"The devil it is! We at Leutomischl hold the Calvinists to be infidels."
"Your bride might have told you, I think, that this is not true."
At this, Bessy again intervened. She implored me prettily not to deny her this little kindness. Kvatopil had only consented to be converted because they have crosses in the Lutheran churches and believe in the sacraments, so that by joining them a man does not risk losing his heavenly hopes so much, and the Commander-in-chief would not be down upon him so fiercely as if he were to go over to the Calvinist Kuruczes.[98] The end of it all was that I, a Calvinist presbyter, had to introduce a newly-converted soul into the Lutheran Church.
[98] Kurucz, a name originally given to the Transylvanian insurgents under Francis Rákóczy; they were mostly Protestants.—Tr.
I really must have been a very good sort of fellow formerly, that is to say, before my heart was hardened.
At last every obstacle was overcome. I consented to give away my ward, Wenceslaus Kvatopil's bride. Bessy received from her excellent mother (who was now a general's wife) intimation that she had withdrawn her sequestration from the money in the Vienna bank; the caution-money was deposited, the boa conscriptors were satisfied, and nothing hindered us from going to church.
The marriage party, besides the bride and bridegroom, consisted of two witnesses; the bridegroom's witness was a battalion commander, a major who brought his wife with him.
And here, perhaps, every one will ask me why the wife of the other witness was not there also?
It is an awkward question.
I might, I know, summarily dispose of the whole matter by saying that my wife had just gone, by special invitation, to act at Szabadka; she had been invited, but could not come. But this answer, I know, is unsatisfactory.