The Prisoner of Zenda

ures of an

er were handy and my sword loose in the scabbard. A gay group of officers and high dignitaries stood awaiting me, at their head a tall old man, covered w

I knew that I was in the presence of the

a short spare man, in flowin

of the Kingdom,"

me to the station, but he craved leave to await his Majesty at the Cathedral. I expressed my concern, accepted the Marshal's excuses very suavely, and received the compliments of a large number of distinguished per

he city of Strelsau is partly old and partly new. Spacious modern boulevards and residential quarters surround and embrace the narrow, tortuous, and picturesque streets of the original town. In the outer circles the upper classes live; in the inner the shops are situated; and, behind their prosperous fronts, lie hidden populous but wr

d with raised seats on each side, and I passed along, bowing this way and that, under a shower of cheers, blessings, and waving handkerchiefs. The balconies were full of gaily dressed ladies, who clapped their hands and curtsied and threw their brightest glances

lphbergs, Marshal," sai

umph, I raised my eyes to the beauty-laden balconies again . . . and then I started. For, looking down on me, with her handsome face and proud smile, was the lady who had been my fellow traveller-Antoinette de Mauban; an

d could not come near me. We were leaving my quarter and entering Duke Michael's, and this action of the Marshal's showed me more clearly

in our order, M

bit his whit

rudent, sire,

ew r

rshal, and Colonel Sapt and my friends, wait here till I have ridden fifty yards. And

y arm. I shook him off.

aw old Sapt smiling into his beard, but he shook his head at me. If I had been killed i

. I should be paying a poor compliment to the King if I did not set modesty aside and admit that I made a very fine figure. So the people thought; for when I, riding alone, ente

ook off my helmet that she might see that I was of

ing thus alone, for I heard

er than his w

ved as he does," was the h

an than I though

nder that beard after a

declared a pretty girl, taking great care that

dear brother's portrait ornamented most of the windows-which was an ironical sort of greeting to the King. I was quite glad that

till dim as I walked up the great nave, with the pealing of the organ in my ears. I saw nothing of the brilliant throng that filled it, I hardly distinguished the stately figure of the Cardinal as he rose from the archiepiscopal throne to greet me. Two faces only stood out side by side clearly before my eyes-the face of a girl, pale and lovely, surmounted by a crown of the glorious Elphberg hair

set it on my head, and I swore the old oath of the King; and (if it were a sin, may it be forgiven me) I received the Holy Sacrament there before them all. Then the great organ pealed out again,

air, her train held by two pages, stepped from her

ghness the Pr

w her to me and kissed her twice on the cheek, and she blushed red, and-then his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop slipped in front of Black

d white, and his hand shook so that it jumped under mine, and I felt his lips dry and parched. And I glanced at Sapt, who was smiling again into his beard, and, resolutely doing my

ut neither she nor anyone else dreamed or imagined that I could be other than the King. So the likeness served, and for an hour I stood there, feeling as weary and blase as though I had been a king all my life; and everybody kissed

told me, sat biting his nails like a man in a reverie, and even his own friends said that he should have mad

the face, crying "Long live Duke Michael!" and the princess colo

been the King, the further they had gone the better should I have been pleased. For I am not a slow-blooded man, and I had not kissed Princess Flavia's cheek for nothin

said she, "you look s

prising, but the rem

almost careworn, and I declare you're thinner. Surely it's

the King much the same opinion

lf up to the

lease you?" I

ews," said she, tur

ile and blush, I thought that I was playing the King's hand very

ng in my life has affected me more than t

t in an instant grew gr

notice

ding, "he wasn't

You don't-indeed you don't-keep

, "that he wants

. Hu

the King far beyond what I had a right to do-

g which I haven't got yet,

been the King, I should ha

esponsibilities on yo

ormal possession, as a crowned King, of the House of my ancestors, and sat down at my own table, with my cousin on my right hand, on her other side Black Michael, and on my left his Em

the King of Ruri