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

"But now I begin to believe that it must be I who am mad,
after all, or else I bear a remarkable resemblance to Leopold
of Lutha."

"You do, your majesty," replied the girl.

Barney saw it was useless to attempt to convince them
and so he decided to give up for the time.

"Have me king, if you will," he said, "but please do not
call me 'your majesty' any more. It gets on my nerves."

"Your will is law--Leopold," replied the girl, hesitating
prettily before the familiar name, "but do not forget your
part of the compact."

He smiled at her. A princess wasn't half so terrible after
all.

"And your will shall be my law, Emma," he said.

It was almost dark when they came to Blentz. The castle
lay far up on the side of a steep hill above the town. It was
an ancient pile, but had been maintained in an excellent
state of repair. As Barney Custer looked up at the grim tow-
ers and mighty, buttressed walls his heart sank. It had taken
the mad king ten years to make his escape from that gloomy
and forbidding pile!

"Poor child," he murmured, thinking of the girl.

Before the barbican the party was halted by the guard.
An officer with a lantern stepped out upon the lowered
portcullis. The lieutenant who had captured them rode for-
ward to meet him.

"A detachment of the Royal Horse Guards escorting His
Majesty the King, who is returning to Blentz," he said in
reply to the officer's sharp challenge.

"The king!" exclaimed the officer. "You have found him?"
and he advanced with raised lantern searching for the
monarch.

"At last," whispered Barney to the girl at his side, "I shall
be vindicated. This man, at least, who is stationed at Blentz
must know his king by sight."

The officer came quite close, holding his lantern until the
rays fell full in Barney's face. He scrutinized the young man