KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY

CONTENTS.

I. MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE, 9
II. MISKA THE BEGGAR BOY, 21
III. "TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!" 32
IV. IN THE ROBBER'S NEST, 42
V. CAUGHT, 53
VI. I AM THE KING'S PAGE! 68
VII. SENT TO PRISON, 80
VIII. THE BEGGAR BOY'S SONG, 94
IX. THE KING'S WHIM, 109




KING MATTHIAS AND THE BEGGAR BOY.




CHAPTER I.

MR. SAMSON'S CASTLE.


Towards the close of a gloomy day in autumn, a very dusty traveller was
riding quietly up to a castle which stood perched on a height in one of
the northern counties of Hungary. A very extraordinary-looking castle it
was, if it was a castle at all, which one might be inclined to doubt;
for it looked more like a square block hewn by giants out of the ribs of
the mountain, and left to itself for centuries, until its walls had
become mouldy and moss-grown. One thing which gave it an odd appearance
was that, as far as could be seen, it had no roof; the fact being that
it was built round a quadrangle, and that the roof, or rather
half-roof, sloped downwards and inwards from the top of the outer walls.

But what was even more remarkable still was that the building had
neither door nor window in any one of its four sides; so that how the
inhabitants, if there were any, ever went in or out, was quite a
mystery.