The Slaves of the Padishah Part 5

"I don't see it in that light. This irritability will do you no good."

"On the contrary it keeps me up. If I had not always given vent to my feelings I should have been lying on a sick-bed long ago. Take these few thalers, go after that good-for-nothing, and tell him that I am very angry with him, and therefore he must try in future to deserve my confidence better, in which case I shall not forget him. Tell him to wait in the gate for the letter I am about to write, and when once he has it in his hand let him get out of Transylvania as speedily as he can. Remind him that I don't yet know about what happened in the square at Klausenberg, and if I did know I would have him flogged out of the realm; so let him look sharp about it."

Nalaczi laughed and went out.

Teleki sank back exhausted on his pillows, and made his page rub the back of his neck violently with a piece of flannel.

At that instant the Prince entered. His face was wrath, and all because of his sympathy. He began scolding Teleki on the very threshold.

"Why don't you lie down when I command you? Does it beseem a grown-up man like you to be as disobedient as a capricious child? Why don't you send for the doctor; why don't you be blooded?"

"There is nothing the matter with me, your Highness. It is only a little _haemorrhoidalis alteratio_. I am used to it. It always plagues me at the approach of the equinoxes."

"Ai, ai, Michael Teleki, you don't get over me. You are very ill, I tell you. Your mental anxiety has brought about this physical trouble. Does it become a Christian man, I ask, to take on so because my little friend Flora cannot have one particular man out of fifteen wooers, and a fellow like Emeric, too--a mere dry stick of a man."

"I don't give it any particular importance."

"You are a bad Christian, I tell you, if you say that. You love neither G.o.d nor man; neither your family, nor me----"

"Sir!" said Teleki, in a supplicating voice.

"For if you did love us, you would spare yourself and lie down, and not get up again till you were quite well again."

"But if I lie down----"

"Yes, I know--other things will have a rest too. The bottom of the world isn't going to fall out, I suppose, because you keep your bed for a day or two. Come! look sharp! I will not go till I see you lying on your bed."

What could Teleki do but lie down at the express command of his Sovereign.

"And you won't get up again without my permission, mind," said the Prince, signalling to young Cserei, and addressing the remainder of his discourse to him. "And you, young man, take care that your master does not leave his bed, do you hear? I command it, and, till he is quite well, don't let him do any hard work, whether it be reading, writing, or dictation. You have my authorisation to prevent it, and you must rigorously do your duty. You will also allow n.o.body to enter this room, except the doctor and the members of the family. Now, mind what I say!

As for you, Master Teleki, you will wrap yourself well up and get yourself well rubbed all over the body with a woollen cloth, clap a mustard poultice on your neck and keep it there as long as you can bear it, and towards evening have a hot bath, with salt and bran in it; and if you won't have a vein opened put six leeches on your temples, and the doctor will tell you what else to do. And in any case don't fail to take some of these _pilulae de cynoglosso_. Their effect is infallible."

Whereupon the Prince pressed into Teleki's hand a box full of those harmless medicaments which, under the name of dog's-tongue pills, were then the vogue in all domestic repositories.

"All will be well, your Highness."

"Let us hope so! Towards evening I will come and see you again."

And then the Prince withdrew with an air of satisfaction, thinking that he had given the fellow a good frightening.

Scarce had he closed the door behind him than Teleki beckoned to Cserei to bring him the letters which had just arrived.

The page regarded him dubiously. "The Prince forbade me to do so," he observed conscientiously.

"The Prince loves to have his joke," returned the counsellor. "I like my joke, too, when I've time for it. Break open those letters and read them to me."

"But what will the Prince say?"

"It is I who command you, my son, not the Prince. Read them, I say, and don't mind if you hear me groan."

Cserei looked at the seal of one of the letters and durst not break it open.

"Your Excellency, that is a _secretum sigillum_."

"Break it open like a man, I say. Such secrets are not dangerous to you; you are a child to be afraid of such things."

Cserei opened the letter, and glancing at the signature, stammered in a scarce audible voice: "Leopoldus."[5]

[Footnote 5: _i.e._ the Emperor Leopold.]

Teleki, resting on his elbows, listened attentively.

"YOUR HIGHNESS AND MY WELL-DISPOSED FRIEND--I have heard from Baron Mendenzi Kopp and worthy Master Kaszonyi of your Excellency's good dispositions towards me and Christendom, and your readiness to help in the present disturbances. All my own efforts will be directed to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the Christian Princes, so that there may not be the slightest occasion that the Turkish War should extend, and that the whole power of the Ottoman Empire should be hurled on me and my dominions. But I hope that the fury of these barbarians, by the combination of the foreign kings and princes, shall, with G.o.d's a.s.sistance, be so opposed and thwarted as to make them turn back from the league of the combined faithful hosts. Meanwhile, I a.s.sure your Excellency and the Estates of Transylvania of my protection, so long as you continue well-disposed towards me, and I entrust the maintenance of this good understanding between us to Messrs. the ill.u.s.trious Baron Kopp and the Honourable Mr. Kaszonyi. Wishing your Excellency good health and all manner of good fortune, etc., etc."

