“That conclusion is rather fine,” observed Cyril. “I always knew that the O’Malachy was about as picturesque an old villain as remains unhung in these degenerate days; but I did not know he was quite capable of these heroics.”
“Perhaps a telegram which I received before you came in may throw some light upon the matter,” said the King. “It is from our Minister at Pavelsburg, telling me that this very paper had been warned by the censor, at his request, for publishing unauthorised news. He added that the news related to the King of Thracia.”
“Only warned? not suspended?” said Cyril. “That shows they were not sorry to have it believed, then. Well, I fear we can do nothing to bring Scythia to a sense of the error of her ways; but I think I can put a spoke in Dickinson’s wheel.”
“I am about to indite a formal complaint to the British Government,” said the King. “It is intolerable that a newspaper should be allowed to libel the sovereign of a neighbouring country in this way, especially when it is remembered that he is on the point of connecting himself with my family.”
“I’m afraid that will scarcely do,” said Cyril. “You see, for one thing, Caerleon isn’t exactly the sovereign of a neighbouring country—at least, no one seems quite to know whether he is a sovereign at all, or not.”
“But that will be satisfactorily settled before long,” said the King.
“If Pannonia supports us at Czarigrad in pressing anew for our recognition from Roum it will be, but not otherwise,” said Cyril, shortly. “But this uncertainty disposes of any idea of appealing to the British Government. What we have to do is to work upon Dickinson in a way he can understand.”
“And what is that?” asked King Johann.
“I know a man on the staff of the ‘Universe,’” answered Cyril, “and it will give him and his chief the purest pleasure to make Dickinson take a back seat over this business. I shall simply send him one little fact, and he will work it up with a few flourishes about Dickinson’s abnormal faculty for discovering mares’ nests, and a passing remark or two on the subject of his descent from the man who hated Aristides.”
“But what is the fact?” asked the King, eagerly.