The Condemned.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 10

The Condemned.

By Max Pbmbebton, Author of "The Iron Pirate," eto

(All Eights Reserved.)

.They carried cigarettes and Turkish coffee" to .a terrace above the glacis of the Castle and thither I followed the Governor "when .dinner was done. A radiant sunset followed upon a day 01, torrid heat and burning winds. Tho distant Adriatic had that shimmer of hazy light which is the aftermath of a summer's day as the son of Dalmatia ktiews it. Even the dwellers upon tho mountain side complained. I had been through Montenegro and W.&S returning home by Trieste and the Adriatic sea. All the world nowadays knows those glorious waters, and tho countless islands are marked down in every tourist's "vade mecum.*' Then it was very different. Austria had just entered upon her dominion of the States. There were brigands abundant. You could be held to ransom and robbed almost on any island you cared to name. Tjavel was adventure worthy of the name. I remember that an Austrian ofijLcer at Metkovitch cautioned me not to venture among the people of the hills on any pretence whatever. "They are all thieves," he said, "even the soldiers. Keep on tho ship and you will bo all right. Our folks cannot help you ashore. Wo are still shooting, but tho •work is slow." The advice was wholesome, and I dook it. Not until we touched at the ■port of Spalato did I leave the Aus-tffian-Lloyd steamer at all, and then it •was merely to carry a letter of introduction to the Governed-, given me by this timorous jriead at Metkovitch. Here, as elsewhere. I found the Austrian official the most deKgfatiul person in Europe. The Governor was up at the fortress in the hills, said" the young cap- • tain in charge and. it I cared to'^go as far, he would send an escort with me. The invitation had a nice sound, and I determined to miss a steamor and take Advantage of it. Aft«r all, there is »6amefching picturesque in being robbed Shj sosntain brigands — and what a tale t»«sdd sfc fee for smokmg-i'ooms until the aari-of «iy clays- 2 Lst ase state at once that this pious .tape o£ polii'? bragazsdage was not destiaed to be fulfilled. 1 had an escort of haif-a-dozen splendidly mounted hussars, aad they were as unlike bri minds as any half-a-doran hussars could be. The rood itself, winding up from the aea amidst green mountains and sweetBBelling pines, I found picturesque beyand wowis. Here fresh breezes tempend the pursuing heat and bade the traveller live again. The solitudes wane immense ana of insurpassable majesty. Nor did the Castle itself strike a discard in this gamut of pleasing harmonkfi- Such a Castle it was as the second Mahommed might have built or Caesar himself ha.v© overthrown ; a •seritsbie fortress of the hills ; a granite Seep, sujxsa'b in its isolation and its dignity. As for the Governor, he receSred mfc with the characteristic hospitafity of his race. Strangers wera rare enoogfa in that lonely mountain vastaess, and he would not readily part with one. "I wiQ s&ow yon the hills," he said earnesSy, "we have fisfakig which cannot be bettered, and shooting as good. I can promise yoa anything from a bear to an African snipe. The country is remarkable— so are the people, a little too remarkable sometimes. We are shooting one of them at dawn to-morrow —a yooag trooper from Zara. I don't know wbstfaer you have ever seen a man shot, but if you haven't, this affair may interest you. ITI tell you the story after- dinner — it's characteristic of the place and of, the temper I have to deal •arafh." AH this, mind you, from a pleasant faced old gentleman with white whiskers and bright bine eyes and the aspect of a saint in lite pictures. Had he been speaking af the contemplated killing cs a fowl, he could not have referred to The subject bb^s serkwsly. Eor my set!', I bet dimly understood that a man \S3E to be shot, and that I was inMHSed to witness .his execution. A ttuJty Brilzsb. horror oi such, spectacles. found some expression, I suppose, in my manner and 'bearing. I was profoundly ' inteEesbad; and yet frankly a coward in the mafiter. Tbs Governor perceived as mnch and tanned .the subject adroitly. °'I musk -tell them to act a good horse far yoa," he said.. "We -will set out early iwaxsaaw and see what we can fc3L- -Or,- if yoa pceder to fish, I can ■ at cauge Ik. Bacbaps you may play picqnet? That wmaa be great good ' news:" I toid. bent that I did play picquet, and so fißed his heart with joy. Evidently -be had determined to make a prisoner "of -me, and he, it appeared, ■was the veaztable social brigand against ■whom I had been •ecaaaed. The lonely life he led up these in the hills undaabfcedry accounted for his earnest desire" fltat I shook! remain his guest for some weeks. It is trne that he had a, sgaadircin oi hussars in the citadel, bnfc tfe officeis Vi«eie not much to his liking, and I imagined that the presence af a. s&anger who shot and fished and played piequet \Kas a godsend — es?en if fbafc stranger had displayed no overmastering joy viten he heaid that there •was a' man to be shot at dawn tomorrow. It was astomsbing, upon my part, how this faint of a grim tragedy, so soon to be pfagred- within