The Priest. If it did, it would lose sight of its inner aim. The earliest communities are the model for a Christian people!
The King (turning away from him). Oh, have any model you like, so long as it leads to something!
The General. I must say I am astonished at the penetration your Majesty slows even into the deepest subjects.
Bang. Yes, I have never heard anything like it! I have not had the advantage of a university education, so I don't really understand it.
The King. And to think that I imagined that I should find my allies, my followers, in Christian people! One is so reluctant to give up all hope! I thought that a Christian nation would storm the strongholds of lies in our modern, so-called Christian communities—storm them, capture them!—and begin with monarchy, because that would need most courage, and because its falsehood lies deepest and goes farthest. I thought that Christianity would one day prove to be the salt of the earth. No, do not greet Christianity from me. I have said nothing, and do not mean it. I am what men call a betrayed man—betrayed by all the most ideal powers of life. There! Now I have done!
The General. But what does your Majesty mean? Betrayed? By whom? Who are the traitors? Really—!
The King. Pooh! Think it over!—As a matter of fact I am the only one that has been foolish.
Bang. Your Majesty, just now you were so full of vigour—!
The King. Don't let that astonish you, my friend! I am a mixture of enthusiasm and world-weariness; the scion of a decrepit race is not likely to be any better than that, you know! And as for being a reformer—! Ha, ha! Well, I thank you all for having listened to me so patiently. Whatever I said had no significance—except perhaps that, like the oysters, I had to open my shell before I died.—Good-bye!
The General. I really cannot find it in my heart to leave your Majesty when your Majesty is in so despondent a humour.