Chapter 194: The Pendulum of Destiny

Chapter 193 The Pendulum of Fate

On the second floor of the Olmac Club, there were several small independent rooms spread out, the small rooms were facing the spiral staircase, and through the rose-red curtains and window glass one could have a full view of the first floor.

Inside the room, Viscount Palmerston and Viscount Melbourne each held a goblet filled with a quarter of a shallow red wine liquid in their hands.

Judging from the labels of the bottles placed on the counter beside his hand, they should be drinking a bottle of Romanee Conti produced in the Burgundy region of France in 1820.

The Viscount of Melbourne gently shook the glass and absentmindedly took a shallow sip.

Viscount Palmerston, looking at his appearance, just smiled and put his arm around his shoulder, inviting him to sit down on the sofa: ”William, there’s no need to be so annoyed. Although the position of judge is very difficult to solve, there is always a way.”

Melbourne tilted his head and asked, “Any news from your side on the new Chancellor candidate?”

Palmerston mused for a moment, “The choice of Chancellor is not clear to anyone in the party right now, perhaps only our new Prime Minister, Earl Grey himself, knows who to appoint.

As you know, William, Britain has had a Chancellor for longer than a Prime Minister. It is a powerful position.

The Lord Chancellor acts as his Majesty’s Privy Counsel, appoints his Majesty’s legal representatives, the Queen’s Counsel, the Attorney General of England, and holds the Court of Equity, the highest authority in the law of Britain, heads the Lord Chancellor’s Department of the British Judiciary, and appoints the Presidents of all the High Courts of Justice and the Courts of Appeal of Great Britain, and, by custom, is entitled to the honor of being Speaker of the House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor also enjoys the customary honor of being the Speaker of the House of Lords.

Oh yes, and of course, as the most impartial, incorruptible, disinterested and learned representative of the whole of Britain, the Lord Chancellor also has to take the trouble to oversee the ecclesiastical property of the Anglican Church.

In addition to this, he has to take the place of His Majesty the King in his educational, charitable, and medical tours, and as Inspector of the Royal Public Hospitals of Great Britain, he has the responsibility of supervising all the universities in England, so that all the two universities representing our beautiful England will be up to the highest level of education in the world.”

Hearing this, Viscount Melbourne could not help loosening his furrowed brows and asking, “Two? Are you kicking out the University of London and King’s College, schools that are also in England?”

Palmerston put down his wine glass and said, “William, the first priority of a university is to cultivate talents, have the University of London and King’s College cultivated any talents? The name university is not something that can be applied to just any school, even if I expanded my search to include the entirety of Britain, the most I would put in would be the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow in Scotland. That’s right, I think there are only four decent universities in Britain at the moment.”

When Viscount Melbourne heard this, he just joked, “Your selection method is also too unfair to the University of London, King’s College, and a start-up school like Helvetia University, after all, in terms of the time of operation, the longer Helvetia University has only been in operation for nine years, the University of London for four years, and King’s College has only begun its enrollment last year.”

Seeing that Melbourne had finally relaxed, Palmerston laughed and put a hand on his shoulder, “That’s right, William. While I don’t know who the next Royal Chancellor of the Kingdom will be, I do know that our new Prime Minister has the latest Chancellor of the Seal of State already drawn up in his mind.”

“Minister of the State Seal?”

Viscount Melbourne immediately came to life when he heard this word.

Those who did not understand British politics might not know what Minister of the State Seal meant, but Viscount Melbourne was quite clear.

The Minister of the State Seal, as the name suggests, has a very simple duty, which is to specialize in keeping the heirloom seals of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales for the king.

On the bright side, it was nothing more than a mascot-type role.

As a result, not every Cabinet appoints a Secretary of State, and in the absence of such an appointment, the Chancellor of the Exchequer usually takes over the duties of the Secretary of State.

When a Cabinet announces the appointment of the Chancellor, it is usually a signal to the outside world that the new Chancellor will shortly become the Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Such a maneuver would normally only occur if the Prime Minister wished to appoint a Lord Chancellor in a civilian capacity.

