them," Trask said.

"If you can't lick them, lick their boots," the Count of Ravary put in.

"My son is a trifle bitter," Princess Bentrik said. "I must confess
to a trace of bitterness, too."

"Well, that's the Representatives," Trask said. "What about the rest
of the government?"

"With the splinter-party and Disloyalist support, they got a
majority of seats in the Delegates. Most of them would have
indignantly denied, a month before, having any connection with
Makann, but a hundred out of a hundred and twenty are his
supporters. Makann, of course, is Chancellor."

"And who is Prime Minister?" he asked. "Andray Dunnan?"

She looked slightly baffled for an instant then said, "Oh. No.
The Prime Minister is Crown Prince Edvard. No; Baron Cragdale.
That isn't a royal title, so by some kind of a fiction I can't
pretend to understand he is not Prime Minister as a member of
the Royal Family."

"If you can't ..." the boy started.

"Steven! I forbid you to say that about ... Baron Cragdale. He
believes, very sincerely, that the election was an expression of
the will of the people, and that it is his duty to bow to it."

He wished Otto Harkaman were there. He could probably name, without
stopping for breath, a hundred great nations that went down into
rubble because their rulers believed that they should bow instead
of rule, and couldn't bring themselves to shed the blood of their
people. Edvard would have been a fine and admirable man, as a little
country baron. Where he was, he was a disaster.

He asked if the People's Watchman had dragged their guns out from
under the bed and started carrying them in public yet.

"Oh, yes. You were quite right; they were armed, all the time. Not
just small arms; combat vehicles and heavy weapons. As soon as the
new government was formed, they were given status as a part of the
Planetary Armed Forces. They have taken over every police station
on the planet."

"And the King?"

"Oh, he carries on, and shrugs and says, 'I just reign here.' What
else can he do? We've been whittling down and filching away the
powers of the Throne for the last three centuries."

"What is Prince Bentrik doing, and why did he think there was danger
that you two would be used as hostages?"

"He's going to fight," she said. "Don't ask me how, or what with.
Maybe as a guerrilla in the mountains, I don't know. But if he can't
lick them, he won't join them. I wanted to stay with him and help
him; he t