Although it was considered next to high treason to strike a prince of the royal blood, I could, if I had the space, recount the details of numerous fisticuffs behind the state stables in which, sad to relate, the Prince just as often as not came off with a battered dignity and a chastened opinion of certain small fry who could not have been more than dukes or barons at best.

But he took his defeats manfully: he did not whimper _lese majeste_.

John Tullis, his "Uncle Jack," had proclaimed his scorn for a boy who could not "take his medicine." And so Prince Robin took it gracefully because he was prince.
To-day he was--for him--rather oppressively dignified and imperial.

He may have blinked his weary eyes a time or two, but in the main he was very attentive, very circumspect and very much puzzled.

Custom required that the ruling prince or princess should preside over the meetings of the cabinet.