minister of war, all of whom were excessively bored by the contest
and more or less appalled by his unregal enthusiasm. He had insisted
on going to the match incog, to enjoy it for all it was worth to the
real spectators--those who sit or stand where the compression is not
unlike that applied to a box of sardines.

The regency expired when he was twenty years of age, and he became
ruler in fact, of himself as well as of the half-million subjects who
had waited patiently for the great day that was to see him crowned
and glorified. Not one was there in that goodly half million who
stood out against him on that triumphant day; not one who possessed a
sullen or resentful heart. He was their Prince, and they loved him
well. After that wonderful coronation day he would never forget that
he was a Prince or that the hearts of a half million were to throb
with love for him so long as he was man as well as Prince.

Mr. Blithers was very close to the truth when he said (to himself, if
you remember) that the financial situation in the far-off
principality was not all that could be desired. It is true that
Graustark was in Russia's debt to the extent of some twenty million
gavvos,--about thirty millions of dollars, in other words,--and that
the day of reckoning was very near at hand. The loan was for a period
of twelve years, and had been arranged contrary to the advice of John
Tullis, an American financier who long had been interested in the
welfare of the principality through friendship for the lamented
Prince Consort, Lorry. He had been farsighted enough to realise that
Russia would prove a hard creditor, even though she may have been
sincere in her protestations of friendship for the modest borrower.

A stubborn element in the cabinet overcame his opposition, however,