Long Live the King! Read online

  LONG LIVE THE KING

  By Mary Roberts Rinehart

  CONTENTS

  I. The Crown Prince runs away

  II. And sees the World

  III. Disgraced

  IV. The Terror

  V. At the Riding-School

  VI. The Chancellor pays a Visit

  VII. Tea in the Schoolroom

  VIII. The Letter

  IX. A Fine Night

  X. The Right to live and love

  XI. Rather a Wild Night

  XII. Two Prisoners

  XIII. In the Park

  XIV. Nikky does a Reckless Thin

  XV. Father and Daughter

  XVI. On the Mountain Road

  XVII. The Fortress

  XVIII. Old Adelbert

  XIX. The Committee of Ten

  XX. The Delegation

  XXI. As a Man may love a Woman

  XXII. At Etzel

  XXIII. Nikky Makes a Promise

  XXIV. The Birthday

  XXV. The Gate of the Moon

  XXVI. At the Inn

  XXVII. The Little Door

  XXVIII. The Crown Prince's Pilgrimage

  XXIX. Old Adelbert the Traitor

  XXX. King Karl

  XXXI. Let Mettich guard his Treasure

  XXXII. Nikky and Hedwig

  XXXIII. The Day of the Carnival

  XXXIV. The Pirate's Den

  XXXV. The Paper Crown

  XXXVI. The King is dead

  XXXVII. Long live the King

  XXXVIII. In the Road of the Good Children

  XXXIX. The Lincoln Penny

  LONG LIVE THE KING!

  CHAPTER I. THE CROWN PRINCE RUNS AWAY

  The Crown Prince sat in the royal box and swung his legs. This washardly princely, but the royal legs did not quite reach the floor fromthe high crimson-velvet seat of his chair.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto was bored. His royal robes, consisting ofa pair of blue serge trousers, a short Eton jacket, and a stiff, rollingcollar of white linen, irked him.

  He had been brought to the Opera House under a misapprehension. Hisaunt, the Archduchess Annunciata, had strongly advocated "The FlyingDutchman," and his English governess, Miss Braithwaite, had read himsome inspiring literature about it. So here he was, and the FlyingDutchman was not ghostly at all, nor did it fly. It was, from theroyal box, only too plainly a ship which had length and height, withoutthickness. And instead of flying, after dreary aeons of singing, it wasmoved off on creaky rollers by men whose shadows were thrown grotesquelyon the sea backing.

  The orchestra, assisted by a bass solo and intermittent thunder in thewings, was making a deafening din. One of the shadows on the sea backingtook out its handkerchief and wiped its nose.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto looked across at the other royal box, andcaught his Cousin Hedwig's eye. She also had seen the handkerchief;she took out her own scrap of linen, and mimicked the shadow. Then, HerRoyal Highness the Archduchess Annunciata being occupied with the storm,she winked across at Prince Ferdinand William Otto.

  In the opposite box were his two cousins, the Princesses Hedwig andHilda, attended by Hedwig's lady in waiting. When a princess of theCourt becomes seventeen, she drops governesses and takes to ladies inwaiting. Hedwig was eighteen. The Crown Prince liked Hedwig better thanHilda. Although she had been introduced formally to the Court at theChristmas-Eve ball, and had been duly presented by her grandfather,the King, with the usual string of pearls and her own carriage with thespokes of the wheels gilded halfway, only the King and Prince FerdinandWilliam Otto had all-gold wheels,--she still ran off now and then tohave tea with the Crown Prince and Miss Braithwaite in the schoolroom atthe Palace; and she could eat a great deal of bread-and-butter.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto winked back at the Princess Hedwig. Andjust then--"Listen, Otto," said the Archduchess, leaning forward. "The'Spinning Song'--is it not exquisite?"

  "They are only pretending to spin," remarked Prince Ferdinand WilliamOtto.

