r magicians than were they whom our late King so wisely
suppressed."

"You're wrong there, old bird!" said Clarence cheerfully; "no Magic
about it whatever. All done by brains and enterprise, but--and this is
what I am trying to knock into your heads--if we'd been governed by a
set of stuffy old fossils like yourselves--if you'll allow me the
expression--we should never have got a blessed thing so much as
started!"

Many, if not most of the Council were sceptical as to the possibility of
such inventions as Clarence had described, but the good old Baron
assured them that, even during the short time he was in England, and
although it was night, he had witnessed many of them with his own eyes,
thanks to the powerful illuminants which made darkness almost as light
as day. He exhorted his hearers to count themselves fortunate in having
gained Sovereigns who possessed such wondrous powers, since their
faithful subjects would assuredly now enjoy the benefits of them.

"Aye," said the ex-Regent--though possibly not in such good faith as the
Baron. "We shall indeed have reason to congratulate ourselves if his
Royal Highness will graciously teach us how to construct one of these
fire-and-smoke-breathing engines that draw a line of waggons along roads
of iron, or even a mast that will send messages through a thousand
leagues of air."

"You don't want _much_, do you, dear old boy?" said Clarence. "You don't
suppose I can show you how to build a railway train when you haven't got
any of the bally materials or appliances, do you?"

"Your Royal Highness has but to name them, and they shall be procured."

"They're not to be got here," replied Clarence. "If I tried to tell you
what they were, you wouldn't be any the wiser!" He spoke nothing but the
truth, for he had but the sketchiest acquaintance with the composition
of any kind of machinery.

"Perhaps His Majesty," suggested the Marshal, who had long ago taken
King Sidney's measure, "is better able to instruct us in these mighty
secrets?"

"H'm, well, to tell you the truth," confessed the King, "although I've
been in the habit of using railways, motors, electric light, telephones,
and so forth constantly, I can't pretend to more than a general notion
of how they work. Couldn't _make_ any of 'em, you know. Not _my_ line of
business!"

"If that is indeed the case," said the President, "we find it the more
difficult to understand why his Royal Highness should have reproached u