CHAPTER V.
In the Szent-Endre and the adjoining Izbegh vineyards the vintage was infull swing. It was an excellent harvest, the wine promised to beunusually good, and all the vineyards were filled with joyous labourers.
But from the vineyards the new wine was conveyed away by one road only,in great casks, while heydukes, armed with pikes and muskets, guardedthe route. For all that grows in the vineyard must first pay therequisite tithes.
At the entrance of the one open road four huts were erected, and beforeeach stood a huge vat. The first belonged to the Bishop of the diocese.As the cart, laden with the casks of "must," or new wine, passes, theepiscopal steward takes out his tithe. Then the cart proceeds to thesecond hut, where the court chamberlain deducts his share. Thence itarrives in front of the two huts which, facing each other, bound thenarrow road, so none may pass unchallenged. No matter whether the owneris hailed in German or Magyar, the sacristan of the parish acting forthe Catholic priest, appropriates his own tithe from the cask, or if hespeaks Rascian, it is for the Greek "pope," he takes his share.
Only then can the convoy proceed. Yes, indeed, so it might, if therewere not a fifth hut in the way, where two heydukes seize the horses'bridles, and on right and left the owner is hailed by officials who wantto know why he has broken the "portion" rule. (For thus in theirsimplicity have the peasants abbreviated the word "proportion.")
Such is the method in which the taxes are extorted.
Whoever is in a position to do it, holds himself in readiness tocompound for the "Haracs," as it was called in Hungary, from a Turkishword, by opening his purse and paying up the arrears of the tithe ingroschen, which settled the matter, for to pay the tax in silver wasillegal. Consequently, on the table of the fifth hut fell many awell-stuffed bag of copper coins, which the officials had squeezed outof the vintagers. There were, however, many who were not well enoughprovided with small change to satisfy this crowd of creditors, and sohad to pay up the arrears in kind. That is why the great vats standthere in the road.
But the "red Jew" carries his casks into the small Slovak carts thattake it down to the Danube, and ships it to Vienna, and pays, too, histax of two Rhenish gulden for his wine.
It can well be imagined how to the overtaxed peasant wine-grower whohas run out of money, this same "red Jew" is a friend in need, quiteready to help him out of his difficulty, for he will pay for his wine atthe rate of two gulden a kilderkin. But this did not happen inwell-regulated communities. Only the municipality had the privilege ofselling wine, and to it the citizen only dare retail his vintage. Andthe price which he received for it was fixed by the law at one gulden.
So the wine-grower pours likewise into the great vat his "deputy-tax,"wherein he reckons a gulden for a kilderkin, and the "red Jew" draws itout again at two gulden a kilderkin.
Thus it befalls that the owner of the vineyard brings the bottles whichhe has brought with him empty to the vineyard, empty home again. And yetthat is called a first-rate vintage! But it was hard for the good manhimself to esteem it so, and no wonder he was doubtful!
And thus the vintage went on till nightfall. Then the gates of thevineyards were shut, and the judicial vintagers paused in their work,yet not to betake themselves to rest, but to carry on further businesswithin doors.
The judge and his deputy, the notary and the jurymen, all conferredtogether, the notary being auditor and controller in one, whereby it maybe gathered that he was a very clever fellow.
The Jew Abraham was likewise called into the council, in order to assistin the money-changing.
For at that epoch all kinds of money were current in the country, whichonly came into evidence as they passed in daily exchange. To dispose ofthem was not easy, so the Jew was bidden to give proper money inexchange for them. When he got back to Vienna he could in his turn getrid of it.
During the money-reckoning transaction, Abraham appeared with theaccounts giving the amount of money taken over, the price of the wine,and the bad money left behind.
"Can't you buy this bad money too, father Abraham?" queried the notary.
"No indeed, my lord, for if I change false money they will lock me up,but you will quietly put it away in the cash-box, and pay out with it,your servants' wages, your heydukes, messengers, and foresters. In duetime, these coins will again be in circulation at the tradesman's stall,or the inn, and the public will be fingering it once more for fees andfines, and so the bad money comes round again, just as the sun goesround the earth, for it is not by any means lost."
Everyone laughed at the Jew's explanation.
Then Abraham stated how much he would give in gold for the small changehe had taken, and the business was settled without further ado.
"But now, Mr. notary," proceeded the Jew, "just make me out a receipt toattest that I have changed the money, and that we are quits, but writeit in Latin, not Rascian."
"All right, Rothesel."
"Also, I would ask you not to write my name 'Rothesel,' but 'Rotheisel,'with an 'i' if it is just as easy to you."
"But everybody calls you 'Rothesel'?"
"You may call me what you like, but in writing at any rate, I am'Rotheisel.' I had this favour granted me in Vienna, from the Kaiserhimself--that I might write it with an 'i.'"
"And a nice round sum that very 'i' cost you in Vienna, Abraham, or I'mmuch mistaken! Confess frankly, it did!"
"Pray why should I confess anything about it? What does it matterwhether this 'i' cost me but a single heller, or a hundred thousandgulden--you, not I, pay them, after all is said."
When the Jew had gone, the notary packed up the ducats in stacks, andplaced them beside him round the inkstand, while the president began:"Well, now the outsiders are off home, only the privileged councillorsand the members of the council remain, in order to be present at theopening of the great coffer."
