A crown of straw

The old forester looked round, and saw his daughter coming down the narrow path, bordered with dwarf apple trees, which led from the front door of the cottage to the garden gate.

DOROTHEA and her father both looked round and caught sight of the new-comer at the same moment. They saw a tall, handsome fellow of about thirty, dressed like an artisan of good...

It was said that she was proud. It was believed that she was ambitious. It was admitted that she had once been beautiful. In the days before her marriage, when she was still the...

KARL FINK was a familiar figure at the Castle. He was a favourite with the young King, who had chosen him from among the other foresters to be his regular attendant, and had lod...

TREADING cautiously for fear of being overheard by any chance passer-by, Karl led his master’s enemy down the corridor giving on to the royal apartments, and out into a spacious...

NONE of us know beforehand how we shall act in moments of stress and fear. Bernal, when he saw embodied before him the danger to which he had looked forward, lost his self-contr...

On leaving Johann in the gallery he had retired at first to his own room, where he flung himself on the bed, and lay writhing in misery, straining his ears for the sound of the...

THE next morning, after breakfast, Maximilian and Auguste Bernal were alone together in the small room which constituted the royal cabinet. It was furnished plainly, with little...

FRANZ GITTEN sat on a wooden seat at the side of his cottage porch, and puffed discontentedly at the long pipe with the china bowl. Through the open door of the lodge came an oc...

The Chancellor had passed a very uneasy time since his parting with the King the previous day. He had hardly had time to cool down after his interview with the revolutionist whe...

IF Dorothea had consulted some of those familiar with the Court, as to which of her various friends she would be least wise to trust in, the answer in almost every case would ha...

THE throng was at its greatest, the glare of gas was at its fullest, the clamour and the confusion were at their height. Round every dirty stall the scrambling and fighting and...

FOR some time after the parting words of the girl, Maximilian and his companion walked on in silence. Johann saw that the King was profoundly affected by what he had just listen...

Interpreting this as an invitation, the Count, who was unable to wholly hide his consternation, returned slowly to his chair. He sat down, and for some moments scrutinised the c...

MAXIMILIAN had submitted quietly to his arrest and subsequent incarceration in cell No. 79. More from shame than from prudence, he was careful to avoid betraying his identity to...

WHEN Maximilian found himself outside the gates of the State prison, it was not with the light step of a captive released that he took his way to the palace. Once in his own apa...

AND now for a time all other matters at Court fell into the background, and every mind was taken up with the preparations for the coming visit of the Kaiser.

THE Castle of Seidlingen was illuminated. Every window flashed with light, and all the roofs and turrets were picked out in brilliant lines of fire. Through the conservatories a...

THE following morning the Kaiser, after a long conversation with General von Bernerstauf, sent for the Franconian Chancellor, and was closeted with him for nearly an hour. At th...

“MY dear Dorothea, surely you are not the one person in the Court who has failed to observe the King’s state of mind. I thought you had better opportunities than any of us for k...

The words struck on Maximilian’s ear like the grinding crash of a collision upon the ear of the sailor sleeping peacefully in his berth, far out upon the waste of waters. He spr...

THE Regent Hermengarde sat in her former apartments giving audience to Karl Fink. She had not transferred herself to the royal suite, as Maximilian still occupied it, under the...

AS the door of the cabinet closed, leaving Maximilian by himself, with the ensigns of his monarchy strewed upon the table and the floor, the clock of the Castle began to strike...