The Regents are never named from among subordinate officials, nor is a Regent ever promoted to the throne.  It is held that the qualities required in an absolute Sovereign are not such as are demanded from or likely to be developed in the subordinate ruler of a dominion however important, and that functions like those of a Regent, at least as important as those of the Viceroy of India, ought not to be entrusted to men trained in subaltern administrative duties.  Among the youths of greatest promise, in their eighth year, a certain small number are selected by the chiefs of the University, who visit for this purpose all the Nurseries of the kingdom.  With what purpose these youths are separated from their fellows is not explained to them.  They are carefully educated for the highest public duties.  Year by year those deemed fitter for less important offices are drafted off.  There remain at last the very few who are thought competent to the functions of Regent or Campta, and from among these the Sovereign himself selects at pleasure his own successor and the occupant of any vacant Regency.  The latter, however, holds his post at first on probation, and can, of course, be removed at any time by the Sovereign.  If the latter should not before his death have named his own successor, the Council by a process of elimination is reduced to three, and these cast lots which shall name the new Autocrat from among the youths deemed worthy of the throne, of whom six are seldom living at the same time.  No Prince is ever appointed under the age of fourteen (twenty-seven) or over that of sixteen (thirty).  No Campta, has ever abdicated; but they seldom live to fall into that sort of inert indolence which may be called the dotage of their race.  The nature of their functions seems to preserve their mental activity longer than that of others; and probably they are not permitted to live when they have become manifestly unfit or incapable to reign.

When first invited to visit the University, I had hoped to make it only a stage and stepping-stone to something yet more interesting—­to visit the Arctic hunters once more, and join them in the most exciting of their pursuits; a chase by the electric light of the great Amphibia of the frozen sea-belt immediately surrounding the permanent ice-cap of the Northern Pole.  For this, however, the royal licence was required; and, as when I made a similar request during the fur-chase of the Southern season, I met with a peremptory refusal.  “There are two men in this world,” said the Prince, “who would entertain such a wish. I dare not avow it; and if there were a third, he would assuredly be convicted of incurable lunacy, though on all other points he were as cold-blooded as the President of the Academy or the Vivisector-General.”  I did not tell Eveena of my request till it had been refused; and if anything could have lessened my vexation at the loss of this third opportunity, it would have been the expression of her countenance at that moment.  Indeed, I was then satisfied that I could not have left her in the fever of alarm and anxiety that any suspicion of my purpose would have caused.