nsidered to be
extravagant, dangerous things--it is not so _very_ amusing to be alive.

The General. Oh, your Majesty! Really, you--! Ha, ha, ha!

The King. Don't you agree with me?--Ah, if only one could grapple with
it!--but we should need to be many to do that, and better equipped than
I am.

The General. Better equipped than your Majesty? Your Majesty is the most
gifted man in the whole country!

All. Yes!

The General. Yes--your Majesty must excuse me--I spoke involuntarily!

The Mayor. There was a tone running through all your Majesty said that
seemed to suggest that your Majesty was contemplating--. (Breaks off.)

The King.--going away? Yes.

All. Going away?

The General. And abdicating? For heaven's sake, your Majesty--!

Bang. That would mean handing us over to the crown prince--the pietist!

The Priest (betraying his pleasure in spite of himself). And his mother!

The King. You are pleased at the idea, parson! It will be a sight to
see her and her son prancing along, with all of you in your best clothes
following them! Hurrah!

The General. Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!

Bang. Ha-ha-ha! (Coughs.) I get such a cough when I laugh.

The King (seriously). I had no intention of provoking laughter in the
presence of death. I can hear the sounds of mourning through the open
door.

The Mayor. With all due respect to the church--the vast majority of the
nation have no desire for things to come to _that_--to the accession of
a pietist to the throne. If your Majesty threatens to abdicate you will
have us all at your feet.

The General (with decision). The accession of a new king just now would
be universally considered a national calamity. I will wager my life on
that!

Bang. And I too!

The King. My excellent friends--you must take the consequences of your
actions!

The Mayor (despairingly). But _this_! Who ever imagined such a thing?

The General and Bang. No one--no one!

The King. So much the worse. What is it you are asking me to do? To
stay where I am, so as to keep another man down? Is that work for a man?
Shame!

The Mayor (in distress). We ask more than that! Your Majesty is making a
fatal mistake! The whole of your Majesty's dissatisfaction springs from
the fact that you believe yourself to be deserted by your people because
the elections are going contrary to what your Majesty had hoped. Nothing
is further from the truth! The people fight shy of revolutionary ideas;
but they love thei