CHAPTER XXIX - SUSPICION

“Then I am Queen!”

Human nature, when reaching its noblest and loftiest condition, never rises above the transitional state. There have been men - perhaps it might be possible even now to find representatives - who have fondly and earnestly laboured to secure its perfection; but alas! the macadamised road to that Utopia is still impracticable owing to the primeval bogs and marshes of despairing difficulties in which the flesh abounds. Cautious and cunning adventurers may creep from comparatively firm mound to mound until their intrepid souls begin to fancy they have found the royal road to the desired goal, but while they congratulate themselves their foot falls upon a spot where the centre of resistance unexpectedly varies, and with an exclamation of disappointment hope vanishes, and the universal axiom is maintained.

By the action of this inevitable law the cause of Lais was jeopardised in the moment of its final success. From the commencement of her enterprise she had carefully estimated and prepared for the active opposition of Teresh - Zachra was a man of secondary consideration altogether - which she knew must be encountered the moment her scheme began to produce visible effects; she had therefore diligently studied the man and was fully prepared - whether developments allowed her thenceforth to continue upon the lines of the original design or force her to adopt an equally perfect alternative - to outwit and defeat him. In either of these schemes, however, she had provided for a considerable period of strategetic skirmishing before conquest and it was in the failure of this expected delay, arising from the sudden death of the Queen, where she found the centre of resistance to have moved, and was thus unguardedly betrayed into the perilous exclamation which fell upon the ears of Teresh as she retired.

She made no attempt to deceive herself by the suggestion that he had not noticed it, and as she hurried back to her room hastily readjusted the mask of hypocritical grief in order that from its cover she could devise a plan to surmount the new difficulty she had to combat.

The tears with which her maids and attendants sympathised were the distillation of her happiness, and their consolation contributed to the increase of her secret laughter. As a cat can afford to play with mice past all possibility of escape, so she could afford to humour everyone, after she had spoken with Meshrac, from whom she made immediate enquiry as to the will of the gods concerning her, and promised a most generous contribution to their cause as a penitential and conciliatory offering.

In intrigue and diplomacy she stood head and shoulders above the combined nation of Sahama, who trusted in simple confidence and unsuspecting innocence. In whatever Teresh did she knew he would move with deliberate caution, to circumvent which she had to act with prompt decision, and in this she felt confident that Meshrac, in his devotion to his craft, after the interview, would act as a useful friend, while nothing that had transpired could in any way be interpreted to her disadvantage.

Casca was still sleeping in blissful ignorace of what had occurred, and in his absence the astrologer approached Machaon and made known to him the last request of the Queen that Lais should succeed her, suggesting that the council be immediately assembled in order that the wish should be communicated to her successor without delay, and in accordance with custom, together with a loyal expression of sympathy and fidelity to both herself and Glarces.

Every councillor, with the one exception, was already at hand, and though Teresh objected to the proceeding in the absence of the Prince, he was soon over-ruled, and after hearing the declaration of the Queen's wish as expressed to Chryses and Meshrac, the council at once hailed Lais as successor appointing Teresh, Machaon, and Chryses as their representatives to make its decision known.

The simple proceedings were as mechanical as brief. The sudden misfortune had stupefied everyone until they appeared incapable of thinking or making any exertion to rouse themselves. When they had sanctioned Meshrac's suggestion they continued to look doubtfully from one to the other, as if wondering what next, but no one spoke until Teresh drew the physician aside for a private word.

“I am in doubt how to go about this business,” he began.

“We may soon settle that,” he replied; “let us confer with Chryses.”

“Not yet. I wish to say one word to you.” “Proceed, my friend; I am always at your service.”

“I am very strongly of opinion that we shall do wrong if we see Lais before we know something more about the death of Vedrona.”

“Why so?”

“Because I have a suspicion - I will not put it in a stronger form - that she and Casca know more about this matter than we imagine.”

“Then why did you not tell the council before we came to our decision?”

“For the simple reason that no man can make a charge upon suspicion alone. We know that the knife of Glarces was used, but who used it?”

“That will no doubt be discovered in the enquiry.” “But hear me, Machaon,” urged Teresh, with considerable animation, “suppose for one moment that Glarces struck the blow himself - “

“Never, man; why I would rather believe that I did it!” So would any of us. But the supposition is no more impossible than the murder, and that, with all its impossibility, is only too true. Now, grant for one moment that Glarces has committed the deed - “

“But the thing is impossible,” interposed Machoan again; “what could induce him to do such a thing?”

