g ago
by Uncle Roger, exclusive of the Vissarion estate. I asked the Voivode
to allow me to transfer it to him, but he sternly refused and forbade me,
quite peremptorily, to ever open the subject to him again. "You have
done enough already," he said. "Were I to allow you to go further, I
should feel mean. And I do not think you would like your wife's father
to suffer that feeling after a long life, which he has tried to live in
honour."

I bowed, and said no more. So there the matter rests, and I have to take
my own course. I have had a survey made, and on the head of it the
Tunnel to the harbour is begun.

BOOK VIII: THE FLASHING OF THE HANDJAR

PRIVATE MEMORANDUM OF THE MEETING OF VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL
COUNCIL, HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AT PLAZAC ON
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1907.

(_Written by Cristoferos_, _Scribe of the Council_, _by instruction of
those present_.)

When the private meeting of various Members of the National Council had
assembled in the Council Hall of the State House at Plazac, it was as a
preliminary decided unanimously that now or hereafter no names of those
present were to be mentioned, and that officials appointed for the
purposes of this meeting should be designated by office only, the names
of all being withheld.

The proceedings assumed the shape of a general conversation, quite
informal, and therefore not to be recorded. The nett outcome was the
unanimous expression of an opinion that the time, long contemplated by
very many persons throughout the nation, had now come when the
Constitution and machinery of the State should be changed; that the
present form of ruling by an Irregular Council was not sufficient, and
that a method more in accord with the spirit of the times should be
adopted. To this end Constitutional Monarchy, such as that holding in
Great Britain, seemed best adapted. Finally, it was decided that each
Member of the Council should make a personal canvass of his district,
talk over the matter with his electors, and bring back to another
meeting--or, rather, as it was amended, to this meeting postponed for a
week, until September 2nd--the opinions and wishes received. Before
separating, the individual to be appointed King, in case the new idea
should prove grateful to the nation, was discussed. The consensus of
opinion was entirely to the effect that the Voivode Peter Vissarion
should, if he would accept the high office, be a