"Burroughs, Edgar Rice - The Mad King" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

"What has happened here? shouted the officer to Emma
von der Tann; and then, as he came closer: "Gott! Can it
be possible that it is your highness?"

The girl paid no attention to the officer. Instead, she hur-
ried down the steep embankment toward the underbrush
into which the two men had fallen. There was no sound
from below, and no movement in the bushes to indicate that
a moment before two desperately battling human beings
had dropped among them.

The soldiers were close upon the girl's heels, but it was
she who first reached the two quiet figures that lay side by
side upon the stony ground halfway down the hillside.

When the officer stopped beside her she was sitting on
the ground holding the head of one of the combatants in
her lap.

A little stream of blood trickled from a wound in the
forehead. The officer stooped closer.

"He is dead?" he asked.

"The king is dead," replied the Princess Emma von der
Tann, a little sob in her voice.

"The king!" exclaimed the officer; and then, as he bent
lower over the white face: "Leopold!"

The girl nodded.

"We were searching for him," said the officer, "when we
heard the shot." Then, arising, he removed his cap, saying
in a very low voice: "The king is dead. Long live the king!"




III

AN ANGRY KING

THE SOLDIERS stood behind their officer. None of them had
ever seen Leopold of Lutha--he had been but a name to
them--they cared nothing for him; but in the presence of
death they were awed by the majesty of the king they had
never known.

The hands of Emma von der Tann were chafing the wrists