Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy Part 29

"You will be there, of course. I shall be there! What a voice she has!

Whether we believe what she says or not, we must hear,--and hearing, we must follow. Where shall we drink in the sweet Oracle this time?"

"At the People's a.s.sembly Rooms," responded Thord; "But remember, Zouche, she does not speak till nine o'clock. That means that you will be unfit to listen!"

"You think so?" responded Zouche airily, and leaning on Thord he stumbled onward, the two pa.s.sing close in front of the doorway where Pasquin Leroy stood concealed. "But I am more ready to understand wisdom when drunk, than when sober, my Sergius! You do not understand. I am a human eccentricity--the result of an _amour_ between a fiend and an angel! Believe me! I will listen to Lotys with all my devil-saintly soul,--you will listen to her with all your loving, longing heart--and with us two thus attentive, the opinions of the rest of the audience will scarcely matter! How the street reels! How the old moon dances! So did she whirl pallidly when Antony clasped his Egyptian Queen, and lost Actium! Remember the fate of Antony, Sergius! Kingdoms would have been seized and controlled by men such as you are, long before now--if there had not always been a woman in the case--a Cleopatra--or a Lotys!"

Still laughing foolishly, he reeled onwards, Sergius Thord half-supporting, half-leading him, with grave carefulness and brotherly compa.s.sion. They were soon out of sight; and Pasquin Leroy, leaving his dark hiding-place, crossed the bridge with an alert step, and mounted a steep street leading to the citadel. From gaps between the tall leaning houses a glimpse of the sea, silvered by the dying moonlight, flashed now and again; and in the silence of the night the low ripple of small waves against the breakwater could be distinctly heard. A sense of holy calm impressed him as he paused a moment; and the words of an old monkish verse came back to him from some far-off depth of memory:

Lord Christ, I would my soul were clear as air, With only Thy pure radiance falling through!

He caught his breath hard--there was a smarting sense as of tears in his eyes.

"So proudly throned, and so unloved!" he muttered. "Yet,--has not the misprisal and miscomprehension been merited? Whose is the blame? Not with the People, who, despite the prophet's warning, 'still put their trust in princes'--but with the falsity and hollowness of the system!

Sovereignty is like an old s.h.i.+p stuck fast in the docks, and unfit for sailing the wide seas--crusted with barnacles of custom and prejudice,--and in every gale of wind pulling and straining at a rusty chain anchor. But the spirit of Change is in the world; a hurrying movement that has wings of fire, and might possibly be called Revolution! It is better that the torch should be lighted from the Throne than from the slums!"

He went on his way quickly,--till reaching the outer wall of the citadel, he was challenged by a sentinel, to whom he gave the pa.s.sword in a low tone. The man drew back, satisfied, and Leroy went on, mounting from point to point of the cliff, till he reached a private gate leading into the wide park-lands which skirted the King's palace. Here stood a m.u.f.fled and cloaked figure evidently watching for him; for as soon as he appeared the gate was noiselessly opened for his admittance, and he pa.s.sed in at once. Then he and the person who had awaited his coming, walked together through the scented woods of pine and rhododendrons, and talking in low and confidential voices, slowly disappeared.

CHAPTER XIV

THE KING'S VETO

The Marquis de Lutera was a heavy sleeper, and for some time had been growing stouter than was advisable for the dignity of a Prime Minister.

He had been defeated of late years in one or two important measures; and his colleague, Carl Perousse, had by gradual degrees succeeded in worming himself into such close connection with the rest of the members of the Cabinet, that he, Lutera, felt himself being edged out, not only from political 'deals,' but from the profits appertaining thereto. So, growing somewhat indifferent, as well as disgusted at the course affairs were taking, he had made up his mind to retire from office, as soon as he had carried through a certain Bill which, in its results, would have the effect of crippling the people of the country, while helping on his own interests to a considerable degree. At the immediate moment he had a chance of looming large on the political horizon. Carl Perousse could not do anything of very great importance without him; they were both too deeply involved together in the same schemes. In point of fact, if Perousse could bring the Premier to a fall, the Premier could do the same by Perousse. The two depended on each other; and Lutera, conscious that if Perousse gained any fresh accession of power, it would be to his, Lutera's, advantage, was gradually preparing to gracefully resign his position in the younger and more ambitious man's favour. But he was not altogether comfortable in his mind since his last interview with the King. The King had shown unusual signs of self-will and obstinacy.

