Produced by Charles Franks and the Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE PUPPET CROWNby Harold MacGrath     TO THE MEMORY OF THAT GOOD FRIEND                    AND            COMRADE OF MY YOUTH                 MY FATHERCONTENTS     I THE SCEPTER WHICH WAS A STICK    II THE COUP DETAT OF COUSIN JOSEF   III AN EPISODE TEN YEARS AFTER    IV AN ADVENTURE WITH ROYALTY     V BEHIND THE PUPPET BOOTH    VI MADEMOISELLE OF THE VEIL   VII SOME DIALOGUE AN SPRAINED ANKLE AND SOME SOLDIERS  VIII THE RED CHATEAU    IX NOTHING MORE SERIOUS THAN A HOUSE PARTY     X BEING OF LONG RIDES MAIDS KISSES AND MESSAGES    XI THE DENOUEMENT   XII WHOM THE GODS DESTROY AND A FEW OTHERS  XIII BEING OF COMPLICATIONS NOT RECKONED ON   XIV QUI MAIME AIME MON CHIEN    XV IN WHICH FORTUNE BECOMES CARELESS AND PRODIGAL   XVI WHAT HAPPENED AT THE ARCHBISHOPS PLACE AND AFTER  XVII SOME PASSAGES AT ARMS XVIII A MINOR CHORD AND A CHANGE OF MOVEMENT   XIX A CHANCE RIDE IN THE NIGHT    XX 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 LEESXXVIII 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 bitsand then     Remold it nearer to the Hearts desire                    Rubaiyat of Omar KhayyamCHAPTER I THE SCEPTER WHICH WAS A STICKThe king sat in his private garden in the shade of a potted orange treethe leaves of which were splashed with brilliant yellow It was highnoon of one of those last warm sighs of passing summer which now andthen lovingly steal in between the chill breaths of September Thevelvet hush of the midday hour had fallenThere was an endless horizon of turquoise blue a zenith pellucid asglass The trees stood motionless not a shadow stirred save that whichwas cast by the tremulous wings of a black and purple butterfly whichnear to his Majesty fell rose and sank again From a drove of wildbees swimming hither and thither in quest of the final sweets of theyear came a low murmurous hum such as a man sometimes fancies he hearswhile standing alone in the vast auditorium of a cathedralThe king from where he sat could see the ivyclad towers of thearchbishops palace where in and about the narrow windows gray andwhite doves fluttered and plumed themselves The garden sloped gentlydownward till it merged into a beautiful lake called the Werter Seewhich stretching out several miles to the west in the heart of thethickwooded hills trembled like a thin sheet of silverToward the south far away lay the dim uneven blue line of the ThalianAlps which separated the kingdom that was from the duchy that is andthe duke from his desires More than once the king leveled his gazein that direction as if to fathom what lay behind those lordly ruggedhillsThere was in the air the delicate odor of the deciduous leaves whichevery little while the king inhaled his eyes halfclosed and hisnostrils distended Save for these brief moments however there restedon his countenance an expression of disenchantment which came ofthe knowledge of a part illplayed an expression which described aconsciousness of his unfitness and inutility of lethargy and wearinessand distasteTo be weary is the lot of kings it is a part of their royalprerogative but it is only a great king who can be weary gracefullyAnd Leopold was not a great king indeed he was many inches short ofthe ideal but he was philosophical and by the process of reason heescaped the pitfalls which lurk in the path of peevishnessTo know the smallness of the human atom the limit of desire theexistence of other lives as precious as their own is not the philosophywhich makes great kings Philosophy engenders pity and one whopossesses that can not ride roughshod over men and that is the businessof kingsAs for Leopold he would rather have wandered the byways of Kant thanstudied royal etiquette A crown had been thrust on his head and ascepter into his hand and willynilly he must wear the one and wieldthe other The confederation had determined the matter shortly beforethe FrancoPrussian warThe kingdom that was an admixture of old France and newer Austria wasa gateway which opened the road to the Orient and a gateman must beplaced there who would be obedient to the will of the great travelerswere they minded to pass that way That is to say the confederationwanted a puppet and in Leopold they found a dreamer which served aswell That glittering bait a crown had lured him from his peacefulOsian hills and valleys and now he found that his crown was of strawand his scepter a stickHe longed to turn back for his heart lay in a tomb close to his castlekeep but the way back was closed He had sold his birthright So hepermitted his ministers to rule his kingdom how they would and gavehimself up to dreams He had been but a