ourts to buy the house and move it off."

"We did not yield. You are quite right. A true nobleman does not sell
his property gained by heritage. It belongs to me and within my four
walls neither country nor Prince has any authority over me--not even
you, General!"

"I certainly did not demand this noble ruin of you for nothing. I
offered you ten thousand florins for it. For that sum of money I could
have bought the entire gypsy quarter, and yet there is not a single
house in it so dilapidated as yours."

"Let my lord keep his money. I do not give up my house. Two hundred
years ago an ancestor of mine built it. Cease, I beg, your scornful
words. I was born there; my father and my mother were buried from
there. If it offends your Grace's sense of beauty to look down from
your magnificent palace upon the roof of my poor house, yet it does me
good to be able to live out my days in the room in which my poor
husband breathed away his life, and I would not accept any palace in
exchange."

At the mention of her dear departed husband the lady began to sob;
this gave Banfy an opportunity to speak, and he took advantage to
reply vehemently:

"As I have said, so shall it be. The masons are already on the way to
tear down your house. You will receive your ten thousand florins at
the public treasury."

"I do not wish them. Throw them to your dogs!" screamed the lady, in a
passion. "I am no peasant woman to be hunted from my property. I
advise nobody to enter my courtyard unless he wishes to be driven out
with a broom like a dog. I have been to the Prince, I have been to the
Diet, and here you have an official document in which the Diet forbids
anybody to trespass on my land. I will nail it to the gate, it is good
legible handwriting, then I will see who dares force his way into my
possessions."

"And I tell you that to-morrow your house shall be moved off, even if
it is surrounded by armed troops. If the Diet pleases it may have the
place rebuilt."

With that Banfy was going away full of anger, when Nalaczy met him.
The two men greeted each other with forced friendliness, and while
Madame Szent-Pali moved away uttering imprecations, Nalaczy began in
sweet tones, after a little preparation,

"His Highness, the Prince, wishes to inform your Grace of a very
unpleasant incident."

"I will hear."

"During this year the Turk has already forced from us, under one
pretext or another, presents on three different occasions."