Part 9

The next moment the door was flung open and in flew the owner of the voice. The sentry had evidently been fooled by a pretended retreat; and had grasped a portion of her gown as she dashed past him. Zip! something had given way.

"Fancy treating a lady like that; it's a shame!"

It was as much as I could do to keep my face straight, as I signed to the sentry to close the door.

The "lady" was examining the back part of her skirt with an angry expression on her face, taking no notice of me whatever; but having repaired the damage--presumably with pins--she looked round and saw me standing near her.

"Lord, your Majesty!" she cried, dropping on her knees.

"You wished to speak to me, I believe."

"Yes, please your Majesty."

"Then supposing you take this seat, you will find it more comfortable than the ground, I daresay."

"Thanks, your Majesty."

"Now tell me what it is I can do for you. I only have a very few minutes to spare."

She was a remarkably handsome woman, with a splendid figure. I was struck, too, by her pleasant smile.

"It's like this, you know, the late King took a fancy to me, and induced me to come here to Karena."

"Wait a moment. To begin with, who are you, and where do you come from?"

"I was in the Polly-Doddy troupe; Eliza de Vere, I call myself. It isn't my real name, but it'll do. His Majesty saw me dancin', and made my acquaintance. After a bit, I came along here, but the first thing I know is that I find myself in a Palace and him lying dead, and I've lost my job with the troupe, and gone dead broke except for the few things I brought along with me. Then I hear as there's a new King, so I think I'll hop along and try to hook him, but I see your Majesty isn't one of that sort, so all I want now is to get away. God knows when I shall get another job, don't suppose I ever shall, for I broke my contract to come here."

She stopped, for want of breath, I imagine.

"Is that all you want?" I asked.

"Yes, thank your Majesty, if you'll give me the fare home I daresay I'll do. I can always get a livin'."

"What would you like best to do?" I asked, for I was sorry for this frank, vulgar, beautiful creature.

"If I had my wish, I'd live in the country. I was born on a farm, and I'd love a little place with chickens and a pig or two; that's what I thought I could get out of the old man, but he's gone."

"And supposing some one gave you that, would you be contented to live in a quiet, decent way without longing to be in London or some big town?"

"Wouldn't I just? It would be just heaven to get out of it all. You don't know what my life is, or you wouldn't ask."

I suppose I was foolish, but I was heart-sick at the thought of this woman going headlong to the devil, as I have no doubt she would have done. So once more I wrote out a cheque; it was for a big enough sum for her purpose, upon the interest of which she could live, marry possibly, almost certainly, and rear splendid children, for England. I blotted the slip of paper and handed it to her, with some few pieces of gold.

"Now," I said, "when you get to England take this to some bank and explain to them what you want. They will advise you and invest it for you. Don't trust anyone else; personally, I should advise you to keep silent about possessing it. Marry some good man, and be happy, and sometimes say a prayer for the King of Rudarlia."

She took the cheque, and wide-eyed, looked at it.

"Is this for me?" she whispered. "You aren't kiddin' me, don't you want anythin' for it?"

"No; nothing beyond what I have mentioned, a prayer, when you remember it, that is all; and now I must say good-bye and good luck."

She seized my hand and wrung it.

"God bless your Majesty. I'll pray for you night and morning, I will." And then the poor girl burst into tears, sobbing as though her heart would break.

It was at this juncture that Mr. Smith returned.

Still sobbing, "Eliza de Vere" left the room, taking no notice of the indignant sentry.

"Your Majesty has the knack of making friends," Mr. Smith said, with a smile. "Her thanks and blessings were most impressive."

"Poor devil!" I said. "Some of Ivan's beastliness, only with her the worst effect was a broken contract, with the managers of some troupe of dancers."

"And you put matters right immediately?"

"It was easily done."

"How much did it cost, Victor?"

"Nothing compared to a person's happiness."

He shrugged his shoulders, but humorously; and then once more became the stern-faced man.

"And Prince Alexis?" he asked.

"Ah, in his case I have given him enough rope to last him a year or so, at the end of which time I shall be quite happy to hang him."

"Ah!"

"I also paid for knowledge that will be of great value to us; we must take great care to know everything about all the officials we appoint."

"Ah!"

"It is lucky that I am alive, or within ten years Rudarlia would have been governed by George III of Bornia."

"Ah! so that was the scheme, was it?"

Colonel Woolgast was announced.

"Colonel, I want one of your officers to conduct Prince Alexis over the frontier. He must be one who can hear without hearing, and, speaking, say nothing. Above all he must be devoted to Rudarlia. Have you such a man?"

"Captain von Essens, your Majesty."

"Very well, if you answer for him; I would have asked you to have escorted the Prince, but it would have done him too much honour, to send the Colonel of my Guards, and a General in my army. You will soon have the pleasure of kissing my hand as I promised you."

