Manasseh

Manasseh, by Maurus Jokai

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Title: Manasseh A Romance of Transylvania
Author: Maurus Jokai
Translator: Percy Favor Bicknell
Release Date: March 24, 2007 [EBook #20892]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MANASSEH ***

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Manasseh

A Romance of Transylvania
Retold from the Hungarian of Dr. Maurus Jókai Author of "Black
Diamonds," "Pretty Michal," "The Baron's Sons," etc.
By Percy Favor Bicknell Translator of "The Baron's Sons"

Boston L. C. Page & Company 1901
Copyright, 1901 BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
Colonial Press Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &. Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE vii
I. FELLOW-TRAVELLERS 1
II. A LIFE'S HAPPINESS AT STAKE 13
III. AN INTRUDER EXPELLED 19
IV. A BIT OF STRATEGY 24
V. HOLY WEEK IN ROME 34
VI. THE CONSECRATED PALM-LEAF 52
VII. AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE 60

VIII. AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 65
IX. THE ANONYMOUS LETTER 79
X. THE FOURTEENTH PARAGRAPH 90
XI. THE DECISION 103
XII. A GHOSTLY VISITANT 109
XIII. A SUDDEN FLIGHT 127
XIV. WALLACHIAN HOSPITALITY 137
XV. BALYIKA CAVE 158
XVI. A DESPERATE HAZARD 179
XVII. IN PORLIK GROTTO 188
XVIII. TOROCZKO 198
XIX. A MIDNIGHT COUNCIL 213
XX. MIRTH AND MOURNING 231
XXI. THE SPY 245
XXII. THE HAND OF FATE 256
XXIII. OLD SCORES 266
XXIV. A CRUEL PARTING 292
XXV. SECRETS OF THE COMMISSARIAT 302
XXVI. SOLFERINO 307
XXVII. AN HOUR OF TRIAL 314

XXVIII. A DAY OF RECKONING 318

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
A few words of introduction to this striking story of life in Szeklerland
may not be out of place.
The events narrated are supposed to take place half a century ago, in
the stirring days of '48, when the spirit of resistance to arbitrary rule
swept over Europe, and nowhere called forth deeds of higher heroism
than in Hungary. To understand the hostility between the Magyars and
Szeklers on the one hand, and the Wallachians on the other,--a state of
feud on which the plot of the story largely hinges,--let it be
remembered that the non-Hungarian elements of the kingdom were
exceedingly jealous of their Hungarian neighbours, and apprehensive
lest the new liberal constitution of 1848 should chiefly benefit those
whom they thus chose to regard as enemies. Therefore, secretly
encouraged by the government at Vienna, they took up arms against the
Hungarians. The Croatians and Serbs, under the lead of Ban Jellachich
and other imperial officers, joined in the revolt. The most frightful
atrocities were committed by the insurgents. Hundreds of families were
butchered in cold blood, and whole villages sacked and burned. These
acts of massacre and rapine were especially numerous on the eastern
borders of Transylvania, among the so-called Szeklers, or
"Frontiersmen," in whose country the scene of the present narrative is
chiefly laid.
The Szeklers, who also call themselves Attilans, claim descent from a
portion of that vast invading horde of Attila the Hun, which fell back in
defeat from the battle of Châlons, in the year 451, and has occupied the
eastern portion of Transylvania ever since. The Magyars are of the
same or a nearly kindred race, and speak the same language; but their
ancestry is traced back to a later band of invaders who forced their way
in from the East early in the tenth century. The Wallachians, or
"Strangers," form another considerable group in the population of
Hungary. "Rumans" they prefer to call themselves, and they claim

descent from the ancient Dacians, and from the conquering army led
against the latter by Trajan. Besides these, Germans, Croatians, Serbs,
Ruthenians, Slovaks, and other races, contribute in varying proportions
to the heterogeneous population of the country.
The Hungarian title of the book is "Egy az Isten,"--"One is the
Lord,"--the watchword of the Unitarians of Transylvania. The want of
an adequate English equivalent of this motto has led to the adoption of
another title. In this, as in all the author's romances, love, war, and
adventure furnish the plot and incident and vital interest of the
narrative.
As early as 1568, three years after the introduction of Unitarianism into
Poland, John Sigismund Szapolyai, the liberal and enlightened voivode
of Transylvania, issued a decree, granting his people religious
toleration in the broadest sense. The establishment of the Unitarian