CHAPTER XXI.
THE HUNTED BEAST Such a piece of audacity could not be overlooked.
That a robber horseman should in the middle of the nineteenth century and within the confines of a civilized state take it into his head to attack, in broad daylight, post wagons defended by a strong escort of regular soldiers--was a thing unheard of.
The news spread like lightning through the six confederated counties and everyone seized his sword and musket.

So old Gerzson Satrakovics whom everybody had laughed at, was right after all.

It was universally agreed that a stop must be put to this sort of thing once for all.

There was no waiting now for the meetings of Quarter Sessions.

The lord-lieutenants of the counties proclaimed the _statarium_,[47] called out the _banderia_[48] and gathered together the county _pandurs_[49] and the militia, in order by their combined efforts, to extirpate the evil without having recourse to the assistance of the military--a measure always repugnant to the freedom-loving Magyars.
[Footnote 47: A decree authorizing summary procedure.] [Footnote 48: Mounted gentry.] [Footnote 49: Police.] Squire Gerzson was elected the leader of this vast hunt, whose area extended over hundreds of square miles, by all the six counties concerned--it was generally felt that this was but due to him for the neglect of his warnings--and Mr.Gerzson proved on this occasion that if he was not a great strategist, at any rate he was a great beater up of game.