At this Squire Gabriel laughed more than ever.
"And I will make free to ask another question. Are the anecdotes, which I noted down in my memorandum-book yesterday, equally authentic?"
"You may boldly light your pipe with them," replied the nobleman, with a smile.
I only did not do so because I am not in the habit of eating smoke.
Only one thing Squire Gabriel begged of me. I was not to mention my discovery to any one else, so that he might be able to give a salutary shock of terror to others also.
I promised that I would keep the secret for ten years.
The ten years expired last week, so the story of the two ghostly skulls can now become public property.
IX
THE BAD OLD TIMES
In those sad times when the accursed, merciless Tatar was ravaging our good country, two good Hungarian brother warriors and kinsmen, Simon and Michael Koppand, after the devastation of Tamásfalu, of which great city not a vestige remains to the present day, escaped somehow from the burning and massacring, and taking refuge among the bulrushes, lay concealed therein for many days and nights, often up to the tops of their heads in water, for the evil, bloodthirsty enemy scoured even the morasses in search of fugitives, with the firm determination of extirpating every Magyar from the face of the earth once for all.