"Forgiveness," echoed Radonic, for the third time.
The dancers, who had again begun to walk in rhythmic step around the room, forming a kind of chassez-croisez, stopped, and the music died away in a low moan.
There was a moment of eager theatrical expectation. The murdered man's brother seemed undecided as to what he had to do; at last, after an inward struggle, he yielded to his better feelings, and going up to Radonic, he took him by the hand, lifted him up and kissed him on his forehead.
A sound of satisfaction, like a sigh of relief, passed through the assembly; but then Vranic said, in a voice which he tried to render sweet and soft:
"Listen, all of you. This man, who has hitherto been my bitterest enemy, has now become my friend; nay, more than my friend, my very brother, and not to me alone, but to all who were related to my beloved brother. All shall forego every wish or idea of revenge, now and hereafter."
Thereupon, taking a very small silver coin, he cut it in two, gave Radonic half, and kept the other for himself, as a pledge of the friendship he had just sworn.
When peace had been restored, and everybody had drunk to Radonic's and Vranic's health, then the Starescina, or the oldest arbitrator, whose judgment was paramount, stood up and made a speech, in which he uttered the decision of the jury and the sentence of the karvarina, that is to say, that, taking into consideration all the extenuating circumstances under which the murder had been committed, Radonic was to pay to Vranic the sum of a silver Maria Theresa dollar, the usual price of a goat.
"What!" cried the tailor, in a fit of unsuppressed rage; "do you mean to say that my brother's life was only worth that of a goat?"
A slight, subdued tittering was heard amongst the crowd; for, indeed, it was almost ludicrous to see the little man, pale, trembling and almost green with rage.
"No," quoth the umpire, gravely; "I never said that your brother's life was worth that of a whole herd or of a single goat; the price that we, arbitrators named by you, have condemned Radonic to pay is a silver dollar. Put yourself in the murderer's place, and tell us what you would have done."