Cserei looked at the doors and windows in terror, for fear someone might be listening.

"And now let us read the second letter."

Cserei's top-knot regularly began to sweat when he recognised at the bottom of the opened letter the signature of the Grand Vizier, who thus wrote to the Prince:

"MOST ILl.u.s.tRIOUS PRINCE, HEARTY LOVE AND GREETING!--We would inform thee of our grace and favour that we have sent a part of our army to the a.s.sistance of the imprisoned heroes in our most mighty master the Sultan's fortress of Nyitra, where the faithless foe are besieging them. It is therefore necessary that thou with thy whole host and all the necessary muniments of war should hasten thither without loss of time, so as to unite both in heart and deed with our warriors, who are on their way against the enemy. We believe that by the grace of G.o.d thou wilt be ready to render useful service to the mighty Sultan, and so be ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate in his favour and liberality. We, moreover, after the end of the solemn feast days which we are wont to keep after our fasts are over, will follow our advance guards with our countless hosts, and thou meanwhile must manfully take this business in hand, so that thy loyalty may shine the more gloriously in martial deeds. Peace be to those who are in the obedience of G.o.d."

Poor Cserei, when he had read this letter through, had a worse fit of ague than his master. He anxiously watched the face of the statesman, but the only thing visible in his features was bodily suffering. There was no sign of mental disturbance.

The blood flew to his face, the veins were throbbing visibly in his temples.

"Come hither, my son," he said in a scarcely audible voice; "bring me a gla.s.s of water, put into it as much rhubarb powder as would go on the edge of a knife, and give it me to drink."

Cserei fancied that the sick Premier had not mastered the contents of the letter because of a fresh access of fever, and, having prepared the rhubarb water in a few moments, gave it him to drink, whereupon Teleki crouched down beneath his coverlet. He could have done nothing better, for now the ague burst forth again, so that he regularly shivered beneath its attack. Cserei wanted to run for a doctor.

"Whither are you going?" asked Teleki. "Fetch ink and parchment, and write."

The lad obeyed his command marvelling.

"Bring hither the round table and sit down beside it. Write what I tell you."

The pen shook in the lad's hand, and he kept dipping it into the sand instead of into the ink.

Teleki, in a broken voice, dictated a letter as well as the fever would allow him.

"MOST EXALTED GRAND VIZIER AND WELL-BELOVED SIR,--We learn from your Highness's dispatch that the armies of the Sublime Sultan who have lately been besieging the fortress of Nyitra are now endeavouring to combine their forces, and though this realm has but a meagre possession of the muniments of war remaining to it, we shall be prepared most punctually to hold at your Highness's gracious disposition as much, though it be but little, forage, hay, and other necessary stores as we still possess, you making allowance for all inevitable defects and shortcomings. Moreover, rumour has it that the hostile hosts are beginning to show themselves on the borders of Transylvania, which irruption, though it be no secret, is yet to be confirmed, and should it be so we must meet it with all our attention and energy. As to this your Highness shall be informed in good time, and in the meanwhile we commit you to G.o.d's gracious favour, etc., etc."

Cserei sighed and thought to himself: "I wonder whence all the hay and oats is to come?"

But Teleki knew very well that in consequence of last year's bad harvests and inundations the Turkish army was suffering severely from want of hay, so that what with him was an occasion for delay, with them was an occasion for hurrying--whence we may draw the reflection that the great events of this world are built upon hayc.o.c.ks!

"Address the second letter," continued Teleki, "to his Excellency Baron Mendenzi Kopp and to the honourable Achatius Kaszonyi, commandants of the fortress of Szathmar," and he thus went on dictating to Cserei, whilst in the intervals of silence the groans which the ague forced from his breast were distinctly audible.

"With joy we learn of the intention of your Honours to endeavour to seize one of the gates of entrance of the enemy of our faith, through which he was always ready to come for our destruction. May the G.o.d of mercy forward the designs of your Excellencies. If, on this occasion, your Excellencies could also find time to make a feigned attack upon Transylvania in order to give us a reasonable excuse of our inability to lend the Turks the a.s.sistance they expect from us, you would make matters easier for us, and render us an essential service. On the other hand, if we should be compelled against our wills to send our soldiers against the Christian camp, in conjunction with the enemies of our faith, we a.s.sure your Excellencies that our host will be a purely nominal one, etc., etc.