"Go home to your mother at Bodola, and learn to bear your fate nobly."
He then took the seal out of the hand of the death-stricken old man and hurried back into the hall just as Tököli had finished his speech, causing a terrible effect on the entire assembly. The French ambassador pressed his hand. Beldi took his place at the Szeklers' table and laid down the seal. He was universally respected and when they saw that he was ready to speak there was perfect silence.
"See," he said in excited tones; "a desolated village sends here to the country its official seal by its last inhabitant, and he too is at the point of death. . . . Of such villages there are already enough in Transylvania and in time there may be still more. Famine and war have laid waste the most beautiful portions of our country. . . . This seal, my lords, you must not forget to place among the symbols of your victories."
These last words Beldi uttered hardly above a whisper yet they were heard in every corner of the hall, so deep a silence reigned. A tremor passed over the faces of the men.
"Outside the door I hear some one weeping," Beldi went on with quivering lips. "It is my own daughter, the wife of Paul Wesselenyi, who has been driven from her country and who has thrown herself sobbing at my feet that I in revenge for her wrongs may allow retaliation to prevail. . . . And I say to you, let my child weep, let her perish, let me—and if necessary my entire family, be set apart for destruction, but let nobody in Transylvania suffer on account of my sorrow—even if every one of you has agreed to the war—I am against it—My lords—do not forget, I pray you, to lay among your trophies this seal, and soon the rest too."
When he had spoken, Beldi took his place again. Long after his words were ended the silence of the grave reigned throughout the hall. Teleki, ascribing this silence to disapproval rose, sure of his position, and made the states give their votes. But this one time he had not taken the public pulse correctly, for the majority of the states, affected by the previous scene voted for peace, so great was the influence of Beldi and Banfy still over the country.
Teleki looked in confusion toward his son-in-law. The latter muttered bitterly with clenched fists and tears in his eyes:
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."
When the assembly had broken up Forval and Nicholas Bethlen met.
"So then there is no future hope of seeing Transylvania take up arms," said the Frenchman, somewhat dejectedly.