"I told him that I was no gipsy, though my face was painted so, but that I lived at Comorn and belonged to the place.
"'Then, if you are an inhabitant, tell me if you know one Maurus Jókai there—and what you know of him?'
"I was very pleased to answer such a question. 'I know him very well,' I said, 'and I can tell you this much about him, that he went to the High School at Kecskemet, where he completed his legal studies—or rather learnt how to paint in oils from a worthy comrade of his there.'
"Without more ado he clapped his hand in mine: 'That worthy comrade of his was no other than myself.'
"So you see," she said, turning towards me, "you were of assistance to me, even here."
"Wasn't that old schoolfellow of mine called Jansci?" I asked.
"Yes, that's what they called him. With him was another young man, with quite a girlish face, and him they called Józsi; he inquired about you most particularly. When you gave your artistic representations at Kecskemet, he used to play the girl's parts."
"Quite true," I said, "so it was."
"So you see I must have been there or I should have known nothing about these things. The guerillas told me all about it as they took me with them. They were very attentive. One of them gave me his mantle, another let me mount his nag, and so they took me to the 'Szikra' inn, where they made me drink punch with them, regaled me with veal, and then made me a bed on the straw with their mantles that I might sleep off my exhaustion. The Jellachich hussars gave us no trouble. They could not come back till morning, when the whole regiment would doubtless turn out to capture the guerillas, who would, by that time, be on the other side of the Theiss. The sledges were all ready to start, and would scour back across the frozen river at the first signal to Czibakhaza, where were the foreposts of the Hungarian army under Damjanich.
"But for a long time I could not sleep. Constantly before my eyes flitted the horrible death-struggle between the two unhappy men and the wild beasts, and amidst the howling and shrieking resounded the gay song of the guerillas: