BY ANTHONY HOPE,

Author of "The Prisoner of Zenda," "The Dolly Dialogues," etc.


I.

It was in the spring of the year that Ludwig, Prince of Glottenberg,
came courting the Princess Osra; for his father had sought the most
beautiful lady of a royal house in Europe, and had found none to equal
Osra. Therefore the prince came to Strelsau with a great retinue, and
was lodged in the White Palace, which stood on the outskirts of the
city, where the public gardens now are (for the palace itself was
sacked and burnt by the people in the rising of 1848). Here Ludwig
stayed many days, coming every day to the king's palace to pay his
respects to the king and queen, and to make his court to the princess.
King Rudolf had received him with the utmost friendship, and was, for
reasons of state then of great moment, but now of vanished interest,
as eager for the match as was the King of Glottenberg himself; and he
grew very impatient with his sister when she hesitated to accept
Ludwig's hand, alleging that she felt for him no more than a kindly
esteem, and, what was as much to the purpose, that he felt no more for
her. For although the prince possessed most courteous and winning
manners, and was very accomplished both in learning and in exercises,
yet he was a grave and pensive young man, rather stately than jovial,
and seemed, in the princess's eyes (accustomed as they were to catch
and check ardent glances), to perform his wooing more as a duty of his
station than on the impulse of any passion. Finding in herself, also,