to proclaim the inviolate nature of the new constitution, and Alec had
to sign it amid a scene of riotous enthusiasm. But these things were the
aftermath of a harvest reaped by half a dozen sentences. The Shumadia
man's simple phrases became a formula. Men laughed and said:

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

In time it reached the streets. The people took it up as a popular
catchword. It whirled through all Kosnovia. Those who had never seen
Alec, nor heard of him before they were told he was King, adopted it as
a token of their belief that the nation had at last obtained a ruler who
surpassed all other Kings.

But that was to come later. While Alec was listening to the plaudits
that proclaimed his triumph, Stampoff growled at him from behind the
half-closed door:

"Gods! You've done it! And without a blow! Never was Kingdom won so
easily. God bless your Majesty! May you live long and reign worthily!"

Good wishes these; but in them was the germ of an abiding canker. What
would Joan say? He had taken a sleeping car ticket from Paris and had
stepped into his patrimony with as little anxiety or delay as would
herald a royal succession in the oldest and most firmly established
monarchy in Europe. What of the goddess with the great gray eyes, clear
and piercing, who knew all the thoughts of men's hearts and the secrets
of their souls? What of her warning that she would drive her chosen ones
by strange paths through doubt and need and danger and battle? Which of
these had he encountered, beyond the vanished phantoms of idle hours
passed in the cozy comfort of the Orient Express? "Never was kingdom won
so easily!"

Well meant; but it rankled. That ominous line of Vergil's came to his
mind. _Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes_ (I fear the Greeks even bringing
gifts). Truly the Greeks were come speedily, carrying in full measure
the gifts of loyalty and dominion. Yet he feared them. A whiff of peril,
pitfalls to be leaped, some days or weeks of dire uncertainty, men to be
won, and factions placated, any or all of these might have appeased the
jealous gods. But this instant success would shock Olympus. It cried for
contrast by its very flight to the pinnacle.

None suspected this mood in the chosen King. He charmed these volatile
and romantic Serbs by his naturalness. He seemed to take it so
thoroughly for granted that he was the one man living who could rule
them according to their aspirations, that they adopted the noti