Part 49 (1/2)
”That is what I tell him. He does not think so.”
”But, your Majesty, this is absolutely unheard of. The whole position would be intolerable!”
”I indorse all your adjectives and your statements,” said the King coldly; ”but the fact remains.”
”Then, sir, I must see the Prince, immediately.”
”It is no use, no use whatever,” replied his Majesty. ”Besides--the matter is still rather at a private stage. You had much better wait till the Prince comes to you; otherwise he may accuse me of having been premature.”
”But what does the Archbishop say?” cried the Premier, aghast.
”That is the point; I believe he does not yet know. Technically speaking, the engagement is scarcely a day old. The Prince's note claiming my promise reached me only this morning, and I imagine it is only now that the Archbishop will have to be informed. Hitherto the matter has been in suspension. You will understand it was dependent--on my abdication, I might say.”
”In that case, sir, the conditions are not fulfilled.”
”I fear they are,” said the King; ”the Prince has my promise in writing; and abdication is not mentioned. You see, it was the bomb that made all the difference. Very provoking that it should have happened just then; it upset all my plans!”
The Prime Minister began to look very uncomfortable.
”Oh, no,” went on the King, observing his change of countenance, ”don't think that I am blaming you. What you said was quite true; abdication after that became impossible; I am only saying it as an excuse for the position in which I now find myself. It was not I who made the mistake, it was that poor misguided person who threw the bomb; he ought to have killed me. I am confident that, had the Prince been actually on the throne, the situation would have been radically altered, that he would not have persisted--that he would have seen, as you say, how impossible the position would be. Very unfortunate--very--but there we are!”
”But again I say, sir, that even now, though the Prince is not on the throne--and long may your Majesty be spared!--the whole thing is absolutely and utterly impossible.”
”I quite agree,” said the King; ”but that is the situation. Before now I have found myself in similar ones, and have tried to get out of them; yet I have seldom succeeded.”
”But this, sir,” persisted the Prime Minister, ”is politically impossible. Things could not go on.”
”And yet, Mr. Premier, you know that they will have to; that is the very essence of politics.”
”I tell your Majesty that rather than admit such a possibility the Ministry would resign.”
”Very well--then it must,” said the King. ”But you will find that the Prince will not regard my inability to secure an alternative Government as any reason why he should not marry the lady of his choice. I may as well tell you, for your information, that he has revolutionary ideas, and this is one of them.”
”I am confident,” exclaimed the Prime Minister, with a gleam of hope, ”that the Archbishop himself will forbid it.”
”Very likely,” replied his Majesty; ”but I am not sure that he will succeed. I wish he could; but from all I hear the lady herself is of a rather determined character. Women are very determined now-a-days.”
He thought of Charlotte and sighed; and yet, in his heart, he could not help admiring and envying her.
”We will talk of this all again some other time,” he went on, tired of the profitless discussion. ”After all the marriage is not going to take place the day after to-morrow.”
”Sir,” said the Premier, ”over a matter of this sort any delay is impossible--the risk is too great. I must see the Prince myself.”
”Very well,” said the King, ”do as you like. After all I ought to be glad that it is with the Prince you will have to discuss the matter, and not with me.”
And he smiled to himself, for he very much liked the thought of the Prime Minister tackling Max.
CHAPTER XIX