Lucky Pehr Part 14

CHAMBERLAIN. Allah! Eloim! I thank you, excellently.

MULLAH. Is the Renunciation Act made out in duplicate form?

CHAMBERLAIN. In duplicate form. Will you be good enough to compare, then he will only have to add his signature.

MULLAH. If there's time enough, it would be the better way.

[Chamberlain takes two papers from table and hands one to the Mullah.]

CHAMBERLAIN. [Reads aloud.] "We, Omar the twenty-seventh, do hereby solemnly forswear our--the Roman Catholic--faith, and adopt the Mohammedan doctrine as it is determined in the Koran and the sacred writings."

Dated, etc.

OMAR.

Correct?

MULLAH. Correct.

[Enter Pehr--Grand Vizier and Royal Historian having entered just before him. Ameer jumps up from the floor with the genealogical chart; Royal Historian stands quietly and jots down in a book what he hears.]

VIZIER. Will it please Your Highness to scan this ancestral chart, which our--and the Kingdom's Ameer has made of Your Highness' ill.u.s.trious old family tree.

PEHR. My ancestral chart? I have never known of any relative but my father, the old s.e.xton.

VIZIER. [Pretends not to hear.] It begins with a great and glorious name--Caliph Omar--

PEHR. Caliph Omar! What kind of fish is that?

VIZIER. [Sternly.] That is no fish. He was a great and honorable ruler.

PEHR. Be that as it may, but I was born in wedlock and not between satin sheets, good gentlemen!

VIZIER. It does not become a ruler to be selfish; he must in all particulars sacrifice his personal interests and tastes for the welfare of the people.

PEHR. Very good; but does the welfare of the people demand that I shall be illegitimate?

VIZIER. Yes.

PEHR. Then hand me the paper! [Ameer delivers ancestral chart and a pen.] It begins with a lie, and will probably end with theft. [Signs.]

VIZIER. There remains a slight formality--Will it please Your Highness to sign this paper also. [Mullah presents Renunciation Act.]

PEHR. What now?

VIZIER. Your Highness need not trouble himself to road; it is only a matter of form.

PEHR. Renounce my forefathers' Faith--But that outrageous!

VIZIER. Political considerations--the people's welfare--

PEHR. I must become a Mohammedan and may not drink a gla.s.s of wine?

VIZIER. There are subst.i.tutes in all politics.

PEHR. What are they?

VIZIER. Compromises, modifications--

PEHR. Circ.u.mventions, eh?

VIZIER. Will it please Your Highness to sign?

PEHR. But I shall despise myself if I begin with a low action, and all the more will the people have the right to despise me!

VIZIER. The people demand that the ruler sacrifice all personal considerations for their welfare.

PEHR. Their welfare, then, is to be built upon a lie and a crime?

VIZIER. [Goes toward window.] Your Highness, the people await their chief. They are always ready to offer their sweat and blood for the ruler, therefore they demand, also, that the ruler make his sacrifices.

PEHR. Is what you say true? Well, then, give it me! [Accepts paper--hesitates.] The belfry, the chimes, the singing, the lights, Christmas--all pa.s.s before mine eyes! No more Christmas Eve! Life is so pitiless; it only demands, but never gives anything!

VIZIER. Your Highness, the people are clamoring! They would see their chief in the attire of the old caliphs--the crown and sceptre await to be borne anew by a branch of the old ancestral tree.

PEHR. [Catches sight of crown and sceptre.] Ah! Vizier, who can command me to forswear my faith?

VIZIER. The laws.

PEHR. Who made the laws?

VIZIER. Our forefathers.

PEHR. They were weak mortals, like ourselves. Well and good, I'll make over all the laws!

VIZIER. The Caliph does not reconstruct laws, for our form of administration has not given him law-making rights.

PEHR. What is the form of administration in this land?

VIZIER. Const.i.tutional Despotism.

PEHR. Answer! Am I Caliph, or not?

VIZIER. You will be as soon as you have affixed your signature.

PEHR. Then hand me the paper! [Signs. Enter Viziers, Court Attendants, etc. Crowning Ceremony.]

PEOPLE. [Without.] Long live Omar the twenty-seventh! Allah, Allah, Allah!

VIZIER. Will it please Your Royal Highness to ascend the throne and begin the reign?