"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 nobleman?—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 nobles of the country to agree to Banfy's arrest and to stand by the league before any legal steps are taken."