my kinsman is on it!"

"You do not approve it? I did not wish it;" stammered Apafi. "The
lords compelled me to it."

The Princess clasped her hands together and looked at her husband in
despair.

"You have brought blood on our family, a curse on the country, a curse
on me that I did not leave you to die in the hands of the Tartars.
Even virtue becomes through you a crime!"

Apafi was contrite. In the presence of his wife all his spirit was
gone.

"I did not want to kill him"--he stammered. "I do not now either--and
if you wish I will grant him amnesty. Take my seal ring; send a rider
to Bethlen after Csaki; show favor to your kinsman and leave me in
peace."

The Princess called in a piercing voice, "Who is here?" Among the
courtiers who hurried forward, the steward was the first.

"Take four of the Prince's racers," said Anna, meanwhile she wrote the
pardon with her own hand, had her husband sign it and stamped it with
the seal. "Take this letter and hurry with it to Bethlen castle. If
the horse falls under you, take another. Do not delay a minute
anywhere; a human life is in your hands."

The grooms led up the racers. The steward mounted one, fastening the
rest by the bridle, and chased away.

* * * * *

At about the same hour, perhaps the same minute, Paul Beldi called out
to his groom the order to mount the swiftest horse and ride to Bethlen
and say to the castle warder that he would cut his head off if Banfy
received the least harm at Bethlen. He too did not wish to meet his
wife in this hour.

And perhaps in the same hour, perhaps in the same minute, Teleki
pressed the hand of his future son-in-law Emerich Toekoeli, and
whispered in his ear;--"We are one step nearer;" under the pressure of
the youth's iron hand the betrothal ring that bound him to Teleki's
daughter broke, and Teleki regarded it almost as a prophecy that the
hand of the youth should be stronger than his.

All Transylvania was alarmed that night. Wolfgang Bethlen could not
sleep in his bed the whole night through. Stephen Apor grew so uneasy
that he had to make confession: Kornis became so confused on the
familiar road home that he was compelled to spend the night under his
carriage. And what took place in the heavens? About midnight a shower
came up; such that the oldest inhabitant could not recall its like.
The lightning set fire to forests and towers, and floods poured from
the riven clouds. The ala