Publisher's Synopsis
All Lustadt was in an uproar. The mad king had escaped. Little knots of excited men stood uponthe street corners listening to each latest rumor concerning this most absorbing occurrence. Beforethe palace a great crowd surged to and fro, awaiting they knew not what.For ten years no man of them had set eyes upon the face of the boy-king who had been hastenedto the grim castle of Blentz upon the death of the old king, his father.There had been murmurings then when the lad's uncle, Peter of Blentz, had announced to thepeople of Lutha the sudden mental affliction which had fallen upon his nephew, and moremurmurings for a time after the announcement that Peter of Blentz had been appointed Regentduring the lifetime of the young King Leopold, "or until God, in His infinite mercy, shall see fit torestore to us in full mental vigor our beloved monarch."But ten years is a long time. The boy-king had become but a vague memory to the subjects whocould recall him at all.There were many, of course, in the capital city, Lustadt, who still retained a mental picture of thehandsome boy who had ridden out nearly every morning from the palace gates beside the tall, martial figure of the old king, his father, for a canter across the broad plain which lies at the foot ofthe mountain town of Lustadt; but even these had long since given up hope that their young kingwould ever ascend his throne, or even that they should see him alive again.Peter of Blentz had not proved a good or kind ruler. Taxes had doubled during his regency.Executives and judiciary, following the example of their chief, had become tyrannical and corrupt.For ten years there had been small joy in Lutha.There had been whispered rumors off and on that the young king was dead these many years, butnot even in whispers did the men of Lutha dare voice the name of him whom they believed hadcaused his death. For lesser things they had seen their friends and neighbors thrown into thehitherto long-unused dungeons of the royal castle.And now came the rumor that Leopold of Lutha had escaped the Castle of Blentz and wasroaming somewhere in the wild mountains or ravines upon the opposite side of the plain of Lustadt.Peter of Blentz was filled with rage and, possibly, fear as well."I tell you, Coblich," he cried, addressing his dark-visaged minister of war, "there's more thancoincidence in this matter. Someone has betrayed us. That he should have escaped upon the veryeve of the arrival at Blentz of the new physician is most suspicious. None but you, Coblich, hadknowledge of the part that Dr. Stein was destined to play in this matter," concluded Prince Peterpointedly