f," she said. "Those were
no idle words."

He bowed low.

"We will go to your brother," he said.

CHAPTER XXXVII

The King entered from his ante-chamber and took his place at the head
of the long table amidst a profound and depressing silence. The faces
of his counsellors were grave indeed. The military members were all at
the front. Those who remained were the merchants and men of peace, and
to them the guns whose roar seemed ever increasing spelled ruin.

Old Baron Doxis took the chair. He opened the proceedings with dim
eyes and a shaking voice. Theos was dear to him, but so also were his
sons and nephews, some of whom he could scarcely hope to see again.
The routine business was quickly dispensed with. The King in a few
sentences told them the war news of the day.

Then Baron Doxis rose again.

"Your Majesty," he said, "this meeting of our Inner Council you
yourself have pronounced an wholly informal one. We are sitting here
with closed doors. We are all, I believe, patriots and Thetians. Let
me ask your Majesty, therefore, if every means have been tried to
avoid the destruction which threatens us?"

The faces of all were turned towards the King.

"My friends," he said, slowly, "I have heard it whispered, not amongst
you, perhaps, but yet amongst those who might have known me better,
that this war is the outcome of my own military activity, that it is a
war which might have been prevented. Let me implore you not to give
credit to any such idea. It is a cruel war, an unjust war, and--we
must look the worst in the face. It may mean the extinction of Theos
as an independent nation. But it has been brutally thrust upon us. We
have been powerless to avoid it. We have given no offence, we have
striven for peace, knowing that by peace alone we can prosper. The
pretext for the commencement of hostilities was a false one. An
absolutely faithful account of all that passed between Effenden
Pascha and ourselves has been set down on paper and forwarded to
Constantinople--also to every Court in Europe. I have appealed to
every reigning sovereign for intercession. What is left to us but to
fight? The enemy have crossed our frontier. But for our dispositions
and the bravery of our soldiers they would be even now at the gates of
Theos. If I failed in my duty, tell me where. What could I have done?"

Baron Doxis rose up again.

"Your Majesty," he said, "we do not presume to doubt your word. We
believe in the ju