"So he said, adding that he would not surrender the property even if Zolyomi saddled us with the Turks in consequence."
"Well, now we"ve had enough of him. Not a word more about it, gentlemen."
"The insult to the Turks your Highness might overlook," persisted Teleki, "but we really cannot look through our fingers any longer at the way in which he treats the gentry. The latest victim of his tyranny is Lady Saint Pauli. The poor widow"s ancestral dwelling was an eyesore to the great lord, because it spoiled the prospect from his palace windows; so he had the house appraised at his own valuation, and turned the poor lady out of doors. The magistrate gave her a letter of indemnity, but my Lord-Marshal tore the letter to pieces, and pulled down the poor widow"s sole possession, her ancestral dwelling-place. The Diet, he said, might build it up again if it felt so disposed. Such an act, sir, in ordinary times has been known to cost the doer thereof his head!"
Apafi was silent, but his bloodshot eyes began to glow savagely.
"But that is not all," continued Teleki; "outrages on individuals are of small account when the security of the whole realm is at stake. This great lord can speak very prettily about the blessings of peace, let us see now how he labours to uphold it. He takes the sword out of our hands and closes our mouths, while he himself collects an army and goads the Turk against us, well knowing that we have no money wherewith to buy the gifts necessary to counteract his vagaries. Now, three letters have reached us simultaneously--one from the Pasha of Grosswardein, another from the Pasha of Buda, and a third from the Sultan himself--demanding instant satisfaction, or an indemnity of three hundred purses of gold, for the defeat which the Pasha of Grosswardein has suffered at Banfi"s hands. As, however, we cannot expect Banfi to pay the indemnity, will it please your Highness to consider from whence such a large sum of money is to be procured?"
"From nowhither!" cried Apafi furiously, smashing his gla.s.s to pieces on the table. "I"ll show the world that I"m able to exact satisfaction from whomsoever I will, let him be even as mighty again as Denis Banfi."
"Then I wish your Highness would tell us how, for we know that Banfi will not appear to our summons, and we cannot compel him, for he has shown himself stronger than the whole realm. If we attempted to use force he would call out the banderia and the garrison troops, and then it might fare with us as it fared with Ladislaus Csaky--he would arrest the officers sent to arrest him, and expose us to universal derision."
"As our first counsellor, it is your province to give us good counsel in such cases," cried Apafi wrathfully.
"I only know of one remedy capable of curing the realm thoroughly of this disease."
"Then prescribe it. In what does your remedy consist?"
"In the _jus ligatum_."
Apafi, despite his semi-besotted state, instinctively shrunk back from such an expedient, and throwing himself into his arm-chair, looked blankly at Teleki.
"Are you not ashamed of yourself," he murmured in broken sentences, as tipsy people usually do, "to propose a secret conspiracy against a free n.o.bleman? To privily conspire against him is contrary to the law of the land."
"It is not my fault if the expedient is shameful," returned Teleki calmly and steadfastly; "but it is shameful that the law should not possess sufficient power to bring a rebel to book, and that one of our own subjects should be able to openly defy justice and laugh at the decrees of the Prince. If in such a state of things the _jus ligatum_ is our only means of defence, the shame falls not upon me but upon the Prince."
Apafi rose angrily from his seat and paced to and fro. The lords remained perfectly silent.
At last the Prince stopped short in front of Teleki, and, leaning on the back of his arm-chair, asked him--
"And how then do you propose to bring about this league?"
Nalaczi and Szekely exchanged a smile. It was plain that the idea had caught the Prince"s fancy. Teleki beckoned to Szekely to fetch him writing materials and a strip of parchment.
"We will quickly draw up the necessary articles of impeachment; your Highness will subscribe them, and we"ll secretly persuade the great men of the land to consent to Banfi"s arrest and join the league before any legal steps have been taken."
At these words many of the gentlemen present began to bite their moustaches and move uneasily in their chairs.
Teleki observed the movement, and added emphatically--
"I perceive that no one here has the courage to put down his name first on the list. Nevertheless I have already found a man, who in dignity and power is every whit Banfi"s equal, and when once he has subscribed the list, the other signatures will follow as a matter of course."
"And who may that be?" asked Apafi.
"Paul Beldi!"
The Prince shook his head.
"He won"t do it. He is much too honourable a man for that."
Wine-inspired as this sentence was, it completely ruffled Teleki"s equanimity. Turning vehemently upon the Prince he cried--
"Then you mean to imply that _we_ are acting dishonourably?"
"I meant to say that Beldi is never very willing to pick a quarrel with anybody. He is a peace-abiding man."
"But I know his sore point, and if you but touch it with the tip of your finger, he"ll answer with his clenched fist, and the lamb will become a lion. I"ll get him to----"
At that moment the door opened, and, to every one"s astonishment, the Princess entered the room.
Nevertheless, her appearance at this time was no freak of chance. You could see by her agitation that she was well aware of what was going on.
The lords were confused, and Apafi, despite his tipsy wrath, became so frightened when he beheld the pale face of his consort that he whispered to Teleki--
"For heaven"s sake put that doc.u.ment out of sight."
Only Teleki kept his countenance, and instead of hiding the parchment, ostentatiously spread it out before him.
"What are you doing?" asked the Princess. She was very pale, and her bosom heaved tempestuously.
"We are holding a council," replied Teleki grimly.
"A council?" repeated Anna, approaching nearer and nearer to the table.
"Yes; and we venture to ask your Highness by what right you intrude here, while we are deliberating over the most momentous affairs of state?" continued Teleki in a hard, dry tone.
"Deliberating over the most momentous affairs of state, eh?" repeated the lady, measuring Teleki with a searching look. Then with a loud, vibrating voice she exclaimed--"What mean these wine-cups then? You are holding a council of state when the head of the state is drunk, that you may sow discord and confusion."
Teleki sprang from his seat and turned towards the Prince--
"May it please your Highness to dismiss us. We perceive that a domestic scene is about to begin."
"Anna!" cried Apafi, scarlet with shame and wine, "leave the room this instant. We command it--and for a week to come do not presume to appear in our presence."
"Be it so, Apafi. I have nothing more to say to you, for you are not yourself; but to you, Mr. Chief-Counsellor, to you who are always sober, I have a word to say. I raised you from the dust; I helped you into the place where now you stand; you requite me by thrusting yourself between me and the Prince"s heart, for I find you in my way every time I approach my husband. You have taken the sceptre out of the Prince"s hand, and have subst.i.tuted for it the headsman"s sword; but let me tell you that if I cannot reach the Prince"s heart, I can, at least, step in the way of the sword, and as often as it descends, you will find me between the stroke and the victim!--And ye! Nalaczi and Szekely, enn.o.bled lackeys as you are, who cannot explain to yourselves how you became great lords, reflect that the wheel of Fortune debases as often as it exalts, and that as you treat others to-day so may others treat you to-morrow. And I say to you all, ye n.o.ble cavaliers, who seek your courage in your cups, bethink you and tremble at the thought, that not wine but innocent blood is foaming in the beakers that you hold in your hands! Shame, shame upon you all! who give wine to the Prince in order to ask blood of him. And now your Highness may add a couple of weeks to my term of banishment."
With these words, the Princess rapidly left the room. The lords were dumb, and dared not look at each other. But Teleki got up, closed the door, dipped his pen in the inkhorn, and said--
"And now we will go on where we left off."
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH FOR A KISS.
Paul Beldi went straight from Fehervar to Bodola: all the way he was tortured by the thought which Teleki"s words had revived.