Drakovics

“ Gentlemen, your trusted leader, M. Drakovics, has done me the honour of inviting me in your name to accept the crown of Thracia. It is only fair for me to tell you that I don’t feel at all equal to the task of governing; but I have thought over the matter, and I hope that I am doing the right thing in undertaking it. God helping me, my sole aim will be to do what I can for the good of Thracia and the peace of Europe. ”

“ When you received M. Drakovics, you would have used similar measures, and complained of Count Mortimer, intimating, of course, that he himself was the only friend you possessed in Thracia. In this way each man, without the other’s knowing it, would grow to imagine himself to be high in your favour and confidence, and would look on his rival with a jealous eye, until they began to quarrel about the right of private audience. ”

“ This is the reason why I have come to England to offer the crown of Thracia to you, Milord Usk.”
“Come to offer the crown to me!” repeated Usk, stupidly.
“I will not disguise from you, milord,” said M. Drakovics, bringing his head very close to his hearer’s, and speaking low and earnestly, “that we have made many attempts to obtain a king from the different reigning families of Europe. ”

“ By the bye, who are all the people outside?”
“They are your Majesty’s loyal subjects,” returned M. Drakovics, “who have come here to conduct you, as they hope, in triumph to Bellaviste.”
“Very kind of them,” said Caerleon, “but I am not their king yet. This proceeding looks unpleasantly like compulsion, M. Drakovics. I have no idea of being made king by force.”
“Your Majesty is entirely mistaken,” returned M. Drakovics in alarm. “These men are here with the sole intention of doing you honour, and of adding their entreaties to mine if you should prove to be still obdurate. ”

“ What do you know of pitting Pannonia against Hercynia, and playing them both off against Scythia and Neustria? Can you hide your personal feelings under a veil of official friendliness? Why, Nestchen, you will be at enmity with half Europe in a week!”
“I will do my best,” she said in a low voice; “and there is M. Drakovics to help——”
“Drakovics lives for Thracia. The country is safe enough under his guardianship; but he would sacrifice Michael and his interests without a moment’s compunction if he thought another form of government would be more for the benefit of the kingdom.” ”

“ Why, Drakovics would have you and Michael deposed and conducted across the frontier just in time to meet the representatives of Europe coming to sit in judgment upon you, and there would be an end of your dynasty.”
“But can you suggest no means of getting this money? Think of something.”
“Really, I am not a magician. We might mortgage the kingdom to Scythia for the required sum, no doubt; but that would not help matters much, even if Drakovics did not manage to let the Three Powers have an inkling of our little scheme.”
“Cyril, you are joking!” fiery indignation thrilled in her tones. ”

“ Give up everything when his hand was even now grasping the prize, leave the field again to Drakovics when the day was his own at last, and for the sake of a woman? No, a thousand times no; although she was the woman he loved, and who loved him. After all, one must risk one’s queen in the game as well as one’s pawns. ”

“ It was still possible to produce an impression which might go far to effect the object aimed at by the revolt. Were Caerleon alive, the Drakovics party would rally around him in irresistible strength; if he were dead, the weary, dispiriting search for a King must begin again, with all the jealousies and strifes it involved, and the opportunity it offered to Scythia for armed intervention. ”

“ Naturally Drakovics is thunderstruck in the morning when he learns from Dietrich that I have stayed behind. His only chance of success now is to let the conspirators catch us before we reach Prince Mirkovics’s. Most fortunately I gave him no details of our plans; but I am convinced that he let the Tatarjé people know in what direction we were to be looked for, so that we were waited for at Ortojuk even before our meeting with the sub-prefect. Upon my word, instead of complaining of bad luck, I am astonished at my own luck in getting them through at all. ”

“ But there is a black mark down against my name in Sigismund of Hercynia’s books, and when we got back to Thracia there was the piper to pay in quite a different matter. Drakovics always persists that it was my fault; but I never professed to be either a thought-reader or a prophet, and how in the world was I to guess that as soon as the wedding festivities were over, the Princess of Weldart would definitely break with her husband, and come and quarter herself upon us at Bellaviste? ”

