"Would you know Prince Frederic if you were to see him?" quietly asked

Lorry.

"I have not seen him since he was a very small boy, and then but for a

moment--on the day when he and his mother were driven through the

streets on their way to exile."

"We have a new man in the Castle Guard and there is a mystery attached

to him. Would you mind looking at him and telling us if he is what

Frederic might be in his manhood?" Lorry put the question and everyone

present drew a deep breath of interest.

Mizrox readily consented and Baldos, intercepted on his rounds, was led

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unsuspecting into an outer chamber. The duke, accompanied by Lorry and

Baron Dangloss, entered the room. They were gone from the assemblage but

a few minutes, returning with smiles of uncertainty on their faces.

"It is impossible, your highness, for me to say whether or not it is

Frederic," said the duke frankly. "He is what I imagine the pretender

might be at his age, but it would be sheer folly for me to speculate. I

do not know the man."

Beverly squeezed the Countess Dagmar's arm convulsively.

"Hurrah!" she whispered, in great relief. Dagmar looked at her in

astonishment. She could not fathom the whimsical American.

"They have been keeping an incessant watch over the home of Frederic's

cousin. He is to marry her when the time is propitious," volunteered the

young duke. "She is the most beautiful girl in Axphain, and the family

is one of the wealthiest. Her parents bitterly oppose the match. They

were to have been secretly married some months ago, and there is a rumor

to the effect that they did succeed in evading the vigilance of her

people."

"You mean that they may be married?" asked Yetive, casting a quick

glance at Beverly.

"It is not improbable, your highness. He is known to be a daring young

fellow, and he has never failed in a siege against the heart of

woman. Report has it that he is the most invincible Lothario that ever

donned love's armor." Beverly was conscious of furtive glances in her

direction, and a faint pink stole into her temples." Our fugitive

princes are lucky in neither love nor war," went on the duke." Poor

Dantan, who is hiding from Gabriel, is betrothed to the daughter of the

present prime minister of Dawsbergen, the beautiful Iolanda, I have seen

her. She is glorious, your highness."

"I, too, have seen her," said Yetive, more gravely than she

thought. "The report of their betrothal is true, then?"

"His sudden overthrow prevented the nuptials which were to have taken

place in a month had not Gabriel returned. Her father, the Duke of Matz,

wisely accepted the inevitable and became prime minister to

Gabriel. Iolanda, it is said, remains true to him and sends messages to

him as he wanders through the mountains."




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