Note 60 — Chapter 4

Dr. P. Darasz told me the following incident which occurred to him. He took part in the rising of 1831, when he was a medical student. After the taking of Warsaw, the company in which he served crossed the frontier, and in small groups were making their way to France. Everywhere on their way people came out on to the road, to invite the exiles to their houses, offering them their rooms, often their beds. In one little town the woman in whose house he was sheltered noticed that his tobacco pouch, I think it was, was torn and took it to mend. Next day on the road Darasz, feeling in the pouch something unusual, found two gold pieces sewn up in it. Darasz, who had not a farthing, rushed back to restore the money. At first the woman denied it, declaring that she knew nothing about it; then she began to cry and to beg Darasz to keep the money. One must remember what two gold pieces mean to a woman of humble means in a little German town: they probably represented the fruits of putting away in the Sparbüchse of various kreutzers and pfennigs, good and bad farthings, over many years.... Good-bye to all dreams of a silk dress, of a coloured mantilla, of a brilliant shawl! I kneel in homage before such sacrifices.—(Author’s Note.)