"Well, I am here at last! and little enough Mr. Samson guesses what manner of visitor has come so close to his hiding-place. I am glad I came, for it is always best to see with one's own eyes. And now that I am here, the next thing is how to get in. Let us look and consider. No use," he continued, after a moment or two; "I can't think of any way. If I could only see some one, a living creature of some sort, to make inquiries of! Nonsense! I'll wager I know more about the nest than any one hereabouts. "But still, I have been six hours on horseback, and as far as the eye can see there is no wayside inn or public-house or even farm-house in sight, and a man can't help being tired even if he be a vice-count--or more! Well, let's be going on," he went on, putting his horse once more in motion. The young man before us was of middle height and strongly built, with fiery dark eyes, and curly chestnut hair; he was very plainly clad, and his horse was no better caparisoned than if it had belonged to some son of the _puszta_, or steppes. Quietly, and with eyes and ears both on the alert, he rode round the height on which the fortress stood. "If I don't see anything," he said to himself with a laugh, "they don't see me; let's be off! "Eh, and yet I should be glad if I could come across a human being of some sort, if he were no bigger than the rowel of my spur.--Hi! hi there, _földi_ [countryman]," cried the horseman all at once, as he caught sight of some one trudging along the road round the shoulder of the hill. The wayfarer thus addressed turned and came up to him, and as soon as he was within speaking distance he said in humble tones, "_Uram_ [sir], I am hungry; I have not eaten a morsel to-day. Have pity on me, _kegyelmed_[1] [your grace]." [Footnote 1: A common form of polite address in Hungarian.] Then he cast a glance, not altogether devoid of envy, at the dainty horseman, who was so comfortably clad, and who looked, to judge by his countenance, as if his hunger had been well satisfied. "Here," said the rider, giving the beggar a small coin; for the boy attracted him, and he thought to himself that he could hardly ever remember to have seen a face with such a peculiarly taking expression. Moreover, in spite of the mud and dirt with which his skin was incrusted, it was impossible not to be struck by his fine features, which were of a purely Oriental type, and lighted up by a pair of large dark eyes as black as the raven's wing.