Chapter I: Front Matter

</pre>

Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

The Baron's Sons

A Romance of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848

By

Dr. Maurus JA cubedkai

Author of "Midst the Wild Carpathians," "Black Diamonds," "Pretty Michal," "The Hungarian Nabob," etc.

Translated from the Fourth Hungarian Edition by Percy Favor Bicknell Joint Translator of "The Jesuit Relations."

Boston L.A C. Page and Company (Incorporated) 1900

Copyright, 1900 By L.A C. Page and Company (INCORPORATED)

All Rights Reserved

Colonial Press Electrotyped and Printed by C.A H. Simonds & Co. Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

No page of history is more crowded with thrilling interest than that which records the uprising of the Hungarians, in 1848-49, in a gallant attempt to recover their constitutional rights. The events of that stirring period, even when related by the sober pen of the annalist, read more like romance than reality; and thus they cannot fail to lend themselves admirably to the purposes of historical fiction. More than one of that brilliant series of novels with which the genius of Hungary's greatest story-writer has enriched the literature, not of his own country merely, but of the world, takes its theme from those memorable scenes in which the author himself played no unimportant part. Into none of these fascinating romances has the writer succeeded in crowding so much of the life and colour, of the heroism and self-sacrifice, the triumph and the despair, of that national convulsion, as into the pages of "The Baron's Sons" ("_A KA'szA-vA+- Ember Fiai_," literally, "The Sons of the Stony-hearted Man"). Especially effective is his description of the historic flight over the Carpathians of the two hundred and twenty hussars who, at the outbreak of the Revolution, deserted the Austrian army and hastened to their country's aid. No chapter in all the author's writings exceeds this one in breathless interest and in the skilful handling of detail.

The necessity of abridging the author's text, while regretted by no one more than by the translator, has, it is believed, tended to contribute to the story an element of unity and compactness which, owing to the undue elaboration of certain minor details, seems somewhat lacking in the original. It is with extreme hesitation and diffidence, however, that I venture, even in self-defence, to impute the slightest blemish to a style in which so many of the author's admirers can see no fault. The curtailment has necessitated, in some chapters, a certain amount of adaptation, and a slight departure from strict literalness of rendering; but it is hoped that the spirit of the original has nowhere been sacrificed.

P.A F.A B.

Malden, Mass., April, 1900.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE vii I. SIXTY MINUTES 1 II. THE PRAYER AT THE GRAVE 15 III. TWO GOOD FRIENDS 21 IV. THE TWO OTHERS 41 V. ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE 59 VI. THE _BACKFISCH_ 69 VII. THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 79 VIII. A WOMAN'S REVENGE 95 IX. THE UNDERSCORED LINES 105 X. THE BETROTHAL 109 XI. THE FIRST STEP 115 XII. SPRING DAYS 123 XIII. THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL 129 XIV. TRUE LOVE 142 XV. MOTHER AND SON 165 XVI. THROUGH FIRE AND WATER 189 XVII. TIMELY AID 220 XVIII. GREGORY BOKSA 227 XIX. IN THE ROYAL FOREST 242 XX. THE DYING SOLDIER'S BEQUEST 246 XXI. SUNLIGHT AND MOONLIGHT 253 XXII. A WOMAN'S HATRED 258 XXIII. A DUEL BETWEEN BROTHERS 263 XXIV. ZEBULON'S BRIGHT IDEA 278 XXV. GOOD OLD FRIENDS 284 XXVI. AT HOME 291 XXVII. THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER 298 XXVIII. THE SUMMONS ANSWERED 304 XXIX. A POSTHUMOUS MESSAGE 309 XXX. THE PRISON TELEGRAPH 315 XXXI. A HEADACHE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 317 XXXII. THE SUITOR 327 XXXIII. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 334

THE BARON'S SONS.