WITOLD GOMBROWICZ
551
And suddenly the King began to complain that these were hard
times, that it wasn't clear how he was going to make ends
meet ... after which he began to giggle ... began to giggle and
wink unceremoniously at the Chancellor, the Secretary of
State. . . . He winked and began to giggle again. . . . He giggled
and tapped him in the ribs with his finger.
In deepest and what would seem to be a concentrated silence,
the old man looked at the monarch who was giggling, winking and
poking him in the ribs . . . and the silence of the old man resounded
with the silence of the portraits and the silence of the walls. The
King's giggling died away .... Then the iron old man bowed to the
King and in his wake the heads of the ministers bowed and the knees
of the undersecretaries of state bent. The might of the Council's
bow, made unexpectedly in this secluded hall, was terrible. The bow
struck the King in his very breast, stiffened his hands and feet, and
restored his grandeur to him-so that poor Gnulo groaned horribly
within these walls and attempted once more to giggle ... but the
giggle died on his lips .... In the quiet of this unyielding silence,
the King became frightened ... and he was afraid for some
time ... until at last he started to retreat before the Council and
himself, and his back, clad in a general's uniform, disappeared into
the darkness of the corridor.
Then a monstrous and venal cry: "I'll pay you for this!
I'll
pay
you,
I'll
pay you!" reached the ears of the Council.
Promptly after the King's departure, the Chancellor again
opened up the discussion and again the Council's contribution was
silence. Steadfastly the Chancellor presided over the silence. The
ministers stood up and sat down. The hours passed. How could one
ensure that the King, enraged at the refusal of a bribe, would not
stoop to some other scandal at the banquet; how could one protect
the King from Gnulo; and finally, even if one managed by some
miracle to avoid a scandal, what kind of impression would this
hapless, shameful, and embarrassing King create on the foreign
Archduchess and daughter of emperors - these were the questions
that the Council refused to consider, that it threw out, that it spewed
out in silent convulsions within these walls. The ministers stood up
and sat down. However, when at four o'clock in the morning the
Council unanimously tendered its resignation, the helmsman of the
ship of state did not accept it and instead uttered these significant
words:
"Gentlemen, we must force the King to be King, we must im-
