The Mad King

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  DEAREST EMMA:

  The king died of his wounds just before midnight. Ishall keep the throne. There is no other way. Noneknows and none must ever know the truth. Your fatheralone may suspect; but if we are married at once ouralliance will cement him and his faction to us. Sendword by the bearer that you agree with the wisdomof my plan, and that we may be wed at once--thisafternoon, in fact.

  The people may wonder for a few days at the strangehaste, but my answer shall be that I am going to thefront with my troops. The son and many of the highofficials of the Kaiser have already established theprecedent, marrying hurriedly upon the eve of theirdeparture for the front.

  With every assurance of my undying love, believe me,

  Yours,B. C.

  The girl walked slowly across the room to her writing table. Theofficer stood in respectful silence awaiting the answer that theking had told him to bring. The princess sat down before the carvedbit of furniture. Mechanically she drew a piece of note paper from adrawer. Many times she dipped her pen in the ink before she coulddetermine what reply to send. Ages of ingrained royalisticprinciples were shocked and shattered by the enormity of the thingthe man she loved had asked of her, and yet cold reason told herthat it was the only way.

  Lutha would be lost should the truth be known--that the king wasdead, for there was no heir of closer blood connection with theroyal house than Prince Peter of Blentz, whose great-grandmother hadbeen a Rubinroth princess. Slowly, at last, she wrote as follows:

  SIRE:

  The king's will is law.

  EMMA