The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-01-15

of Count Sandorf-nlthough the latter
ostensibly occupied an apartment on'the
Palazzo Modello on the Piazza Grande.
The police had no suspicion that the
house on the Acquedotto was the centre
of conspiracy which counted numbers
of partisans in all the principal towns of
the kingdom.
Zathmar and Bathory were Sandorfs
most devoted auxiliaries Like him,
they had seen that circumstances we're
favorable to movement which might
restore Hungary to the place she desired
in Europe They risked their lives,
they knew, but that they cared little
alVrnt The house in the Acnnadntto
nad thus become the rendezvous OF the
chiefs of the conspiracy. Numbers of
partisans, summoned from different
points of the kingdom, came there to
take their measures and receive their
orders. A service of carrier pigeons was
organized, and established rapid and
safe communication between Trieste and
the chief towns of Hungary and Tran
sylvania when it was necessary to send
what could not well be confided to the
post or telegraph. In short, every pre-
caution had been taken, and the con-
spirators had not as yet raised the least
breath of suspicion. Besides, as we
know, the correspondence was carried
on in cipher, and on such a plan that
unless the secret was known absolute
security was obtained.
Three days after the arrival of the
carrier pigeon whose message had been
intercepted by Sarcany, ON the 21st of
May, about eight o'clock In the evening,
Zathmar and Bathory were in the study,
waiting the return of Matthias Sandorf.
His private affairs had recently COM
PEELED the Count to return into Transyl-
vania and to Artenak but he had taken
the opportunity of consulting with his
friends at Klasenbury, the capital of the
province, and he was to get back this
very day, after sending them the de-
spatch of which Sarcany Lad taken the
duplicate.
During the time Sandorf was away
other correspondence had been ex.
changed between Trieste and Buda, and
many letters in cipher had arrived by
pigeon-post. Aud Zathmar was even
now busy in working out the real mean.
ing of one of these cryptographic epis-
ties by means of grating"
The dispatches were devised on very
simple plan-that of the transposit-
ion of the letters In this system
every letter retained its alphabetical
value-that is to say, meant b, o meant
O, etc. But the letters are successfully
transposed in accordance with the open.
ings of a grating, which, laid on the
message, only allowed such letters to
appear as were to be read, and hid all
the others.
These gratings are an old invention,
but having been greatly improved by
Colonel Fleissner they seem now to
offer the best and surest means of OBJ
tanning an indecipherable cryptogram.
In all the other systems of inversion,
be they systems with an invariable base
Or simple key in which each letter is
always represented by the same letter or
sign; be they systems with a variable
base or double key in which the alpha
bet varies with each letter, the security
is incomplete. Experienced decipher-
ers are capable of performing perfect
prodigies i'll such Investigations, either
with the aid of the calculation of proba-
bilities, or by merely trying and trying
until they succeed. ALI that has to be
done is to find out the letters in the or
der of their repetition in the cryptogram
e being that most frequently employed
in English, German and French, in
| Spanish, a in Russian and e and ! in
Italian-and the meaning of the text is
soon made clear And there are very
few cryptograms based on these methods
| which defy investigat on.
1t would appear, therefore, that the
best guarantee for lndecipherability IS
afforded by these gratin $, or by ciph-
| cred dictionaries-co codes that is to say,
or vocabularies in which certain words
represent fully formed sentences indi-
Gated by the page number. But both
these systems have one grave drawback
they require absolute secrecy on the
part of those that use them, and the
| greatest care that the books or apparatus
| should never get into undesirable hands.
| Without the grating, or the code, the
message will remain unread but once
these are obtained the my stery vanishes.
| 1t was then by means of n grating
that is to say piece of card cut out in
certain places-thnt the correspondence
between Sandorf and his accomplice;
was carried ON, but ns an extra pre-
caution, in case the gfatings should be
lost or stolen, every despatch after being
deciphered was destroyed. There thu;
remained no trace of this conspiracy IL
which the greatest noblemen and mag
mates of Hungary We're risking then
lives in conjunction with the representa-
tive of the middle class and the bulk o.
the people.
spatch when there came a quiet knocl
AT the study door.
1t was Borik introducing Count Ma
thias Sandorf, who had walked up from
the nearest railway station.
Zathmar Immediately rose to gree
him.
Your journey, Matthias ?" asked h
with the eagerness of man who wishe,
at the outset to find that all was well.
"lt was n success, Zathmar," an
swered Sandorf. Il have no doubt G
my Transylyanian friends, and we ar
certain of their assistance"
You let them have the despatcI
which cane from Pesth three days ago!
asked Bathory.
Yes, said Sandorf. "Yes, the,
have all been cautioned, and they ar
all ready. They will rise at the frs
signal. In two hours we shall be mas
tiers of Buda and Pesth, in half day W
shall get the chief comitats on bot
sides of the Thesis, and before the da
is out we shall have Pennsylvania an
the rest And then eight millions G
Hungarlans will have regained their in
dependence !"
And the Diet?" asked Bathory.
"Our supporters from the majority,
answered Sandorf. "They will ais
form the new Government, to take til
direction of affairs. All will go regularl
and easily, for the comitats us far a
their administration goes, depend yer
little on the crown, and their chiefs Luv
the police with them"
"But the Council of the Lieutenanc
of the Kingdom that the palatine prt
sides over at Buda9 continued Zatl
mar
1.-THE palatine and the councilat Bud
will Immediately be so placed as to b
unable to do anything"
And unable TO correspond with I'll
| Hunpnrian chancery at Vienna? p