nderful dawn
breaking in the east. By and by a horseman from Theos passed them at
full gallop.

"The war is over," he cried. "The English fleet is at Constantinople!
The Turks have sued for peace. Long live the King."

He vanished in a cloud of dust, riding furiously for the Pass. Brand
took Marie into his arms and kissed her.

"Dear," he said, "I haven't much money, and I'm only an ordinary man."

She laughed softly.

"I think in Theos," she said, "we have clung a little too closely to
the old ideals. Rank is very well, and money I know little about. But
on the whole, I am glad that you are an ordinary man."

[Illustration: "'THE WAR IS OVER,' HE CRIED."]

They rode into Theos as the King arrived from Solika. The Cathedral
bells clanged out a welcome, the people lined the streets, everywhere
breathless excitement prevailed. Old Baron Doxis met the King on the
palace steps. He held out both hands, but his eyes were wet with
tears.

"Your Majesty," he said, "this is your day of triumph, and yours
alone. May God send you in the future wiser and better councillors."

But Ughtred passed his arm through the old man's, and led him into the
palace.

"I am young and I was unproven," he said. "I shall be quite satisfied
if God will preserve for many years my present ones."

* * * * *

Theos won for herself, as the fruits of that brief campaign, a
wonderful military reputation, and every prospect of unbroken peace.
She entered indeed upon that golden age which comes once in the
world's history to every nation, great or small. Mr. Van Decht built a
palace within the city, and invested all his vast capital in the
country. Brand, whose services no one realized more thoroughly than
the King, accepted a Government appointment and entered the House of
Laws a naturalized Thetian. And when they asked the King what gift a
grateful nation could offer him, he answered them promptly but in very
few words.

"The right to depart from a constitutional principle. The right to
share my throne with the woman I love."

There was no hesitation, no break in the thunderous applause which
greeted his answer, and which Nicholas of Reist himself led. The
marriage of Ughtred of Tyrnaus and Sara Van Decht under such
conditions touched the imagination of Europe. Every capital was
anxious to _fete_ them, the Society papers lived upon their doings
for years. But even they did not know that during that famous v