THE LAST STAND OF A BAD SERVANT
XXI. A COURT FETE AT THE RED CHATEAU
XXII. IN WHICH MAURICE RECURS TO OFFENBACH
XXIII. A GAME OF POKER AND THE STAKES
XXIV. THE PRISONER OF THE RED CHATEAU
XXV. THE FORTUNES OF WAR
XXVI. A PAGE FORM TASSO
XXVII. WORMWOOD AND LEES
XXVIII. INTO THE HANDS OF AUSTRIA
XXIX. INTO STILL WATERS AND SILENCE
Ah Love! Could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mold it nearer to the Heart's desire!
- Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
CHAPTER I
THE SCEPTER WHICH WAS A STICK
The king sat in his private garden in the shade of a potted
orange tree, the leaves of which were splashed with brilliant
yellow. It was high noon of one of those last warm sighs of
passing summer which now and then lovingly steal in between the
chill breaths of September. The velvet hush of the mid-day hour
had fallen.
There was an endless horizon of turquoise blue, a zenith
pellucid as glass. The trees stood motionless; not a shadow
stirred, save that which was cast by the tremulous wings of a
black and purple butterfly, which, near to his Majesty, fell,
rose and sank again.
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