Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy

and despair at its tragic conclusion, had of course the natural result com

lly smile, or taken in a linked arm-in-arm attitude against a palatial canvas background, appeared in every paper published throughout the world, and every scribbler on the Press took special pains to inform the easily deluded public that the Royal union thus consummated was 'a romantic love-match.' For the People still have heart and conscience,-the People, taken in the rough lump of humanity, still believe in love, in faith, in the dear sweetness of home affections. The politicians who make capital out of popular emotion, know this well enough,-and are careful to play the tune of their own personal interest upon the gamut of National Sentiment in every stump oration. For how terrible it would be if the People of any land learned to judge their preachers and teachers by the lines of fact alone! Inasmuch as fact would convincingly prove to them that their

y first-class and no-class versifiers for the occasion! What shoals of these were cast aside unread, to occupy the darkest dingiest corner of one of the Royal 'refuse' libraries! The writers of such things expected great honours, no doubt, each and every man-jack of them,-but apart from the f

nsent to leave them alone together, the Royal wife came to her Royal husband, and asked to be allowed to speak a few words on the subject of their marriage, 'for the first and last time,' said she, with a straight glance from the cold moonlight mystery of her eyes. Beautiful at all times, her beauty was doubly enhanced by the regal attitude and expression she unconsciously assumed as she made the request, and the prince, critically studying

e murmured, and h

f smiling-"You do me too much hon

aising her eyes, fixed them full upon him wi

ur life together must from henceforth be more or less of a masquerade, but let us for to-night be as true man

e of character or any intellectual power of reasoning. He had judged her as no doubt glad to become a gre

se of rising tears in her throat,-tears of which she was ashamed,-for she was full of a passionate emotion too strong for weeping-a contempt of herself and of him, too great for mere clamour. Was he so much of a man in the sl

re tedious congratulations,-and the fatiguing journey from the capit

I am not tired,-but-but-I cannot say my pr

iar and hypocrite when he had sworn his marriage vows 'before God,' whereas if he truly believed in God, such vows taken untruthfully were mere blasphemy;-and now she herself, a young thing tenderly brought up like a tropi

. It is for the sake of your Throne and country that you must marry-and I ask God to forgive me if I have done wrong in His sight by wedding you simply for duty's sake. My father, your father, and all who are connected with our two families desire our union, and have assured me that, it is right and good for me to give up my life to yours. All women's lives must be martyred to the laws made by men,-or so it

tly. He, in his turn, met her gaze fully,-his face had paled a little, and

one else?" he

onted him, a glow of passionate p

d in my girlhood's history, or a single incident you may not know. I have never loved any man, because from my very childhood I have hated and feared all men! I loathe their presence-their looks-their voices-their manners,-if one should touch my hand in ordinary courtesy, my instincts a

ttitude, the cold serenity of her expression,-there was evidently no hysteria, no sur-excitation of nerves about this calm statuesque beauty which in ever

these. Had I my own choice I would live my life away from all men,-I would let nothing of myself be theirs to claim,-I would give all I am and all I h

ty, intensified as it was by the fervour of her feeling, seemed transfig

nderstand-

esture, while the rich colour sw

se I can love no man! For the rest I am your wife; and as your wife I

and took her

argain!" he said, an

le to waken one thrill of tenderness in the frozen soul imprisoned in such exquisite flesh and blood. He was inclined to disbelieve her assertions,-surely he thought, there must be emotion, feeling, passion in this fair creature, who, though she seemed a goddess newly descended from inaccessibl

ical and mental hatred of my sex is a defect in your nature, or an exceptional virtue, I shall not quarrel with it. I am myself not without faults; a

he shining Soul of her, pure and fearless, seemed to spring up and challenge to spiritual combat him w