“ I should make it my business to play him off against Drakovics. It isn’t healthy for that old man to get his own way to the extent he does. I am morally certain that he would very soon begin to presume if he had only Caerleon to deal with.”
“M. Drakovics ought to be very much obliged to you. I almost think it is my duty to warn him of your intentions. You know that I correspond with him occasionally? But really, Cyril, I scarcely think that it would be possible for you and Caerleon to reign together in the affectionate way you suggest, like the two kings of Barataria.” ”

“ Is there nothing that your Majesty can suggest that would avert such a calamity, while at the same time salving the wounded honour of Thracia?”
“We have no power of raising an indemnity,” said the King.
“The very suggestion is an insult, your Majesty!” cried M. Drakovics. “We Thracians are striving for our national life, not for money. What we desire is a place among the nations. Any assistance towards the attainment of our ideal——” he broke off, watching the King narrowly. ”

“ But I was afraid you were going to say that something had happened to the King—and I see you were too,” she went on, looking at Nadia, from whose hand the pen had fallen. “That would have been bad for you; for Milos Drakovics, good patriot though he is, is a man of iron, and would never listen to a girl’s entreaties, especially on a matter that touched the discipline of the army. Well, we must alter the words of the petition. Perhaps the poor King’s heart will be softened by his trouble.” ”

“ We require a man who will give up his country, his friends, his own happiness—who will be ready either to live or to die for this Thracia of ours, which we have saved from Scythia and the Franzas.”
M. Drakovics saw that his words had at last produced something of the effect he desired. Usk’s head was lifted proudly, and the light of battle shone in his eyes, but his response was disappointing. ”

“ You have betrayed yourself,” Ernestine’s white face become crimson as she covered it with her hands; “but Drakovics can hardly make himself objectionable because you have done me the honour to care for me. If he tries it on, I will make it hot for him.”
“Then you don’t intend to try and obtain an alteration of the Constitution?” The misery in her eyes would have made most men promise to tear the Constitution to shreds if she would only look happy again, but Cyril was made of sterner stuff. ”

“ It would be high treason, treaty-breaking—I don’t know what.”
“The matter is a secret, milord. Once in Thracia, and crowned, your Government could scarcely bring you back.”
“Do you expect me to give up my own country—make myself an outlaw, in fact—for the sake of your precious Thracia?”
“Yes, milord,” said M. Drakovics, steadily, “that is what I do expect. You are the very man for us—by reason of your personal advantages especially. Our people worship tall fair men, for they recall to them the heroes of their legends. Then you are descended from a great house of warriors. ”

“ The office of Mayor of the Palace has a tendency to become hereditary, as you will remember.”
“Those days are past, Count. Be good enough to mark my words. There is no room for hereditary Mayors of the Palace in the modern state. Europe has tolerated Milos Drakovics as the liberator of Thracia; but a Drakovics dynasty would not be borne. By the immortal gods! what a view! Be good enough, Count, to summon here my secretary and the servant who is carrying my sketch-book.” ”

“ CHAPTER XVII.
“THE MAN WHOM THE QUEEN DELIGHTETH TO HONOUR.” Whatever M. Drakovics’s misgivings may have been with respect to the letter of which the rebels had obtained possession, the measures which he took to recover it were crowned with complete success, and he appeared in Cyril’s office triumphant, three days after his colleague had returned a second time to Bellaviste, in attendance on the Queen and the little King. ”

“ But that does not lessen the difficulty about Drakovics. Since he has taken it into his head that she is likely to marry again, he may go on stirring up uneasiness for years by circulars of this kind. He is growing old, and we—I—greatly fear that he is scarcely capable of taking the necessary broad view of the political situation. Such affairs as this of the circular, for instance, only disturb the harmony of Europe, and play into the hands of Scythia, and we—I—could not allow the indiscretion to be repeated. ”

