The company urged Haller to lose no time in passing the joke on. "There is not much to tell," said Haller, shrugging his shoulders. "It is only that Ali Pasha has proclaimed Michael Apafi Prince of Transylvania." "Ha! ha! ha!" resounded on all sides. The Prince, with comic affectation, turned first to one and then to the other. "Who is the individual? Does any one know him? Has anybody ever heard of him?" Lady Banfi turned pale and clung tightly to her husband's arm, who leaned his elbow on the table and replied with sublime indifference-- "The poor devil is, I believe, a very distant connection of mine. He has married some relation or other of my wife's. He was for a long time a slave among the Tartars, and the Turks (being wroth with us just now) have no doubt only released him on condition that he allows himself to be made Prince. He must be clean out of his senses." At this all the gentlemen laughed still more loudly than before. "Well, we'll go and inaugurate him," said Kemeny sarcastically, throwing back his head. "That has already been done, your Highness," put in Haller. "Where? By whom?" asked the good-humoured Prince, with arched eyebrows. "At Kis-Selyk, by the Diet!" Kemeny intimated by a wave of his hand and a contraction of his eyebrows that this explanation was not quite clear to him. "Who then were present? Where were the Estates? All the men of any importance in the land are here with us." "There were Stephen Apafi, Nalaczi, Kun, Daczo, and some two hundred Szeklers." "Well, we'll go and count them as soon as we have disposed of our other affairs," said the Prince contemptuously. "Pray give Master Haller a chair!" "But they are not awaiting us there. They are marching against us. By this time they must be at Segesvar." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Kemeny. "I suppose, then, Master Michael Apafi thinks to drive us out of the country with his couple of hundred Szeklers." But now Wenzinger rose from his chair, and remarked with soldierly precision-- "Does your Highness wish me to concentrate the army? We have eight thousand armed men, and, if it please your Highness, we will disperse this mob of nondescripts so effectually that not a couple of them shall remain together." "Keep your seat!" commanded Kemeny, who treated the whole affair with the most sovereign contempt. "Sit down again and drink! Let them come a little nearer! Why should we inconvenience ourselves by going out against them? We can then take the whole lot together bag and baggage. I much regret, my lord Denis Banfi, that this fellow is a kinsman of yours; but, out of regard for you, I will take care that he is not broken on the wheel--I will simply have him _stuffed_!" Kemeny's witticism was received with uproarious laughter. "Give Master Haller a glass. And you up there! go on playing where you left off."