Category: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery

The Great Court Scandal

A bugle had just sounded, the guards had changed with a sudden clang of arms that rang out in the clear night, followed by the sound of men marching back to the guardhouse. A sharp word of command, a second bugle note, and then all was quiet again, save for the slow, measured...

Chapters

27. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

"Because he fears that I may expose his ingenious intrigue to you. I have discovered everything, and I have come to you, my husband, to face you, and to answer any charges that...

21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

"Dearest Heart," he wrote,--"To-night the journals in Rome are publishing the news of the King's death, and I write to you as your Majesty--my Queen. You are my dear heart no lo...

2. CHAPTER TWO.

When, half an hour later, she went back through those long corridors, her rich train sweeping over the red carpets, her white-gloved hands were clenched, her teeth set hard, her...

10. CHAPTER TEN.

That night, six hours later, when the great palace was silent save for the tramping of the sentries, the Princess sat in the big chair at her window, looking out upon the park,...

7. CHAPTER SEVEN.

When at last the brilliant company moved on into the great ballroom she had an opportunity of walking among those men and women who, though they bent before her, cringing and se...

19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.

She was known as "the Ladybird" on account of her habit of flitting from place to place, constantly taking situations in likely families. Most of the ladies in whose service she...

17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"I beg, Princess, that you will first accept my most humble apologies for what I did the other day. As to your Highness's secrecy, I place myself entirely in your hands."

12. CHAPTER TWELVE.

At Klosterneuberg, six miles from Vienna, Leitolf kissed her hand in deep reverence, taking sad leave of her, for on arrival at the capital she would probably be recognised, and...

8. CHAPTER EIGHT.

Henriette, the faithful Frenchwoman, had crept back to her mistress's room an hour after the Crown Prince had gone, in order to see if her Highness wanted anything, when to her...

22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

A hot summer's night in Treysa. It was past midnight, yet before the gay, garish cafes people still lingered at the little tables, enjoying to the full the cool breeze after the...

1. CHAPTER ONE.

A bugle had just sounded, the guards had changed with a sudden clang of arms that rang out in the clear night, followed by the sound of men marching back to the guardhouse. A sh...

24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

Roddy Redmayne, having returned safely from abroad, was living in quiet seclusion with Guy in apartments in a small, pleasantly situated cottage beyond West Worthing, on the dus...

15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

One afternoon about four o'clock, as the Princess, leading little Ignatia, who was daintily dressed in white, was crossing the great hall of the Hotel Terminus on her way out to...

20. CHAPTER TWENTY.

Guy Bourne, in his shirt sleeves, was sitting back in a long cane lounge-chair in the little front parlour when the Princess and her companion entered. He had just finished his...

13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Alone in her room that night she sat for hours sobbing, while the great castle was silent. She was now both homeless and friendless. All the desperate appeals she had made to he...

9. CHAPTER NINE.

By noon all Treysa knew, through the papers, of the indisposition of the Crown Princess; and during the afternoon many smart carriages called at the gates of the royal palace to...

5. CHAPTER FIVE.

State dinners, those long, tedious affairs at which the conversation is always stilted and the bearing of everybody is stiff and unnatural, always bored the Crown Princess Clair...

11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.

With quickened footsteps she clasped the child to her, and hurrying on in the falling gloom, skirted the long, high walls of the royal park, where at equal distances stood the s...

14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Realising her loss, the Princess quickly informed one of the station officials, who shouted loudly to the police at the exit barrier that a theft had been committed, and next mo...

18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

Next morning she took the bag to the Credit Lyonnais, as Roddy Redmayne had suggested, where it was sealed and a receipt for it was given her. After that she breathed more freel...

6. CHAPTER SIX.

In the twilight the express from Vienna came to a standstill in the big, echoing station at Treysa, the bright and wealthy capital, and descending from her private saloon, she w...

4. CHAPTER FOUR.

As the twilight fell on the following afternoon a fiacre drew up before the Hotel Imperial, one of the best and most select hotels in the Kartner Ring, in Vienna, and from it de...

16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"No. But it was one of us," he explained. "When the bag containing the jewels was opened I found, very fortunately, several letters addressed to you--letters which you evidently...

25. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

Poor Leucha was beside herself with grief, for she, alas! knew too well the many serious charges upon which her father and her lover were wanted. Both would receive long terms o...

26. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

The grey-faced London magistrate had remanded the prisoners in custody for seven days, and the papers that evening gave a brief account of the proceedings under the heading: "Sm...

3. CHAPTER THREE.

Princess and commoner walked in silence, side by side. The rough night wind blew the dust in their faces, but they bent to it heedlessly, both too full of their own thoughts for...

23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

"You did exceedingly well, Stieger. I am much pleased!" declared his Excellency the Minister, when, outside the palace, he caused them both to enter his carriage and was driving...

28. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

The greatest flutter of excitement was caused throughout Germany--and throughout the whole of Europe, for the matter of that--when it became known through the press that the Que...