"The gods preserve your majesty."

By the force of circumstances, and Captain Pertinax\'s ingenious idea of red-handed justice, the Chancellor was sitting interned in his own official residence. For a man like Turbo to fail is very hard. Failure was a thing of which he had little experience. Yet now he was obliged to confess that his elaborate man?uvre had not succeeded. True, it had been so far successful as to irrevocably ruin Mlle de Tricotrin\'s chances of the throne. On that side the King was firmly blockaded in his bachelordom. But the rest of the operation was a disaster.

It was certainly nothing but a piece of pure ill-luck that had upset the strategist\'s calculations; but Turbo held that a man should be master of his fate, and leave no room for fortune to interfere either one way or the other. In the present case fortune might easily have been held at a distance. He ought to have remembered the [Pg 231]gendarmes, and fortune would not have deprived him of half the battle.

Indeed, it was more than half that had been lost. Not only had he failed to secure Penelophon for himself, but he had allowed her to come into the King\'s possession. So far from finally shutting off his sovereign from matrimony, he had actually hastened his approach to it. His idea that Kophetua intended to marry the beggar-maid, in order to secure the continuance of his reign, became more pronounced than ever. It was an eventuality which he had long foreseen. He had taken unsparing pains to prevent it. His whole powers, as a man and a politician, had been directed to keeping Penelophon away from Kophetua, and the only result had been to place the girl in his very arms. Something, he felt, must be done, or his ruin was complete. After what had occurred his favour in the King\'s eyes was gone for ever. He was a disgraced minister, whom nothing but a revolution could set on high again. Could he only stay the King\'s marriage a few months more, the revolution would come by peaceful process of law, otherwise his fall was complete, or a more violent course must be taken.

Into the midst of the Chancellor\'s perplexity broke M. de Tricotrin. By this time the Marquis had ascertained approximately what had occurred in the morning. The news of the palace was that General Dolabella and an officer of gendarmes had presented a report to[Pg 232] the King, which had led to a scene between his majesty and the Chancellor, resulting in the latter being confined to his residence in deep disgrace. This violent splash in the quiet waters of Oneirian politics was generally said, by well-informed persons of unimpeachable authority, to be due to a difference of opinion as to the course to be taken with the beggars, but M. de Tricotrin knew better. From what the Queen-mother had told him, and the facts within his own knowledge, he had now no doubt that the King had got wind of their little plot, and had ordered a party of gendarmes to frustrate it as quietly as possible, and he more than ever felt that an interview with the Chancellor was necessary to establish his own fidelity to the infamous bargain, and to concert measures for the future.

"I thought your excellency would have something to say to me after this disaster," said the Marquis, as soon as the two old schemers were alone.

"Yes?" said Turbo warily.

"You have an accusation to make, no doubt," said the Marquis.

"None in the world," answered Turbo; "why should I?"

"Then whom do you blame for the unfortunate intervention of the gendarmes?"

"I blame no one. They were there at my suggestion."

"Upon my word, Chancellor," said the[Pg 233] Marquis, astounded at Turbo\'s cool admission. "I must congratulate you upon the sang-froid with which you speak of your infamies."

"I do not understand you, Marquis," answered Turbo.

"The word is plain enough. What you confess is an infamy. It is an infamy to enter into an arrangement to further my daughter\'s marriage, and deliberately to frustrate it by making an exposure of us to his Majesty, and providing him with a consolation. It is clever; but, I repeat, it is an infamy."

"My dear Marquis," cried Turbo, almost with enthusiasm, "I see we shall work together admirably. Your suspicions do you infinite credit. They display in you possibilities of unscrupulous intrigue such as I myself have not yet attained. I have still to reach the point at which I could even suspect a man of the admirable insensibility of which you are so flattering as to accuse me. I bow to you as a master. To conceive such ingenious treachery belongs only to a master."

"Then you withdraw the confession you just made."

