"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 nobility,—that we cannot let pass in any such way. He has recently taken a violent course against the noble 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 massacred; and then he himself assembles 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 glass 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 assemble, 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."