The Blue Tower | Page 7

the Belphins!" And
then she added gently: "I think there is no doubt who is head of 'this
family' now."
The uncle gave a strained laugh. "You're going to have a great little
first lady there, boy," he said to Ludovick.
"First lady?" Ludovick repeated, still absorbed in his grief.
"Yes, I imagine the people will want to make you our first President by
popular acclaim."
Ludovick looked at him through a haze of tears. "But I killed The
Belphin. I didn't mean to, but ... they must hate me!"
"Nonsense, my boy; they'll adore you. You'll be a hero!"
Events proved him right. Even those people who had lived in apparent
content under the Belphins, accepting what they were given and
seemingly enjoying their carefree lives, now declared themselves to
have been suffering in silent resentment all along. They hurled flowers
and adulatory speeches at Ludovick and composed extremely flattering
songs about him.
Shortly after he was universally acclaimed President, he married
Corisande. He couldn't escape.
"Why doesn't she become President herself?" he wailed, when the
relatives came and found him hiding in the ruins of the Blue Tower.
The people had torn the Tower down as soon as they were sure The
Belphin was dead and the others thereby rendered inoperant. "It would
spare her a lot of bother."

"Because she is not The Belphin-slayer," the uncle said, dragging him
out. "Besides, she loves you. Come on, Ludovick, be a man." So they
hauled him off to the wedding and, amid much feasting, he was married
to Corisande.
* * * * *
He never drew another happy breath. In the first place, now that The
Belphin was dead, all the machinery that had been operated by him
stopped and no one knew how to fix it. The sidewalks stopped moving,
the air conditioners stopped conditioning, the food synthesizers stopped
synthesizing, and so on. And, of course, everybody blamed it all on
Ludovick--even that year's run of bad weather.
There were famines, riots, plagues, and, after the waves of mob
hostility had coalesced into national groupings, wars. It was like the old
days again, precisely as described in the textbooks.
In the second place, Ludovick could never forget that, when Corisande
had sent him to the Blue Tower, she could not have been sure that her
secret weapon would work. Love might not have conquered all--in fact,
it was the more likely hypothesis that it wouldn't--and he would have
been killed by the first barrier. And no husband likes to think that his
wife thinks he's expendable; it makes him feel she doesn't really love
him.
So, in thirtieth year of his reign as Dictator of Earth, Ludovick
poisoned Corisande--that is, had her poisoned, for by now he had a
Minister of Assassination to handle such little matters--and married a
very pretty, very young, very affectionate blonde. He wasn't
particularly happy with her, either, but at least it was a change.
--EVELYN E. SMITH

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