Produced by Charles Adarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team TEMPORAL POWER A STUDY IN SUPREMACY By Marie Corelli CONTENTS I. THE KING’S PLEASAUNCE II. MAJESTY CONSIDERS AND RESOLVES III. A NATION OR A CHURCH? IV. SEALED ORDERS V. “IF I LOVED YOU!” VI. SERGIUS THORD VII. THE IDEALISTS VIII. THE KING’S DOUBLE IX. THE PREMIER’S SIGNET X. THE ISLANDS XI. “GLORIA--IN EXCELSIS!” XII. A SEA PRINCESS XIII. SECRET SERVICE XIV. THE KING’S VETO XV. “MORGANATIC” OR--? XVI. THE PROFESSOR ADVISES XVII. AN “HONOURABLE” STATESMAN XVIII. ROYAL LOVERS XIX. OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE STATE XX. THE SCORN OF KINGS XXI. AN INVITATION TO COURT XXII. A FAIR DEBUTANTE XXIII. THE KING’S DEFENDER XXIV. A WOMAN’S REASON XXV. “I SAY--‘ROME’!” XXVI. “ONE WAY--ONE WOMAN!” XXVII. THE SONG OF FREEDOM XXVIII. “FATE GIVES--THE KING!” XXIX. THE COMRADE OF HIS FOES XXX. KING AND SOCIALIST XXXI. A VOTE FOR LOVE XXXII. BETWEEN TWO PASSIONS XXXIII. SAILING TO THE INFINITE XXXIV. ABDICATION CHAPTER I THE KING’S PLEASAUNCE “In the beginning,” so we are told, “God made the heavens and the earth.” The statement is simple and terse; it is evidently intended to be wholly comprehensive. Its decisive, almost abrupt tone would seem to forbid either question or argument. The old-world narrator of the sublime event thus briefly chronicled was a poet of no mean quality, though moved by the natural conceit of man to give undue importance to the earth as his own particular habitation. The perfect confidence with which he explains ‘God’ as making ‘two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night,’ is touching to the verge of pathos; and the additional remark which he throws in, as it were casually,--‘He made the stars also,’ cannot but move us to admiration. How childlike the simplicity of the soul which could so venture to deal with the inexplicable and tremendous problem of the Universe! How self-centred and sure the faith which could so arrange the work of Infinite and Eternal forces to suit its own limited intelligence! It is easy and natural to believe that ‘God,’ or an everlasting Power of Goodness and Beauty called by that name, ‘created the heavens and the earth,’ but one is often tempted to think that an altogether different and rival element must have been concerned in the making of Man. For the heavens and the earth are harmonious; man is a discord. And not only is he a discord in himself, but he takes pleasure in producing and multiplying discords. Often, with the least possible amount of education, and on the slightest provocation, he mentally sets Himself, and his trivial personal opinion on religion, morals, and government, in direct opposition to the immutable laws of the Universe, and the attitude he assumes towards the mysterious Cause and Original Source of Life is nearly always one of three things; contradiction, negation, or defiance. From the first to