All the others, impressed with a true sense of incompetence,
stood looking at their fallen King. Not one of them knew how to handle
him, whether it were best to lay him down or leave him alone. First
aid--even to their sovereign lord--had formed no part in the education
of these his counselors.

The Prime Minister did the one thing which he knew to be correct--and
which could not possibly do harm; he felt the King's heart. But nobody
for a moment supposed him to be dead; unconscious though he lay, his
heavy breathings could be seen and heard.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING

I

For three whole weeks thereafter--if the papers were to be believed--the
entire nation hung upon the bulletins which were issued hourly from the
royal palace. The King's illness gave the finishing touch to his
popularity; devotion to affairs of State had brought on brain-fever, and
the more desperate the symptoms of the illness could be made to appear,
the more sublime became the moral character of its august victim, and
the more deeply-rooted the affection of his people.

Professional vanity had also to be flattered; and during those fierce
fluctuations of hope and despair, Jingalo's topmost place in the world
of medical science became vindicated to the meanest intelligence. If by
a scientific miracle the King's life was to be saved, Jingalese
doctoring, and no other doctoring in the world would do it.

Nobly the press performed its task of giving to every factor in the
situation its due prominence; even the Church got its share; and when
favorable bulletins became the order of the day, their origin was
generously ascribed, even by the ministerial press, almost as much to
the prayers of the people publicly offered as to the skill of the six
best medical authorities. But when all was said and done it was to the
King's marvelous constitution, his patient courage, and his quiet
submission to the hands of his nurses (foremost of whom was her Majesty
the Queen), that the praise was chiefly due; for it was necessary, in
order to complete the situation, that the loyalty so nobly tendered
should be nobly earned.

And nobly tendered it certainly was. Never could the nation have had so
good an opinion of itself as during those dark weeks when, taught by
its press the meanings of the various symptoms, it sat by the King's bed
feeling his pulse, holding his breath, and scarcely daring to raise any
voice above a whisper. Vario