many flashes of sunshine flickered through them,--were bound to close
in the thick gloom of the inevitable end,--Death. This is what he was
chiefly thinking of, seated alone in his garden-pavilion facing the sea
on that brilliant southern summer morning,--this,--and with the
thought came many others no less sad and dubious,--such as whether for
example, his eldest son might not already be eager for the crown?--
whether even now, though he had only reigned three years, his people
were not more or less dissatisfied under his rule?

His father, the late King, had died suddenly,--so suddenly that there
was neither help nor hope for him among the hastily summoned
physicians. Stricken numb and speechless, he kept his anguished eyes
fixed to the last upon his son, as one who should say--"Alas, and to
thee also, falls this curse of a Crown!" Once dead, he was soon
forgotten,--the pomp of the Royal obsequies merely made a gala-day for
the light-hearted Southern populace, who hailed the accession of their
new King with as much gladness as a child, who, having broken one doll,
straightway secures another as good, if not better. As Heir-Apparent
the succeeding sovereign had won great popularity, and was much more
generally beloved than his father had been,--so that it was on an extra
high wave of jubilation and acclamation that he and his beautiful
consort were borne to the Throne.

Three years had passed since then; and so far his reign had been
untroubled by much difficulty. Difficulty there was, but he was kept in
ignorance of it,--troubles were brooding, but he was not informed of
them. Things likely to be disagreeable were not conveyed to his ears,--
and matters which, had he been allowed to examine into them, might have
aroused his indignation and interference, were diplomatically hushed
up. He was known to possess much more than the limited intelligence