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

lifetime of the young King Leopold, "or until God, in His
infinite mercy, shall see fit to restore 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 who could recall him
at all.

There were many, of course, in the capital city, Lustadt,
who still retained a mental picture of the handsome 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 of
the mountain town of Lustadt; but even these had long since
given up hope that their young king would 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 ju-
diciary, 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, but not even in
whispers did the men of Lutha dare voice the name of him
whom they believed had caused his death. For lesser things
they had seen their friends and neighbors thrown into the
hitherto long-unused dungeons of the royal castle.

And now came the rumor that Leopold of Lutha had es-
caped the Castle of Blentz and was roaming 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 than coincidence in this
matter. Someone has betrayed us. That he should have es-
caped upon the very eve of the arrival at Blentz of the new
physician is most suspicious. None but you, Coblich, had
knowledge of the part that Dr. Stein was destined to play
in this matter," concluded Prince Peter pointedly.

Coblich looked the Regent full in the eye.

"Your highness wrongs not only my loyalty, but my intel-
ligence," he said quietly, "by even so much as intimating that