He blessed the Xochitl invasion scare, and the big lie
which was rapidly ceasing to be a lie; Tanith had the ships and
men and the will to act. "What happened? Makann deposed the King
and took over?"

It came to that, Bentrik told him. It had started even before the
election. The People's Watchmen had possessed weapons that had been
made openly and legally on Marduk for trade to the Neobarbarian
planets and then clandestinely diverted to secret People's Welfare
arsenals. Some of the police had gone over to Makann; the rest had
been terrorized into inaction. There had been riots fomented in
working-class districts of all the cities as pretexts for further
terrorization. The election had been a farce of bribery and
intimidation. Even so, Makann's party had failed of a complete
majority in the Chamber of Representatives, and had been compelled
to patch up a shady coalition in order to elect a favorable Chamber
of Delegates.

"And, of course, they elected Makann Chancellor; that did it,"
Bentrik said. "All the opposition leaders in the Chamber of
Representatives have been arrested, on all kinds of ridiculous
charges--sex-crimes, receiving bribes, being in the pay of foreign
powers, nothing too absurd. Then they rammed through a law
empowering the Chancellor to fill vacancies in the Chamber of
Representatives by appointment."

"Why did the Crown Prince lend himself to a thing like that?"

"He hoped that he could exercise some control. The Royal Family
is an almost holy symbol to the people. Even Makann was forced
to pretend loyalty to the King and the Crown Prince...."

"It didn't work; he played right into Makann's hands. What happened?"

The Crown Prince had been assassinated. The assassin, an unknown man
believed to be a Gilgamesher, had been shot to death by People's
Watchmen guarding Prince Edvard at once. Immediately Makann had
seized the Royal Palace to protect the King, and immediately there
had been massacres by People's Watchmen everywhere. The Mardukan
Planetary Army had ceased to exist; Makann's story was that there
had been a military plot against the King and the government.
Scattered over the planet in small detachments, the army had been
wiped out in two nights and a day. Now Makann was recruiting it up
again, exclusively from the People's Welfare Party.

"You weren't just sitting on your hands, were you?"

"Oh, no," Bentrik replied. "I was doing something I wouldn't have
thought myself capable of,