g luminance of a star to the glory of a full-orbed moon of loveliness,-and she had easily won a triumph over all the other women around her, in the power she possessed to command and retain the admiration of men. She was one of those brilliant creatures who, like the Egyptian Cleopatra, never grow old,-for she was utterly exempt from the wasting of the nerves through emotion. Her eyes were always bright and clear; her skin dazzling in its whiteness, save where the equably flowing blood flushed it with tenderest rose,-her figure remained svelte, lit

ower to win the affection of his beautiful spouse, and to melt the icy barrier which she, despite their relations with each other, had resolutely kept up between herself and him. He had made the attempt, not because he actually loved her, but simply because he desired the satisfaction of conquest. Finding the task hopeless, he resigned himself to his fate, and accepted her at the costly valuation she set upon herself; though for pastime he would often pay court to ce

emony,-she simply seemed to move as a star moves, shining over the earth but having no part in it. Irresponsive as she was, she nevertheless compelled admiration,-her husband himself admired her, but only as he would have admired a statue or a painting. For his was an impulsive and generous nature, and his marriage had kept his heart empty of the warmth of love, and his home devoid of the light of sympathy. Even his children had been born

tance between the Old and the New. Behind him the Past rolled away like a cloud vanishing, to be seen no more,-before him arose the dim vista of wavering and uncertain shadows, which no matter how they shifted and changed,-no matter how many flashes of sunshine flickered through them,-were bound to close in the thick gloom of the inevitable end,-Death. This is what he was chiefly

this curse of a Crown!" Once dead, he was soon forgotten,-the pomp of the Royal obsequies merely made a gala-day for the light-hearted Southern populace, who hailed the accession of their new King with as much gladness as a child, who, having broken one doll, straightway secures anot

as known to possess much more than the limited intelligence usually apportioned to kings; and certainly, as his tutor had said of him in his youth, he was dangerously "disposed towards discursive philosophies." He was likewise accredited with a conscience, which many diplomats consider to be a wholly undesirable ingredient in the moral composition of a reigning monarch. Therefore, those who move a king, as in the game of

r was not, welcome to the spirit of the nation, nor had he weighed intimately in his own mind the various private interests of the members of his Government, in passing, or moving the rejection of, any important measure affecting the well-being of the community at large. And he had lately,-perhaps through the objectionable 'discursive philosophies' before mentioned,-come to consider himself somewhat of a stuffed Dummy or figure-head; and to wonder what would be the result, if with caution and prudence, he were to act more on his own initiative, and speak as he often thought it would be wise and well to speak? He was but forty-five

all honesty and frankness, is the Press? What was it, for example, to this king, who from personal knowledge, was able to practically estimate and enumerate the forces which controlled it thus:-Six, or at the most a dozen men, the proprietors and editors of different newspapers sold in cheap millions to the people. Most of these newspapers were formed into 'companies'; and the managers issued 'shares' in the fashion of tea merchants and grocers. False news, if of a duly sensational character, would sometimes send up the shares in the market,-true information would equally, on occasion, send them down. These premises granted, might it not follow that for newspaper speculators, the False would often prove more lucrative than the True? And, concerning the persons who wrote for these newspapers,-of what calling and election were they? Male and female, young and old, they were generally of a semi-educated class lacking all distinctive ability,-men and women who were, on an average, desperately poor, and desperately dissatisfied. T

an unconscious gesture of invocation; "To-day shall be the first day of my real monarchy! To-day I begin to reign! The past is past,-for eighteen long years as prince and heir to the throne I trifled away my time among the follies of the hour, and laughed at the easy purchase I could make of the assumed 'honour' of men and women; and I enjoyed the liberty and license of my position. Since then, for three years I have been the prisoner of my Parliament,-but now-now, and for the rest of the time granted to me on earth, I will live my life in the belief that its riddle must surely meet with God's own expla

t his feet. In one of the many pleasure-boats skimming across the sea, a man w

be thine

r! I yield my

Let me be thine,

or an

faint shadow darkened the

f aloud-"Yes,-it would be enough