those monstrous- walls, ran in 'my head arid would not he* distarbed. I could think of nothing else. The wry isolation of the scene, the majesty of the ball-hmds, fhe stories I baa beard of their -romance and" their danger, accentuated the sense of awe with which the Governor's callous woeds had filled me. A man to die at dawn to-waxosam ! Had I been a son ef the Adriatic such an intimation woukl have left me quite indifferent. TMe> is cheap in Dahnatia, and what_ is H, to any man that another must die-? My very Judgment oi the old Governor may have been harsh and misplaced. He was these to rule these provinces in the name of Austria, and duty must be done. A moment's reflection, as I dressed for dinner, reminded me that I knew but little of the condemned maifß story and must wait to hear it before I could pronounce an opinion. The yoong trooper might be nothing betted titan a common brigand of. the hillside. The Governor alone could toll me. This confidence cams when our dinner had been eaten and the coffee carried to the terrace above the glacis. It was at • this moment that we were joined by an old ItaKan priest, old enough, it appeared, to remember the days when Spalato belonged to Italy — and he, to my satisfaction, at once raised the subject in which the Governor had interested me so profoundly. I gathered that he was but lately come from tho condemned man's cell, and not only this, but that somo question of the lad' a guilt or innocence yet remained unsolved. A rapid conversation between priest and Governor in the tricky Italian .dialect of the coast left mo little wiser than before ; but when our cigars had been lighted and, liqueurs_ served, my amiable host at once gratified my curiosity and spoke of the prisoner. "It is a most serious case, he said — "here is a young aordder named Sandraaccused of striking an officer in defence of a yocng woman to whom he was passionately attached- He is condemned' by the court at Liw-no, not for striking tbe .officer—about ;wb^h- .tfJgse-issepßJes

doubt— bufc for murdering in<\ very girl who was tho author of tho trouble. This district, as you may know, is, for the time being, under what is practically ■ martial law. There have been so many outrages, so much disorder everywhere that my Government is determined to establish its authority at any price, and will do so as successfully in Dalmatia as .we have already done it in Herzogovina and tho South. I am sorry for the lad, and there is an element of mystery in the case which I do not altogether like. That, however, is not my business. Sandra must die at dawn. I could not pardon him against the judgment of the court unless the evidence in his favour v/erc overwhelming. My own prerogative is really very limited. He appealed to the old priest, who supported his view with animation. "The fact is, signor," he said, "we are not — his Excellency and I — we aro not absolutely convinced that the girl is dead." I stared at them in amazement. "Not convinced that sho is dead, and yet you will shoot the man ! Is that Dalmatian justice, excellency ?" The priest shrugged his shoulders. '"There had been a brawl at the inn, and tho girl, Lucy, was picked up ttisensible. 1 saw her myself that night, and certainly she appeared to be dead What follows then ? We learn thai they carried the body to Strepitza to bury it. I send some hussars over to Strepitza and they can learn nothing of tho matter. We know that the innkeeper, Lucy's father, did not wish her to marry Sandra. I confess my perplexity. His Excellency cannot help me. What would you do under such circumstances, signor ?" "Suspend all judgment until the truth is known. You cannot shoot a man for a murder he has not committed, reverence. That would be a crime against our common humanity." "Thero is no official crime in Dalmatia but that of official backwardness," tho Governor rejoined. I could see, none the less, that he v Was not convinced. There were seeds of hesitation already taking root in a disposition which did pot lack sympathy. "Governments which rule savage countries cannot do so with a white rose in the button-hole," he ran on. "I must show them in Vienna that I mean to make the mountains safe. What would be said if I pardoned this man without further evidence ? Would they not call me a faint-heart who was also something^ of a coward '! No, no, 1 must do my duty. It can be nothing to me officially whether the girl do alive or dead." He persisted in this, and yet I perceived plainly that his duty was abhorrent to him. We had argued tho point a hundred times, I suppose, when he proposed to me that I should see the prisoner. Jumping at his invitation, I Eollowed him from the terrace down tho hundred stairs by which the keep is ipproaehed — and so to the dungeon of :he fortress. A heavy- jo wled Dalmatian trooper, carrying a monster scimitar in t-e best spirit of mediaeval valour, showed us into a chamber cut out of the solid rock, but wonderfully cool md clean — and there in a corner, fast isleep upon a prisoner bed, I beheld tho ad, Sandra, and instantly determined ihat he was innocent. A kinder face I had never seen on a jrouth. Italian in type, he had the sink-and-white skin of a mountaineer, ihe eyes of a son of Ragusa, the curly 3ark brown hair that one sees so often in Southern Italy. Of slight build, he ippeared to possess an agile and wellshaped figure, trained to endurance on the mountain passes. Nor did his manner, when they awoke him, contradict this pleasant impression. I discovered that he spoke German, and instantly entered into conversation with him. "I am a stranger, and would help you, Sandra. Please tell me how -to do so ?" "Mem herr," he said, with great reverence, "God alone can help me. I am to be shot at dawn." "They charge you with a grave crime — I do not believe that you committed it, Sandra.'