‘I will be no witness for him,’ cried Felicitas, a new idea having crossed his mind. ‘This night urgent affairs of state shall summon me to Berlin. Good-bye, Swami, for the present. We shall see whether thy soul-reading crystal plate has discovered to us the false or the true.’ ‘Will thy Majesty be absent from the GREAT TEST TRIAL next Tuesday?’ inquired Swami, with a view of reminding him of the date of that event. ‘By all above us, no,’ emphatically ejaculated Felicitas, whose ideas and recollections were in a decided jumble. The Emperor, if he be alive, must without doubt, be present at the Tournament. ‘I do not see how it could legally take place without me; for the king, whose realms are in dispute, is ever deemed the chiefest witness of the contest. ‘I have ample time; for by to-morrow night Mercia’s cause will have been heard and fully disposed of; there are still a few days left for the scandal to blow over, before the 1st of May, when I will appear in my proper place, and fulfil the duties that belong to my royal state.’ ‘How convenient to be a king, and know naught of the penalties of wrong-doing. A meaner mortal would be punished for perjury in such a case! But here ’twill be glossed over, and the Emperor’s clemency enlarged upon by his counsel,’ thought Swami, as he conducted the monarch to the great doors, outside which his carriage stood in readiness. CHAPTER X ‘Whence all this strange attraction? ’Tis Nature’s law, Which irresistibly impels and leads With forces so unutterably strong, And yet so hid—so wrapped in joy—concealed— That whence it comes we nothing know, nor why— We only know it is that Power called LOVE.’ _Idylls, Legends and Lyrics._ As soon as Swami got rid of his visitor, he quickly made his way to the dark chamber, where he had been thirsting to rush for some time past, and turning on the force brought to view the psycho-development of the coronation scene, wherein the portrait of the beautiful astronomer was the centre-piece. He had in reality prepared this mental feast for himself, but was induced at the request of Felicitas to reveal its charms to that monarch. As she sat upon her golden throne surrounded by the Maharajahs, and Heads of the various Principalities of the Eastern Empire, decked in their glittering robes, their crowns, and other courtly splendours, heightened with all the attendant pomp of Eastern ceremonial, Swami saw only the person of the matchless Mercia; for the rest possessed little interest for him at this moment. As his gaze dwelt upon her sweet face, he looked into her eyes with rapturous emotion, and clasping his hands together, knelt before this lovely delineation of his secret adoration, uttering in tenderest accents a passionate apostrophe.