Page:Roy Norton--The unknown Mr Kent.djvu/52

 other thing. May I ask what form of liberty you proposed? Was it magna charta, or something like that?"

"Of course not!" indignantly objected the chancellor. "The rights of the crown had to be respected."

"Um-m-mh! So! Sort of curtailed liberty, eh, with a leash on it that could be jerked when necessity arose? Just like an April Fool purse designed by a small boy who lurks around the corner."

"I gave them councils where they could vote," protested the king. "That was a step toward liberty, wasn't it?"

"But I suppose your very able chancellor saw to it that you could veto any act passed, and in fact dissolve them, any time they had plans you did not approve of?"

The king tried to appear offended, and the chancellor was sulky and sullen.

"Did you finally dissolve them?" Kent asked, when neither answered.

"No," said the king, sadly. "I tried to reason with them. That was after one of them proposed a resolution inviting me to abdicate."

Kent leaned back and laughed quietly.

"Listen!" he said. "There are just two ways of reasoning with a man who tries to throw you out of your own house. If he is big enough to [48]