* ( He looked up at me with such an expression of gratitude as one reads in the eyes oi' a dog. "Mem herr, if you have ever loved a woman, you will know that I could not have committed the crime." "But Lucy is dead. Do they not say that ? "They say it, excellency. Would to God it were true, for then I should see her again when I die at dawn, mem herr. "You do not believe that she is dead, I see i ' "How can I deny it— her father has said so ? '•And the priest saw her ? Well, they have taken her to Strepitza. Is that far from here, Sandra ?" "It \s nine miles across tho mountains." "And have you no friend in this i place s "They were all my friends before this^-but who will be my friend now ? j It is not natural to think so, mom herr! It is not what we expect of men." I turned the subject and harked back agam v to the story of the girl about whom the trouble had come. A hundred questions, taxing the Governors patience to the la3t point, hardly satisfied me. Already there was something in my head which I hardly dared to confess to any one. The unhappy lad cotrld enlighten me but little. I perceived that he had loved the girl so passionately that any thought of the measure cf the love she had given in return had never entered his head. As to the young officer whom he had struck —well, there was no doubt that he had made advances to Lucy. "We were nover friends, mem herr," the lad said. "From the first day he came here, he marked me doWn. I have Buffered a great deal at his hands. He was not in love with Lucy — I do not believe it ; but ho followed her to torture me. Ami she laughed at him always. She was not very strong, and rarely came down to the village. Last year the had a great illness, but it would not help me to tell you about that. The Lieutenant Katka saw her but Kttle. It j was quite an accident that he met her upon the night of my misfortune.' ' "Do you know where the lieutenant is now, Sandra ?" "He has a week's leave, they tell me, ! and has gone hunting in the hills." "Did they name the place, Sandra ?" "They spoke of Duka, mem herr. It lies towards tho sea, nineteen miles from this post." I mado a mental note of the fact, and observing that the worthy Governor's patience had been strained to the breaking point, I consented reluctantly to terminate tho interview. It now about ten o'clock, and I remembered that tho sun would rise at four. The poor fellow, therefore, had but six hours to live unless somo miracle of God's providence intervened in his favour. For my part, I had but a wild dream of an idea how to help him, and this seemed so gcotcsquo in its assumptions that some minutes passed^before I dared even to speak of it. "You aro interested in nandra, and' you bclievo him to^be -innqcent*?^ the*MJ»»mor;ronEttked. " *" ' I

I replied that he had read my thoughts exactly. "I believe him to be the victim of a superior officer's malice— i.i which fortune has aided that officer in a most remarkable way. Your Excellency has said that you could only pardon him n evidenco were forthcoming which placed his innocence beyond doubt. Should you desire my assistance " He interrupted mo sharply. "Your assistance in what, mem herr?" "In bringing the truth of this mysterious business to light." "Do you believe that you can help mo ?" "Let us put my theories to the proof. No harm will bo done. You can imagine that I speak with some hesitation. At least you will be spared the danger of an act you will regret to the end of your days if this youth really be innocent." I saw that I had impressed him, but it would have been dangerous to insist. We had returned to the Castle by this time, and there he called for wine and cigars. Never in my life, I think, did I sit down to a table with greater impatience. Thero were but five hours and a half left, and the business not so much as begun. "Come." this cheery old gentleman exclaimed, as he filled my glass, "you are making a great deal of fuss about a very little. What is Sandra to you ?