Of course the first rain would wash away the earth and leave as
nice a hole as you could wish your enemy to put his foot into. For all
purposes of traffic the bridge was safer with the honest gap yawning in
the traveller's face.
It is said that the magistrates make matters easy and convenient for the
peasants, if the latter, by being let off public work, attend
gratuitously to the more pressing wants of the individual magistrate.
"You see, nobody suffers but the Government," says the man of easy
conscience, not seeing that, after all, the good condition of the roads
concerns themselves more than the officials in the capital.
In many things the Hungarians are like children, and they have not yet
grown out of the idea that it is patriotic to be unruly. The fact is,
the Central Government was so long in the hands of the Vienna Cabinet,
who were obnoxious in the highest degree to the Hungarians, that the
latter cannot get the habit of antagonism out of their minds, though the
reconciliation carried through by Deak in 1867 entirely restored
self-government to Hungary. "What do we want with money?" said a
gentleman of the old school. "Money is only useful for paying taxes, and
if we have not got it for that purpose, never mind!"
On leaving Petroseny the route I proposed to myself was to take the
bridle-path over the mountains to Herrmannstadt. But in following this
out, I omitted to visit the Castle of Hunyad--a great mistake, for
castles are rare in this part of Europe, and the romantic and singular
position of Schloss Hunyad renders it quite unique in a way.
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