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Show RULER: I shouldn't wonder. By the by, I should like to keep you near me to-night. Your hump may bring me luck. I have to make a momentous decision. Now listen to me. Itrust you~you have availed yourself of my permission to be truthful. I do not trust all my ser- vants. Will you look to the wine to-night P [The CHIROPODIST cringes assent] The royal Dukes and my Ministers are to dine at my table. Be near me to-night, my little hunch-back. [The CHIROPODIST kisses the royal toes in deep obeisanee. The RULER OF A GREAT PEOPLE exits to his dressing-room. The CHIROPODIST rises] CHIROPODIST : It has come-the day, their day, my day l God of my fathers, keep me from madness. Mother, hold my hand from out of your grave I You said it should be ! My hunger can be stilled-I can almost straighten my back with pride. [He crosses himself beneath the image of the Virgin] Help me in my hour. There are two roads~which shall I take? I have learned to flatter~it is my profesSion--I have walked across the plank‘I am there-my ambition, my little ambition can be requited. I have blackmailed the world~I am in its palace. The open road is in front of me at last. I can move step by step, as otheis have done, nearer the thronewand then, who knows? But there is another road-the road where humanity toils or trudges-the road my father and mother trod when I was a little child. It was the revolution~my mother was torn from my father's arms--before his eyes she was degraded by the soldiery~then they shot him for an anarchist. This hump of mineka soldier struck me with his gun-my shoulder shattered. In our exile every night my mother would stroke my back while she prayed that God would straighten me. She starved that she might sprinkle my hump with holy water. And here I am what I am. This is my moment-shall I fall to ease, to comfort, and convenience? I whose father shrieked for freedom as he fell. This war~I can prevent it. I see it coming on--I am not blind as those that make war-war for the vanity of a King, who made God in his own image. War for greed of commerce. Hundreds, thousands, millions of lives will be lost to satisfy the lust of five men! Can five hundred years of happiness compensate for one year's spoil of a monarch's sport ? An Emperor of the Shambles declares war to make a madman's holiday. I can hear the yells of the poor deluded men in the trenches-they call it glory! I can see their stark bodies mangled and twisted in the frozen mud-they call it glory ! I can smell the stench of their decay wafting disease through the land in the spring that is coming-they call it glory! I can read the outpourings of their hireling professors. I hear Christ's priests chanting their blessings on the holocausts-they call it glOIyl The moans of millions of mothers go heeded by man. My mind is a mirage of ruined up to God, uncathedrals, of de- vastated homes, of spectres of famished peoples-all these I see-they call it glory I My little hand can stay all this. [He takes from his box the little bottle labelled " Poison."] Here is my ally-a few drops of this in his liqueur to-night, and it is done. [He tastes the pozson] Revenge is sweet ! I shall be the undying benefactor of mankind. After all, he is only one man, like myself. He who cuts the_corns of a.monarch knows the equality of man. Murder-yes. To kill one man is to be a murderer-to kill ten thousand is to be a hero ! Strange is the logic of the world ! What is he then who murders one to save millions ? [He it his ara hernalia and exits] takes P IEThep scene changes to the private dining-room of the great RULER. Seated round the table are PRINCES, CABINET MINISTERS, a PROFESSOR, and a PRIEST. It is the end of dinner. There are signs of debauchery. The steeped in wine, gazes before him with pale eyes. are in front of him and an ink-stand, into which he pen irresolutely. The clock strikes twelve. ' WAR MINISTER: At twelve the decision was to be given-it has struck. A PRINCE : Octavian, sign. RULER, Papers dzps his already . [The RULER hesitates and takes a liqueur from the hands of the now resplendent CHIROPOpIST] PRIME MINISTER : It is time to Sign, your Majesty. RULER : I am thinking. _ ' PRIME MINISTER : A King should never think, your Ma]esty, when he knows his power. It is two minutes past the hour-history is rushing by. You are two minutes less powerful than you were at midnight. MINISTER : Mi ht is ri ht. IlkvtifER : Is Might aliays rigght? [Turning to elderly PRIEST] Father, you have often told me that the true divine right of kings is peace. What did you say in your sermon during the Peace Conference ? If the sacred head of the State were to pronounce himself to the world as the leader of Peace-if he will declare himself-if he will proclaim that the highest prerogative of kings-that their true Divine right is universal peace- if in his greatness he will carry this ideal into effect, then he Wlll go down the centuries not only as King of his land, not only as Emperor of the globe, but as the temporal saviour of mankind. Those were . Surely God is good. your words, father PRIEST : Yes, your Majesty, very good. But now we are'talking war. The needs of your people sanctify the sacrifice of your ideals. RULER : I am wondering, at what point a King is Justified for the sake of his country in sacrificing his ideals. [He takes another liqueur] PRIEST: His conscience must decide. PROFESSOR: Ideals are only official ideals when they have concretefoundations. Ideals must be backed by cannon, or left alone. With all submission to your Majesty, man is but a brute-we all devour eaflsi ) |