ill flutters with pennants, which in the evening is one yellow
flame and red glow of fireworks and illumination, seems all the same,
without the newly-married couple, to have lost the attraction which
turned it into a centre of festivity and splendour and imperial
ceremony; and in the evening, despite the illuminations and fireworks
and gala-performances, the Central Station is besieged by thousands who
are leaving....

3

It was months after the wedding of the Duke of Xara that the Emperor
Oscar, entering his work-room very early in the morning and moving
towards his writing-table, caught sight of a piece of cardboard, with
large, black letters pasted on it, lying on the floor by the window. He
did not pick it up; though he was alone, he did not turn pale, but on
his low forehead the thick veins swelled with rage to feel that he was
not safe from their treason even in his own room. He rang and asked for
his valet, a trusted man:

"Pick up that thing!" he commanded. And he roared, through the silence,
"How did it get here?"

The valet turned pale. He read the threatening words of abuse, with
their big, fat letters, on the ground before stooping and taking the
card in his trembling hand.

"How did it get here?" repeated the emperor, stamping his foot.

The valet swore that he did not know. In the morning no one was allowed
to enter the room except himself; he had come half an hour ago to open
the windows and then had seen nothing:

"The only explanation, sir, is that some one must have stolen into the
park and flung it through the window...."

This doubtless was the only explanation, but it was an explanation that
irritated the emperor greatly. It was not the first time that the
emperor had found such notices in the intimacy of his writing-room. The
result was the sudden arrest of servants, of soldiers belonging to the
various guards in the Imperial; but arrests and enquiries had brought
nothing to light and therefore made an all the more painful impression.
The guards of the palaces, the guards at the gilt railings of the park,
where this merged into the Elizabeth Parks--the public gardens of the
capital--were already increased; the secret police, the emperor's own
police, even kept a sharp watch on the guards themselves.

The Emperor Oscar looked fixedly at the valet; for a moment the thought
rose in him to have the man himself examined, but he at once realized
the absurdity of any such suspicion: the ma