"She grieves!" he thought, sullenly, in his strange and confused way of balancing justice and injustice--"She grieves that the worthless life of the King she saved, is now to be taken by a righteous hand!"
Meanwhile Leroy faced the a.s.sembly.
"Comrades!" he said; "This is the first time I have a.s.sisted in the work of your Day of Fate,--the first time I have recognised how entirely Providence moves _with_ you and _for_ you in the ruling of your destinies! And because it is the first time, our Chief permits me to address you with the same fraternal liberty which was allowed to me on the night I became enrolled among you, as one of you! Since then, I have done my best to serve you--" here he was interrupted by applause--"and so far as it has been humanly possible, I have endeavoured to carry out your views and desires because,--though many of them spring from pure idealism, and are, I fear, impossible of realisation in this world,--they contain the seed of much useful and necessary reform in many inst.i.tutions of this country. I have--as I promised you--shaken the stronghold of Carl Perousse;"--again the applause broke out, none the less earnest because it was restrained. "I have destroyed the press-power and prestige of that knavish Jew-speculator in false news, David Jost; and wherever the wishes of this Society could be fulfilled, I have honestly sought to fulfil them. On this night, of all nights in the year, I should like to feel, and to know, that you acknowledge me as your true comrade and faithful friend!"
At this, the whole of the company gave vent to an outburst of cheering.
"Do you doubt our love, that you ask of it?--or our grat.i.tude that you seek to have it expressed?" said Thord, leaning forward to clasp his hand;--"Surely you know you have given new life and impetus to our work!--and that you have gained fresh triumph for our Cause!"
Leroy smiled,--but though returning his grasp cordially, he said nothing to him in person by way of reply, evidently preferring rather to address the whole community than one, even though that one was his acknowledged Chief.
"I thank you all!" he said in response to the acclamations around him.
"I thank you for so heartily acknowledging me as your fellow-worker!
I thank you for giving me your confidence and employing my services!
Tonight--the most important night of my destiny--Fate has determined that I shall perform the greatest task of all you have ever allotted to me; and that with swiftness and sureness in the business I shall kill the King! He is my marked victim! I am his chosen a.s.sa.s.sin!" Here interrupting himself with a bright smile, he said: "Will someone restrain my two friends, Max Graub and Axel Regor from springing out of their seats? They are both extremely envious of the task which has been allotted to me!--both are disappointed that it did not fall to them to perform,--but I am not in the humour for arguing so nice a point of honour with them just now!"
A laugh went round the company, and the two delinquents thus called to order, and who had really been seeking in quite a wild and aimless way, to scramble out of their seats and make for the platform, resumed their places with heads bent low, lest those around them should see the deadly pallor of their countenances. Leroy resumed.
"I rejoice, friends and comrades, that I have been elected to the high task of removing from the Throne one who has long been unworthy of it!--one who has wasted his opportunities both in youth and middle-age,--and who, by his own fault in a great measure, has lost much of the love and confidence of his people! I am glad and proud to be the one chosen to put an end to the career of a monarch whose vices and follies--which might have suited a gambler and profligate--are entirely unbecoming to the Sovereign Ruler of a great Realm! I shall have no fear in carrying out my appointed duty to the letter! I here declare my acceptance of whatever punishment may be visited on one who removes from life a King who brings kingliness into contempt! And,--as our Chief, Sergius Thord, suggested to-night,--I shall be swift and sure in the business!--there shall be no delay!"
Here, as he spoke he drew a pistol from his pocket and turned the muzzle towards himself,--at which unexpected action there was a hasty movement of surprise, terror and confusion among the company.
"Gentlemen all! Friends! Brothers!--as you have been,--and are to me,--by the binding of our compact in the name of Lotys! It is the determination of destiny,--as it is your desire,--that I should kill the King! You have resolved upon it. You are sure that his death will benefit the country. You have decided not to take into consideration any of his possible good qualities, or to pity any of the probable sorrows and difficulties besetting him in the uneasy position he is compelled to occupy. You are quite certain among yourselves, that somehow or other his removal will bring about that ideal condition of society which many philosophers have written of, and which many reformers have desired, but which has till now, proved itself incapable of being realised. The King"s death, you think, will better all existing conditions, and you wish me to fulfil not only the call of destiny, but your own desire. Be it so! I am ready to obey! I will kill the King at once!--here and now!
I _am_ the King!"
