Part 64 (1/2)

”Majesty!” he cried, ”You are right! I hand your Majesty's intended Premier over to you with the greatest, pleasure in the world! Apart from the fact of your being the King, I am compelled to admit that you have common sense!”

Laughter and cheers resounded through the room again, and the King quietly turning round, extinguished the red lamp on the table. The thirteenth light was quenched; the Day of Fate was ended. As the ominous crimson flare sank out, a sudden silence prevailed, and the King fixed his eyes on Lotys.

”From you, Madame, must come my final exoneration! If you still condemn me as a King, I shall be indeed unfortunate! If you still think well of me as a man, I shall be proud! I have to thank you, not only for my life, but for having helped me to make that life valuable! As Pasquin Leroy, I have sought to serve you,--as King, I seek to serve you still!”

The silence continued. Every man present watched the visible emotion which swept every vestige of colour from the face of Lotys, and made her eyes so feverishly bright. Every man gazed at her as she rose from her chair and came forward a little to the front of the platform. It was with a strong effort that she raised her eyes to those of the King, and in that one glance between them, the lightning flash of a resistless love tore the veil of secrecy from their souls. But she spoke out bravely.

”I thank your Majesty!” she said; ”I thank you for all you have done for us as our comrade and a.s.sociate,--for all you will yet do for us as our comrade and a.s.sociate still! It is better to be a brave man than a weak King--but it is best to be a strong man and a strong king both together! You have disproved the thoughts I had of you as King! You have ratified--” here she paused, while the colour suddenly sprang to her cheeks, and her breath came pantingly and quick,--”and strengthened the thoughts I had of you as our Pasquin!” Her eyes softened with tears, though she smiled. ”We have believed in you; we believe in you still!

All is as it was,--save in the one thing new,--that where we were banded together against the King, we are now united for, and with the King!”

These words were all that were needed to reawaken and confirm the enthusiasm of the Revolutionists, whose 'revolutionary' measures were now accepted and sworn to by the Crowned Head of the Realm. Thereupon, they gave themselves up to the wildest cheering.

”Comrades!” cried Paul Zouche, in the midst of the uproar; ”There is one point you seem to have missed! The King,--G.o.d bless him!--doesn't see it,--Thord, glowering like an owl in his ivy-bush of hair, doesn't see it! It is only left to me to perceive the chief result of this evening's disclosures!”

All the men laughed.

”What is it, Zouche?” demanded Louis Valdor.

”Ay! What is it?” echoed Zegota.

”Speak, Zouche!” said the King; ”Whatever strange conclusion your poetic brain discovers, doubt not but that we shall accept it,--from!”

”Accept it? I should think so!” cried Zouche; ”You are bound to accept it whether you like it or not; there is no other way out of it!”

”Well, what is it?” repeated Zegota impatiently; ”Declare it!”

”It is this;” said Zouche, ”Simply this,--that, with the King as our comrade and a.s.sociate, the Revolutionary Committee is no use! It is finished! There can be no longer a Revolutionary Committee!”

”That is true!” said the King; ”It may henceforth be known as a new Parliament!”

Cheer after cheer echoed through the crowded room, and while the noise was at its height a knocking was heard outside and Sholto, the hunchback father of Pequita, demanded admittance. Zegota unlocked the door, and in a few minutes the situation was explained to the astonished landlord of the Revolutionary Committee quarters. Overwhelmed at the news, and full of grat.i.tude for the kindness shown to his child, which he now knew had emanated from the King in person, he would have knelt to kiss the Royal hand, had not the monarch prevented him.

”No, my good Sholto!” he said gently; ”Enough of such humility wearies me in the monotonous routine of Court life; and were it not for custom and prejudice, I would suffer no self-respecting man to abase himself before me, simply because my profession is that of King! Tell Pequita that I would not look at her, or applaud her dancing the other night, because I wished her to hate the King and to love Pasquin!--but now you must ask her for me, to love them both!”

Sholto bowed low, profoundly overcome. Was this the King against whom they had all been in league?--this simple, unaffected man, who seemed so much at home and at one with them all? Amazed and bewildered, he, by general invitation, mixed with the rest of the men, for each of whom the King had a kind and appreciative word, or a fresh pledge of his good faith and intention towards them and the reforms they sought to effect.

Von Glauben was surrounded by a group of those among whom he had made himself popular; and a hundred eager questions were asked of both him and De Launay, who were ready enough to eulogise the daring of their Royal master, and the determination with which he had resolved on making his secret foes his open friends.

”After all,” said Zegota deprecatingly, ”it is not so much the King whom we were against, as the Government.”

”Ah! You forget, no doubt,” said Von Glauben, ”that the King--any King--is usually a Dummy in the hands of Government, unless, as in the present instance, he chooses to become a living Personality for himself!”

”The King has created an autocracy!” said Louis Valdor; ”and it will last for his lifetime. But after----!”

”After him,--if his eldest son, Prince Humphry, comes to the Throne,--the autocracy will be continued;” said Von Glauben decisively; ”For he is a young man who is singularly fond of having his own way!”

The conversation now became general; and the big, bare, common room a.s.sumed in a few minutes almost the aspect of a Royal levee. This was curious enough,--and furnished food for meditation to Professor von Glauben, who was considerably excited by the dramatic denouement of the Day of Fate,--a climax for which neither he nor Sir Roger had been in the least prepared. He said something of it to Sir Roger who was watching Lotys.

”You look at the woman,” he said; ”I look at the man! Do you think this drama is finished?”

”Not yet!” answered De Launay curtly; ”Nor is the danger over!”