"I would do it now, your Majesty."

"No, Colonel, we will stick to our arrangement."

"Shall I give Essens the order?"

"If you please, and, Colonel, there may be some officers under you who deserve promotion. Send me in their names, and it shall be seen to, for I have no doubt that there will be vacancies before long in my Guards."

"It shall be done, your Majesty."

*CHAPTER IX*

The next few weeks were terrible ones for me; days full of anxiety, hard work, and ceremonial. I discovered that a King needs the strength of two men, physically and mentally, in the first few weeks of his reign.

I had dismissed a great number of officials appointed by my predecessor, for they were incompetent men, owing their positions to rank favouritism; and for some time Rudarlia was governed by a provisional Cabinet, composed of the great men of the state.

The hopeless confusion into which Ivan had plunged the finances of the country was appalling.

There had been complete destruction of many valuable assets of wealth, but chiefly the mischief had been done to agriculture, upon which a great part of the population depended. Taxes had been heaped upon the people; first in the shape of a land tax, which had grown into a ridiculous size; secondly the market tax, a peculiar piece of villainy, since it mulcted both the buyer and the seller. Ivan, evidently, could not be just, even in his injustice, for the poor man, with perhaps a goat for sale, had to pay as much as the large farmer selling whole herds of cattle.

One of my first acts was to abolish this iniquitous imposition altogether; and a very small annual payment for market dues was charged instead.

The money raised in this way was used locally, so that those who paid received it back in the improvements of their locality.

I merely mention this tax as an example of Ivan's financial methods when dealing with agriculture.

Enormous sums, for Rudarlia, had been raised, of which there was no record dealing with their expenditure. Presumably, therefore, they had disappeared into the avaricious maw of Ivan.

When we examined the debit side of our accounts it was almost more appalling.

The army had been paid, not regularly, but in dribblets. As for clothing, ammunition, etc., the stores had been depleted, and nothing had been replaced. The other services had been run in the same way, without method or supervision. The fraud and thieving practised by many of the officials must have been terrific.

It is not my intention to give a long, detailed account of such matters, although they are impressed on my mind.

* * * * *

After the first outbreak of popular enthusiasm, there were recurrent bursts of joyful celebration, and devotion to my family.

As was perhaps only natural, the restoration of the direct line of the Stephanovitch dynasty caused a considerable stir throughout Europe; and the usual diplomatic correspondence took place.

In Sir George Curtiss and Monsieur Delacroit, the British and French Ministers, I found friends. These two men were ever ready to be of service to me personally, and also to Rudarlia. I fancy they understood that my feelings were very strongly in favour of the Triple Entente; and it was most probably those same feelings of mine which caused me to be slightly less friendly with the central European powers, or rather their Ministers.

I had then--and so far have had no reason to change my views--a very strong conviction that Germany was the great danger to the world's peace.

All of them expressed pleasure at having Merlin's son upon the Rudarlian throne. Even the Bornian Minister pretended that he was overjoyed, and expressed himself to that effect in beautiful, flowery language; verbiage which I accepted smilingly, and at my own idea of its worth.

To me, Bornia was our greatest menace, I had imagined this always; and now, since my conversation with Alexis, I was quite certain of it. So I gave all the time I could spare, from pressing home affairs, to planning out how to get the better of our neighbour in the conflict that I foresaw.

Nothing could be done, however, until some kind of order had been established within the kingdom, the chaotic state of which caused a complete change of government to be necessary.

Up to now, Rudarlia had been an absolute monarchy, the king's power being autocratic; a curious survival of mediaeval days, and which for centuries had satisfied Rudarlians; but now a more modern spirit was at work, and there were indications that a representative form of government was desirable. But what kind of constitution would best suit the country? That was the question, and I gave it a great deal of thought, before asking some of the leading men to give me their ideas in writing. These, when I received them, proved rather disappointing, for all of them suffered from the same fault: that of not recognising the whole, as a whole.

I had suggested to Mr. Smith that he should give me his idea, but he requested me to allow him to stand aside for the present. He told me that he would like to know what his King had thought of doing. He was interested to see what Merlin's son would do.

I set to work vigorously, although, I confess, with a great deal of trepidation. A scheme to turn an absolute monarchy into a constitutional one, without injury to the various classes, and without upsetting the national morale, was one from which anyone might shrink.

I did not propose to work out details--that would have taken too much time, as well as being something that could be better done by others--but I did wish to think out the main structure. I therefore compared the different systems of legislature known to the civilised world. I collected information from all sources, in the course of conversations with men of all classes, and I also thought deeply on the nature of the Rudarlian people. This was the most difficult part of the whole problem; for, of all things, national character is the most complex. Along one road, a nation may be steered as easily as a flock of sheep; along another, the first few yards will split it into a hundred conflicting elements.

