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RUPERT OF HENTZAU.
FROM THE MEMOIRS OF FRITZ VON TARLENHEIM,
By Anthony Hope.
Being the sequel to a story by the same writer entitled "The Prisoner of Zenda"
With full-page illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF EARLIER CHAPTERS.
Rudolf Rassendyll, as an act of friendship to Rudolf, King of Ruritania, his distant relative, takes advantage of a close resemblance between them and impersonates the king through a grave crisis in the latter's affairs. He even plays the king's part as the prospective husband of the Princess Flavia. But in so doing he loses his heart, while the princess suddenly discovers in her lover a fervor and fascination she had not found in him before. In the end, the princess dutifully marries the real king; but thereafter, once a year, she sends a gift and a verbal message to Rassendyll in token of her remembrance of him. All this is told in the story of "The Prisoner of Zenda." The present history opens with the Princess (now Queen) Flavia come to such a pass that she dare not longer trust herself in sending the yearly message to Rassendyll. She therefore writes a letter that is to be her last word to him. The bearer, Fritz von Tarlenheim, is betrayed by his servant Bauer, and assaulted and robbed of the letter by Rupert of Hentzau. Rupert's tool, the Count of Luzau-Rischenheim, hurries to Zenda with a copy of it, to lay before the king. But he is met there by Rassendyll, is deceived for the moment into thinking him the king, and yields him the copy. He soon realizes his mistake, but is prevented by Colonel Sapt and Bernenstein from coming into private communication with the king. He is also made to discover the hiding-place of Rupert,—19 Königstrasse, Strelsau. Von Tarlenheim, the meanwhile, lies at Wintenberg, recovering from his beating, under the care of Rassendyll's servant James.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TASK OF THE QUEEN'S SERVANTS.
THE doctor who attended me at Wintenberg was not only discreet, but also indulgent; perhaps he had the sense to see that little benefit would come to a sick man from fretting in helplessness on his back, when he was on fire to be afoot, I fear he thought the baker's rolling-pin was in my mind, but at any rate I extorted a consent from him, and was on my way home from Wintenberg not much more than twelve hours after Rudolf Rassendyll left me. Thus I arrived at my own house in Strelsau on the same Friday morning that witnessed the Count of Luzau-Rischenheim's twofold interview with the king at the Castle of Zenda. The moment I had arrived, I sent James, whose assistance had been, and continued to be, in all respects most valuable, to despatch a message to the constable, acquainting him with my whereabouts, and putting myself entirely at his disposal. Sapt received this message while a council of war was being held, and the information it gave aided not a little in the arrangements that the constable and Rudolf Rassendyll made. What these were I must now relate, although, I fear, at the risk of some tediousness.
Yet that council of war in Zenda was
Copyright, 1898, by A. H. Hawkins.
