rd in rivalry
of our lords. Well I know that my own dear lord will forgive me as wife
if I err; but I speak to you, the Council of the nation, from another
ground and with another tongue. My lord does not, I fear, know as you
do, and as I do too, that of old, in the history of this Land, when
Kingship was existent, that it was ruled by that law of masculine
supremacy which, centuries after, became known as the _Lex Salica_.
Lords of the Council of the Blue Mountains, I am a wife of the Blue
Mountains--as a wife young as yet, but with the blood of forty
generations of loyal women in my veins. And it would ill become me, whom
my husband honours--wife to the man whom you would honour--to take a part
in changing the ancient custom which has been held in honour for all the
thousand years, which is the glory of Blue Mountain womanhood. What an
example such would be in an age when self-seeking women of other nations
seek to forget their womanhood in the struggle to vie in equality with
men! Men of the Blue Mountains, I speak for our women when I say that we
hold of greatest price the glory of our men. To be their companions is
our happiness; to be their wives is the completion of our lives; to be
mothers of their children is our share of the glory that is theirs.

"Therefore, I pray you, men of the Blue Mountains, let me but be as any
other wife in our land, equal to them in domestic happiness, which is our
woman's sphere; and if that priceless honour may be vouchsafed to me, and
I be worthy and able to bear it, an exemplar of woman's rectitude." With
a low, modest, graceful bow, she sat down.

There was no doubt as to the reception of her renunciation of Queenly
dignity. There was more honour to her in the quick, fierce shout which
arose, and the unanimous upward swing of the handjars, than in the
wearing of any crown which could adorn the head of woman.

The spontaneous action of the Gospodar Rupert was another source of joy
to all--a fitting corollary to what had gone before. He rose to his
feet, and, taking his wife in his arms, kissed her before all. Then they
sat down, with their chairs close, bashfully holding hands like a pair of
lovers.

Then Rupert arose--he is Rupert now; no lesser name is on the lips of his
people henceforth. With an intense earnestness which seemed to glow in
his face, he said simply:

"What can I say except that I am in all ways, now and for ever, obedient
to your wishes?" Then,