Produced by Steven desJardin and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net WORKS OF MAURUS JÓKAI HUNGARIAN EDITION THE DAY OF WRATH _Translated from the Hungarian_ _By_ R. NISBET BAIN [Illustration: Publisher's logo] NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BIRD OF ILL-OMEN 11 II. THE HEADSMAN'S FAMILY 18 III. A CHILDISH MALEFACTOR 44 IV. A DIVINE VISITATION 56 V. THE UNBELOVED SON 62 VI. TWO FAMOUS PÆDAGOGUES 71 VII. A MAN OF IRON 93 VIII. THE POLISH WOMAN 121 IX. THE PLAGUE 175 X. A LEADER OF THE PEOPLE 189 XI. THE FIRST SPARK 210 XII. IN THE MIDST OF THE FIRE 236 XIII. THE LEATHER-BELL 25O XIV. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH 264 XV. OIL UPON THE WATERS 277 XVI. 'TIS WELL THAT THE NIGHT IS BLACK 291 XVII. THE VOICE OF THE LORD 326 XVIII. THE READY-DUG GRAVES 336 PREFACE. "Szomorú Napok" was written in the darkest days of Maurus Jókai's life, and reflects the depression of a naturally generous and sanguine nature bowed down, for a time, beneath an almost unendurable load of unmerited misfortune. The story was written shortly after the collapse of the Magyar Revolution of 1848-49, when Hungary lay crushed and bleeding under the heel of triumphant Austria and her Russian ally; when, deprived of all her ancient political rights and liberties, she had been handed over to the domination of the stranger, and saw her best and noblest sons either voluntary exiles, or suspected rebels under police surveillance. Jókai also was in the category of the proscribed. He had played a conspicuous part in the Revolution; he had served his country with both pen and sword; and, now that the bloody struggle was over, and the last Honved army had surrendered to the Russians, Jókai, disillusioned and broken-hearted, was left to piece together again as best he might, the shattered fragments of a ruined career.