Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

VAINGLORY GOES BEFORE A FALL
old Killian ; and in the eyes of that family which
counted him so little, and to which he had sought
to play the part of the heroic comforter, he must
sink lower than at first. To a man of Otto's temper,
this was death. He could not accept the situation.
And even as he worked, and worked wisely and
well, over the hated details of his principality, he was
secretly maturing a plan by which to turn the situa-
tion. It was a scheme as pleasing to the man as it
was dishonourable in the prince; in which his frivolous
nature found and took vengeance for the gravity and
burthen of the afternoon. He chuckled as he
thought of it : and Greisengesang heard him with
wonder, and attributed his lively spirits to the
skirmish of the morning.
Led by this idea, the antique courtier ventured to
compliment his sovereign on his bearing. It reminded
him, he said, of Otto's father.
' What ? ' asked the Prince, whose thoughts were
miles away.
* Your Highness's authority at the board,' explained
the flatterer.
' O, that ! O yes,' returned Otto ; but for all his
carelessness, his vanity was delicately tickled, and his
mind returned and dwelt approvingly over the details
of his victory. ' I quelled them all,' he thought.
When the more pressing matters had been dis-
missed, it was already late, and Otto kept the
Chancellor to dinner, and was entertained with a
leash of ancient histories and modern compliments.
The Chancellor's career had been based, from the first
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