This is because the Lord Chancellor, who is also the Speaker of the House of Lords, is required by rule to be a peer, i.e. a baronet or above.

The Minister of State, on the other hand, is usually a commoner, but because of his position, the Minister of State, a legacy from the Middle Ages, is in fact the King’s Minister of State, commonly known as the Minister of the Interior, which is not the same as the Minister of Ministries, which is a foreign minister in the traditional sense of the word.

Because of their proximity to the king, most ministers of the court, even if they were not peers, would soon be made peers and thus sit in the House of Lords.

As a result, after years of fiddling around, the process of appointing a Lord Chancellor of the Common Pleas in Britain evolved into a three-step process.

1. The Prime Minister appoints him as Chancellor of the Seal of State
2. The king understood and made him a Lord, as to whether this Lord is a baronet, or a higher title, purely depending on the mood of the king and the relationship between the close relatives
3. The Prime Minister announced a cabinet reshuffle, with the Minister of State Chancellor and Chancellor of the Royal Court.
Although Viscount Melbourne usually like to sleep in Parliament, but at least he inherited his father’s title into the House of Lords, but also honestly sat in the House of Commons for 25 years, under the influence of the natural early on the doors and ways of a clear understanding.

As the saying goes, even if you haven’t personally defeated the French, haven’t you read in the newspaper that the French escaped?
Viscount Melbourne sat on the sofa and poked out half of his body: “Who is the new Minister of the State Seal?”

Viscount Palmerston picked up the bottle of wine and gave himself another glass, “That founder of the Edinburgh Review.”

Viscount Melbourne frowned tightly, “There is more than one founder of the Edinburgh Review.”

Viscount Palmerston put down the bottle, smiled and patted his lover’s brother’s shoulder, “But there is only one who is qualified to be the Chancellor, you should remember who the lawyer was who helped Queen Caroline win her divorce case with the late King George IV, right?”

Viscount Melbourne stood up immediately when he heard that, his face was full of surprise: “Henry?” “That’s right.” Viscount Palmerston grinned, “Not this Henry of mine, but the other Henry, Mr. Henry Peter Brougham, and perhaps it won’t be long before we have to call him Lord Brougham.”

Viscount Melbourne couldn’t help but laugh and clap his hands repeatedly, “Excellent! Back then, he made a name for himself with that royal divorce lawsuit, so if I make Mrs. Norton’s situation clear to him, I’m sure he’ll be willing to do me this favor.”

Viscount Palmerston snickered, “You have to be thankful that our late King George IV died in time, hmmm …… maybe it’s not very nice of me to say that. But if the late King had been alive at this time, I’m afraid Mr. Brougham would never have been able to get a knighthood out from under him for the rest of his life, let alone serve as Chancellor.

After all, the feud between the late King and Queen Caroline was not an ordinary one, and when the Queen passed away he would not even let her coffin pass through the City of London. Sir Robert Baker, who was in charge of arranging the route at that time, was unable to withstand the public opinion and finally let the Queen’s coffin pass through the city of London, and as a result, Sir Baker was dismissed by His Majesty’s furious King just after the funeral. Looking back now, Sir Baker was quite wronged.”

A man’s spirit is refreshed when he is happy, and the bright smile on Viscount Melbourne’s face is completely unrecognizable from the party’s sorrowful appearance.

He asked, “By the way, in which constituency is Mr. Brougham running this year.”

Viscount Palmerston closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, “Well …… let me think, I remember it seems to be in …… York? Yes, it seems like that’s where he stood for election in York!”

“York?” Viscount Melbourne slapped his forehead, “God! So it was none other than Mr. Brougham who defeated George Norton in York? Is this really not God’s arrangement? Everything is too coincidental as well. How did the two of them just happen to bump into each other when there were obviously so many corrupt constituencies for them to choose from?”

