sombre old court life from its
former stagnation into its then glittering effervescence now constituted
themselves her most bitter accusers. Thus the inevitable drew nearer,
while my mother attended to her nursery with as much devotion as could
have been displayed by any _bourgeoise_ parent, and my father pored over
his books in the north-west tower of the palace, translating Ovid when
he should have been pulling at the ropes of Government, and enjoying the
selfish pleasures of the student when he should have been endeavouring
to prevent the ship of State from foundering. The country, being
delivered over to the mercy of party politics, rushed blindly on towards
the maelstrom that was to engulf it, and with it our devoted family.

Having thus formally introduced my father and mother to your notice, it
is necessary that I should now perform the same ceremony for my brother
and myself. Surely two lads were never more different. Max, the Crown
Prince, was, as I have already remarked, my senior by four years, and
the incarnation, so far as I was concerned, of all that was manly and
heroic. At the time of which I am about to tell you, and which was the
turning point of our fortunes, he was twelve years old, advanced for his
age, and showing promise of development into a tall and powerful man. In
face he resembled our mother more than our father; he had her dark,
piercing eyes, and, if the truth must be told, he was also gifted with a
very large amount of her imperiousness and love of power. It was said
that he was a born ruler of men, and some went even so far as to predict
that when he ascended the throne, Pannonia, under his influence, would
resume her proper place as the leading nation of the earth. But, alas!
how strangely things fall out. That which we count a certainty seldom
comes to pass, while it has become a commonplace amongst us that the
unexpected nearly, if not always, happens. As an example, I must put on
record an incident as strange as, at the time, it was disconcerting.

One day Max and I, accompanied by our tutor, were riding on the road
that leads from the city towards the village of Schartzvam, at the foot
of the mountains. Five miles from home, the pony Max was riding cast a
shoe, and it became necessary for us to call a halt at a blacksmith's
shop, in order that the defect might be remedied. We had dismounted, and
were standing at the door watching the work in hand, when a party of
gipsies made their a