The Emperor turned to face Jules and Yvette. ‘Nevertheless, my young friends, my life is extremely important to me. It is also important to Irene and Edna, as are their lives to me. The three of us are important to a few really close friends, such as Zander there and your father, the Duke; but you’d be surprised and dismayed to learn just how scarce such friends are. The life of any individual Emperor or Empress, however, is of very little importance to the Empire itself, of which its rulers are merely the symbols. It’s one of the most comical paradoxes of power that the more you have, the more constrained you are and the less you can do. Sometimes, in my more whimsical moments, I think that the Empire could go on quite nicely without any ruler at all; but then my vanity intervenes and tells me how indispensable I am.
‘I do know, however, that the Empire endures only be: cause people such as yourselves are loyal to it. Without that loyalty, the Empire is just an abstract concept that would crumble and fall in an instant. Instead of prosperity and peace there would be widespread and terribly destructive wars of planetary conquest. Without a strong symbol of unity, our present civilization would degenerate into barbarism and savagery.
‘We Stanleys do what we can, but in the final analysis the Empire rests squarely upon the arch of the various services – and your Service of the Empire is the very keystone of that arch.
‘As Edna said, it’s a great shame that we three can give you only our thanks. It isn’t, however, just the thanks of three people, but rather that of an entire Empire.’ He took the d’Alemberts’ right hands, one in each of his own, and shook them vigorously. Jules and Yvette were speechless, each with tears in their eyes.
‘I’d like to propose a salute to the two best of us in the entire room,’ the Emperor concluded. He raised his glass in the direction of the two magnificent agents. ‘Here’s to tomorrow, fellows and friends. May we all live to see it!’