—? — a stranger whom you havo never seen before, and certainly will never see again. Put the thought of him out of your mind. You know nothing, and are only guessing. Let us have a game ot picquet." I jumped at the idea, and bade him call for the cards. "I will play your Excellency npon one condition." "Which is ?" "That some of your hussars carry a message from here to Duka, and return with the answer before dawn to-mor-row." "Impossible — they are all in bed. And it is nineteen miles." "They will wake up if you call them. I know what splendid horsemen they are." "An obstinate fellow, I perceive. Let us cut and see if it is to bo so." He spread the cards upon the table, and I drew one with trembling fingers. Often have I asked myself if I did well thus to gamble for a fellow creature's life that night. A hand o£ mercj^ however, drew the card for me. I showed the three of hearts, and the Governor could do no better than a nine of clubs. "The men shall go," he said imnieq'iately — "where is your letter?" "It is there," 1 said, "addressed, you will perceive, to- .the Lieutenant Katka." A single shrug of thoss expressive shoulders was tho only answer ho vouchsafed to me. An orderly carried the letter from the room, and we fell to our game of picquet. He had named stakes of some value, and I played with the interest and the concentration of a man ■who would forget- Sleep or bed were out of the question. There, in the vast hall, the monstrous wooden fingers of a clock, as old as the centuries, seemed to race onward to the day. Every card that I played marked in my fancy a stage inward in the journey the flying hussars were making. 'Good God,' I said, 'if it were all a dream !' I have played many a good game of picquet in my life, but rarely one with such & true-blue gambler as that merry old gentleman, the Governor. No sooner had we cut the pack than I made sure that he forgot the very existence of Sandra nud cared not a straw whether one man or a hundred were to perish at daj break. His joy when he had won was that of a little child who has discovered a wonder. His rage when he lost was that of a. general cursing the troop which had betrayed him. Aow roaring with laughter, now uttering wild cries of delight, raging at this '.aid, grinding his teeth at that, I could see that play had been the passion of his life and had stranded him in this wild placs — remote from Vienna and the whole joy of living. And there 1 sat, seeming to play against tho watches of the night, a, man who feared the dawn and the news it must bring. A game to remember — momentous and unparalleled. It would have been, 1 suppose, about three o'clock in the morniug when the Governor put his cards down. A doleful tolling of the Castle bell brought him j suddenly to remembrance — and, holding a. Icing baud, he seized the opportunity and rose from the. table. "1 have much to do, mem hen"," he said more gravely — "you, no doubt, will wish to sleep. Thero is no message, from Duka, as you see. Ihia poor fellow must die- There is no hope for him." I said that it must be !>o, and went sullenly to my room. !\ ot_ for a kingdom would I have been a v.itness of this ghastly tragedy. And yet, in % sense, I must be tho witness of it. Down yonder, beneath my window, lay the courtyard I in which Sandra was to suifer. My mind Tefused to shut out the picture of that manly face with all its pleasing suggestion of love and kindness and true nobility. Every instant of waking became a torture, and yet, God knows, I could not sleep. The doleful bell echoed in my ears as though in mockery of my failure. What a farce that night ride to Duka had been ! How the troopers must be laughing at the mad Englishmen. 'Fool,' eaid the bell, 'fool to come here.' Tortured beyond belief, I lay on the bed and drew the clothes about my head. A despeTate desire to hide myself from, all remembrance of tho place and the circumstances warred against my curiosity and seemed to better it. Thus striving 1 shut my eyes, barred my ears to the woeful sounds — in vain, I could hear the very clock ticking, and when a rille was fired I Taised myself up and cried, as though my own brother had fallen — "Sandra is dead." Now, I heard the rifle-shot distinctly, and upon it, at an interval of aome ten seconds, another report and then another, the sounds coming nearer with eveiy discharge. Porp-lexed, a3 -reel! I might have been, I still lay a little while, afraid to move from the bed— when who should burrt into tho room but my amiublo Governor himself in as wild a state of affronted surprise as over I have seen a man. "Here's a pretty business — " he began "Say it once," I eried — "the girl Lucy is alive, but she i 3 sleeping." "Mem herr — you aie evidently a j wizardi" "No wizard at all, excellency. Did \ not Sandra speak of an illness and of her long sleep which followed upon it. Directly I heard as much I guessed the rest. The girl fell into it trance when her lover was arrested. The shock brought a return of her illness. She will go on sleeping until the lad, Sandra, awakens her. You had better address (some civil words to that lieutenant of yours. He is evidently a rascal. Of course he and the old father have been keeping the girl out of the way the whole time. He deserves a flogging." "Mare than that, mem herr — and I will see that he gets it. How*' can 1 thank you? What do I owe to you?" "You will pardon Sandra, of course?" I said. He reflected upon it an, instant, " his Wue ey«s shining with a merry twinkle that was unmistakable — "No," he said quietly — "I will banish him for a month to the pleasant island of Lissa — and, mem herr, I will banish the girl — that black-eyed littlo minx— l will banish her thero too." Wo laughed upon it together, and went, I doworto«yieit.'the-']iftßpy;7,prißoaer i