Only a very few minutes had gone by before Dartnoff approached the two men by the window.
"Your Highness," he said, to Ughtred, with marked respect. "There is one question which we feel constrained to ask."
"In your coronation oath you swear to maintain inviolate the independence of Theos. We would know if at all costs, though the cost should be famine, death or annihilation, will you keep this oath to the letter?"
"May God have no mercy upon me hereafter if ever I should depart from it one hair's-breadth," Ughtred answered, with a sudden note of passion surging up in his tone. "I have no fancy for ruling a tributary state, sir. My forefathers have held safely for Theos through long generations the priceless gift of her liberty, and I would sooner die a thousand times over than that mine should be the hand to part with it."
General Dartnoff dropped on his knee, and drawing his sword from his scabbard, kissed its hilt.
"Your Majesty," he said, "we are all your faithful servants."
Reist unfastened his sword. The State uniform of the Thetian Guards was cumbersome, and the day was hot.
"Let Basil bring me wine," he ordered. "The cathedral was a furnace. Everywhere the air seems hot with the shouting of the people."
"Up here," Marie said, "the clamour of voices has seemed incessant. I have never heard anything like it."
He walked up and down moodily. He was not sure whether the day had gone according to his liking. All the time her eyes questioned him.
"One thing," he declared, "is certain. Never again will a republic exist in Theos. Two generations of _roués_ and madmen have not sickened this people of the House of Tyrnaus. Their loyalty is amazing."
"This man," she said, "is neither _roué_ nor madman."
He drank his wine, and as he set the glass down he felt her watching him. He understood the unspoken question in her deep, blue eyes.
"Of his betrothal," Reist said, slowly, "there was no word."
She drew herself up haughtily, a slim, stately figure in her magnificent white dress, caught up with jewels, and the curious bejewelled head-dress which in Theos was the symbol of her rank. Yet Nicholas, who watched her closely, caught the gleam of something in her eyes which surprised him. It was more like relief than anger.