and
estates; Sigismund was resolved this time not to be _overreached_ by
his subtle minister. The language of entreaty was new to Laski; he
had tried it, and had failed. It was new to Laski to endure tamely the
misconstruction of his motives, or the least impeachment of his
veracity. He had no other resource, no other response, left than the
resignation of his ministerial office. But the obstinacy and anger of
the king were proof against this also. The danger which threatened his
reign had been dispelled. He could afford to be self-willed. He would
not be controlled. In short, Count Laski left the royal presence--a
discarded minister.

In a monarchy uncontrolled and unaided by representative assemblies,
the power which is secured perhaps to one of the weakest of men or
women, perhaps to a child, has often struck the observer of human
affairs as a strange anomaly. But the insecure and precarious
foundation of the power of the great minister in such a monarchy, is
scarcely less curious to contemplate. The sagacious counsellor, the
long-experienced governor, who has for years wielded the powers of the
state, may be reduced to obscurity and impotence by a word--a word of
puerile passion, kindled perhaps by a silly intrigue. A great ruler is
displaced at the caprice of a dotard. When Count Laski entered the
presence of the king, he was in reality the governor of Poland; Europe
acknowledged him amongst the controllers and directors of human
affairs; his country expected many signal improvements at his hands;
the individual happiness of thousands depended upon him; but this
power, which had devised great schemes, and which was the rock of
support to so many, could itself be shaken and overthrown in a moment,
by the splenetic humour of an angry old man.

Who shall describe the grief and despair of Maria when she heard of
the cruel resolution which the king had taken, of the dreadful fate
which threatened Augustus Glinski? As she sat this time in her Gothic
chamber, and in her accustomed chair, what a mortal paleness had
settled upon her countenance! Her eye glared out, and was fixed on the
vacant wall, as if a spirit had arisen before her, and arrested her
regard. There _was_ a spirit there. It was the form of the young
Augustus, whom she saw withering and wasting in his dungeon; a dungeon
which would deliver him up only to the scaffold. After the events
which had occurred all idea of a union with Augustus, presuming that
h