Rudarlia was mainly an agricultural country, and it has always seemed to me that such are best governed by a system akin to the patriarchal; yet, as a European country, such a system was impossible. Therefore I had to arrange that, although not patriarchal, an element of it should be there, combined with more up-to-date forms.

It was with this in my mind that I considered the possibility of combining the municipal government with the parliamentary, and to that end introduced the Mayors, as the lowest class in the parliamentary pyramid.

In the election of Mayors, every man, barring the mentally deficient, and the habitual criminal, had a vote.

Mayors, however, did not sit in Parliament, their duty being the collection of facts relating to the conditions of life and public affairs in their districts, and the sending of them in to the class above them, the Sheriffs.

Every man who possessed a house, or piece of land, of an annual rental of five pounds, had the right to vote for a Sheriff. If a man possessed more than one house or piece of land, he should be entitled to an extra vote for each house, etc., with this provision: no man should cast more than one vote in any one borough.

For every four thousand votes, there should be one Sheriff; but, in the case of a borough with more than four thousand voters, the odd votes should be cast still for one Sheriff, until such time as the number of voters exceeded six thousand, when another Sheriff should be voted for, in addition.

To these Sheriffs was allotted the power of selecting the actual members of Parliament, the Senators, in the proportion of one Senator to three Sheriffs.

To the latter, fell the duty of condensing the reports of the Mayors, and forwarding them to the Senate; upon these reports, a committee of Senators would frame bills, which would then be sent to the Minister in whose department they were. Of these Ministers, those of Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Education, Public Works and Arts, were elected by the Senate, while the King would appoint the Ministers of War, Finance, and Foreign Affairs; also the Premier, who would be Chancellor, and President of the Council.

The bills framed by the Senators would be duly discussed, and then sent to the Ministers of the different departments; and it was their duty to introduce them to the Cabinet, who would discuss, amend, and finally deliver to the King, for the Royal Assent.

I made the possession of certain immovable property the basis of suffrage; for, to my mind, those men who value the power of voting will be thrifty and hard-working, in order to purchase or rent land, or a house of sufficient value.

Again, men who possess property are not so prone to encourage loose legislation as the wastrels and thriftless; it would therefore encourage those qualities, which are the basis of all national welfare. The possession of a vote should give a man self-respect and dignity; the casting of a vote should be a matter of serious thought, in order that men of undoubted worth might be elected as Sheriffs.

With regard to the election of Mayors, that all men, with the two exceptions I have named, should have the right to vote, was necessary for the pyramidical form of government; for, among those without the qualifications of sufficient property, there were, no doubt, many who, by their clear reason, sound judgment, and patriotism, could be of service to the state, through the Mayors.

Sheriffs and Mayors would be paid government officials; Senators and Ministers would be unpaid, except in cases of expense incurred in the state service.

I believe that the soundest laws are made by men who give their services to the state.

It has always seemed to me best, that the portfolios of War, and Foreign Affairs, should be in the hands of nobles chosen for their patriotism and probity. Finance, too, should not be a question to be tampered with by lower-class men, for an intellect of the finest understanding, unswerving loyalty to high ideals, and a consummate knowledge of human nature, are essential in one who would conduct worthily the finances, which are undoubtedly the heart's blood of a nation. However great a man may be who has risen from the lower class, it is generally through being possessed of qualities which, admirable though they are, do not lead to the delicate sensitiveness, tact, and polished thought necessary.

Again, in every assembly of men, there are always those in opposition; perhaps it is necessary, to obtain the best legislation. This being so, it were only human nature to promise to the electors those things which might forward their election, regardless of expense, and, once finance becomes a party question, unwise legislation is thrust upon the state, accompanied by an enormous increase in taxation. Personally, I would favour slow and steady development in everything, always reserving, however, sufficient energy to maintain, for some considerable time, high pressure and rapid movement. Therefore, I would sooner see a government of sober-minded, level-headed men than one led and directed by more brilliant and erratic brains, nothing being, to my mind, so injurious as the clever, plausible man, who has the power of swaying an audience by words; for, generally, their speech is mere verbiage, used to conceal their real thoughts and confuse the minds of their hearers.

In order that the finances of the country should not be controlled by one man, the whole Cabinet should discuss every tax suggested by the Minister; and it should be the privilege of the King to call in not more than five Senators to discuss with them.

The Army and Navy should be in the hands of experts, with the same provisions as in dealing with Finance.

Foreign Affairs should be in the hands of the King and Minister; only in cases of serious import, such as the sending of an Ultimatum, or great change in foreign policy, should full debate be allowed in the Cabinet.

That was the rough draft I drew up to show to Mr. Smith. I advised gradual alteration of existing laws; never, however, until better ones were ready to take their place.

