554
PARTISAN REVIEW
more fixed an attentive and dead stare on the enemy ambassador's
conventional face .. . and again, more distinctly , the traitorous
sound was heard . By now it had become obvious that someone who
would stand to gain from compromising the King and the banquet
wanted to tempt the pathological greediness of the monarch in this
subversive way. The traitorous jingling resounded yet again and so
distinctly that Gnulo heard it-and the serpent of covetousness
crawled out onto this vulgar junkseller's face.
Disgrace! Disgrace! A threat! The soul of the King was so
fanatic in its baseness, so trivially narrow, that he did not covet
larger sums but actually paltry , small sums were enough to lure him
to the bottom of hell. Oh, the real horror of this matter lay in the fact
that not even bribes tempted the King to the same extent that tips
did-tips were for him what ajuicy bone is for a dog! The entire hall
froze in mute anticipation. Having heard such a sweet and familiar
sound, King Gnulo set down his goblet and forgetting the world in
his boundless stupidity ... imperceptibly licked his lips .... Im–
perceptibly! So it seemed
to
him . The King's licking of his lips ex–
ploded like a bomb in the presence of the entire banquet , which had
reddened with shame.
Archduchess Renata Adelaida uttered a muffled cry of disgust!
The eyes of the government, the court, the staff of generals, and
the clergy turned to the person of the old man, who for many years
guided the helm of state with his toil-worn hands. What should they
do? How should they proceed?
And then they saw how a narrow aged tongue stuck out
heroically, slowly, from the pale lips of the historic man. The Chan–
cellor licked his lips! The Chancellor of State licked his lips!
For a moment more the Council fought with its dumb–
foundedness, but in the end the tongues of the ministers, and in their
wake, the tongues of the bishops ... the tongues of the countesses
and margravines stuck out and everyone from one end of the table to
the other licked their lips in the mysterious shining of crystal, and
the mirrors infinitely repeated this act, plunging it into their mirror
perspectives.
At that point the King , enraged, seeing that he could allow
himself nothing since everyone imitated him, violently pushed him–
self away from the table and stood up . But the Chancellor also stood
up . And after him everyone stood up.
Now the Chancellor did not hesitate; he had already made a
decision and its extreme daring defied all conventions! Realizing