He had presumed to give a command affecting the national policy; and, moreover, he had threatened, if his command were not obeyed, to address Parliament himself on the subject in hand, from the Throne. Such an unaccustomed, unconst.i.tutional idea was very upsetting to the Premier's mind. It had cost him a sleepless night; and when he woke to a new day's work, he was in an extremely irritable humour. He was doubtful how to act;--for to complain of the King would not do; and to enlighten the members of the Cabinet as to his Majesty's declared determination to dispose amicably of certain difficulties with a foreign power, which the Ministry had fully purposed fanning up into a flame of war, might possibly awaken a storm of dissension and discussion.

"We all want money!" said the Marquis gloomily, as he rose from his tumbled bed to take his first breakfast, and read his early morning letters--"And to crush a small and insolent race, whose country is rich in mineral product, is simply the act of squeezing an orange for the necessary juice. Life would be lost, of course, but we are over-populated; and a good war would rid the country of many scamps and vagabonds. Widows and orphans could be provided for by national subscriptions, invested as the Ministry think fit, and paid to applicants after about twenty years' waiting!" He smiled sardonically.

"The gain to ourselves would be incalculable; new wealth, new schemes, new openings for commerce and speculation in every way! And now the King sets himself up as an obstacle to progress! If he were fond of money, we could explain the whole big combine, and offer him a share;--but with a character such as he possesses, I doubt if it would work! With some monarchs whom I could name, it would be perfectly easy. And yet,--for the three years he has been on the throne, he has been pa.s.sive enough,--asking no questions,--signing such doc.u.ments as he has been told to sign,--uttering such speeches as have been written for him,--and I was never more shocked and taken aback in my life than yesterday morning, when he declared he had decided to think and act for himself!

Simply preposterous! An ordinary man who presumes to think and act for himself is always a danger to the community--but a king! Good Heavens!

We should have the old feudal system back again."

He sipped his coffee leisurely, and opened a few letters; there were none of very pressing importance. He was just about to glance through the morning's newspaper, when his man-servant entered bearing a note marked 'Private and Immediate.' He recognized the handwriting of David Jost.

"Anyone waiting for an answer?" he enquired.

"No, Excellency."

The man retired. The Marquis broke the large splotchy seal bearing the coat-of-arms which Jost affected, but to which he had no more right than the man in the moon, and read what seemed to him more inexplicable than the most confusing conundrum ever invented.

"MY DEAR MARQUIS,--I received your confidential messenger last night, and explained the entire situation. He left for Moscow this morning, but will warn us of any further developments. Sorry matters look so grave for you. Should like a few minutes private chat when you can spare the time.--

"Yours truly, DAVID JOST."

Over and over again the Marquis read this brief note, staring at its every word and utterly unable to understand its meaning.

"What in the world is the fellow driving at!" he exclaimed angrily--"'My messenger'! 'Explained the entire situation'! The devil! 'Left for Moscow'! Upon my soul, this is maddening!" And he rang the bell sharply.

"Who brought this note?" he asked, as his servant entered.

"Mr. Jost's own man, Excellency."

"Has he gone?"

"Yes, Excellency."

"Wait!" And sitting down he wrote hastily the following lines:

"DEAR SIR,--Your letter is inexplicable. I sent no messenger to you last night. If you have any explanation to offer, I shall be disengaged and alone till 11.30 this morning.

"Yours truly,--DE LUTERA."

Folding, sealing, and addressing this, he marked it 'Private' and gave it to his man.

"Take this yourself," he said, "and put it into Mr. Jost's own hands.

Trust no one to deliver it. Ask to see him personally, and then give it to him. You understand?"

"Yes, Excellency."

His note thus despatched, the Marquis threw himself down in his arm-chair, and again read Jost's mysterious communication.

