ll be divided among the rest."

The Wallachians hastened to seek their comrades with cries of joy.

The Decurio then locked the door, and, throwing himself upon the
ground beside the two heads, he kissed them an hundred times, and
sobbed like a child.

"I warned you not to go towards Hungary!" he said bitterly. "Why did
you not hear me, unhappy children? why did you not take my word?" and
he wept over his enemies' heads as if he had been their father.

He then rose, his eyes darting fire, and, shaking his terrible fist,
he cried, in a voice hoarse with rage, "Czine mintye!"[27]

[Footnote 27: _Czine mintye!_--a Wallachian term signifying revenge.]

In a few hours, the Wallachians had assembled before the Decurio's
house. They were about fifty or sixty, all wild, fearful-looking men.

Numa covered the two heads with a cloth, and laid them on the bed,
after which he opened the door.

Lupuj entered last.

"Lock the door," said Numa, when they were all in; "we must not be
interrupted;" and, making them stand in a circle, he looked round at
them all, one by one.

"Are you all here?" he asked at last.

"Not one is absent."

"Do you consider yourselves all equally deserving of sharing _the
booty_?"

"All of us."

"It was you," he continued, turning to Lupuj, "who struck down the old
man?"

"It was."

"And you who pierced the magnate with a spike?"

"You are right, leader."

"And you really killed all the women in the castle?" turning to a
third.

"With my own hand."

"And one and all of you can boast of having massacred, and plundered,
and set on fire?"

"All! all!" they cried, striking their breasts.

"Do not lie before Heaven. See! your wives are listening at the
window to what you say, and will betray you if you do not speak the
truth."

"We speak truth!"

"It is well!" said the leader, as he calmly approached the bed; and,
seating himself on it, uncovered the two heads and placed them on his
knees. "Where did you put their bodies?" he asked.

"We cut them in pieces, and strewed them on the highroad."

There was a short silence. Numa's breathing became more and more
oppressed, and his large chest heaved convulsively. "Have you prayed
yet?" he asked, in an altered voice.

"Not yet, leader. What should we pray for?" said Lupuj.

"Fall down on your knees and pray, for this is the last morning which
will dawn on any of you again."

"Are you in your senses, leader? What are you going to d