“Ay! What is it?” echoed Zegota.
“Speak, Zouche!” said the King; “Whatever strange conclusion your poetic brain discovers, doubt not but that we shall accept it,—from!”
“Accept it? I should think so!” cried Zouche; “You are bound to accept it whether you like it or not; there is no other way out of it!”
“Well, what is it?” repeated Zegota impatiently; “Declare it!”
“It is this;” said Zouche, “Simply this,—that, with the King as our comrade and associate, the Revolutionary Committee is no use! It is finished! There can be no longer a Revolutionary Committee!”
“That is true!” said the King; “It may henceforth be known as a new Parliament!”
Cheer after cheer echoed through the crowded room, and while the noise was at its height a knocking was heard outside and Sholto, the hunchback father of Pequita, demanded admittance. Zegota unlocked the door, and in a few minutes the situation was explained to the astonished landlord of the Revolutionary Committee quarters. Overwhelmed at the news, and full of gratitude for the kindness shown to his child, which he now knew had emanated from the King in person, he would have knelt to kiss the Royal hand, had not the monarch prevented him.
“No, my good Sholto!” he said gently; “Enough of such humility wearies me in the monotonous routine of Court life; and were it not for custom and prejudice, I would suffer no self-respecting man to abase himself before me, simply because my profession is that of King! Tell Pequita that I would not look at her, or applaud her dancing the other night, because I wished her to hate the King and to love Pasquin!—but now you must ask her for me, to love them both!”
Sholto bowed low, profoundly overcome. Was this the King against whom they had all been in league?—this simple, unaffected man, who seemed so much at home and at one with them all? Amazed and bewildered, he, by general invitation, mixed with the rest of the men, for each of whom the King had a kind and appreciative word, or a fresh pledge of his good faith and intention towards them and the reforms they sought to effect. Von Glauben was surrounded by a group of those among whom he had made himself popular; and a hundred eager questions were asked of both him and De Launay, who were ready enough to eulogise the daring of their Royal master, and the determination with which he had resolved on making his secret foes his open friends.
“After all,” said Zegota deprecatingly, “it is not so much the King whom we were against, as the Government.”