  Nevertheless he listened obediently. He rather liked it. They had notfooled him at all. They were not really spinning,--any one could seethat, but they were sticking very closely to their business of eachoutsinging the other, and collectively of drowning out the orchestra.

  The spinning chorus was followed by long and tiresome solos. The CrownPrince yawned again, although it was but the middle of the afternoon.Catching Hedwig's eye, he ran his fingers up through his thick yellowhair and grinned. Hedwig blushed. She had confided to him once, whilethey were walking in the garden at the summer palace, that, she wasthinking of being in love with a young lieutenant who was attached tothe King's suite. The Prince who was called Otto, for short, by thefamily, because he actually had eleven names--the Prince had been muchinterested. For some time afterward he had bothered Miss Braithwaite todefine being in love, but he had had no really satisfactory answer.

  In pursuance of his quest for information, he had grown quite friendlywith the young officer, whose name was Larisch, and had finally asked tohave him ride with him at the royal riding-school. The grim old King hadgranted the request, but it had been quite fruitless so far after all.Lieutenant Larisch only grew quite red as to the ears, when love wasmentioned, although he appeared not unwilling to hear Hedwig's name.

  The Crown Prince had developed a strong liking for the young officer.He assured Hedwig one time when she came to tea that when he was kinghe would see that she married the lieutenant. But Hedwig was muchdistressed.

  "I don't want him that way," she said. "Anyhow, I shall probably have tomarry some wretch with ears that stick out and a bad temper. I dare sayhe's selected already. As to Lieutenant Larisch, I'm sure he's in lovewith Hilda. You should see the way he stares at her."

  "Pish!" said Prince Ferdinand William Otto over his cup. "Hilda is notas pretty as you are. And Nikky and I talk about you frequently."

  "Nikky" was the officer. The Crown Prince was very informal with thepeople he liked.

  "Good gracious!" exclaimed the Princess Hedwig, coloring. "And what doyou say?"

  Miss Braithwaite having left the room, Prince Ferdinand William Ottotook another lump of sugar. "Say? Oh, not much, you know. He asks howyou are, and I tell him you are well, and that you ate thirteen piecesof bread at tea, or whatever it may have been. The day Miss Braithwaitehad the toothache, and you and I ate the fruit-cake her sister had sentfrom England, he was very anxious. He said we both deserved to be ill."

  The Princess Hedwig had been blushing uncomfortably, but now she paled."He dared to say that?" she stormed. "He dared!" And she had picked upher muff and gone out in a fine temper.

  Only--and this was curious--by the next day she had forgiven thelieutenant, and was angry at Ferdinand William Otto. Women are verystrange.

  So now Ferdinand William Otto ran his fingers through his fair hair;which was a favorite gesture of the lieutenant's, and Hedwig blushed.After that she refused to look across at him, but sat staring fixedlyat the stage, where Frau Hugli, in a short skirt, a black velvet bodice,and a white apron, with two yellow braids over her shoulders, waslistening with all the coyness of forty years and six children at hometo the love-making of a man in a false black beard.

  The Archduchess, sitting well back, was nodding. Just outside the royalbox, on the red-velvet sofa, General Mettlich, who was the Chancellor,and had come because he had been invited and stayed outside because hesaid he liked to hear music, not see it, was sound asleep. His martialbosom, with its gold braid, was rising and falling peacefully. Besidehim lay the Prince's crown, a small black derby hat.

  The Princess Hilda looked across, and smiled and nodded at FerdinandWilliam Otto. Then she went back to the music; she held the score inher hand and followed it note by not
e. She was studying music, and hermother, who was the Archduchess, was watching her. But now and then,when her mother's eyes were glued to the stage, Hilda stole a glanceat the upper balconies where impecunious young officers leaned over therail and gazed at her respectfully.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto considered it all very wearisome. If onecould only wander around the corridor or buy a sandwich from the standat the foot of the great staircase--or, better still, if one could onlyget to the street, alone, and purchase one of the fig women that MissBraithwaite so despised! The Crown Prince felt in his pocket, where hisweek's allowance of pocket-money lay comfortably untouched.

