A Crowned Queen: The Romance of a Minister of State

But the Baroness was already standing in the hall, to the discomfiture of Paschics, who felt that he had erred in not escorting her up the steps. She accepted his hurried apolog...

“You are early, Count,” said the other lady, who was Paula von Hilfenstein no longer, having married the eldest son of Prince Mirkovics some seven years before. Her sister-in-la...

The _coup d’état_ was complete. M. Drakovics had accepted the ultimatum conveyed to him by Stefanovics with a submission which was as touching as it was generally unexpected. It...

Whatever M. Drakovics’s misgivings may have been with respect to the letter of which the rebels had obtained possession, the measures which he took to recover it were crowned wi...

“The more I think of the state of affairs,” said Cyril to Prince Mirkovics, when they were alone, “the more I am convinced that we must hurry things on. If possible, we must see...

The speaker was a young Englishman, scarcely more than a boy, who had just returned from questioning the guard as the Balkan express to Vienna slowed down preparatory to enterin...

Although he remained unconscious of the plot which was forming against the ultimate triumph of his policy, Cyril was not long in discovering that his daily task was not destined...

“Yes; the ordeal is over for me. My report had not the good fortune to please the Queen, however. I shall have to write another; and as I am to dine at the British Legation to-n...

This was all that was contained in the carefully sealed envelope which Cyril received from the messenger as he descended the steps of the Palace, but it was enough to put him on...

On reaching his own house, Cyril’s first act was to summon Paschics, who was now his secretary, and explain the situation to him very thoroughly, adding directions which were to...

“You make me absolutely miserable, madame,” Fräulein von Staubach was protesting vigorously. “Count, I am sure you will agree with me that her Majesty ought not to leave her bed...

“We must go this way in order to get back to our proper road,” said Cyril in a low voice, as they reached a street running at right angles to that in which they were, and they w...

“Please stand as you were before,” it said, “so that if any one notices you they may not know that you are talking to me. I am Olga--you saw me on the stack with the others befo...

The rocks on this side of the waterfall were not bare, but covered, wherever a crevice or a hollow afforded a resting-place for the smallest amount of soil, with close-growing b...

The hours of that Sunday passed pleasantly enough by the side of the lake in the valley. The charcoal-burner donned his best clothes and started for church, going not to Ortojuk...

When in after-days Cyril looked back to the events of that night, they seemed to him like the course of a bad dream. The first part of the journey was easy enough, for the road...

“I suppose you have met Lord Caerleon before, Ottilie?” said Queen Ernestine to her cousin, with a shade of disapproval in her tone, when the visitors had departed. “You seemed...

Left to himself, Cyril rose from his chair, and began to walk rapidly up and down the room, maturing some plan in his mind as he walked. Once or twice his meditations were inter...

The message which Philippa brought from Cyril served in some degree to allay her mother’s anxiety, and the continued absence of the O’Malachy tended to the same result. He had s...

The carriage from Llandiarmid Castle had been waiting for a quarter of an hour at the little country station, and the horses were beginning to toss their heads and paw the groun...

For some time after these exciting events, there was peace in the Palace at Bellaviste, until the near approach of the date fixed for the Princess of Weldart’s departure for the...

Lady Caerleon sat alone in the breakfast-room at Llandiarmid, with an unopened letter lying before her on the table. Her husband was staying with a friend in the Midlands for a...

The whole of the next fortnight was occupied by the mournful and protracted ceremonies accompanying the funeral of King Otto Georg. Cyril and M. Drakovics lived in a perpetual w...

The mob had been dispersed by the police, and Cyril found himself able to breathe freely once more. The Metropolitan, arrested by the order of M. Drakovics as soon as the news o...

“Why, Cyril, what’s the matter?” cried Caerleon, as he jumped out of the carriage to find his brother standing on the doorstep, equipped for a journey. Cyril answered by another...