Now it is not permitted to every official to glance at the contents ofthe mysterious coffer. As the privy council alone remained, the notaryfetched out from the cupboard, as many night-caps as there were men, andeach one drew the covering thus provided over his head, so that only thetip of his nose was visible. This was done so that none might see wherehe was going. When all were thus blindfolded, the notary aloneexcepted, the latter took a light from the table, and gave the end ofhis stick into the judge's hand; the judge in his turn reaching the endof his to the juryman behind him, and so on, till the chain ofblindfolded men were ready to start. Where? Ah, that was the notary'ssecret, for he it was who directed their progress.
"Now there come steps," he cried, "one, two, three," and so on, till hehad counted ten. Then a key creaked in an iron lock. "Stoop down so youdon't hurt your heads," came the word of command, and they passedthrough a low door. "Here we are," cried their leader, "now you canlook."
The jurymen had often been in this place before. It was a low-pitchedcellar, with a massive, vaulted arched roof, and in a corner of it,there stood an iron coffer made fast to the wall.
Beside this iron chest stood a Rascian "pope," whose hand they couldreverentially kiss if they wished. How he came there no one knew.
The "pope" produced a large, curiously wrought key, and the notary asecond one like it.
"These are the keys, open it who can!"
Three or four times some jurymen made the attempt, yet without success;in vain did the keys press right and left in the wards, but it openednot.
"We are wasting time," cried the "pope." "Do you try, Mr. notary, youunderstand it."
Whereupon the notary turned the keys, and the coffer was opened.
Everyone wanted to see inside.
There were nothing but ducats there: ducats, indeed, by hundreds, infine transparent bladder bags, through which the yellow metal gleamedseductively. The sacks stood as in battle array, like so many soldiersclose to each other. There must be a fabulous lot of gold there! Nowanother row was to be added to it. Then from a side compartment of thechest, a small book was fetched out wherein the notary entered all kindso
f accounts. And strange entries might those be, judging from thefrequent exclamations of the jurymen, which showed that the budget heexamined was a notable one.
"Tut, tut," cried the notary interrupting, "you don't want it publishedto all the world."
"But if it has to be, eh?"
After which, certain accounts were duly registered in the little book,and the great coffer was again closed. Then the "pope" spoke.
"I see well enough that you have again husbanded your funds carefully,and that the money has increased, but where does the blessing of Heavencome in? You never give a thought to the Church! You promised to buy anew church bell, to gild the church roof, and to build a house for theparish priest. There's no money for all these things, but the coffergets fuller and fuller."
"Make yourself easy, your reverence," answered the notary, "all that maycome next year, if we are spared. For that the small cash-box willsuffice."
"So you think it will, do you? What has ruined the hospital? The poorsick folk nearly perish of hunger in summer, and are nigh frozen inwinter, whilst you carry off the timber by cart-loads as presents toPesth, and then think of the amount of smoked sturgeon and caviare andwine you send thither, and all for the magnates, but nothing for thesick and needy!"
"Let it be, your reverence, there's nothing so advantageous for the sickas fresh air, and nothing so harmful as overloading their stomachs. Butit's far better that we should give firing for the magnates, than thatthey should make it hot for us!"
"And the poor-house which our revered Queen, Maria Theresa, endowed, isit not still empty? What are we about that we do not find inmates forit? But you find none."
"The devil we do! Don't the blind and the lame stand each Sunday beforethe church door, but if we want to befriend them, we've only to say:'Come you, poor wretches, we'll show you the way into the poor-house,'and off they run in a fright, so great a horror have they of the breadof the State."
"You children of the devil! And what of the poor Izbeghers whose fortyhouses were burned down? The Emperor allowed them as much from thetreasury as the worth of the houses amounted to, but you raised therents of the remaining houses and then dunned them for the money."
"That's natural enough, seeing the Emperor let the State annex theburned part in order to pay so much the less to the ground-landlord. IfPeter has nothing, then pay Paul, that is the rule."
"A godless rule too! Amend your ways, I say, for if next year as manycomplaints reach my ear as have this, I'll denounce your coffer to theTreasury."
These words only provoked laughter.
"Your reverence is not such a bad sort," ventured the judge in aconciliatory tone.
Thereupon, the keys were withdrawn, the night-caps again donned, and thenotary led his blind men again to the ground-floor of the councilchamber, where they congratulated one another on the risks run.
"Only yon priest should not have it all his own way with hismaledictions," grumbled the judge. "But they are all like that. Each oneof them thinks that hardly earned money should be wasted on churches andhospitals."
"I also think, my lord, that it would be better that such anunreasonably big sum of money should be divided to each one as he hasneed," suggested a juryman bolder than the rest.
The speaker might, from the assenting murmur which greeted his speech,take it for granted that he had a good many on his side, but theeloquence of the notary soon crushed such sympathy.
"Ay, my dear friend, that would kill the goose which lays the goldeneggs. This coffer is our pledge of power, our shield of protection, ourbond of union. As long as it exists are we rulers in this city and inall its dependencies. As long as this coffer answers for us, so long canwe get the laws made in our favour. As long as we have our money, theywon't take our sons for military service, or ask us for accounts, and ifa meadow or a plot of land is to be divided, we look after theallotment. It is we who direct public works. It is we who fell thetimber in the forest, who cast the net into the Danube, and limit thevintage; we buy and sell; and fix the tithes. As long as the key of thatcoffer is in our hands, we must needs be great powers in the city, likeKaiser Joseph in his palace at Vienna. At the end of that key we whistlea tune to which all men must dance."
"Quite right, quite right!" shouted the whole assembly.
And who could contradict them?