A King In Love

Chapter One-2

“We have something to discuss with Your Majesty and can only hope, Sire, that you will most graciously listen to us without prejudice.”

The King raised his eyebrows.

Then he said,

“I think this room is somewhat large for an intimate conversation, so I suggest we repair next door, where we shall certainly be more comfortable.”

“I welcome that suggestion, Your Majesty,” the Prime Minister replied.

The King led the way back through the door and entered into a small room exquisitely decorated with French furniture.

Very much at his ease as he seated himself in a high-backed armchair on which the Royal Coat of Arms was embroidered in silk and gold thread, he indicated with a gesture of his hand that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were to sit down.

They selected two chairs near to his, with the obvious intention that they would not have to raise their voices when they spoke.

The King looked from one to the other of his Statesmen before he began,

“Well, gentlemen? You are making me curious as to what is the momentous problem you have brought me and which for some reason I cannot yet ascertain does not require the presence of the whole Cabinet.”

The Prime Minister appeared to draw in his breath.

“The Chancellor and I were anxious, Your Majesty, to speak to you before the problem, as Your Majesty rightly calls it, is brought to the attention of other members of the Cabinet and eventually of Parliament.”

He paused, looked at the Chancellor as if for confirmation and then continued,

“Shall I be frank, Your Majesty, and tell you at once, Sire, what we have come to say?”

“I should certainly prefer to hear immediately what you have to communicate,” the King replied. “As you are well aware, Prime Minister, I dislike long-winded dissertations, which are usually quite unnecessary.”

“Very well, Your Majesty,” the Prime Minister acquiesced. “It is the opinion of a number of my colleagues, which is shared in the country itself, that the continuity of the Royal Line should be assured, for it would be a mistake to encourage certain nations on our borders to think that, if anything should happen to Your Majesty, they might have a say in the affairs of Valdastien.”

As the Prime Minister had begun to speak, the King had stiffened and now his voice was quite expressionless, although his eyes were hard, as he said,

“What you are implying Prime Minister, is that you wish me to marry.”

“As Your Majesty asked me to be frank, Sire, the answer is ‘yes’!”

“I am still a comparatively young man.”

“Of course, Your Majesty. At the same time you have no brothers and without a son the line to which you belong comes to an end.”

The King was silent, knowing that this was true and, as if he was afraid he had incurred the Monarch’s anger, the Prime Minister went on,

“The people in the South of our country have been very perturbed at the attempt on the life of King Gustav, which took place three weeks ago. As Your Majesty is aware, the King escaped death by a chance in a million, but there is nothing to ensure that an assassin will not strike again.”

“What you are saying,” the King said contemptuously, “is that there are anarchists everywhere. They were talking about it in Paris when I was last there and I heard there had even been an attempt on Queen Victoria’s life in England.”

“That is true, Your Majesty, and here in Valdastien they are not only afraid of an anarchist with some aberration of the brain striking at you, but they know also that Your Majesty is often in danger in other ways.”

The King knew that the Prime Minister was speaking about his hobbies.

He enjoyed mountain climbing and prided himself that at thirty-five he could still climb the mountains with the strength and fortitude he had shown ten or fifteen years ago.

He also enjoyed breaking in the wild horses that were a specialty of Valdastien.

They were captured in isolated districts of forests and mountains and, when the best of them were brought to the King’s stables, he prided himself in riding those his grooms were afraid of.

These were just two of his activities that perturbed the Prime Minister.

But the King, with a cynical smile, knew there was another subject on which the Prime Minister would remain silent, although it was in his mind.

When he was last in Paris, an irate French aristocrat who swore he had seduced his wife had challenged him to a duel.

The fact that she had required no enticement, and it was far from being a case of seduction, did not prevent the King from accepting the challenge.

Although the aristocrat was a noted duellist, who had actually killed two men, he had fallen wounded from the King’s bullet, while the King himself received the merest graze on his arm.

All Valdastien had been agog with rumour and speculation when the news broke.

The King was well aware that to the Prime Minister and his colleagues this was another urgent reason for them to persuade him to beget an heir.

“I do not need to tell Your Majesty,” the Chancellor was saying, “how happy the country has been under your wise rule and how they look forward to many contented years of continuing prosperity, but at the same time – ”

His eyes met the King’s and he stopped speaking.

It was almost as if he was afraid to say any more, but waited to receive a response that in its violence might almost be physical.

Then, as the King tightened his lips as if he proposed to tell the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and everyone else that they could go to the Devil before he would marry, he remembered that there was a far greater menace to Valdastien.

In Paris last year the Emperor had told him bluntly that he feared the ambitions of Prussia and said that he was certain Bismarck was determined to unite all the smaller German states into an overwhelming Imperial Germany, which would swallow them up one by one.

