"Stephen R. Lawhead - Avalon, The Return Of King Arthur (v4.0)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lawhead Stephen)

announcement in Parliament tomorrow. Thank you.тАЭ He disappeared through the
crush of his aides and bodyguards; the door opened before him, and he ducked
quickly inside.
A rare silence descended upon the Pipe & Drum тАФ a spontaneous reverence for the
passing of the nationтАЩs monarch. Not so much the man, James thought, as for the
monarchy itself. Ready Teddy had not been a particularly sparkling example of
modern sovereignty.
In common with some few of his predecessors, Edward IX was a wastrel and a
womanizer, as often as not dragging his reign through the muck with his lascivious
shenanigans. Twice he had been named corespondent in scandalous divorces, and
he had once come within a hairтАЩs breadth of being indicted for embezzling funds
from a business venture in which he was a partner. His driving license was in a
permanent state of revocation, and he owed huge sums of money to the banks of
several countries. He spent far more time at his various properties abroad than he
ever did at home тАФ although he still opened Parliament and the racing season, and
he was widely quoted as saying he wished he had inherited the crown of Spain
because the food was better and weather did not impede oneтАЩs golf game.
Magna Carta II made all this more or less irrelevant. A misnomer, to be sure, the
term was a journalistic tag attached to the movement to dissolve the monarchy of
Britain. Whereas the original Great Charter established the rule of law and curtailed
the power of the monarch, Magna Carta II aimed to abolish both sovereign and
sovereignty altogether.
The scheme featured a series of closely orchestrated phases, each linking a
referendum to the necessary legislation. Four times the Government had consulted
the people and, four times, passed laws that moved the country ever closer to the
final Act of Dissolution.
Introduced by Parliament several years ago, the devolution process had been quietly
and systematically working its way through its various stages, beginning with a few
slight changes in the British Constitution and a moderate government reorganization
which, among other things, abolished the House of Lords. Social reform eliminated
all honors, titles, and other lingering vestiges of inherited privilege, while
long-anticipated tax reform brought royal lands under the heavy thumb of the Inland
Revenue, thereby producing the desired effect of pricing the nobility out of the
market.
No government could have pursued such drastic, sweeping measures without the
sanction of the British people. Years of wretched excess and royal disgrace had
soured public opinion to the point that no one cared anymore. Whatever legacy of
loyalty the House of Windsor had built up over the years had been squandered by
the latest run of rakish incumbents. Not to put too fine a point on it, the weak-willed,
petty-minded monarchs had brought about their own demise. Thus, when Magna
Carta II was launched, most people thought it was high time to dump the whole
stinking lot.
James never learned who won the football game that night, for the normal schedule
of programs was abandoned and there followed a rambling, catch-as-catch-can
obituarial documentary on the sad life of the sorry King, interspersed with
continuous late-breaking bulletins which added nothing to the fact already evidenced:
that the King was dead indeed.
тАЬOh, come on,тАЭ growled Cal after a while. тАЬItтАЩs not like heтАЩs going to be missed.
The man was no Mother Teresa.тАЭ
James had known Calum McKay since the day his family moved onto the Blair