more
shots. He vanishes.]

STRAMMFEST [making an impulsive movement towards her]. My Imperial
Mistress--

THE GRAND DUCHESS. Stop. I have one bullet left, if you attempt to take
this from me [putting the pistol to her temple].

STRAMMFEST [recoiling, and covering his eyes with his hands]. No no: put
it down: put it down. I promise everything: I swear anything; but put it
down, I implore you.

THE GRAND DUCHESS [throwing it on the table]. There!

STRAMMFEST [uncovering his eyes]. Thank God!

THE GRAND DUCHESS [gently]. Strammfest: I am your comrade. Am I nothing
more to you?

STRAMMFEST [falling on his knee]. You are, God help me, all that is left
to me of the only power I recognize on earth [he kisses her hand].

THE GRAND DUCHESS [indulgently]. Idolater! When will you learn that our
strength has never been in ourselves, but in your illusions about us?
[She shakes off her kindliness, and sits down in his chair.] Now tell
me, what are your orders? And do you mean to obey them?

STRAMMFEST [starting like a goaded ox, and blundering fretfully about
the room]. How can I obey six different dictators, and not one gentleman
among the lot of them? One of them orders me to make peace with the
foreign enemy. Another orders me to offer all the neutral countries 48
hours to choose between adopting his views on the single tax and being
instantly invaded and annihilated. A third orders me to go to a damned
Socialist Conference and explain that Beotia will allow no annexations
and no indemnities, and merely wishes to establish the Kingdom of Heaven
on Earth throughout the universe. [He finishes behind Schneidekind's
chair.]

THE GRAND DUCHESS. Damn their trifling!

STRAMMFEST. I thank Your Imperial Highness from the bottom of my heart
for that expression. Europe thanks you.

THE GRAND DUCHESS. M'yes; but--[rising]. Strammfest, you know that your
cause--the cause of the dynasty--is lost.

STRAMMFEST. You must not say so. It is treason, even from you. [He
sinks, discouraged, into the chair, and covers his face with his hand.]

THE GRAND DUCHESS. Do not deceive yourself, General: never again will a
Panjandrum reign in Beotia. [She walks slowly across the room, brooding
bitterly, and thinking aloud.] We are so decayed, so out of date, so
feeble, so wicked in our own despite, that we have come at last to will
our own destruction.

STRAMMFEST. You are uttering blasphemy.

THE GRAND DUCHESS. All great truths begin as bla