CHAPTER XXIX
THE COMRADE OF HIS FOES
This bold declaration, boldly spoken, had the startling effect of a sudden and sharp flash of lightning in dense darkness. Amazement and utter stupefaction held every man for the moment paralysed. Had a volcano suddenly opened beneath their feet and belched forth its floods of fire and lava, it could not have rendered them more helplessly stricken and speechless.
"I _am_ the King!"
The words appeared to blaze on the air before them,--like the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar"s feast. The King! He,--their friend, their advocate, he--Pasquin Leroy,--the most obedient, the most daring and energetic of all the workers in their Cause--he--even he--was the King! Was it,--could it be possible! Their eyes--all riveted in fearful fascination upon him as he stood before them wholly at their mercy, but cool, dauntless, and smilingly ready to die,--had the wild uncomprehending stare of delirium;--the silence in the room was intense, breathless and terrible. Suddenly, like a lion roused, Sergius Thord, with a half-savage movement, sprang forward and seized him roughly by the arm.
"You,--you are the King?" he said; "You,--Pasquin Leroy?" and struggling for breath, his words almost choked him. "_You_! Enemy in the guise of friend! You have fooled us! You have deceived us--you--!"
"Take care, Sergius!" said the monarch smiling, as he gently disengaged himself from the fierce hand that clutched him; "This pistol is loaded,--not to shoot you with!--but myself!--at your command! It would be unfortunate if it went off and killed the wrong man by accident!"
His indomitable courage was irresistible; and Thord, relaxing his grasp, fell back in something like awe. And then the spell of horror and amazement that had struck the rest of the a.s.semblage dumb, broke all at once into a sort of wild-beast clamour. Every man "rushed" for the platform--and Max Graub and Axel Regor, taking swift and conscious possession of their true personalities as Professor von Glauben and Sir Roger de Launay, fought silently and determinedly to keep back the crowding hands that threatened instant violence to the person of their Royal master.
A complete hubbub and confusion reigned;--cries of "Traitor!" and "Spy!"
were hurled from one voice to another; but before a single member of the Committee could reach the spot where stood the undaunted Sovereign whom they had so lately idolised as their friend and helper, and whom they were now ready to tear to pieces, Lotys flung herself in front of him, while at the same moment she s.n.a.t.c.hed the pistol he held from his hand, and fired it harmlessly into the air. The loud report--the flash of fire,--startled all the men, who gaped upon her, thunderstruck.
"Through me!" she cried, her blue eyes flashing glorious menace; "Through me your shots! Through me your daggers! On me your destroying hands! Through my body alone shall you reach this King! Stand back all of you! What would you do? King or commoner, he is your comrade and a.s.sociate! Sovereign or servant, he is the bravest man among you! Touch him who dare! Remember your Vow of Fealty!"
Transfigured into an almost sublime beauty by the fervour of her emotion, she looked the supreme incarnation of inspired womanhood, and the infuriated men fell back, dismayed and completely overwhelmed by the strong conviction of her words, and the amazing situation in which they found themselves.
It was true!--he, the King,--whom they had accepted and known as Pasquin Leroy,--was verily their own comrade! He had proved himself a thousand times their friend and helper!--they had sworn to defend him at the cost of their own lives, if need be,--to shelter and protect him in all circ.u.mstances, and to accept all the consequences of whatever danger he might run in the performance of his duty. His duty now,--according to the fatal drawing of lots,--was that he should kill the King; and he had declared himself ready to fulfil the task by killing himself! But--as he was their comrade--they were bound in honour to guard his life!
These bewildering and maddening thoughts coursed like fire through the brain of Sergius Thord,--the while his eyes, grown suddenly dark and bloodshot, rested wonderingly on the tall upright figure of the monarch, standing quietly face to face with the blood-thirsty Revolutionary Committee, entirely unmoved by their fierce and lowering looks, and on Lotys, white, beautiful and breathless, kneeling at his feet! A crushing sense of impotence and failure rushed over his soul like a storm wave,--his brain grew thick with the hurrying confusion, and a great cry, like that of a wounded animal, broke from his lips.
"My G.o.d! My G.o.d! All my life"s work lost--in a single moment!"
The King heard. Gently, and with careful courtesy, raising Lotys from the position in which she had thrown herself to guard him from attack for the second time, he pressed her hands tenderly in his own.
"Trust me!" he whispered; "Have no fear! Not a man among them will touch me now!"
