"Jova!" she said, "speak the truth! What's the matter with your master? What have you seen and heard?"
"It is a great trouble, my lady. God deliver us from it! We only escaped destruction at the battle of St. Gothard by not standing up against the Magyars. But what were we to do? Christian cannot fight against Christian, for then should we be fighting against God. The Turkish army was badly beaten there. And now the Vizier of Buda, that he may wash himself clean, for the Sultan is very wroth, wants to cast the whole blame of the affair on the head of the Prince."
"Great Heaven! And what will be the result?"
"Well, it would not be a bad thing if your Highnesses were to withdraw somewhere or other for a time to give the Sultan's wrath time to cool."
"To my father's, eh? in Wallachia?"
"Well, a little farther than that, I should say."
"True, we might go to Transylvania; we have lots of good friends there."
"Even there it might not be as well to stay. You would do well to make a journey to Poland."
"Do you suppose the danger to be so great then?"
"God grant it be not so bad as I think it."