you so that
you would not again on this earth sound your horn."

"What foolishness is this?" said the Prince, coming between them. "I
am surprised at my lords. Drink now! Inter pocula non sunt seria
tractanda!"

And the Prince compelled the two great lords to approach each other
and placed the hand of the one in that of the other. Then he let the
matter rest and went on, thinking that it was only a quarrel over the
cups.

But Teleki observed that after this scene both lords left the hall,
and soon learned that they had gone away from Karlsburg suddenly, so
giving free play to the further plans of the minister. Teleki and his
faithful men remained alone with the intoxicated Prince.

"Drink, my lords, be merry!" said Apafi. "Let not a man of you leave
me! Who has gone already?"

"Beldi!" shouted several.

"Very well, the poor fellow has not seen his wife for a long time; let
him go to her. And who else?"

"Banfy!"

"Hm! He too! Why did he go?"

"He went home to reign," said Ladislaus Szekeli, scornfully; he was
one of Teleki's creatures.

"He cannot stay in a place where he feels that any one is his
superior," Nalaczy added.

"Just to please his Excellency I am sure I shall not lay down the
Prince's crown."

"That he does not need at all," Teleki rejoined. "He knows how to rule
in Transylvania without a crown. What he commands the country must
comply with, and what the country commands he pushes aside with
disdain."

"I should like to see him!" muttered Apafi, angrily.

"And yet 'tis so. We wish war, he does not, and we must yield. We wish
peace and it occurs to him to carry on war at his own expense with our
ally. The throne is ours, the country his."

"Do not say that, my lord Michael Teleki."

"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, towa