“And you think it is true? I see you do.”
“I fear it must be. It is too preposterous to be an invention.”
“And the reason? You think it is the result of some compact arising out of the Tatarjé business? So do I. Count, that stand of which we spoke some time ago ought to be made to-day. You will lead us? You perceive that I am handicapped by the fact of my brother’s interest in the matter.”
“I will speak, certainly, and join you in resigning, if we get as far as that. I may tell you in confidence that her Majesty is with us, and declares she will refuse her assent to the nomination of Philaret; but we must do all we can to prevent its coming to a constitutional struggle.”
“You are right, Count. Any honourable compromise, then, but no surrender on the main point.”
The members of the Cabinet were not kept long in suspense by their chief. After the transaction of some routine business, M. Drakovics announced briefly that he was about to nominate Bishop Philaret to the Synod, for promotion to the metropolitical see, and made as though he would pass immediately to the next matter. But this was not allowed, and it is scarcely probable that he expected it would be. An astonished question from one of the nobles whom the rumour had not reached opened the ball, and then Cyril spoke, followed by the other members of his party. The claims of Bishop Andreas, the notoriously pro-Scythian sympathies of Philaret, his part in the late plot and the doubtful justification he had offered, the certainty that his appointment would be painful to the Queen and displeasing to the majority of the Powers, were all set forth, to be replied to by the Premier in a few sentences which were contemptuous in their brevity. Bishop Andreas was unpopular, while his rival was a favourite with the clergy, Bishop Philaret had received due punishment for his innocent participation in the plot, and should now be treated with leniency,—these were his chief arguments, and when the dissentients still protested, he hinted darkly at reasons of state which rendered it necessary to make the Bishop of Tatarjé Metropolitan. This was a question of confidence, he declared, and those members of the Cabinet who were not prepared to support him would do well to leave it, since he could easily govern Thracia alone, but not when surrounded by half-hearted traitors. After this plain speaking the meeting broke up in confusion, and adjourned to the following day.
The breathing-space before the final struggle was spent by Cyril largely in consultation with his fellow-dissentients; and they succeeded in arranging the terms of a compromise, which, if M. Drakovics could be induced to accept it, might yet avert the danger of a strife between the Crown and the representative of the people. How the Premier had spent the time became evident to the Ministers as soon as they left their houses to attend the adjourned meeting of the Cabinet, for the streets and the market-place were filled with excited crowds, led on in many cases by priests, who clamoured for Philaret as their archbishop, and greeted the hostile party with hootings and threats.
“Rather an interesting commentary on the supposed secrecy of our deliberations,” observed Cyril to Prince Mirkovics, as they paused for a minute on the Premier’s steps. “There is no one who could have imparted what passed yesterday to the public except Drakovics himself.”
They went on into the council-chamber, where M. Drakovics received them with a countenance of more than Roman sternness, in which, however, there lurked a perceptible touch of anxiety. The play was for high stakes, and it was evident that he feared lest his opponents had thought better of their hostility, in which case he would have lost the opportunity of getting rid of them. He looked visibly more cheerful when they displayed no inclination to fall in with his views, although his anxiety returned for a moment when Prince Mirkovics presented his proposed compromise. A message had been sent to Bishop Andreas, who had returned to his diocese, and was now busily engaged in reducing it to order, to inquire his views on the subject of the vacant see, and he had replied by a strong expression of his determination to remain where he was, lest the malcontents should imagine that they had driven him out. Since this answer removed the favourite of one side from the contest, the proposal was that M. Drakovics should also withdraw his candidate, and that both parties should agree to the nomination of Bishop Socrates of Feodoratz, a man of moderate political views, who was a persona grata to all but the extremists among the clergy. To the indignation of the Mirkovics party, the compromise was brusquely declined without even a show of argument, and the Premier reiterated his resolve to nominate Philaret, and none but Philaret, to supply the vacant place. To this there could be but one reply, and Cyril, the War Minister, Prince Mirkovics, and three other members of the Cabinet rose and retired from the council, with the announcement that they were about to tender to the Queen their resignation of the offices they held.
Emerging from the doorway of M. Drakovics’s house, the dissentient Ministers found themselves a target for all the abuse of the crowds collected in the square. Their purpose in thus withdrawing in a body was evident, and they were saluted with a storm of execration. Prince Mirkovics and the other nobles were hailed as mountain-rats (feeling runs high in Thracia between highlander and lowlander), M. Georgeivics as a brutal tyrant (under his régime the discipline of the army had much improved), and Cyril as a poverty-stricken foreigner, who lived by doing dirty work. So violent were the mob that at first it was impossible to pass through them, and the Ministers stood at the top of the steps while a force of police, who had been energetically doing nothing on the opposite side of the square, proceeded languidly to their assistance.