King John of Jingalo Part 62

"No--just like Jingalo; that is what makes it strong. If I were foolish, if I were only going there to make money, I should try to get some treaty, some concession, some sort of trade-monopoly--rubber, or gum, or n.i.g.g.e.rs' blood, it is all the same thing--I should try to get that from the Brazils or the Bolivias or whoever thinks that it is theirs to sell.

I am not such a fool: I do not want to trade, if I have got the people.

They are strong, they can run, they live clean lives--n.o.body has spoiled them; they do not want to be rich; they are still a wonderful people; they know a leader when they have found him. And when they gave me these dragons that I have on me, then I became their King. That is my secret.

Now!"

"But if I were to tell people _that_----"

"Pooh! They would not believe you. 'Mad,' that is what they would say.

'Don't marry that man, he is mad!' And besides I am not King as we talk of kings here in Europe; they would not pay taxes to me or anybody, but I can show them what to do. That country on the map may 'belong' to anybody--the United States may write 'Monroe'--one of their big 'bow-wows' that was--they may write 'Monroe' all round the coasts of South America and at every port that they like to stick in their noses; but they cannot get there to say that the people living on that land shall not become great and strong in their own way, without any one else to say about it. To those men outside I shall only look like a trader what is too stupid to trade with them; but all my trade will be among my own people. That country can live on itself; there, that is my secret!

It wants nothing, nothing from outside at all; and the people want nothing either. They have great high plateaux where they can live cool; and they have all the brains and the blood that they want to make themselves a great nation. I have drilled them; ah, but not German fas.h.i.+on, no! They are much too splendid for that. Every man is an army to himself. They do not fear, for in their religion it is forbidden them. But if you can think of Bersaglieri--which are the best troops in Europe--able to climb like monkeys, to swim like fish, to go along the ground like snakes, and to get all by different ways to the same place in the dark with their eyes shut, though they have never been there before--for that is how it seems--well, that is what my army is going to be like. I have ten thousand of them drilled already; in a year I shall have them armed; and I tell you that at six hundred miles from the nearest coast n.o.body will be able to beat them."

"No, perhaps not with armies," said Charlotte; "but what about civilization itself--all the evil part of it, I mean? How are you going to keep that out?"

"Civilization will find us a bad bargain," said the Prince, "we shall not trade: that is to be our law. I have told them how dreadful civilization has become, and they are afraid of it; they will not touch it with a pair of tongs. Traders may come to us; they shall get nothing, and we shall get nothing from them. Only the King, with those that he has for his Council, shall choose what is to bring in from outside; and that will not be for trade at all.

"Well, now you know! And it is to be Queen of that country, but never to wear any crown, that I ask if you are going to marry me?"

"It would be rather a big adventure, would it not?" said Charlotte.

"Of course! I thought that is what you like."

"Yes, so it is. But what about papa? I don't know what he would say if he knew."

"Do you always tell him what you do, beforehand, to see if he shall approve?"

"I've not done lately," said Charlotte. And then she saw that a suitable moment for her own confession had arrived. She had very small hope of shocking him now; but she did her best.

"Do you know that I have been in prison?" she said.

"No. Who was it that put you there--your papa?"

"I put myself."

"Did you get the keys?"

"I made them arrest me."

"How?"

"I took a policeman's helmet from him, and ran away with it. At least that is what he said afterwards: I don't know whether it was true."

"Beautiful!" exclaimed the Prince in ravished tone. He did not turn a hair; it was merely as though he were listening to some fairy tale.

"But very likely it was!" persisted Charlotte, anxious for the worst to be believed; and then she gave him a full account of the whole thing.

"And what for did you do it?" he inquired when she had finished.

"Because they had told me that you were coming, and I had promised not to run away."

"I do not understand?"

"Well, I didn't know what you were like; and I didn't want you to think I was a bit anxious to meet you.--That was all!"

"That was all, was it?" Enlightenment dawned on him; he beamed at her benevolently.

"And I wanted to see," she continued, "whether you would be shocked: at least, I wanted to give you the chance of being."

"Well, you have given it me, and I am not; I am delighted. The more women can do that sort of thing the better--pull men's heads off, I mean."

"Goodness me!" exclaimed Charlotte, "but I'm not going on doing it."

"Why not? A good thing done twice is better."

The simplicity of his approval left her without words.

"In that country where you and I are going to," went on the Prince, imperturbably, "the women can fight just as well as the men. They are trained to wrestle; and before they allow to marry they must have wrestled off on to his back a man as old as themselves."

"But the men?" cried Charlotte, astonished. "How can they stand being beaten by women?"

"Pooh, that is nonsense!" said Fritz; "men do not mind being beaten by women unless it is that they despise them. In that country the woman that has thrown most men is the one that they are most anxious to marry."

"I have never thrown any one yet," said Charlotte reflectively.

"You!" Peaceful of look he eyed her wonderingly. "You have thrown something much stronger than a man," he said--"you, a princess, that has gone to prison!--and for that silly notion of yours that you could shock me. Ha!"

"I did it for other reasons, too."

"Quite like; people may have a lot of reasons they can make up afterwards for doing wise, brave, foolish things like that!"

"But I did think," insisted Charlotte, "that those Women Chartists were right."

"I do not care whether they are right or wrong;--that is not my concern.

They may be just as foolish as you, or just as wise--what difference to me? But when I go to think of you sitting there in that common prison all those ten days with everybody looking for you--looking, looking, and not daring to say one word--so afraid at what you had done--oh, that is marvelous! That is to be a King! That is power!"

Charlotte had become very attentive to her lover's praise. "You think they were really afraid, then?" she inquired, "afraid that it should be known."

"You ask them!" replied Fritz, "and see if they do not all cry 'Hush'!"

And then in his usual abrupt way he returned to matters more personal to himself.

"Well, what are you going to say to me? For the last hour I have been asking you to marry me, and you have said nothing; only just 'wriggle, wriggle,' talking off on to something else."

"Wriggling is one way of wrestling," said Charlotte. Her eye played mischief as she spoke.

"Just waggling the tongue!" retorted Fritz with genial scorn. "Throw a man with that?--you cannot throw me!"

"But I must throw somebody, or else I shall not be qualified. The women of that wonderful country of yours would look down on me."

"Throw me!" The Prince opened his arms, smiling. "I will let you!" he said.