The king gripped the edge of a table.
“He asked me for her,” the wretched man growled like a lion gnawing a bone. “I refused him. She is very dear to me. I wanted her to have a better man, of her own choosing. For I have provided that she is to rule my people when I am gone.”
Though greatly surprised, I refrained from looking toward the window, and kept silence while the broken man fought out his agony. When the urgency of his situation had measurably restored him, he began to pace the floor, and asked:
“Something has to be done immediately. What would you suggest?”
“What does your Majesty understand the case to be?”
“We are on the eve of a revolution. The task is to check it.”
“Meanwhile, Sire, I observe that a score of Gato’s soldiers are in the palace. Is that customary?”
The king stopped and turned a livid look on me.
“No. Gato suggested that it would be safer to have them here for the present as a protection.”
“Protection for whom, Sire?”