It is not desertion, your Majesty. It is loyalty to something even
higher than the King, the principle that makes him King.


KING

[_Perplexed._

Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I am sentimental--


MINISTER OF WAR

[_Gently._

Your Majesty is humane, but perhaps a deeper humanity demands a
hardening of the heart sometimes.


KING

[_To_ MINISTER OF WAR.

But you always detested war. You called yourself my Minister not of War,
but of Peace.


MINISTER OF WAR

[_Rigidly._