There was silence in the salon, for a moment. Then the landgrave nodded his head. “Done. Do you have a proposal as well for the name of this new political league?”
Saxe-Weimar smiled. “Something simple and to the point, I think. ‘Crown Loyalists’ should do nicely.”
Later that evening, over dinner, Amalie turned to Saxe-Weimar. “And what of you, yourself? Do you intend to form a ‘Crown Loyalist’ league in the United States?”
Wilhelm laughed. “Not exactly.”
He held up a thumb. “First, because it would be redundant. We are at war now, and I can assure you that whatever political quarrels the Americans have with Gustav Adolf, they will back him militarily to the hilt. And they, unlike me, can give that backing real steel and fire. So it would be a bit like a small boy marching around with men claiming to be the captain.”
Amalie laughed. The landgrave smiled. Wilhelm held up his forefinger alongside the thumb.
“Two. It would hardly gain me any friends in the United States itself. The Americans—and, increasingly, more and more of their new German citizens—are uneasy at the very notion of monarchy. Diehard republicans, you know, all of them, whatever internal disputes they may have.”
Another finger came up. “But, mostly, the answer is no because what is needed in the United States is not a league of noblemen—that will do, for the moment at least, in the Confederation—but a genuine political party as the Americans themselves understand the term. Something with deep roots in the broad populace.”
The landgrave and his wife stared at him. Wilhelm, formerly the duke of Saxe-Weimar, smiled serenely. “Oh, yes. My program itself will be based on the best thinking of our German cameralists, with a heavy leaven from the Americans’ own political traditions. So far as tactics go, however, I intend to steal many pages from the book of Michael Stearns. I have been studying the man very closely, this past year.”
“What do you really think of him?” asked Amalie. The tone of the question was simply curious.
“On a personal level, I admire him a great deal. I would go further. Whatever my political differences, as great as they undoubtedly are, I do not in the end really consider him as an ‘enemy.’ An opponent, certainly. But not an ‘enemy.’ The distinction is quite critical, I think—and so do the Americans. They have a name for it, as a matter of fact. They call it a ‘loyal opposition.’ ”
The stares of the landgrave and the landgravine were now skeptical. “Seems to me he has all the makings of a tyrant,” gruffed Hesse-Kassel.
“Like the old Greek tyrants?” Saxe-Weimar shrugged. “The makings of one, yes. Even quite a terrifying one. And I also think that, if he felt he had no choice, he would take that road. But not willingly, Wilhelm.”
He paused, thinking. “He was a professional pugilist once, you know, as a younger man.”
The landgrave and the landgravine grimaced. Pugilism for pay was not unknown in their era, but it was a savage and bloody business. On a par with cockfighting and bearbaiting. Its practitioners were considered to be sheer brutes.
Wilhelm smiled. “You misunderstand, I think. In his world, it was a sport. Brutal enough, to be sure. Oh, yes! Never make the mistake of thinking that Michael Stearns will refrain from bloodshed. But it was highly organized, you see. They called it ‘boxing,’ and it was surrounded by rules and regulations. Many things were ruled out, such as what they called ‘low blows.’ Indeed, a man could lose a match by violating those rules.”
He lowered his hand and opened it, palm up, on the table. “I believe that, to pursue the thought, Michael Stearns wants to teach the world how to box, in the political arena. So, in the end, I think it is my responsibility—perhaps the greatest of my responsibilities—to see to it that he never faces the necessity, as he might see it, to become a tyrant. Because he trusts his opponent to box rather than to fight like an animal. So if he loses a match, it is simply a match, not his life. And he might win the next, after all. Because I and—” His eyes flitted back and forth between the two other people at the table. “—others provided him with an acceptable alternative to the stark choice between tyranny and destruction.”