e,
certainly, it is hard to see how any solution of our dispute can be
attained that shall satisfy both you and me.

"I shall marry Miss Vernon, probably within a fortnight. I shall marry
her, gentlemen, even though it costs me my throne; but I would remind
you that we in this room are not Kosnovia. Let us keep our heads and
guard our tempers. If an appeal is to be made to the nation, let it be
by votes rather than by swords. I have never deviated from my fixed
principle that I would sooner pass the remainder of my life poor and
unknown than obtain an hour's extension of my rule by spilling the blood
of an unoffending people. But I ask from you the same concession that I
am willing to make myself. Until deposed, I retain the privilege of a
King. Is this matter to be regarded as a test of ministerial confidence?
Do all you gentlemen resign your portfolios?"

The President, agitated and stuttering, sprang to his feet. "For my
part," he declared, "I expressed my views in an informal manner."

"Yes, yes," agreed several voices. The turn given to the discussion by
Alec was quite unforeseen and far from their liking.

"It has ever been your Majesty's wish that we should state our opinions
fully and freely," continued the agitated Nesimir. "I, for one, was only
anxious to make known to you the sentiments that obtain currency in my
own circle. I may be wrong. Delgratz is not Kosnovia----"

"Rubbish!" shouted Stampoff, hammering the table with a clenched fist.
"That which has been said here to-day will be heard openly in the
streets of the capital to-night. To-morrow it will be preached far and
wide throughout the confines of the country by every man who has its
welfare at heart. This marriage must not take place, I say! I came here
from exile with the King and was prepared to give my life to establish
him on the throne. I am prepared now to offer the same poor sacrifice if
it will save my beloved land from a catastrophe--and this proposed
mesalliance is nothing less!"

A curious thrill convulsed the Council. Every Serb there was stirred by
the General's bold avowal; but Alec stilled the rising storm by a calm
announcement:

"I suggest that we defer this discussion till to-morrow morning," he
said. "It has found me unprepared, and, if I am not very much mistaken,
many of the gentlemen here did not anticipate that the question would be
raised to-day in its present acute form."

It was evident that the majority of ministe