The Golden Age in Transylvania Part 31

"I would have you understand, Dionysius, that I am a heavy Szekler. If by chance I should happen to fall on you I should crush you so that you would not again on this earth sound your horn."

"What foolishness is this?" said the Prince, coming between them. "I am surprised at my lords. Drink now! Inter pocula non sunt seria tractanda!"

And the Prince compelled the two great lords to approach each other and placed the hand of the one in that of the other. Then he let the matter rest and went on, thinking that it was only a quarrel over the cups.

But Teleki observed that after this scene both lords left the hall, and soon learned that they had gone away from Karlsburg suddenly, so giving free play to the further plans of the minister. Teleki and his faithful men remained alone with the intoxicated Prince.

"Drink, my lords, be merry!" said Apafi. "Let not a man of you leave me! Who has gone already?"

"Beldi!" shouted several.

"Very well, the poor fellow has not seen his wife for a long time; let him go to her. And who else?"

"Banfy!"

"Hm! He too! Why did he go?"

"He went home to reign," said Ladislaus Szekeli, scornfully; he was one of Teleki's creatures.

"He cannot stay in a place where he feels that any one is his superior," Nalaczy added.

"Just to please his Excellency I am sure I shall not lay down the Prince's crown."

"That he does not need at all," Teleki rejoined. "He knows how to rule in Transylvania without a crown. What he commands the country must comply with, and what the country commands he pushes aside with disdain."

"I should like to see him!" muttered Apafi, angrily.

"And yet 'tis so. We wish war, he does not, and we must yield. We wish peace and it occurs to him to carry on war at his own expense with our ally. The throne is ours, the country his."

"Do not say that, my lord Michael Teleki."

"Do you too speak for me, Nalaczy. What answer did he make in the affair of Zolyomi?"

"He sent word," Nalaczy made haste to take up the conversation,--"that if the country demanded back from him the Gyalu property for Zolyomi he would like in exchange the Szamosujvar estate."

"What!" cried the Prince. "The estate which the country set apart for my revenue? my own princely income?"

"So he said; and otherwise he will not consent even if Zolyomi should set the Turk against us this very day."

"I will soon settle that with him. Not another word, my lords."

"The affront to the Prince," Teleki joined in, "your Highness may overlook as long as it pleases you, but Banfy's conduct toward the people, toward the n.o.bility,--that we cannot let pa.s.s in any such way.

He has recently taken a violent course against the n.o.ble lady Szent-Pali;--the ancestral house of the poor widow offended the house of my great lord because it interfered with the view from his palace; at once he ordered the poor woman's house to be appraised and pulled down. The authorities gave her a letter of protection but my lord tore this in two and ordered the work of destruction to go on and the home of the poor widow's ancestors to be razed to the ground. The country might build it up again if it chose, he said. Such a deed in ordinary times my lord, costs the doer his head."

Apafi was silent. The flame of anger leaped into his eyes.

"But that was not all," continued Teleki; "the insult of the individual vanishes when the fate of the country is at stake. This great lord who knows so well how to talk about the blessings of peace--let us see how he exerts himself for its maintenance. He takes the sword out of our hand, closes our lips that we may not raise any protestations because Kecskemet has been burned to ashes and its inhabitants ma.s.sacred; and then he himself a.s.sembles an army and incites the Turks to war against the country while we are unable to make such royal gifts as might have some effect against his schemes.

Three letters have come to us, one from the Pasha of Nagy Varad, another from the General of the forces at Ofen and the third from the Sultan himself, in all of which satisfaction is demanded of us for the defeat which the Pasha of Nagy Varad suffered at the hands of Banfy, or else an indemnity of a hundred and fifty thousand piastres. Since it is useless to talk of satisfaction with Banfy will it please your Highness to consider where we can raise the money demanded?"

"Nowhere!" said Apafi, furiously, breaking his gla.s.s against the table. "I will show that I am in a position to gain satisfaction from any man even one so mighty as Banfy."

"Then I could wish that your Highness would acquaint us with the manner of this satisfaction, for we know that Banfy will not appear if summoned. If we should compel him by force he has shown that he alone is stronger than the whole country. He orders the countries to a.s.semble, the frontier troops to march, and we might have the same experience that my lord Ladislaus Csaki had when Banfy seized the official sent for his arrest and held us up to ridicule."

"What would you counsel, since you know how to give counsel in such affairs?" Apafi asked, with annoyance.

"I know of only one remedy that will heal the evil thoroughly."

"Prescribe it. What are the means?"

"The jus ligatum."

In spite of his drunkenness Apafi shrank from this suggestion; he threw himself into an armchair and gazed fixedly at Teleki.

"Are you not ashamed?" he mumbled in the broken sentences of the drunken--"to propose a secret league against a free n.o.bleman?--in violation of the fundamental law of our country to bind yourself in secret against him?"

"The shame does not fall on me," replied Teleki, quietly and steadily, "it rests rather in the fact that the country has not sufficient power to bring a rebel to justice; that in our fatherland there is a man who can openly defy the law and deride the decisions of the Prince. When in such a case there is no alternative except the jus ligatum, the shame for such a state of affairs does not fall upon me but on the Prince!"

Apafi sprang from his seat in anger and paced the room with long strides. The lords watched him in deep silence. At length he stopped beside Teleki and leaning on the back of his chair asked:

"How do you think the league can be brought about?" Nalaczy and Szekeli smiled at each other; evidently the idea had impressed the Prince. Teleki motioned to Szekeli to bring writing materials and a roll of parchment and arranging these before him replied:

"We will draw up at once the counts of the indictment that can be brought against Banfy; your Highness shall sign them and in secret we will win over the n.o.bles of the country to agree to Banfy's arrest and to stand by the league before any legal steps are taken."

At this many of the lords present began to chew their beards thoughtfully. Teleki noticed the movement and said pertinently:

"As I observe that n.o.body here has the courage to give his signature first, I have a man all ready who alone is in a position so far as power is concerned to oppose Banfy and when once this man has signed all the rest will follow."

"Who is that?" asked Apafi.

"Paul Beldi," was the answer.

The Prince shook his head.

"He will not do it. He is far too honorable a man." These words spoken in the bravery of his intoxication threw Teleki completely out of his composure.

"Are we then planning a dishonorable action?" he demanded of the Prince, vehemently.

"What I meant to say was that he would not voluntarily begin action against anybody, for he is a peace-loving man."

"But I know his weak spot which you have only to touch with your little finger to rouse him to blows and make a lion out of a lamb. I will bring him to the point."

At this moment the door opened and to the astonishment of all the Princess entered. This time her appearance was no chance. It was easy to see by the excitement in her face that she knew well what had happened. The lords grew confused and Apafi himself was so dismayed, in spite of the irascibility incident to his drunkenness, that he whispered to Teleki,

"Put that paper aside."

Teleki alone remained composed and instead of putting it aside spread it out the more.

"What are my lords doing?" asked Madame Apafi; she was pale and her bosom heaved.