ly dress swords, using them to finish the wounded among
the benches. The screams grew fewer, and then stopped.

Count Erskyll sat frozen, staring white-faced and horror-sick into the
screen. Some of the others had begun to recover and were babbling
excitedly. Vann Shatrak was at a communication-screen, talking to
Commodore Patrique Morvill, aboard the _Empress Eulalie_:

"All the Landing-Troops, and all the crewmen you can spare and arm. And
every vehicle you have. This is only the start of it; there'll be a
general massacre of Masters next. I don't doubt it's started already."

At another screen, Pyairr Ravney was saying, to the officer of the day
of the Palace Guard: "No, there's no telling what they'll do next.
Whatever it is, be ready for it ten minutes ago."

He stubbed out his cigarette and rose, and as he did, Erskyll came out
of his daze and onto his feet.

"Commodore Shatrak! I mean, Admiral," he corrected himself. "We must
re-impose martial rule. I wish I'd never talked you into terminating it.
Look at that!" He pointed at the screen; big dump-lorries were already
coming in the doors under the pickup, with a mob of gowned civil-service
people crowding in under them. They and the soldiers began dragging
bodies out from among the seats to be loaded and hauled away. "There's
the planetary government, murdered to the last man!"

"I'm afraid we can't do anything like that," he said. "This seems to be
a simple transfer of power by _coup-d'etat_; rather more extreme than
usual, but normal political practice on this sort of planet. The Empire
has no right to interfere."

Erskyll turned on him indignantly. "But it's mass murder!"

"It's an accomplished fact. Whoever ordered this, Citizen Chmidd and
Citizen Hozhet and Citizen Zhannar and the rest of your good democratic
citizens, are now the planetary government of Aditya. As long as they
don't attack us, or repudiate the sovereignty of the Emperor, you'll
have to recognize them as such."

"A bloody-handed gang of murderers; recognize them?"

"All governments have a little blood here and there on their hands;
you've seen this by screen instead of reading about it in a history
book, but that shouldn't make any difference. And you've said,
yourself, that the Masters would have to be eliminated. You've told
Chmidd and Hozhet and the others that, repeatedly. Of course, you meant
legally, by constitutional and democratic means, but that seemed just a
bit too tedio