"Whatever messenger has pa.s.sed himself off as coming from me, Jost must have been crazy to receive him without credentials," he said. "There must be a mistake somewhere!"

A vague alarm troubled him; he was not moved by conscientious scruples, but the idea that any of his secret moves should be 'explained' to a stranger was, to say the least of it, annoying, and not conducive to the tranquillity of his mind. A thousand awkward possibilities suggested themselves at once to his brain, and as he carried a somewhat excitable disposition under his heavy and phlegmatic exterior, he fumed and fretted himself for the next half hour into an impatience which only found vent in the prosaic and everyday performance of dressing himself.

Ah!--if those who consider a Prime Minister great and exalted, could only see him as he pulls on his trousers, and fastens his s.h.i.+rt collar, what a disillusion would be promptly effected! Especially if, like the Marquis de Lutera, he happened to be over-stout, and difficult to clothe! This particular example of Premiers.h.i.+p was an ungainly man; his proud position could not make him handsome, nor lend true dignity to his deportment. Old Mother Nature has a way of marking her specimens, if we will learn to recognize the signs she sets on certain particular 'makes'

of man. The Marquis de Lutera was 'made' to be a stock-jobber, not a statesman. His bent was towards the material gain and good of himself, more than the advantage of his country. His reasoning was a slight variation of Falstaff's logical misprisal of honour. He argued; "If I am poor, then what is it to me that others are rich? If I am neglected, what do I care that the people are prosperous? Let me but secure and keep those certain millions of money which shall ensure to me and my heritage a handsome endowment, not only for my life, but for all lives connected with mine which come after me,--and my 'patriotism' is satisfied!"

He had just finished insinuating himself by degrees into his morning coat, when his servant entered.

"Well!" he asked impatiently.

"Mr. Jost is coming round at once, Excellency. He ordered his carriage directly he read your note."

"He sent no answer?"

"None, Excellency."

"When he arrives, show him into the library."

"Yes, Excellency."

The Marquis thereupon left his sleeping apartment, and descended to the library himself. The sun was streaming brilliantly into the room, and the windows, thrown wide open, showed a cheerful display of lawn and flower-garden, filled with palms and other semi-tropical shrubs, for though the Premier's house was in the centre of the fas.h.i.+onable quarter of the city, it had the advantage of extensive and well-shaded grounds.

A law had been pa.s.sed in the late King's time against the felling of trees, it having been scientifically proved that trees in a certain quant.i.ty, not only purify the air from disease germs affecting the human organization, but also save the crops from many noxious insect-pests and poisonous fungi. Having learned the lesson at last, that the Almighty may be trusted to know His own business, and that trees are intended for wider purposes than mere timber, the regulations were strict concerning them. No one could fell a tree on his own ground without, first of all, making a statement at the National Office of Aboriculture as to the causes for its removal; and only if these causes were found satisfactory, could a stamped permission be obtained for cutting it down or 'lifting' it to other ground. The result of this sensible regulation was that in the hottest days of summer the city was kept cool and shady by the rich foliage branching out everywhere, and in some parts running into broad avenues and groves of great thickness and beauty. The Marquis de Lutera's garden had an additional charm in a beautiful alley of orange trees, and the fragrance wafted into his room from the delicious blossoms would have refreshed and charmed anyone less troubled, worried and feverish, than he was at the time. But this morning the very suns.h.i.+ne annoyed him;--never a great lover of Nature, the trees and flowers forming the outlook on which his heavy eyes rested were almost an affront. The tranquil beauty of an ever renewed and renewing Nature is always particularly offensive to an uneasy conscience and an exhausted mind.

The sound of wheels grinding along the outer drive brought a faint gleam of satisfaction on his brooding features, and he turned sharply round, as the door of the library was thrown open to admit Jost, whose appearance, despite his jaunty manner, betokened evident confusion and alarm.

"Good-morning, Mr. Jost!" said the Marquis stiffly, as his confidential man ushered in the visitor,--then when the servant had retired and closed the door, he added quickly--"Now what does this mean?"