With a slight gesture he signed her back to the chair she had previously occupied. She sank into it, trembling from head to foot, but her eyes feverishly brilliant and watchful, were widely open and alert, ready to note the least movement or look that indicated further danger. Then the King addressed himself to Thord.
"Sergius, I am entirely in your hands! I wait your word of command!
You are armed,--all my companions here are armed also! But Lotys has deprived me of the only weapon I possessed,--though there are plenty more in the room to be had on loan. What say you? Shall I kill the King?
Or will you?"
Thord was silent. A strong shudder shook his frame. The King laid a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Friend!" he said in a low voice; "Believe me, I am your friend more than ever!--you never had, and never will have a truer one than I! All your life"s work lost, you say? Nay, not so! It is gained! You conquered the People before I knew you,--and now you have conquered the People"s King!"
Slowly Thord raised his great, dark, pa.s.sionate eyes, clouded black with thoughts which could find no adequate expression. The look in them went straight to the monarch"s heart. Baffled ambition,--the hunger of greatness,--the desire to do something that should raise his soul above such common ruck of human emmets as make of the earth the merest ant-hill whereon to eat and breed and die;--all this pent-up emotion swam luminously in the fierce bright orbs, which like mirrors, reflected the picture of the troubled mind within. The suppressed power of the man, who, apart from his confused notions of "liberty, equality, and fraternity" could resort to the sternest and most self-endangering measures for destroying what he considered the abuses of the law, had moved the King, while disguised as Pasquin Leroy, to the profoundest admiration for his bold character;--but perhaps he was never more moved than at this supreme moment, when, hopelessly entangled in a net of most unexpected weaving, the redoubtable Socialist had to confess himself vanquished by the simple friendship and service of the very monarchy he sought to destroy.
"Sergius," said the King again,--"Trust me! Trust me as your Sovereign, with the same trust that you gave to me as your comrade, Pasquin! For I am still your comrade, remember! Nothing can undo the oath that binds me to you and to the People! I have not become one of you to betray you; but to serve you! Our present position is certainly a strange one!--for by the tenets you hold, we should be sworn opponents, instead of, as we are, sworn friends! Political agitators would have set us one against the other for their own selfish ends; as matters stand, we are united in the People"s Cause; and I may perhaps do you more good living than dead! Give me a chance to serve you even better than I have done as yet!
Still,--if you judge my death would be an advantage to the country,--you have but to say the word! I have sworn,--and I am ready to carry out the full accomplishment of my vow! Do you understand? You are, by the rules of this Committee my Chief!--there are no kings here; and I am good soldier enough to obey orders! It is for you to speak!--straightly, plainly, and at once,--to the Committee,--and to me!"
"Before G.o.d, you are brave!" muttered Thord, gazing at him in reluctant admiration. "So brave, that it is almost impossible to believe that you can be a King!"
He smiled.
"Speak! Speak, my friend!" he urged; "Our comrades are watching our conference like famished tigers! Give them food!"
Thus adjured, Thord advanced, and confronted the murmuring, gesticulating crowd of men, some of whom were wrathfully expostulating with Johan Zegota, because he declined to unlock the door of the room and let them out, till he had received his Chief"s commands to do so.
Others were grouped round Paul Zouche, who had sat apparently stricken immovable in his chair ever since the King had declared his ident.i.ty; and others showed themselves somewhat inclined to "hustle" Sir Roger de Launay and Professor von Glauben, who guarded the approach to the platform like sentinels,--though they were discreet enough to show no weapons of defence.
"Comrades!"
The rich, deep voice of their leader thrilled through the room, and brought them all to silence and attention.
"Comrades!" said Thord slowly,--his accents vibrating with the deepest emotion. "I desire and command you all to be satisfied that no wrong has been done to you! I ask you all to understand, fully and surely, that no wrong is intended to you! The man whom we have loved,--the man who has served us faithfully as Pasquin Leroy,--is still the same man, though the King! Rank cannot alter his proved friendship and service,--nor kingship break his bond! He is one of us,--signed and sealed in the blood of Lotys;--and as one of us he must, and will remain! Have I spoken truly?" he added, turning to the King, "or is there more that I should say?"
Before any reply could be given a hubbub of voices cried:--
"Explain! Confess! Bind him to his oath!"
Whereat the King, stepping forward a pace or two, confronted his would-be doubters and detractors with a dauntless composure.