“ As he approached M. Drakovics’s house some one tapped him on the shoulder, and, looking round, he saw Prince Mirkovics.
“You have heard this rumour?” asked the old nobleman.
“About the archbishopric? Yes.”
“And you think it is true? I see you do.”
“I fear it must be. It is too preposterous to be an invention.”
“And the reason? You think it is the result of some compact arising out of the Tatarjé business? So do I. Count, that stand of which we spoke some time ago ought to be made to-day. You will lead us? ”

“ It was while M. Drakovics was pursuing these financial researches, in the vain hope of tracking down his successful rival and bringing him to ruin, that the Princess of Dardania arrived at Bellaviste with her four children—the Princesses Elisabeth and Ludmilla and the Princes Alexis and Kazimir, whose arrival was hailed with joy by King Michael. The Prince of Dardania had gone to Pavelsburg on a visit to the Scythian Court; but his wife, who had been invited to accompany him, was of opinion that her presence was more needed in Thracia. ”

“ Caerleon interrupted quickly. “She refused me because she thought it best—for the kingdom.”
“If only Drakovics knew how completely she agreed with him!” murmured Cyril. “But really, you know, Caerleon, such virtue is a little too bright and good for daily life. It’s convenient for the rest of us that there are people like that, though they might be rather overpowering to live with, and all we can do is to profit at their expense.” ”

“ Cyril gazed at her animated face and sparkling eyes in wonder, marvelling at the audacity and naïveté of the scheme. For a moment his heart warmed towards her; then he saw himself the butt of the world’s caricaturists, from San Francisco to Yokohama, and it hardened again. “My dear child,” he said, “we are not living in the Middle Ages. Drakovics would like nothing better than for us to carry out your plan. ”

“ Your brother went to Bellaviste to inquire into the matter, and was quite satisfied that there was nothing wrong.”
“My dear cousin, I know all about my brother’s visit to Thracia, and if there was nothing wrong then, M. Drakovics is all the more to blame, for he must have put the idea into their heads. I learn now, from an authority I cannot doubt, that it is probable—almost certain—that they are married already, but that if this is not the case, they will marry as soon as Michael comes of age.” ”

“ Besides, I shall take it out of Caerleon a little. He will be horribly cut up when he finds that I have undergone so much fatigue just out of tenderness for his scruples, and it ought to make him easier to manage in future. Riding hard all the way, I should be back in three days. That is quite long enough to give him a fright.”
“Milord,” said M. Drakovics, with deep conviction, “I am more and more thankful that it is your brother, and not you, who is King of Thracia. Hitherto I have bemoaned my hard fate in having to manage a man with a conscience ”

“ It was evident that the Queen was as unpopular as ever, and that the people regarded her with no more exclusive affection than they would a neighbouring monarch on a visit. M. Drakovics was the real sovereign, at least in Bellaviste, and it appeared to Cyril that in case of a conflict of wills, the Premier would receive public support far more readily than the Queen. ”

“ M. Drakovics bit his bushy grey moustache angrily, for the hit galled him. “We will turn to considerations of policy rather than of commerce, Count, if you please. Surely you cannot be blind to the advantages of such an event as the King’s conversion?”
“I see that you would be exhibited to all Europe as implicitly following the dictation of Scythia, if that’s what you’re aiming at.”
“Not at all,” said the Premier quickly. “To have a king of their own faith is the great desire of the Thracians. They would rally round the throne to an extraordinary degree if the conversion took place. ”

“ I haven’t the brains or the tact for politics, mamma. And even if one could deceive M. Drakovics—I can quite believe that his vanity would lend itself to such a course—I don’t think I should be successful with Count Mortimer. He seems to be able to see through things. I did try to win him over once—it was about Sophie von Staubach’s appointment—but he saw it immediately, and it made me feel so dreadfully uncomfortable, though he did take my side. ”