Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
"Do you forget, sir, that you address the king?" she cried. "That you are without honor I have heard men say, and I may truly believe it now that I have seen what manner of man you are. The most lowly-bred boor in all Lutha would not be so ungenerous as to take advantage of his king's helplessness to heap indignities upon him.
The lieutenant thought that he was riding with his king, just as your highness thought that he was riding with his king during the battle of Lustadt. You were both wrong you were riding with Mr. Bernard Custer, of Beatrice. I am he. I have no apologies to make. What I did I would do again. I did it for Lutha and for the woman I love.
"Ah, no, your majesty," replied the old servitor; "it but makes assurance doubly sure as to your true identity, for the fact that you have not the ring is positive proof that you are king and that they have sought to hide the fact by removing the insignia of your divine right to rule in Lutha." Barney could not but smile at the old fellow's remarkable logic.
Von der Tann returned his salutations with courtesy but with no answering warmth. Then he passed on out of the palace. "The old fox must have heard," he mused as he mounted his horse and turned his face toward Tann and the Old Forest. When Count Zellerndorf of Austria entered the presence of Leopold of Lutha he found that young ruler much disturbed.
"The truth and the falsity of this whole strange business is beyond me, but this I know: if you are not the king today I pray God that the other may not find his way to Lustadt before noon tomorrow, for by then a brave man will sit upon the throne of Lutha, your majesty." Barney laid his hand upon the shoulder of the other. "It cannot be, my friend," he said.
He was wondering what had become of all the inhabitants of Lutha when his horse came to a sudden halt before an obstacle which entirely blocked the narrow trail at the bottom of the ravine.
Few there were who knew that he had been invited to occupy a place of honor there, and had replied that he would take no active part in the making of any king in Lutha whose veins did not pulse to the flow of the blood of the house in whose service he had grown gray.
"I have passed through a series of rather remarkable adventures since I came to Lutha," said Barney apparently quite irrelevantly, after the two had remained silent for a moment. "Shortly after my car fell upon you I was mistaken for the fugitive King Leopold by the young lady whose horse fell into the ravine with my car.
But Prince Ludwig was one who believed in being forehanded and so it happened that the orders for the mobilization of the army of Lutha were issued within fifteen minutes of his return to Lustadt. It would do no harm, thought the old man, with a grim smile, to get things well under way a day ahead of time.
He sank upon his knees, raising his hands in supplication toward the other. "Have pity on me, your majesty, have pity!" he cried. "Who am I, man?" insisted the king. "You are Leopold Rubinroth, sire, by the grace of God, king of Lutha," cried the frightened man. "Have mercy on an old man, your majesty." "Wait! Am I mad? Was I ever mad?" "As God is my judge, sire, no!" replied Peter of Blentz.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking