“I will not disguise from you, milord,” said M. Drakovics, bringing his head very close to his hearer’s, and speaking low and earnestly, “that we have made many attempts to obtain a king from the different reigning families of Europe. It was at first our great hope that we might secure one of the younger members of the English royal house, but this honour has been absolutely refused to us, and it was the same with several German princely families. We offered the crown to Prince Otto Georg of Schwarzwald-Molzau, the King of Mœsia’s cousin, whose family were willing that he should accept it, but he considered that the kingdom was likely to be too troublesome to be agreeable. We had even thought of a French prince, but there is the religious difficulty——”
“But I do not belong to the Greek Church, and I have no intention of joining it,” interrupted Usk.
“We could accept a Protestant, milord, but a Roman Catholic would be impossible.”
“But I am not even remotely connected with royalty,” objected Usk again.
“It is the boast of you English nobles that you are on a level with any of the princely houses of the Continent that are not absolutely royal,” said M. Drakovics, “and you are far richer.”
“Not our family, at any rate,” said Usk, with a shrug. “But I have had no experience in governing. Why don’t you ask some one who has been Viceroy of India or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland?”
“Because they are old, milord, and you are young: our young nation needs a young man at its head. But you are not a novice in the affairs of State. Who is so fit to introduce constitutional principles into Thracia as a member of the British House of Commons—one, moreover, who has shown himself friendly to any reasonable reform judiciously and fairly carried out? Nor would you find the actual work of governing a very difficult matter. I, who have been said to be the Revolution, am now the Government. I make the laws, and then commend them to the people, and this would continue to be the case as long as I was so happy as to retain your confidence, while you acted as the visible head of the Government and the sign of the unity of the nation.”
“As the figurehead, in fact?” said Usk.
“Precisely, milord.”
“But you ought to have a soldier, and I am not one.”