Barkó had made the journey bare-headed; and now, being called upon to speak, he bowed low before the King, saying: "Your Majesty! Grace be upon my head. Since the devil is bringing the Tartars upon us, the people humbly beg the head of the traitor Kuthen! And we will bring it to you, if you will only give us the command, your Majesty!"
"It shall be here directly, and the heads of all his brood, too!" cried Barkó's followers.
Barkó, seeing that the King did not speak, turned to them, saying in a tone of command, "Silence! I will speak, asking the King's grace upon my head."
And turning again to the King he added, "If we don't root them out, my lord King, the Tartars will find the banquet all made ready for them when they come. The vagabonds in the country-districts are already laying hands on property not their own, and behaving just as if they were at home."
One or two voices from among the crowd echoed these complaints, and added others as to the disrespect shown to the Magyar women.
"Silence," interrupted Barkó. "Let us hear his Majesty, our lord the King. What he commands that we will do, and we must not do anything else," he added, by way of showing that he could read writing, and was acquainted with the style in which the royal commands were expressed.
The King heard all without appearing in the least disturbed, while those at the table kept their hands all the time on their swords, and it was by no means without emotion that the two Russian Dukes looked on at this, to them, very novel kind of Council, and at this unconventional way of approaching the King's presence.
At last there was silence. Barkó had said his say, and the cries and exclamations of his followers having subsided, the King addressed them and him.
First he praised him for his discretion in coming to seek counsel of the King, and then he reminded him that a good king was also a just judge. But a just judge always heard both sides of a question before he gave judgment. If, therefore, he were now to give his consent to what his faithful children wished, and were to deliver King Kuthen, who was both his guest and theirs, into their hands, and that without hearing him as he had heard them, why, then he would be a bad judge, and therefore not a good king. Moreover, if he were unjust in one case he might be so in another.