In my scheme, the elections should take place every five years. The King, however, could retain the Ministers appointed by himself for as long as he thought fit.

It so happened that my ideas found favour at once with Mr. Smith, and other nobles to whom I showed the draft; and I am glad to say that they have been in existence in Rudarlia now for some years, and I think meet with general approval.

Naturally, they were altered here and there; but the main idea is the same as that embodied in my first rough draft.

I shall never forget the day when a deputation of some of the leading men from all the provinces waited upon me to deliver into my hands a petition, couched in the humblest and most loyal terms, begging me to grant Rudarlia an extremely limited constitution.

We, that is Mr. Smith and the other nobles, had kept to ourselves the plans we had been making, so their petition was looked upon by them as a most daring innovation to propose.

"Indeed!" said I, having glanced at the paper. "Are you not content that I should govern you well, and in accordance with past traditions?"

"It is not your rule, your Majesty, that we fear, it is rather those who may come after you. Your Sacred Father ruled us well and yet Ivan came. As it is, we, your humble servants, recognising in you the true successor to your father's throne, would wish to profit by your graciousness, to ask this great boon, to ensure against possible ills in the future."

"You believe, then, that it is wise to 'Make hay, while the sun shines.' But, tell me, have you plans drawn out, for our consideration, of this proposed constitution?"

"No, your Majesty, that is further than we dared to go."

We had had copies made of the draft which I have referred to, and Mr. Smith at this moment handed one to me. I took this as a sign that he would consider it wise to divulge our secret now; so I handed the draft to the leader of the deputation and said:

"Gentlemen, although my reign has only just begun, you have approached me with this petition. If you will withdraw and read this paper, I shall be pleased to hear your opinion upon it. When you have considered it, return to me here."

They withdrew, and I returned to my work with Mr. Smith.

In less than an hour, they were back again, with such expressions of delight on their faces that I was well recompensed for any trouble I had taken. I had given them so much more than they had ever dreamed of, that they stood confused and stammering before me.

"Well, gentlemen, you see that, quick as you were with your petition, we have been still quicker in preparing our answer."

"God bless your Majesty. It is so much more than we dared hope for, that you find us dazed with your generosity."

"Then you are satisfied?"

"Satisfied! More than satisfied, and eternally grateful to your Majesty. Ah! all Rudarlians will rejoice when this becomes known, and every man and woman will be bound even more firmly in their devoted loyalty to you."

"God grant it; but you must realise, and make others understand, that such change takes time to carry out. Therefore try and curb impatience, believing that our best endeavours will always be for Rudarlia."

It took months of hard work by able-minded men to work out the details of our scheme, and as many more to perfect the machinery.

In the meantime, I set to work upon the army, and other matters that were of great importance.

In order to expedite matters, I immediately appointed those Ministers whom I should have the power to appoint under the new constitution.

Mr. Smith, or Prince Zeula, as I shall now call him, was Chancellor, and President of the Council.

On the plea of age, General von Vorkovitch begged to be excused from the War Ministry. He, however, volunteered his services when required, to help with the reorganisation of the entire force, which I was determined to undertake. It was necessary on account of the slackness that had crept in under Ivan's rule.

I appointed Count Belen to the office. He, although not in the army, had a profound acquaintance with the military services of the great nations. Prince Kleber, who was the greatest noble of our maritime province, was given the navy to organise.

In Count von Maark I found a shrewd, able, and consummate financier, yet a most honourable man.

Prince von Venoff was our first Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was a tactful and polished man, with great understanding of foreign nations, and their different characteristics. He had travelled extensively, and made many important friends among the diplomatic bodies of most of the European countries.

I also appointed men recommended by Zeula to fill the posts which would be senatorial in selection: Baron von Casile to the Interior, Count Storfar and Baron von Klintor receiving the portfolios of Justice and Agriculture, respectively.

They were all extremely able men, who were full of eagerness and zeal in the public service.

The scheme I had mentioned to Zeula, with regard to the farmers who had suffered through injustice, was carried out successfully.

I issued an order, granting free pardon to those who had taken to brigandage through the same reason.

We established small land banks through the country; a very important move, almost a necessity, so dry had Ivan drained it. I advanced the money, and thanked God and my stepfather for the power to do so. Indeed, without my vast fortune, I do not know how we should have managed except by a crippling loan.

In order to encourage the farmers, a small bounty was placed on various food-stuffs; for the quantity of foreign corn imported would have made it impossible for them to have grown it with any profit.

Upon all this imported food we placed a small duty in order to accustom the people to the idea, for it was our intention, once agriculture was on a footing in any way commensurate with the needs of Rudarlia, to increase the duty upon such foodstuffs imported, chiefly for the sake of revenue.

I also encouraged breeding horses and cattle, setting the example by starting stud farms on my own lands.