  The Archduchess, shielded by the velvet hangings with the royal arms onthem, was now quite comfortably asleep. From the corridor came soundsindicating that the Chancellor preferred making noises to listeningto them. There were signs on the stage that Frau Hugli, braids, sixchildren, and all, was about to go into the arms of the man with thefalse beard.

  The Crown Prince meditated. He could go out quickly, and be back beforethey knew it. Even if he only wandered about the corridor, it wouldstretch his short legs. And outside it was a fine day. It looked alreadylike spring.

  With the trepidation of a canary who finds his cage door open, and,hopping to the threshold, surveys the world before venturing to exploreit, Prince Ferdinand William Otto rose to his feet, tiptoed past theArchduchess Annunciata, who did not move, and looked around him from thedoorway.

  The Chancellor slept. In the royal dressing-room behind the box a ladyin waiting was sitting and crocheting. She did not care for opera.A maid was spreading the royal ladies' wraps before the fire. Theprincesses had shed their furred carriage boots just inside the door.They were in a row, very small and dainty.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto picked up his hat and concealed it by hisside. Then nonchalantly, as if to stretch his legs by walking ten feetup the corridor and back, he passed the dressing-room door. Anothermoment, and he was out of sight around a bend of the passageway, andbefore him lay liberty.

  Not quite! At the top of the private staircase reserved for the royalfamily a guard commonly stood. He had moved a few feet from his post,however, and was watching the stage through the half-open door of aprivate loge. His rifle, with its fixed bayonet, leaned against thestair-rail.

  Prince Ferdinand William Otto passed behind him with outward calmness.At the top of the public staircase, however, he hesitated. Here,everywhere, were brass-buttoned officials of the Opera House. Agarderobe woman stared at him curiously. There was a noise from thehouse, too,--a sound of clapping hands and "bravos." The little Princelooked at the woman with appeal in his eyes. Then, with his heartthumping, he ran past her, down the white marble staircase, to where thegreat doors promised liberty.

  Olga, the wardrobe woman, came out from behind her counter, and stoodlooking down the marble staircase after the small flying figure.

  "Blessed Saints!" she said, wondering. "How much that child resembledHis Royal Highness!"

  The old soldier who rented opera glasses at the second landing, and whohad left a leg in Bosnia, leaned over the railing. "Look at that!"he exclaimed. "He will break a leg, the young rascal! Once I couldhave--but there, he is safe! The good God watches over fools andchildren."

  "It looked like the little Prince," said the wardrobe woman. "I haveseen him often--he has the same bright hair."

  But the opera-glass man was not listening. He had drawn a long sausagefrom one pocket and a roll from the other, and now, retiring to a farwindow, he stood placidly eating--a bite of sausage, a bite of bread.His mind was in Bosnia, with his leg. And because old Adelbert's mindwas in Bosnia, and because one hears with the mind, and not with theear, he did not hear the sharp question of the sentry who ran down thestairs and paused for a second at the cloak-room. Well for Olga, too,that old Adelbert did not hear her reply.

  "He has not passed here," she said, with wide and honest eyes; but withan ear toward old Adelbert. "An old gentleman came a moment ago and gota sandwich, which he had left in his overcoat. Perhaps this is whom youare seeking?"

  The sentry cursed, and ran down the staircase, the nails in his shoesstriking sharply on the marble.

  At the window, old Adelbert cut off another slice of sausage with hispocket-knife and sauntered back to his table of opera glasses at theangle of the balustrade. The hurrying figure of the sentry below caughthis eye. "Another fool!" he grumbled, looking down. "One would think newlegs grew in place of old ones, like the claws of the sea-creatures!"

  But Olga of the cloak-room leaned over her checks, with her lips curvedup in a smile. "The little one!" she thought. "And such courage! Hewill make a great king! Let him have his prank like the other children,and--God bless him and keep him!"