The Decurio then locked the door, and, throwing himself upon the ground beside the two heads, he kissed them an hundred times, and sobbed like a child.
"I warned you not to go towards Hungary!" he said bitterly. "Why did you not hear me, unhappy children? why did you not take my word?" and he wept over his enemies' heads as if he had been their father.
He then rose, his eyes darting fire, and, shaking his terrible fist, he cried, in a voice hoarse with rage, "Czine mintye!"[27]
[27] Czine mintye!—a Wallachian term signifying revenge.
In a few hours, the Wallachians had assembled before the Decurio's house. They were about fifty or sixty, all wild, fearful-looking men.
Numa covered the two heads with a cloth, and laid them on the bed, after which he opened the door.
Lupuj entered last.
"Lock the door," said Numa, when they were all in; "we must not be interrupted;" and, making them stand in a circle, he looked round at them all, one by one.
"Are you all here?" he asked at last.
"Not one is absent."