“That is the very question I was about to ask.” “And what do you suggest?”

“I suggest nothing; but I tell you I have a suspicion that Lais and Casca could tell us something about it.”

“Why do you think so?”

“I have been carefully watching these two since the incident between Maphir, Casca, and Zillah. The Prince accepted the assurances of the oracle that all was well, but I have never felt so sure about it. After the banquet last night, when Casca had well oiled his tongue with wine, he began to speak to a few friends in his usual boasting language, giving hints of a secret shared by himself and Lais. This secret had reference to some astonishing event to take place before morning, and his knowledge of it gave him an advantage over her of which he was more than proud.”

“That was nothing more than his customary drunken vaunting.” “Do you think so in the light of what has happened? I wish I could!”

“This calamity, my dear friend, I am persuaded has nothing but a coincidental connection with Casca's boasting. I should blush to think that Lais could take any part in such an atrocious crime; but even though she did, do you think she would be fool enough to take Casca into her confidence? Certainly not! We all know what he is, and I am surprised that you do not see a much more likely explanation of his mysterious hint.”

“In what?”

“In the closely guarded secret concerning those wonderful dancing girls from Ind. Of necessity he knew all about them, and that was quite enough to make him talk as he did.” “I wish I could think so.”

“But if you feel so certain about the other matter, why did you not speak to the council ?”

“Because, as I tell you, I have no real evidence, but only a very strong suspicion to work upon.”

“Very well. Now let the matter rest where it is for awhile. I know your mind, and will promise to keep my eyes and ears open; but beyond that none of us are in a position to balance convictions with a steady mind. Events force us forward, but whatever happens we can keep our eyes open, and I think we can find others determined to see this matter through, who will be true as ourselves to the interests of Vedrona, Glarces, and Sazone.”

“And you think we must see Lais at once?” “We have no alternative.” “Will you promise to watch her?”

“You may depend upon that after what you have said.” At this they turned to Chryses, and despatching a messenger with a humble request for an immediate audience on urgent matters of state, prepared to execute the commission with which the Council had entrusted them.

Lais entered the audience chamber supported by one of her ladies. Genuine grief had ploughed its furrows upon the visage of the attendant, as well as upon all others who had yet heard of the tragedies, save her who ought to have been most deeply smitten. Here art had been requisitioned as a substitute for absent natural feelings, and most cunningly had the deceptive jade responded. In most branches of artifice Lais was thoroughly proficient, and given a moderate opportunity to dress, was equal to the assumption of any role. Such facilities she had secured in the present instance, and the occasion being critical, had taxed her most subtle ingenuity, making her entrance into the presence of the deputation in a guise so woebegone as to disarm suspicion by its very audacity, and compelling sympathy even at the hands of Teresh. Craft and the toilet had limned an angel of light on the black background of hell. If such sorrow were counterfeit, the gods had failed to bestow the power to appraise reality.

So Teresh was imposed upon, not having recognised the fact that where craft is linked with fraud, it must also be employed in association with judgment before the balance of justice can be maintained, and in his rectitude he disdained to use his chief defence.

The commissioners bowed with their foreheads to the earth, and Teresh, whose duty it was to speak, found it difficult to break the silence by which Lais apparently held her grief in check.

“With the deepest reluctance, most royal lady,” he began, adopting a tone quite inconsistent with his former language to Machaon,” we are compelled to intrude upon your privacy in the first moments of this profound sorrow, when none but the gods have the power to minister to the wounds which have so suddenly fallen upon your royal house and the sorrow-stricken nation. Still, even in the presence of such misfortune, the affairs of state are inexorable, and in the immediate presence of death we have no choice but to provide for the succession to our throne. The late Queen-mother, at the moment of her death, while deploring the untimely fate which has removed the great Princess, your royal sister, from among us, bequeathed her throne to your royal self, and at the wish of her Council, we are here to humbly pray that you will accede to her desire, and also to add the assurance of our faithful devotion to your sacred person.”

Of all the events of that disastrous night, this was almost the first she had been able to anticipate with any degree of certainty, but though until barely a moment since the idea of the throne had been far beyond the wildest dream of her daring ambition, in the brief interval at her disposal she had made full arrangements to give all due impressment to the occasion. She did it admirably. It consisted of nothing but a pause, rendered painful by her dramatic and eloquent failure to reply, but she therein succeeded in placing the capstone to all her other efforts, and most splendidly saved herself.