The Princess Dehra Part 6

"I have no doubt," she averred, "my father's words can bear but one construction."

"It would seem so-yet I've long learned that, in this life, it's the certain things that usually are lost."

She sprang up. "Why not settle it at once-let us send for the Book; of course it is at the Palace-it was there last night."

He shook his head decisively. "No, dear, no; believe me it is not wise now for either of us to touch the Book. It were best that it be opened only by the Prime Minister in presence of the Royal Council. We must give Lotzen no reason to cry forgery."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Small good would it do him, as against Frederick's writing and my testimony. However, we can wait-the Council meets in the morning, I a.s.sume?"

"Yes; at ten o'clock, at the Palace."

She looked up quickly. "The key?" she asked; "it was always on his watch chain-have you got it?"

"No," said he; "I never thought of it."

She rang the bell and sent for the Chamberlain.

"Bring me King Frederick's watch, and the Orders he was wearing," she said. When they came she handed the Orders to Armand.

"They are yours now, dear," she said. She took the watch and held up the chain, from the end of which hung the small, antique key of the bra.s.s bound box, in which the Book of Laws had been kept for centuries that now reached back to tradition. She contemplated, for a moment, the swaying bit of gold and bronze, then loosed it from the ring.

"This also is yours, Sire," she said, and proffered it to him.

But he declined. "To-morrow," he said.

"And in the meantime?"

"If Count Epping is still in the Castle, we will let him hold it."

The Princess nodded in approval. "Doubtless that is wiser," she said, "though quite unprecedented; none but the King ever holds that key, save when he rides to war."

"We are dealing with a situation that has no precedents," he smiled; "we must make some."

As he went toward the bell, a servant entered with a card.

"Admit him," he said.... "It is Epping," he explained.

The Prime Minister of Valeria was one of those extraordinary exceptions that occasionally occur in public officials; he had no purpose in life but to serve his King. Without regard to his own private ends or personal ambition, he had administered his office for a generation, and Frederick trusted him as few monarchs ever trusted a powerful subject. To the Nation, he was honesty and justice incarnate, and only the King and the Princess Royal excelled him in popularity and respect. Seventy years had pa.s.sed over the tall and slender figure, leaving a crown of silver above the pale, lean face, with its tight-shut mouth, high cheek bones and faded blue eyes; but they had brought no stoop to the shoulders, nor feebleness to the step, nor dullness to the brain.

He saluted Armand with formal dignity; then bent over Dehra's hand, silently and long-and when he rose a tear was trembling on his lashes. He dashed it away impatiently and turned to the Archduke.

"Sire," he said-and Armand, in sheer surprise, made no objection-"I have brought the proclamation announcing His late Majesty's death and your accession. It should be published in the morning. Will it please you to sign it now?"

There are moments in life so sharp with emotion that they cut into one's memory like a sculptor's tool, and, ever after, stand clear-lined and cameoed against the blurred background of commonplace existence. Such was the moment at the Palace when Frederick had handed him the patents of an Archduke, and such now was this. "Sire!" the word was pounding in his brain. "Sire!" he, who, less than a year ago, was but a Major in the American Army; "Sire!" he-he-King of Valeria!

Then, through the mirage, he saw Dehra's smiling face, and he awoke suddenly to consciousness and the need for speech, and for immediate decision. Should he sign the proclamation on the chance that the decree was in his favor, and that he was, in truth, the King? He hesitated just an instant-tempted by his own desires and by the eager eyes of the fair woman before him; then he straightened his shoulders and chose the way of prudence.

He waved the Prime Minister to a chair.

"Your pardon, my lord," he said; "your form of address was so new and unexpected, it for the moment bound my tongue."

The old man bowed. "I think I understand, Sire," he said, with a smile that, for an instant, softened amazingly his stern face. "Yet, believe me, one says it to you very naturally"-and his glance strayed deliberately to the wall opposite, where hung a small copy of the Great Henry's portrait in the uniform of the Red Huzzars. "It is very wonderful," he commented;-"and I fancy it won you instant favor and, even now, may be, makes us willing to accept you as our King. Sometimes, Your Majesty, sentiment dominates even a nation."

"Then I trust sentiment will be content with the physical resemblance and not examine the idol too closely."

The Count smiled again; this time rather coldly.

"The first duty of a king is to look like one," he said; "and sentiment demands nothing else;" and, with placid insistence, he laid the proclamation on the table beside Armand.

The latter picked it up and read it-and put it down.

"My lord," he said, "I prefer not to exercise any prerogative of kingship until the Royal Council has examined the Book of Laws and confirmed my t.i.tle under the decrees."

The faded blue eyes looked at him contemplatively.

"I a.s.sumed there was no question as to the Succession," he remarked.

"Nor did I mean to intimate there was," Armand answered.

"Then, with all respect, Sire, I see no reason why you should not sign the proclamation."

Armand shook his head. "May be I am foolish," he said; "but I will not a.s.sume the government until after the Council to-morrow-it will do no harm to delay the proclamation for a few hours. And, in the interim, you will oblige Her Royal Highness and me by keeping this key, which she removed from King Frederick's watch chain, but a moment before you came."

The Count nodded and took the key.

"I recognize it," he replied. "I know the lock it opens."

"Good," said Armand; "the box is at the Palace, and doubtless you also know what it contains. For reasons you may easily appreciate, I desire to avoid any imputation that the Book has been touched since His Majesty's demise. You will produce this key at the meeting to-morrow, explaining how and where you got it; and then, in the presence of the Council, I shall open the box and if, by the Laws of the Dalbergs, I am Head of the House, I will enter into my heritage and try to keep it."

The Prime Minister got up; gladness in his heart, though his face was quite impa.s.sive. He had come in doubt and misgiving; he was easy now-here was a man who led, a man to be served; he asked no more-he was content.

"I understand," he said; "the proclamation can wait;" then he drew himself to his full height. "G.o.d save Your Majesty!" he ended.

III THE ROYAL COUNCIL

Count Epping was the last of the five Ministers to arrive at the Council, the following morning. He came in, a few minutes before the hour, acknowledged with grave courtesy, but brief words, the greetings of the others, and when his secretary had put his dispatch box on the table he immediately opened it and busied himself with his papers. It was his way-and none of them had ever seen him otherwise; but now there seemed to be a special significance in his silence and preoccupation.

The failure of the Court Journal to appear that morning had broken a custom that ante-dated the memory of man, and the information which was promptly conveyed to the Ministers that it was delayed until evening, and by the personal order of the Prime Minister, had provoked both amazement and expectancy. It could mean only that the paper was being held for something that must be in that day's issue, and as they had promptly disclaimed to one another all responsibility, the inference was not difficult that it had to do with the new King's first proclamation.

"The Count was at the Castle last evening," Duval, the War Minister, had remarked, "and I a.s.sumed it was to submit the proclamation and have it signed."

Baron Retz, the Minister of Justice, shrugged his shoulders.

"May be you a.s.sumed correctly," he remarked.