"'You will seek old Kóficz[84] in vain at Debreczin, my son, he commands there no more. So you Comorn folks don't know what's going on outside, eh? Another is at the head of the War Department now. I will give you a letter of introduction to him.'
[84] This Hungarian War Minister had said in one of his reports that the motions of the Opposition in the Diet would turn to nothing but Kóficz (i.e., water-gruel). The name stuck to him ever after.—Jókai.
"Then he sat down and wrote me a couple of lines to a General with a German name, which is expressed in Hungarian by the word Bacsi.[85]
[85] Cousin.—Vetter was the General in question.
"He said, while he was writing this letter, that this General with a German name was the life and soul of our military organization.
"Then, by the General's command, I received a nice clean Honved uniform (I had to retain my brown countenance for some time longer), and besides that I had an open passport enjoining upon all to give me every facility to reach Debreczin as quickly as possible.
"On the evening of the following day I arrived at Debreczin, and on descending from my sledge, proceeded at once to the General's. He was a mild, soft-featured gentleman, with a close-clipped beard and moustache. He didn't even wear a General's uniform. Nobody would have guessed his rank from the look of him. After reading through my letter of introduction, he looked me straight and sharply in the face.
"'You are Captain Tihamér Rengetegi, eh?'
"If I had only been intent on my own interest, I might have told him quite frankly that I had no right either to the name or the uniform of a soldier; but how could I betray my faithful consort who was smuggled away in the hovel at Hetény?
"'Yes, General, I am.'