Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-01-25
CHAPTER VIII
AFTER THE SENTENCE

AFTER THE SENTENCE
Sarcany was taken back TO the cell he
occupied at the bottom of an elliptic
corridor on the second floor of the dom
jon. Sandorf and his two friends, dur
ing the last hours of life that remained
to them, were quartered in large cell
on the same level, exactly at the end of
the major axis of the ellipse which this
corridor made. The secret was now
known. The condemned were to be left
together until their execution.
This was a consolation. even pleas
ure for them, when they found them
selves alone and allowed to give way
to feelings which they could not at
first restrain.
MY friends" said Sandorf, II am
the cause of your deaths But have
nothing to ask your pardon for We
worked for the independence of Hun
garyi Our cause was just 1t is our
duty to defend heri 1t is an honor to
die for her I"
Matthias, said Bathory, "we thank
you for having associated us with you in
the patriotic work which would have
been the work of all your life"
"As we are asso lated with you In
death! Z" added Zathmar.
Then during q momentary silence the
three gazed round the gloomy cell in
which they were to spend their last
hours. A narrow window some four or
five feet high, cut through the thick wall
of the donjon, let in n certain amount of
light There were three iron bedsteads,
q few chairs, n table and n shelf or two,
on which were few articles of crockery.
Zathmar and Bathory were soon lost
in thought.
Sandorf began to walk up and down
the cell.
Zathmar was alone in the world, had
no family ties and no near relations
There was only his old servant, Borik,
to mourn for him.
1t was not so with Bathory. His
death would not only prove blow to
himself. He had wife and son whom
it would reach. That wife and child
him, how were they to live? What was
to be the future of a penniless woman
and her eight year old child? Had
Bathory possessed any property. how
much OF it would remain after judg-
ment which directed it to be confscated
and sentenced him to death2
As for Sandorf. all his past life re-
turned to himl His wife came to him
His little daughter came-a child of two
years old, now left to the care of the
steward And there were his friends
whom he had led to ruin lie asked
himself if he had done we'll, if he had
not gone farther than his duty towards
his country required? Woul that the
punishment had fallen on him alone,
and not upon those that were innocent 1!
mol no l have only done my duty -
he said to himself. MY country before
all, and above ALI"
At five o'clock a warder entered the
cell, placed the dinner on the table, and
went out again without saying word.
Sandorf would have liked to know in
what fortress he was kept a prisoner,
but as the President of the court-martial
had not thought fit to answer the ques-
ton it was qui certain that the warder
would not give the information.
The prisoners hardly touched the din
ner which had been prepared for them
They passed the rest of the day talking
on various matters, in the hope that
their abortive movement would one day
be resumed. Very often they returned
to the incidents of the trial
1--WE now know, said Zathmar, "why
We have been arrested, and how the
police discovered US from that letter
which they came across"
Yes. Ladislas," said Sandorf. "but
into whose hands did that message,
which was one of the last We received,
at first fall, and who copied it ?"
"And when it was copied" added
Bathory, "how did they read it without
the grating"
1.-THE grating must have been stolen, g"
said Sandorf.
"Stolenl and and by whom ?" asked
Zathmar. The day we were arrested
it was still in the drawer on my desk,
whence the police took it."
This was indeed inexplicable. That
the letter had been found on the pigeon ;
that 1t had been copied before being
sent to its destination that the house
where the person to whom it was adj
dressed had been discovered-all that
could DO explained. But that the crypt
ographic despatch could have been
deciphered without the grating by which
it had been formed was Incompetent.
sible.
"And besides" continued Sandorf
1--WE know that the letter was read. and
/
the grating 1t was this letter which
put the police on our traces, and it was
on it that the whole charge was based.
1T matters very little, after all, " an.
swered Bathory.
"On the contrary, it does matter >
said Sandorf. I'VE have been betrav.
ed And if there has been traitor-po,
to know"
Sandorf suddenly stopped. The name
Of Sarcany occurred to him; but he
abandoned the thought at once witbou,
caring to communicate it to his com.
p0nions.
Far into the night Sandorf and hi.
companions continue their conversation
on all that was unintelligble with re.
gard to these matters.
ln the morning they were awakened
from sound sleep by the entry of the
warder 1t was the morning of thei,
last day but one. The execution wa,
fixed to take place in twenty-four hour,
from then.
Bathory asked the warder If he nigh,
be permitted to see his family.
The warder replied that he had nc
orders on the subject. 1t was not likely
that the Government would consen;
70 give the prisoners this last con.
ISOLATION, inasmuch as they had conducted
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