The King, who had never thought a great deal of the intelligence of Napoleon III, had not listened.

Now the warnings, some voiced by other Frenchmen, others conveyed to him in letters from Monarchs reigning over other small countries like his own, seemed to swell up like a tidal wave.

He could see in his mind’s eye Germany rolling over the map of Europe, swallowing the small Principalities one by one until they formed a Federation that could face Britain and France on equal terms.

To the Prime Minister’s surprise, the King now said in a very different tone from what he had expected,

“I will certainly consider your proposition, Prime Minister. I realise that what you are suggesting is common sense and, although I have no wish to be married or to share my throne, I can understand my country’s desire for an heir.”

The Prime Minister drew a deep breath of relief, which seemed to come from the very depths of his body.

“I can only thank Your Majesty for your most gracious understanding,” he said in a low voice.

“I will give it my consideration,” the King said, “and I think I would be wise to call first on the neighbouring countries on our borders with whom we could join to form a firm defensive alliance, should the necessity arise.”

The Prime Minister, who was a shrewd man, realised exactly what the King was saying.

He too was afraid of Germany and the ambitions of Bismarck, who, as all Europe knew, was manipulating the weak King William, who was more concerned with his own personal health than his country’s greatness.

The King rose to his feet.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for calling on me,” he said. “I will notify you of my plans as soon as I have had time to make them.”

Elated with the success of their visit, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor withdrew.

When he was alone, the King sat down in the armchair to stare with unseeing eyes at an exquisite painting by Fragonard on the opposite wall.

He did not see the graceful figure in a romantic garden or the cupids hovering in the sky above her.

He saw only the incredible boredom of having to endure the companionship of a Queen, whose only asset as far as he was concerned would be her Royal blood.

He thought of the dreary, pompous little Courts he had encountered in the past on his journeys round Europe and the Monarchs he had met when either a Coronation or a funeral of one of them obliged him to be present.

They were all very much the same, very conscious of their own importance, terrified of being deposed and having nothing to talk about but family affairs and the gossip which emanated from other Courts exactly like their own.

Remembering the indifferent food they invariably served, which the King detested, the uncomfortable beds and long-drawn-out State Ceremonies, he knew that a Queen would bring into his own Palace all such causes of irritation that he had avoided as much as possible.

At the moment, because he was a bachelor, he was able to keep Court Ceremony down to a minimum and could enjoy himself almost as freely as if he was an English gentleman living on his estate in the country.

He went hunting and shooting when he wished, entertained only those whose company he enjoyed and left all the pomposity, except for one or two State occasions a year, to his Prime Minister and other members of the Government.

Thinking it over, he supposed that the people of Valdastien saw less of their Monarch than the people of any other country in Europe and because of it, the King thought mockingly, they were much more contented.

A Queen would change all that!

She would expect to appear on innumerable public occasions, she would want to inspect hospitals, receive bouquets and drive in State whenever possible with crowds cheering her.

She would also interfere with the running of the Palace, which the King considered was quite perfect as it was, because he had a gift for organisation.

Instead of dining either with his particular cronies or enjoying an evening by himself, reading in his study or going down the secret passage to visit La Belle or whoever else was occupying the Château at that moment, he would have to make desultory conversation with some plain Frau.

Her ladies-in-waiting would doubtless be plainer and duller than she was and the boredom of it all was unthinkable.

But the King was well aware that he had little or no alternative.

He knew the Prime Minister would not have spoken to him unless he had been seriously pressed by other Statesmen, and certainly by the citizens, to preserve them from the German menace.

Worse still was the prospect of finding a foreign Ruler to occupy the throne should he die without an heir.

He was aware how the Greeks had searched desperately to find a Monarch to rule over them and had recently elected the second son of the King of Denmark to be King George I.

However, he knew that if that happened here, Valdastien was too small a country to survive, and he told himself somewhat wryly that it was only fair that he should make some sacrifice.

He had been reigning for eight years and had enjoyed every moment of it.

He had been unconventional, but no one had protested – he had been completely selfish in his interests and the people had admired him for it.

Now, just as every bill had to be paid sooner or later, he had to pay the price for the freedom he had enjoyed, but he considered it a very high one.

“God knows where I can find a woman I could even tolerate as my wife!” he muttered beneath his breath.

Almost as if the Devil was taunting him, he saw a procession of Princesses pass before his eyes – tall, short, fat, thin, dark, fair, red-headed – in the King’s eyes they all looked exceedingly unattractive and the idea of touching one of them made him shudder.

But one of them would bear his children, one of them would wear the crown of Valdastien and be his wife.