“What have you done?” he went on sternly. “You have allowed a stranger from across the sea to become the head and front of this ancient realm. You sit here, playing the game he taught your king, while your country goes to ruin and the castle upon yonder hill becomes a plague-spot that throws a blight upon a whole people. Are you men—or simply wine-vats? Where is the manhood that made your ancestors great in war and men of force in peace? You have heard that in every inn, in every house in Hesse-Heilfels our countrymen, gone mad over a foolish game of chance, spend their days and nights playing poker. You have heard that chaos reigns at the castle, that the kingdom is placed in peril by a ruler who has become the tool of an adventurer, a man who has no claim upon the king, no right to our regard. Again I ask you, are you men? Think not that the people have no rights. The King of Hesse-Heilfels is absolute in power, but I say to you, my friends, that he forfeits his divine right when he gives that power to a trickster, to a man of alien blood who loves us not. Do you weigh my words? Tell me, my countrymen, do I not speak the truth?”
“Ja wohl, Carl!” cried one of his hearers. “You are right. We will do as you direct, eh, my friends?”
A murmur of assent arose from the awed and penitent throng. One of the poker players seized the cards and chips that lay upon the table and hurled them passionately through the open window.
“Lead on, Carl,” he cried. “We’ll follow you to the death.”
“Lead on, Carl. You’ll find that we are men,” shouted another.
“Down with the Yankee!” cried a third.
“Wilhelm for king!” came from the rear of the room.
“Ja! Ja! Wilhelm, Wilhelm!” arose the cry as the crowd poured from the hot and smoke-choked room into the cool, soft night outside, where the light of the gentle moon threw its silvery glory upon a scene well fitted to rouse in the hearts of men a love of fatherland.
Carl Eingen hurried to the front, and turning toward his overwrought followers, said sternly:
“No noise! Remain as silent as the night. We cannot overthrow a dynasty by childish chatter. The man who utters a sound is a traitor to Wilhelm, the rightful King of Hesse-Heilfels.”