re, you have only to say, 'Lie
down, sir!'" And he began barking joyously.

And in the glow of this happiness his sense of political defeat
evaporated. He burgeoned, expanded, flung back his head in the old,
imperial way. "By God!" he said, marching up and down the room
feverishly, "you have chosen no mean destiny. Have you any idea of
what Ferdinand Lassalle's wife will be? Look at me!" He stood still.
"Do I look a man to be content with the second role in the State? Do
you think I give the sleep of my nights, the marrow of my bones, the
strength of my lungs, to draw somebody else's chestnuts out of the
fire? Do I look like a political martyr? No! I wish to act, to fight,
and also to enjoy the crown of victory, to place it on your brow."

A vision of the roaring streets and floral arches of the Rhenish
cities flashed past him. "Chief of the People, President of the German
Republic,--there's the only true sovereignty. That was what kings were
once--giants of brain and brawn. King--one who knows, one who can!
Headship is for the head. What is this mock dignity that stands on the
lying breaths of winking courtiers? What is this farcical, factitious
glamour that will not bear the light of day? The Grace of God? Ay,
give me god-like manhood, and I will bend the knee. But to ask me to
worship a stuffed purple robe on a worm-eaten throne! 'Tis an insult
to manhood and reason. Hereditary kingship! When you can breed souls
as you breed racehorses it will be time to consider that. Stand here
by my side before this mirror. Is not that a proud, a royal couple?
Did not Nature fashion these two creatures in a holiday mood of joy
and intoxication? _Vive la Republique_ and its Queen with the golden
locks!"

"_Vive la Republique_ and its eagle King!" she cried, intoxicated, yet
with more of dramatic enjoyment than of serious conviction.

"Bravo! You believe in our star! Since I met you I see it shining
clearer over the heights. We mount, we mount, peak beyond peak. We
have enemies enough now, thick as the serpents in tropic forests.
Well, let them soil with their impure slaver the hem of our garments.
But how they will crawl fangless when Ferdinand--the Elect of the
People--makes his solemn entry into Berlin. And at his side, drawn by
six white horses, his blonde darling, changed into the first woman of
Germany." He, too, though to him the fancy was real enough for the
moment, enjoyed it with a certain artistic aloofness.

XII