"I humbly beg——"
"Don't beg anything. Here have I, worse luck, been entrusting you with a small commission, in order that you might impart some wholesome information to the people, and instead of that you go and fool them with all sorts of old wives' stories."
"Begging your Excellency's pardon, I thought——"
"Thought? What business had you to think? You thought, perhaps, you were doing me a service with your nonsense, eh?"
"Mr. Nalaczi said as much, your Excellency."
Mr. Nalaczi seemed to be sitting on thorns all this while.
"Now just see what a big fool you are," interrupted Teleki. "Mr. Nalaczi may have told you, for what I know, that it might be well for you to use your influence with the common people by mentioning before them the wonders which have recently taken place, and thereby encouraging them to be loyal and friendly to each other, but I am sure he did not tell you to manufacture wonders on your own account, and terrify the people by spreading abroad rumours of coming war."
"I thought——" Here he stopped short, the worthy man was quite incapable at that moment of completing his sentence.
"Thought! You thought, I suppose, that just as I was collecting armies, you would do me a great service by preaching war? So far as I am concerned, I should like to see every sword buried in the earth."
"Begging your Excellency's pardon——"