fidence in the all powerful element of
curiosity. He knew full well that these emotional Serbs could not hear
his name unmoved, while the extraordinary racial difference between
himself and every other man in the Assembly must have made a strong
appeal to their dramatic instincts. And again was he justified; for the
mere expression of his wish to address them was obeyed by an instant
hushing of the storm.

"My fellow countrymen," he began, "you whom I expect to count among my
friends ere this day is out----"

Another wave of sound ran through the hall. Men still wondered; but
their hearts were beating high, and a new note had come into their
voices. He was speaking their own language, speaking it as one to the
manner born, speaking it as no Austrian could ever speak it, since
harsh, dominant German can never reproduce the full Slavonic resonance.
Alec, but yesterday Joan's typical idler, had fathomed some uncharted
deep in the mysterious art of swaying his fellow men. He realized at
once that this rumble of astonishment was the very best thing that
could have happened. He waited just long enough for the sympathetic
murmur to merge into nods and whisperings, then he continued:

"It is true that I am here as a Delgrado. I come as a candidate, not a
claimant. It rests with you whether I shall remain among you as Alexis
III., King of Kosnovia, or go back to my father and tell him that our
people are anxious to try a new form of Government. Of course," and here
Alec beamed on them most affably, "there are other alternatives. You may
elect to put me in jail, or throw me into the Danube, or swing me from a
gibbet as a warning to all would-be monarchs and other malefactors. But
there is one thing you cannot do. You can never persuade me to wade to a
throne through the blood of innocent people! And that is why I am here,
and not in the company of the wretched conspirators now skulking behind
the walls of the Schwarzburg."

Then a hurricane of cheers made the windows rattle, and a deputy from
the Shumadia, "the heart of Kosnovia," a bigchested, deep voiced
forester, sent forth a trumpet shout that reached every ear:

"Hola! That's a King! Look at him!"

From that instant Alec was as surely King of Kosnovia as the German
Emperor is King of Prussia. Of course, he had to talk till he was
hoarse, and wring strong hands till he was weary, and Stampoff had to
make more than one gruff speech, and eloquent Senators and Deputies had