Senator McCain’s predicament in respect of financing his presidential campaign reminds us of Mark Twain’s story called “A Medieval Romance,” in which the Baron of Klugenstein disguises his daughter as a son named “Conrad” so that Conrad will inherit the kingdom should the Baron’s brother, Ulrich, the Duke, fail to have a son. As things develop Ulrich has a daughter, who would get the throne over the Baron’s daughter, so long as her honor is unstained.

As the king grows feeble, he summons Conrad to become the Duke and take over the kingship in all but name. The Baron warns Conrad of an old law — that if any woman sit for a single instant on the ducal chair before she hath been crowned, she shall die. Conrad, he warns, must, until he’s crowned, humbly conduct his business from the premier’s chair. Then off Conrad goes unaware that his (or her) cousin, Constance, has been, secretly, made pregnant by the villainous Detzin, who has fled the kingdom.

As the months go by, Conrad earns wide praise, as he modestly conducts the affairs of state from the premier’s seat. The only trouble for Conrad is that Constance has fallen in love with him. Ulrich grows delighted at the prospect that his daughter, though she might not rule herself, will marry her cousin, soon to inherit the throne. When Conrad spurns her love, Constance grows angry. As months go by, the gossip is that Constance has given birth to a child.

So Constance is brought to trial, with all the lords and barons assembled. Conrad, clad in purple and ermine, sits in the premier’s chair, surrounding by the judges. Old Duke Ulrich commands that the trial of his daughter proceed. And Conrad is asked to pronounce the sentence. But as he starts to speak, the Lord Chief Justice informs him that he cannot pronounce judgment but from the Ducal chair.

Conrad shudders, remembering the warning to avoid the Ducal chair before he’s crowned. But he mounts the Ducal chair and orders that unless Constance can produce the partner of her guilt and deliver him to the executioner, she must die. “Name the father of your child!” he commands. A hush falls over the court. This is when Constance names Conrad as the father — and Conrad feels what Mark Twain calls “an appalling conviction of his helpless, hopeless peril . . .”

The predicament was such that Twain abandoned the story, writing, famously, “The truth is, I have got my hero (or heroine) into such a particularly close place, that I do not see how I am ever going to get him (or her) out of it again.” Twain decided, as he put it, to “wash my hands of the whole business, and leave that person to get out the best way that offers — or else stay there.”

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Which — please forgive the long introduction — is how we feel about the pickle in which Senator McCain finds himself in respect of the campaign finance restrictions. The senator, as our Russell Berman reported on page one yesterday, suddenly is facing a clash with the very Federal Election Commission he spent so much of his career empowering. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Governor Dean, has filed a complaint against Mr. McCain for violating the agreement he struck when he became eligible for public matching funds for the Republican primary.

For his part, Mr. McCain is trying to withdraw from the public financing system, but the FEC can’t act one way or another. It seems that because of a feud between the Republican administration and the Democratic Congress, four seats on the commission are vacant and it lacks a quorum. Mr. McCain, Mr. Berman reported, applied for federal matching funds “when his campaign teetered on the brink of financial collapse.”

A candidate can withdraw from the system before spending the federal funds, and the McCain camp has signaled its intent to do so. But, as Mr. Berman reported yesterday, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, David Mason, questions whether Mr. McCain already benefited from the system because he used the promise of federal matching funds as collateral for a bank loan his campaign took out. Mr. McCain is in a pickle because if he stays in the system, there is a limit to what he can spend between now and the nomination. How the senator is going to disentangle himself, it’s beyond us. All we can say is that throughout Mr. McCain’s long campaign to regulate campaign financing, he was warned.