intervened between the death of the Princess and her consort and the
day when he reached his majority. That day was a glorious one in
Graustark. The people worshipped the little Prince when he was in
knickerbockers and played with toys; they saw him grow to manhood
with hearts that were full of hope and contentment; they made him
their real ruler with the same joyous spirit that had attended him in
the days when he sat in the great throne and "made believe" that he
was one of the mighty, despite the fact that his little legs barely
reached to the edge of the gold and silver seat,--and slept soundly
through all the befuddling sessions of the cabinet. He was seven when
the great revolt headed by Count Marlanx came so near to overthrowing
the government, and he behaved like the Prince that he was. It was
during those perilous times that he came to know the gallant Truxton
King in whose home he was now a happy guest. But before Truxton King
he knew the lovely girl who became the wife of that devoted
adventurer, and who, to him, was always to be "Aunt Loraine."

As a very small boy he had paid two visits to the homeland of his
father, but after the death of his parents his valuable little person
was guarded so jealously by his subjects that not once had he set
foot beyond the borders of Graustark, except on two widely separated
occasions of great pomp and ceremony at the courts of Vienna and St.
Petersburgh, and a secret journey to London when he was seventeen.
(It appears that he was determined to see a great football match.) On
each of these occasions he was attended by watchful members of the
cabinet and certain military units in the now far from insignificant
standing army. As a matter of fact, he witnessed the football match
from the ordinary stands, surrounded by thousands of unsuspecting
Britons, but carefully wedged in between two generals of his own army
and flanked by a minister of police, a minister of the treasury and a