or some minutes silence reigned in the room.
Then he rose and, with a face white and haggard as a sere cloth, turned
to Brockford.

"Tell me everything," he said. "I'm stronger now and can bear it."

Thereupon, Brockford, to whom I had written, in case he should hear of
him, gave a complete _resume_ of all that had occurred during his
absence. He informed him of our father's death, just at the time when
there was a possibility of Pannonia becoming a Monarchy once more. He
told him of our mother's end such a short time afterwards; of the
gradual crumbling away of the Republic, and of the war with Mandravia to
which it had given rise. He revealed to him the fact that being unable
to find Max, search how I would, and seeing that there was no time to
lose, I had sprung into the breach, and, supported by the Count von
Marquart, now a very old man, but as keen and self-assertive as of yore,
and the majority of the nobles, had seized the throne and declared
myself Regent in his stead. Max's face, so Brockford has since told me,
when he heard the news, was almost transformed.

"I have heard a great deal during my life," said the latter, "of what is
called kingly dignity. I never realised what it was, however, until I
looked at his. At that moment he was every inch a king."

"Father and mother dead," he said, "and my country in danger. There is
no doubt now; no doubt at all."

The others did not understand what he meant at the time, but they have
learnt since.

"My friends," he began in a softer voice than he had yet used, "my kind
friends, you see how this news has affected me. Will you give me time to
think it over?"

They were about to withdraw in order to leave him alone with his
thoughts.

"Will your Majesty believe that all I have is at your Majesty's
disposal?" said Brockford, in an undertone before he left.

Max started as if he had been stung.

"No, no!" he cried, "you must not call me that."

An hour later he was back at Brockford's house at Paqueta, where for
some hours he shut himself up and would see nobody. He was fighting the
greatest battle of his life. During the afternoon he called for all the
newspapers that could be procured, in order that he might study the war
from its commencement. Later on he left his room and found the other two
men in the garden. Traces of the struggle he had passed through still
lingered on his face as he greeted them. It was plainly seen that he had
arrived at a decision