human
Has anything happened, Duke Vorza?
gpt
Nothing, said Vorza.
human
The notice will be round the town in an hour's time: Cuvas has worked well: the whole town will be in the castle square and the usurper will meet his doom.
gpt
What doom?
human
Oh, I doubt if we shall have to take formal proceedings against him. The mob will tear him to pieces, I imagine. Lynch law--those damned republics have taught us something, after all. Ah! is that Cuvas?
gpt
You have managed splendidly,
human
I am very tired. You do speak loudly, by the way. I could hear you right outside.
gpt
What, talking about the probable end of our mock King?
human
Yes, and I did not like your talk entirely. Couldn't you ensure his safety? It would be rather a stroke. You see, very luckily the usurper made no attempt against King Andrea but simply put him into an asylum, as we have discovered. Wouldn't it look well in the eyes of Europe if we treated the usurper with the same leniency? Lynching doesn't look well, you know: it doesn't look well.
gpt
Why, what an absurd idea! exclaimed the Duke.
human
You are a queer man, Cuvas, or I would have to call you a coward.
gpt
It would give Alsander such a bad name in the world, brutally to destroy a man who, after all, has done little harm and some good, and we must remember we belong to a civilized State and are now engaged in making history. That is the way things are worked nowadays, you know. Look at Portugal, and Turkey and China. I repeat, the grocer has set a good example.
human
You dare praise him for not having killed your lawful King!
gpt
You dare compare the foul deposition of a legitimate monarch to the upsetting of a a low-born, vile, foreign impostor!
human
Of course not, said Cuvas.
gpt
But I deprecate excitement. I deprecate bloodshed. It's the style in which you write your article, not what you say in it, that draws the populace. It's the way you conduct your revolution, not the justice of your cause, that appeals to the diplomats. You must remember that to some people there would be a good deal to be said for the impostor.
human
Good things to be said of a grocer!
gpt
A Persian cobbler founded Persia's best dynasty, said Cuvas.
human
And a grocer is not worse than a cobbler. And in England, all things are different: I have heard that in that country grocers may be the friends of Kings and have been ennobled.
gpt
Those English! groaned Vorza, with contempt.
human
We are Alsandrians, not Persians, or English, and God be praised! But why to-day of all days do you trouble us with literary dissertations, Cuvas? What has this grocer done that you should defend him before he dies?
gpt
Well, he has worked already, and worked hard, in the interests of the country. He has begun to dredge the river and pave the streets, and light the town. He is already planning a new railway.
human
He? said Vorza.
gpt
Do you think he does anything? He spends half his time shut up with that scoundrelly Jew doctor, whom he would have made Prime Minister if I had let him.