays into our territory.
“After King Mathias defeated Frederick of Austria, who had had the impudence to proclaim himself King of Hungary, and who intended to exterminate all of us if he was successful, Mathias moved his army against the Turks. This war was successful, and after the capture of Jaicza in Bosnia by assault, I was placed in charge of the conquered districts and made a duke. After this we had another war with Frederick and I was one of the generals commanding the army that captured Vienna after a short siege in 1487.
“The Magyars were a wonderful people. There was a man named Kinisi in our army when we were attacked by the Turks under Ali Bey. In the heat of the battle he rushed among the enemy and rescued a fallen friend. We were getting badly worsted in this battle, but this signal act of bravery inspired the Magyars and the Turks were almost annihilated. In the midst of the rejoicing over the victory, Kinisi was seen holding the body of a Turk by his teeth, and two others in his arms, and executing the Hungarian national dance. I mention this as a sample of his hardihood and originality for the reason that I have asked his shade to visit me in this tower, and it may happen that he will appear to you if conditions permit. Kinisi was what the world calls an honest man—that is to say he would never pick up anything that was too hot to hold, or take anything that was out of his reach. My reason for inviting my spiritual confrère here may seem a little queer to you.