aroused from dreaming. "This means more war, for de Vere and
Tressilian and de la Pole and Bramber and others of the barons know
that the King's fall signifies their ruin. Many thousands die
to-morrow."

He answered, "It means a brief and cruel war."

"In that war the nobles will ride abroad with banners and gay surcoats,
and kill and ravish in the pauses of their songs; while daily in that
war the naked peasants will kill the one the other, without knowing
why."

His thought had forerun hers. "Many would die, but in the end I would
be King, and the general happiness would rest at my disposal. The
adventure of this world is wonderful, and it goes otherwise than under
the strict tutelage of reason."

"Not yours, but Gloucester's and his barons'. Friend, they would set
you on the throne to be their puppet and to move only as they pulled
the strings. Thwart them and they will fling you aside, as the barons
have dealt aforetime with every king that dared oppose them. Nay, they
desire to live pleasantly, to have fish o' Fridays, and white bread and
the finest wine the whole year through, and there is not enough for
all, say they. Can you alone contend against them? and conquer them?
then only do I bid you reign."

The sun had grown too bright, too merciless, but as always she drew the
truth from him, even to his agony. "I cannot. I would not endure a
fortnight. Heaven help us, nor you nor I nor any one may transform of
any personal force this bitter time, this piercing, cruel day of frost
and sun. Charity and Truth are excommunicate, and the King is only an
adorned and fearful person who leads wolves toward their quarry, lest,
lacking it, they turn and devour him. Everywhere the powerful labor to
put one another out of worship, and each to stand the higher with the
other's corpse as his pedestal; and always Lechery and Hatred sway
these proud and inconsiderate fools as winds blow at will the gay
leaves of autumn. We but fight with gaudy shadows, we but aspire to
overpass a mountain of unstable sand! We two alone of all the
scuffling world! Oh, it is horrible, and I think that Satan plans the
jest! We dream a while of refashioning this bleak universe, and we
know that we alone can do it! and we are as demigods, you and I, in
those gallant dreams! and at the end we can but poultice some dirty
rascal!"

The Queen answered sadly: "Once did God tread the tangible world, for a
very little while, and, loo