Part 21 (1/2)
And then, gorgeous in cloth of gold and high funnel-shaped hat, introduced by the Minister of Public Wors.h.i.+p but unaccompanied by his two black wives, came the Archimandrite of Cappadocia--a counter demonstration; and after him, forty Free Churches divines, all in black gowns, silkened for the occasion, but unenlivened by the moral emblems of their domesticity; a queer somber tail they seemed to that great eastern bird of Paradise under whose wing they would presently acquire the right to wear feathers as fine as his own.
Most of them had never been at Court before, and in consequence were not so well drilled as the Bishops. Some of them bowed too often, and too hurriedly, and before they need, beginning with the Lord Functionary whom they mistook for royalty; and they walked out sideways instead of backwards, reactionary methods of progress not being in their blood.
Still, taking them for all in all, they were a very learned-looking body, and their presence in such uncongenial surroundings showed that they meant business.
And deficiency in their demeanor was quite covered by the deportment of the Archimandrite. In the new robe presented to him for the occasion by the Prime Minister (for the moth had got into his own) he looked superb, and behaved with a majesty beside which Jingalo's home-bred royalty sank into insignificance. Max frankly recognized his superior, and bowed low.
”This is a descent of the spirit, Archimandrite,” he said, as they touched palms; and as he did so a queer breath of eastern spices blew over him, for the man of G.o.d was chewing them.
And so, in this great overt act of respectful homage to the throne from both sides, the truce came to an end and the signal for fight was given.
More important to Prince Max was the fact that it had revealed to him a certain lady's ident.i.ty.
CHAPTER X
KING AND COUNCIL
I
During the weeks of the Jubilee recess the King had spent his spare moments in taking notes, and priming himself on fresh points of const.i.tutional usage.
The Comptroller-General was greatly puzzled to see writing going on day after day in which neither he nor any of the secretaries were invited to take part. He was more puzzled still when, by means available to him, he obtained access to what the King had actually written.
After a single reading he felt it his duty to report to the Prime Minister.
”He seems to be writing a history of the Const.i.tution,” said the General. ”Where he gets his facts from I don't know, but they don't seem to have come from you; quite the other side I should say.”
On this note-taking, so voluminous that it resembled the writing of a history, the King was getting into his stride, and was discovering how very much better all these years he could have made his own speeches, had he only been allowed to. He had within him the gift of expression, though not the power of condensing it; he had industry, a good case, and now at last behind his back an unimpeachable authority. And so, at its next meeting he came down into Council stuffed full of facts and phrases, and quite determined that before things went any further his Ministry should hear them.
The const.i.tutional crisis had reached a head as soon as Parliament again met. The defiant action of the Bishops had thrown the Government's program so much into arrears that a drastic quickening of the pace had become necessary; and if, in spite of scare and warning, the Bishops meant to go on doing as they had hitherto done it was evident that their const.i.tutional powers must be limited. The Archimandrite and the Free Churchmen between them might supply the Government with a bare working majority; but that alone would not be sufficient to make legislation fruitful between then and the next general election. Unless the Government, after striking the blow, could come before the country bearing its sheaves with it, there was a very serious chance that its patriotic intention of continuing in power would be frustrated; and even a Government busily engaged in marking time to suit its own bureaucratic interests must appear to have covered the ground mapped out for it.
For this reason Cabinet ministers had been meeting and deciding on a good many things behind the King's back; and the ”Spiritual Limitations Bill”--all the world has since heard of it--was the device they had adopted as most suitable to their needs. They proposed to bring it forward in a late winter session.
On the day before Council a draft of the proposed bill reached the hands of the King; and his Majesty on reading it and after referring once again to certain pa.s.sages in Professor Teller's books of history, smiled gleefully and rubbed his hands; for though he had the heart of a vegetarian he was beginning to scent blood and rather to enjoy the smell of it.
II
The Council was already standing about the board when the King entered.
Having bowed them to their seats he formally called on the Prime Minister to read the presented draft. This was done, and through the whole of it without a word of interruption his Majesty sat quiet and as good as gold.
Polite exposition was about to follow; but as the Prime Minister essayed an enlargement of his text his flight was stayed.
”Gentlemen,” said the King, ”I am dissatisfied with my position.”
All turned amazed; the Professor with less amazement than the rest, for he observed, as confirmation of his suspicions, that the King's hand rested upon a bulky pile of ma.n.u.script.
”In this bill,” said his Majesty, ”you are proposing to remodel a Const.i.tution that has lasted in an unwritten form for five hundred years. I see in your proposed emendations that the Crown is frequently mentioned, but its powers are nowhere defined--unless that constantly recurring phrase 'on the advice of his ministers' is a definition which you wish to see indefinitely extended. Otherwise there is no open indication that the Crown's powers are affected. But the question of const.i.tutional rights as between the Bishops and the Laity to-day may to-morrow be a question involving the Crown also; and if you now mean to impose limits on one branch of the legislature, you must extend your definitions to cover the whole ground. I require, gentlemen, if this matter is to be carried any further, that my own powers and prerogatives shall be as accurately defined and set as much on a working basis as those of your two Chambers.”