THE BLOODY COUNTESS: Atrocities Of Erzsebet Bathory by Valentine Penrose

Author:Valentine Penrose [Penrose, Valentine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Atrocity
ISBN: 9781909923423
Published: 2013-10-22T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The marriage of Judith Thurzó, second daughter of György Thurzó, Grand Palatine, and related to Erzsébet Báthory through his second wife, Erzsébet Czóbor, was celebrated in full splendour in November, 1607. Thus, contrary to the usual practice (for marriages generally took place in the springtime), Judith Thurzó’s wedding took place at the beginning of those long nights of ice and snow, at Bicse, on the River Vág, a village of woodcutters, its narrow streets lined with little houses of lath and whitewashed plaster, along the river past long trains of trees which came from forests of the Tatras. As elsewhere in the country, the houses of the village were huddled together in the shadow of the castle on the hillside. This ancient castle had been pillaged and held to ransom by bandits in the lifetime of György Thurzó himself. The ransom was by no means insignificant: eighty thousand Gulden (florins). But the Palatine was only momentarily impoverished, for he owned a gold mine in the region. The bandits had set fire to the castle as they left and half of it had burned to the ground. This provided the opportunity for rebuilding and it was transformed into a magnificent dwelling full of precious things and usually ringing with the sounds of banqueting. For Thurzó, very much in love with his second wife, wished her to be as happy as possible during those periods when he was forced to leave her behind at Bicse.

Erzsébet Báthory, used as she was to a very exalted and luxu rious standard of living, was nevertheless most impressed each time she travelled as far as Biscevár. She accepted the invita tion which had been extended to all the relations.

The father of several girls, the Palatine had had a building constructed in such a manner as to be specially fitted for the celebration of their successive marriages. Its principal feature was an elevated chamber into which daylight poured through the many windows: the ballroom.

On the first floor, a vast hall with naked stone walls, with beams painted in vivid colours in the Italian fashion. On the walls, draperies of velvet and damask with red designs. A long table filled one end of the room, with seats round about and cushions here and there. The bedrooms were small, except for the bridal chamber which had two fireplaces facing one another at either end, and, in the middle, a great canopied bed which could be hermetically sealed by drawing the curtains around it. And despite the fires and the candelabra loaded with candles, in spite of the carpets and the bearskins scattered all over the place, it was icily cold in that bedchamber.

Throughout the short winter’s day, the grey light had difficulty in passing through the lead-mounted greenish glass of the windows. From high up in the walls the great complex coats of arms, the shapes of scarcely discernible beasts coiling round about them, dominated the hall even down below.

Erzsébet’s room too was vast and cold; everything in

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