"I wish that I could, Marquis," said Turbo. "For it was a confession of stupidity;" and with that the Chancellor explained to M. de Tricotrin how the presence of the gendarmes was a mere accident, for which no one was to blame but himself.

[Pg 234]

"Well," said M. de Tricotrin, when Turbo had done, "you must permit me to apologise for the unwarranted accusation I made."

"Not at all," answered Turbo. "It was a compliment I value highly."

"Then at least let me offer you my commiseration," said De Tricotrin, "upon the loss of all you hoped to gain. But I trust it is only temporary. I am happy to announce to you that I have discovered the retreat of your little friend, and, no doubt, can put you in the way of recovering her, when it may be done with safety;" and M. de Tricotrin explained in detail to the Chancellor the Queen-mother\'s move.

"I am delighted," concluded the Marquis, "to be able to announce to you so excellent a piece of fortune."

"I regret, Marquis," answered Turbo, "that I cannot share your delight."

"But surely," replied the Frenchman, "it is an extraordinary piece of good fortune."

"I do not deny it," said Turbo; "but I am accustomed to look with suspicion on any position, however attractive, which is founded on fortune. Nothing is stable without a substructure of sagacious purpose. For a position to be in any way modified by fortune is for me merely evidence of defective calculation. In the present case the danger is obvious."

"Why so?" asked the Marquis.

"You see," pursued Turbo, "another piece[Pg 235] of fortune may at any moment put the King in possession of the information we enjoy. A pursuit and recapture will ensue, and our Quixote will have fattened his folly with another ration of romance. Your unhappy daughter\'s supplanter will then be on the steps of the throne."

"Then what do you propose?" said De Tricotrin. "To recapture the girl yourself, I presume?"

"Precisely," answered Turbo. "The thing is easily done. I will send officers to watch the players. They will be instructed to take advantage of any disorderly conduct to arrest the whole company as vagabonds, and convey them to the capital. Disorder amongst such people is easily fomented. I apprehend no difficulty or even delay."

"But how can you arrange this delicate mission," objected the Marquis, "while you are under arrest?"

"To-morrow," said Turbo, "I propose to submit unconditionally to the King\'s terms, and I shall be free. It will be unpleasant, but under the new aspect of affairs there is no other course open. I must absolutely be at liberty to act at the present crisis."

The Chancellor\'s evident anxiety to get the beggar-maid back to the capital began once more to arouse M. de Tricotrin\'s suspicion. His doubts as to the loyalty of his ally began to recur to him. His own idea was that at present Penelophon was much[Pg 236] better where she was. He objected to the Chancellor\'s plan, but it was not his habit to insist on real objections. There was a crudeness about honesty which jarred on the old diplomatist\'s sense of refinement. He loved always to mask his position with minor obstructions.

"You seem, Chancellor," he began, "to over-estimate the danger we are to apprehend from this beggar. It is impossible to conceive that the King seriously means to marry her."

"I quite agree with you, Marquis," answered Turbo. "He had no such intention. Till this morning the danger was shadowy. But now it is different. In his present state of mind he is capable of any indiscretion. I cannot exaggerate to you the intensity of the shock which he received at the discovery of your daughter\'s implication in our disgrace."

"What!" cried the Marquis, surprised into an unwonted show of feeling. "The discovery of my daughter\'s complicity? What do you mean?"

"Did you not know?" said Turbo, with an affectation of tender concern. "Really this is most painful. I imagined you knew all, and envied you your calmness. You see it was that unlucky note. The girl did not deliver it, and so it came into the King\'s hands through the police."

"Oh, it is that which has alarmed you,"[Pg 237] said the Marquis, in a tone of great relief. "I am happy, then, to reassure you. Believe me, there was nothing compromising in that. I was careful that the letter should be but a blank sheet of paper."

"Then what is the meaning of this?" said Turbo, handing Mlle de Tricotrin\'s note to her father. M. de Tricotrin read it through. Then............