This was the "condemned cell," and to it many a kind-hearted housewife in those days was accustomed to send the pick of her larder, to provide a good dinner for those whose earthly meals were numbered--a form of charity at that time very much practised by the housekeepers of Pesth. "Now, Ráby, you can eat and drink to your heart's content," cried Janosics. "But it's no good trying to take any away with you, remember." And the gaoler pushed the table to the couch, so as to be within the reach of the prisoner. But Ráby had no appetite, and had other preoccupations than those of the table, to fill his mind just then. * * * * * Meanwhile, Ráby's message had not been forgotten by the heyduke to whom he had entrusted it. Old Abraham had taken it to the Emperor who, he heard, was laid up sick in the capital, and it had been promptly read and acted upon. Three days later, Colonel Lievenkopp, just appointed the commandant at Pesth, sought out the governor, and demanded immediate audience on urgent matters of state. He had, in fact, a message from the Emperor. "Thanks, Colonel, leave it there; I'll read it later on; there's no hurry," said his Excellency, airily, on receiving the imperial missive. "Unfortunately, there is hurry, your Excellency! I have orders to have the mandate read in my presence." The words staggered the governor. He, the virtual, if not the nominal ruler of Hungary, to be spoken to like this, and to have the law laid down in this fashion to him! "Hoity-toity! I have other things to do! Suppose, too, I am not inclined to read it?" "Then your Excellency will permit me to observe that I am empowered to proceed to extreme measures. In the event of your Excellency not reading that letter at once, I am commissioned to call in half a dozen officers of public health who are waiting outside, with a regimental surgeon, for the purpose of placing your Excellency in a strait-waistcoat, and escorting you to Vienna under surveillance--you will guess whither?" The governor's face became crimson with rage. "What do you say--For me, a strait-waistcoat? Me, the representative of the crown? Do you mean to say the Emperor said that, that he has written it? Impossible, man, impossible!" And he tore the letter out of the envelope, and read its contents. They were short, and his eyes became suddenly blood-shot as he read as follows: "From to-day you are relieved of your office: make over your keys to the district commissioner at once. "JOSEPH." "And I have Mathias Ráby to thank for this," groaned his Excellency.