Viscount Palmerston smiled and shrugged his shoulders, “Who knows, maybe it’s like what you said, exactly God’s guidance. God is showing you the way, and you are going to be with Lady Norton after all. William, even though the Duchess of Ponsonby broke your heart, it’s been so long since that incident, maybe it’s time for you to find another good girl to be with. God allowed you to be tormented by her for twenty years and allowed you to have an unfortunate marriage, so now He intends to send a true angel to make it up to you.”

When Viscount Melbourne heard this, he just laughed helplessly as he shook his head, “William, you’re overthinking it, I really just want to help her. If someone had helped me so much back then when that marriage of mine was in trouble, my late wife and I might have gotten through it as well.”

Seeing that his future great-uncle would not listen to advice, Palmerston could only shake his head and sigh, “You! Why are you always so tired of living? You learn from me how good it is to live a relaxed and easy life, life is a play, don’t take it too seriously.

But Byron is also too damn not a thing, he ruined the first half of your life, the representative of the Satanist poets, this title is indeed very suitable for him. He came into this world with the biggest mission of all, besides getting involved with Greek Independence and the Italian Charcoal Burners, to ruin you!”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, through the glass of the window there came a sudden, sharp, intense, gorgeous sound of the piano.

Both Viscount Palmerston and Viscount Melbourne frowned slightly.

“What kind of movement?”

The duo stood in front of the window and glanced down, in the center of the stage on the first floor, a young man in a tuxedo was waving those arms that fluttered up and down like butterflies, his fingertips jumping between the keys of the piano, and a series of notes spread throughout the entire hall, which immediately triggered the exclamations of a few ladies and the bursts of laughter from the card-playing gentlemen at the tables who were calling out their approval.

Viscount Melbourne queried, “Not Moscheles, the Philharmonic Society has a new pianist?”

Viscount Palmerston saw Mrs. Cowper sitting around the front of the stage with a big smile on her face, and couldn’t help but think of something last night that wasn’t too good for outsiders to talk about, and he winked at Viscount Melbourne with a playful smile.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to go down and see? We’ve had our nerves on edge lately with the election and the no-confidence motion, and it’s time to relax. It just so happens that the pianist is present, won’t you go and have a dance with Mrs. Norton?”

Viscount Melbourne was hesitating, but Palmerston didn’t give him time to keep thinking, he put his arm around Melbourne’s shoulder and headed out, “William, listen to me, be bold, it’s no big deal. What would you do even if you did have something with Mrs. Norton? Where can you find such a good deal when you can trade your wife’s sleep for a judge’s seat? George Norton’s really made a fortune this time, and you’ve got nothing to apologize to him for.”

The two of them pushed and shoved their way out of the room, but out of their sight, the Red Devil lay on his side on the window sill, a red apple with a pained face in his hand, eating blood from his mouth, and his long, strong, black tail whipping the rosy-red curtains and causing a ripple.

The Red Devil casually threw the apple core out of his hand, right on Mrs. Norton who was watching Arthur’s magnificent performance in the ballroom.

The apple core gradually slid down her hair, and finally stopped at her heart, the light red shimmering light flashed, the apple core little by little into her chest cavity, until it did not enter the chest.

The Red Devil let out a long and loud burp, this sudden noise startled Arthur who was playing and could not stop for a moment.

He narrowed his eyes slightly to look up at the second floor window, but the only thing that met his sight was the red devil’s malicious grin.

Agareth folded his arms and whispered, “Coincidence? Where are the coincidences? Fate points, God arranges, call it what you will, anyway, Professor Agares only asks that things must go in the direction I instruct.”

He pulled out the roll of parchment stuck in his waistband, glanced at Arthur, who was playing, and nodded slightly, after which he pulled out a feather quill and very casually made a few random strokes on the yellowed pages.

Accompanied by the leaping tip of the brush with fire, a life-like painting appeared on top of the paper scroll in no time.

In front of the piano, there was Arthur in a tuxedo, and above his head, there was a magnet entwined with lightning and a scepter dripping with blood, and on top of the magnet and scepter, there was a swinging pendulum clock.

Clock pendulum swaying, silent room, ding dong ding dong, fate of the second hand has been walking ……

(End of chapter)