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The Prisoner of Zenda: Flavia

The wild ride to Strelsau, with Sapt instructing the English Rudolf most minutely in his past life, his family, his tastes, pursuits, weaknesses, friends, companions, and servants--as Ruritania knew them--the etiquette of the court, what would be expected at the coronation--and above all of the Princess Flavia. "God save the king!" cried the people after the coronation had been safely managed. "God save 'em both!" whispered Sapt, as his mouth wrinkled into a smile. But if things went well at Strelsau with Rudolf Rassendyll, now crowned as Rudolf the Fifth of Ruritania and the accepted lover of the Princess Flavia, fortune did not smile on the other Rudolf at Zenda. For Black Michael had had word from there that cleared for him the mystery of the coronation. Riding as fast as horses could lay feet to the ground, he seized poor Rudolf of Ruritania and held him prisoner. But then ensued a pretty pass. "Aye, but he can't speak," roared Sapt in grim triumph. "We've got him. How can he denounce you without denouncing himself? 'This is not the king, because we have kidnapped the king and murdered his servant.' Can he say that? Hang me if Michael won't expose himself, if he tries to expose you." But the most difficult situation for a loyal gentleman--and that was Rudolf Rassendyll--arose from the Princess Flavia. "I had to keep the princess devoted to me--and yet indifferent to me; I had to show affection for her--and not feel it. I had to make love for another; and that to a girl who--princess or no princess--was the most beautiful I had ever seen. How I succeeded in carrying out my program will appear hereafter."

How they fell in love, he with her and she with him, is part of the story. And how, forgetting self, he rescued the king, and robbed himself of love and throne and almost life. When he had fallen sorely wounded: "Fritz," he called, "is the king still alive?" "Aye, friend--dear friend," said he, tender as a woman; "thanks to the most gallant gentleman that lives, the king is alive!"

All's well that ends well. But of the Princess Flavia? "If I can never hold sweet converse again with her, or look upon her face, or know from her her love, why, then, this side the grave I will live as becomes the man she loves; and for the other side I must pray a dreamless sleep."