The Blue Tower | Page 7

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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