II
Around that ministerial board it would have been amusing to an impartial onlooker to see how many mouths of grave and reverend Councilors did actually open and drop chins of dismay. A gust of horror and astonishment blew round the assembly; it was a word unknown in the Jingalese Constitution; no place had been there provided for it,—it had never been done. Strictly speaking—legally speaking, that is to say—it could not be done. Kings had been deposed, exiled, their heads cut off—all without their own consent—but never without the consent of Parliament, or of some portion of it at all events. Yet nothing whatever could prevent it; for clearly on this point the King could insist; but, if he did, the Constitution would be in the melting-pot, and the consequences could not be foreseen. What right had this pelican in piety to go pecking his own breast and shedding the blood of his ancestors? Viewed in any constitutional light it was a revolutionary and bloody deed.
The Prime Minister was not slow to see its bearing on the whole political situation and on the fortunes of his ministry.
"Gentlemen," said he, "if this abdication is allowed to take effect, our plans are defeated and the Government must go."
"You mean we shall have to resign?"
"We cannot even do that; we are forestalled. Though not yet publicly announced this is an absolute abdication here and now." And then that all might hear, the Lord President proceeded to read out the terms.
"WE, John, by the Grace of God, King of Jingalo, Suzerain of Rome, Leader of the Forlorn Hope, and Crowned Head of Jerusalem, do hereby solemnly declare, avow, render, and deliver by this as Our own act, freely undertaken and accomplished for the good, welfare, comfort, and succor of the Realm of Jingalo and of its People, that now and from this day henceforward. We do utterly renounce, relinquish, and abjure all claim to rank, titles, honors, emoluments, and privileges holden by Us in virtue of Our inheritance and succession as true and rightful Sovereign Lord of the said Realm of Jingalo. And for the satisfying of Our Royal Conscience and the better safety and security of those things aforetime committed to Our trust and keeping, under the Constitution of the said Realm of Jingalo; to the preservation whereof We are bound by oath, therefore We do now pronounce, publish, and set forth, that it may be known to all, this Our Abdication, made in the 25th year of Our reign and given under Our hand and signet——"
Then came date and signature; and following these the old form of mixed German and Latin, without which no State document was complete—"Der Rex das vult."
When the reading ended there was a short pause. Here at all events, in their very ears, history was being incredibly made.
"Remarkably well drawn," observed Professor Teller, admiringly: "copied, you may be interested to learn, from the actual instrument wrung by Parliament out of King Oliver the Second under threat of torture four hundred years ago. As legal and regular a form, therefore, as it would be possible to devise."