must not be misunderstood: my heart is still sore for the
loss of him. But we saved the queen's fair fame, and to Rudolf himself
the fatal stroke came as a relief from a choice too difficult: on the
one side lay what impaired his own honor, on the other what threatened
hers. As I think on this my anger at his death is less, though my grief
cannot be. To this day I know not how he chose; no, and I don't know
how he should have chosen. Yet he had chosen, for his face was calm and
clear.

Come, I have thought so much of him that I will go now and stand before
his monument, taking with me my last-born son, a little lad of ten.
He is not too young to desire to serve the queen, and not too young to
learn to love and reverence him who sleeps there in the vault and was in
his life the noblest gentleman I have known.

I will take the boy with me and tell him what I may of brave King
Rudolf, how he fought and how he loved, and how he held the queen's
honor and his own above all things in this world. The boy is not too
young to learn such lessons from the life of Mr. Rassendyll. And while
we stand there I will turn again into his native tongue--for, alas,
the young rogue loves his toy soldiers better than his Latin!--the
inscription that the queen wrote with her own hand, directing that it
should be inscribed in that stately tongue over the tomb in which her
life lies buried.

"To Rudolf, who reigned lately in this city, and reigns for ever in her
heart.--QUEEN FLAVIA."

I told him the meaning, and he spelt the big words over in his childish
voice; at first he stumbled, but the second time he had it right, and
recited with a little touch of awe in his fresh young tones:

RUDOLFO

Qui in hac civitate nuper regnavit In corde ipsius in aeternum regnat

FLAVIA REGINA.

I felt his hand tremble in mine, and he looked up in my face. "God save
the Queen, father," said he.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUPERT OF HENTZAU ***

***** This file should be named 1145.txt or 1145.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/1145/

Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright i