s wonderful to think how
long that beautiful old life lasted. In the Roman times and long ages
before ever the rumour of the Romans had come into these parts, men
drove their cattle up into these places as the summer came on.... How
haunted is this place! There have been quarrels here, hopes, children
have played here and lived to be old crones and old gaffers, and died,
and so it has gone on for thousands of lives. Lovers, innumerable
lovers, have caressed amidst this golden broom....'

He meditated over a busy mouthful of bread and cheese.

'We ought to have brought a tankard for that beer,' he said.

Firmin produced a folding aluminium cup, and the king was pleased to
drink.

'I wish, sir,' said Firmin suddenly, 'I could induce you at least to
delay your decision----'

'It's no good talking, Firmin,' said the king. 'My mind's as clear as
daylight.'

'Sire,' protested Firmin, with his voice full of bread and cheese and
genuine emotion, 'have you no respect for your kingship?'

The king paused before he answered with unwonted gravity. 'It's just
because I have, Firmin, that I won't be a puppet in this game of
international politics.' He regarded his companion for a moment and then
remarked: 'Kingship!--what do YOU know of kingship, Firmin?

'Yes,' cried the king to his astonished counsellor. 'For the first time
in my life I am going to be a king. I am going to lead, and lead by
my own authority. For a dozen generations my family has been a set of
dummies in the hands of their advisers. Advisers! Now I am going to be a
real king--and I am going to--to abolish, dispose of, finish, the crown
to which I have been a slave. But what a world of paralysing shams
this roaring stuff has ended! The rigid old world is in the melting-pot
again, and I, who seemed to be no more than the stuffing inside a regal
robe, I am a king among kings. I have to play my part at the head of
things and put an end to blood and fire and idiot disorder.'

'But, sir,' protested Firmin.

'This man Leblanc is right. The whole world has got to be a Republic,
one and indivisible. You know that, and my duty is to make that easy.
A king should lead his people; you want me to stick on their backs like
some Old Man of the Sea. To-day must be a sacrament of kings. Our trust
for mankind is done with and ended. We must part our robes among them,
we must part our kingship among them, and say to them all, now the
king in every one must rule the world..