"I venture to differ from the Justiciary," remarked the princess. "An earlier law is always repealed by a later. Therefore the feudal statute which has been cited is abrogated by the recent Anti-duelling Act. We will therefore omit this pretended championing of our rights as an obsolete, barbarous, and unmeaning ceremony."
The Justiciary did not look as if convinced by Barbara's reasoning. He refrained from further comment, however, and the motion to omit the champion from the ceremonial was unanimously accepted.
Various other matters relative to the solemnity were settled, after which the council broke up, leaving Zabern still troubled by Mosco's smile. A permanent member of the cabinet, the Greek archpastor, equally with the Roman archbishop, could not be removed at will by the princess or the premier, unless guilty of treason, and of this Zabern as yet lacked proof.
"He is playing Bora's game," muttered the marshal. "He is a party to Lipski's plot. I warrant he knows all about the store of arms concealed in that traitor's cellar. Mosco, you shall sit no more as the betrayer of our meetings, for none shall be held. For some time to come Czernova shall be governed by a council of three—the princess, Radzivil, and myself."
But the evil which the Greek archpastor might do was as nothing compared with what the Roman archbishop could effect, and in the course of a few days Barbara found herself facing a peril of which even her confidant Zabern little dreamed.
A week after Paul's departure Cardinal Ravenna returned to Slavowitz, coming from Rome in no good humor. The Sacred College, at the invitation of the Pope, had been spending many days in the discussion of some abstruse doctrine of theology, much to the irritation of Ravenna, whose self-interest required his presence in Czernova.
In the first hour of his return he was made aware that the cabinet, ignoring his superior claims, had deputed Abbot Faustus to crown the princess, and that all men were talking of the event; for inasmuch as it was the current belief that Ravenna was the very person who had converted the princess to the Catholic faith, the Czernovese were naturally not a little mystified by this exclusion of the archbishop from the coronation ceremony.
Ravenna knew full well that this appointment could not have been made without the sanction of Barbara herself, and accordingly on the following morning he repaired to the Vistula Palace, his mortification becoming still further enhanced by the mocking smile of his Greek rival, whom he chanced to pass on the way. Barbara received the cardinal with a chilling mien.
"Is it true, princess," he began with a grave air, "that in the matter of the coronation you have given to the Abbot Faustus, my inferior, the honor which belongs of right to the archbishop?"
"Quite true," responded Barbara, coldly.