“You think, then, that the liberals are secretly acting against me in this matter?”

“I am persuaded of it, your Highness.”

Odo hesitated.  “You have always told me,” he began again, “that the love of dominion was your brother’s ruling passion.  If he really believes this movement will be popular with the people, why should he secretly oppose it, instead of making the most of his own share in it as the minister of a popular sovereign?”

“For several reasons,” Gamba answered promptly.  “In the first place, the reforms your Highness has introduced are not of his own choosing, and Trescorre has little sympathy with any policy he has not dictated.  In the second place, the powers and opportunities of a constitutional minister are too restricted to satisfy his appetite for rule; and thirdly—­” he paused a moment, as though doubtful how his words would be received—­ “I suspect Trescorre of having a private score against your Highness, which he would be glad to pay off publicly.”

Odo fell silent, yielding himself to a fresh current of thought.

“I know not what score he may have against me,” he said at length; “but what injures me must injure the state, and if Trescorre has any such motive for withdrawing his opposition, it must be because he believes the constitution will defeat its own ends.”

“He does believe that, assuredly; but he is not the only one of your Highness’s ministers that would ruin the state on the chance of finding an opportunity among the ruins.”

“That is as it may be,” said Odo with a touch of weariness.  “I have seen enough of human ambition to learn how limited and unimaginative a passion it is.  If it saw farther I should fear it more.  But if it is short-sighted it sees clearly at close range; and the motive you ascribe to Trescorre would imply that he believes the constitution will be a failure.”

“Without doubt, your Highness.  I am convinced that your ministers have done all they could to prevent the proclamation of the charter, and failing that, to thwart its workings if it be proclaimed.  In this they have gone hand in hand with the clergy, and their measures have been well taken.  But I do not believe that any state of mind produced by external influences can long withstand the natural drift of opinion; and your Highness may be sure that, though the talkers and writers are mostly against you in this matter, the mass of the people are with you.”

Odo answered with a despairing gesture.  “How can I be sure, when the people have no means of expressing their needs?  It is like trying to guess the wants of a deaf and dumb man!”

The hunchback flushed suddenly.  “The people will not always be deaf and dumb,” he said.  “Some day they will speak.”

“Not in my day,” said Odo wearily.  “And meanwhile we blunder on, without ever really knowing what incalculable instincts and prejudices are pitted against us.  You and your party tell me the people are sick of the burdens the clergy lay on them—­yet their blind devotion to the Church is manifest at every turn, and it did not need the business of the Virgin’s crown to show me how little reason and justice can avail against such influences.”