He had laid aside his steel cuirass; but a brace of pistols peeped from his richly-ornamented girdle, and I doubted not they were both loaded.
"The Austrians overload me with favours," he exclaimed laughingly. "You are the second guest I am indebted to them for.--Count, I think you said Captain Botskay was an acquaintance of yours?"
Hitherto I had not noticed that Batori Gabor had a companion in the room; now I saw a man in military uniform sitting at the table.
At the outlaw's words he rose, and, turning toward me, showed the blue eyes and handsome, cynical features of Count Beula.
"This is a surprise, count," I said coldly. "I thought a clever man like yourself would by now be over the border with Kossuth."
"How strange!" he answered lightly. "I concluded you had found refuge with Görgei's Russian friends."
"Yet you are both with Batori Gabor," broke in the brigand cheerfully; "which is stranger still, since a month ago either of you would have had him shot like a dog."
"Not I, my dear Gabor," murmured Beula sweetly. "I appreciate your courage too much."
"And my knowledge of the country," added Gabor slyly.
"Well, yes. I think that may be turned to very good account, till Haynau has grown tired of his butcher's knife."