KING

[_Striding across the room, agitatedly._

But this is unholy, barbaric--this deliberate concoction of a great,
terrible war. I saw clearly this evening as I was talking with the
Ambassador how utterly without inner necessity this war-scare is. It is
a made thing from beginning to end, and I refuse absolutely to sanction
it.


CHIEF OF STAFF

[_Deliberately._

Your Majesty is an idealist. We are practical, and, I may say,
far-seeing men. And we are the three men, perhaps, who have given your
Majesty the chair you sit on and made your kingdom what it is.


KING

[_Drawing himself up._

I think I have not been ungrateful. But my people come first, and I will
not have my people plunged into misery for no valid and inevitable
necessity.