Princess Maritza

Princess Maritza, by Percy Brebner

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Title: Princess Maritza
Author: Percy Brebner
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6374] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 2, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PRINCESS MARITZA ***

Joshua Hutchinson, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

PRINCESS MARITZA
[Illustration]

PRINCESS MARITZA
By PERCY BREBNER
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

To V. F. G.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
-PLAYING TRUANT
CHAPTER II.
-MONSIEUR DE FROILETTE
CHAPTER III.
-THE WOMAN IN THE SILK MASK
CHAPTER IV.
-THE COURT OF STURATZBERG
CHAPTER V.
-Two VISITORS
CHAPTER VI.
-FRINA MAVRODIN'S GUEST
CHAPTER VII.
-THE TIME ARRIVES
CHAPTER VIII.
-THE IRON BRACELET
CHAPTER IX.
-THE DUEL
CHAPTER X.
-THE FOLLY OF A SOLDIER
CHAPTER XI.
-IN THE BOIS
CHAPTER XII.
-GRIGOSIE
CHAPTER XIII.
-THE CASTLE IN THE HILLS
CHAPTER XIV.
-THE TOKEN IS DELIVERED
CHAPTER XV.
-THE RACE FOR LIFE
CHAPTER XVI.
-THE TRAITOR
CHAPTER XVII.
-THE TRUE WORTH OF BARON PETRESCU
CHAPTER XVIII.
-SIX LOYAL MEN
CHAPTER XIX.
-IN DESPERATE STRAITS
CHAPTER XX.
-TREACHERY OR SACRIFICE
CHAPTER XXI.
-THE RESCUE
CHAPTER XXII.
-IN VASILICI'S STRONGHOLD
CHAPTER XXIII.
-THE TEMPTATION OF FRINA MAVRODIN
CHAPTER XXIV.
-HOW MARITZA ENTERED STURATZBERG
CHAPTER XXV.
-'TWIXT LOVE AND PITY
CHAPTER XXVI.
-REBELLION
CHAPTER XXVII.
-IN PURPLE AND RED AND GOLD
CHAPTER XXVIII.
-THE DIPLOMACY OF LORD CLOVERTON
CHAPTER XXIX.
-AFTER WAR--PEACE
CHAPTER I.
PLAYING TRUANT

A breezy morning after a night of rain. Fleecy clouds, some in massive folds and fantastic shape, some in small half-transparent wisps like sunlit ghosts, were driven rapidly across the blue. Hurrying shadows flecked the swelling bosom of the downs, and where the grass was long it rippled like a green sea, making rustling music. Overhead the larks fluttering upward, ever-diminishing specks to the empyrean, carolled their joyous song, and a thousand perfumes filled the air. It was a morning to live in, to enjoy, to take into one's lungs in deep, intoxicating draughts, until the sorrows of life and its cares were forgotten; a morning that lent strong wings to ambition, filling the future with hope and the promise of realized desires.
Something of the aspect of the morning was reflected in the face of the man who stoutly climbed the downs against the wind. He was above the average height, but did not give the impression of being tall. His frame was well knit and muscular; strength and power of endurance above the common were evident in every movement; and there was a quiet determination in his face which proclaimed him one of those who would be likely to succeed in anything he undertook, no matter what dangers and difficulties might stand in his path, one who would march straight forward to his object even as he breasted the downs this morning. Most men would have pronounced him handsome, judging, as men ever do, by build and muscle; women might have hesitated to give an opinion in spite of the well-cut, clean-shaven face, and the dark blue eyes which never looked away from a person with whom their possessor talked. Perhaps there was a want of sympathy in the face, a certain lack of that gentle deference which so appeals to women in a man, that silent recognition of the woman's power which is so pleasant to her.
Desmond Ellerey had had little to do with women. He did not pretend to understand them, and it had never occurred to him that there was any reason why he should strive to do so. He had experienced pleasant moments in their company, but one woman was pretty much the same as another to him, and it is quite certain that no such thing as a faded flower, or a glove, or love token of any kind held a place among his treasures. No woman in the past had given him a single heart throb which love lent a sense of pain to, and it seemed unlikely that any woman would wish to do so now. For Desmond Ellerey was a man under a cloud, a very black cloud, the gloom of which even this breezy morning could not entirely dispel from his face. He had set himself to bear his burden bravely, but the task was a heavy one. Surely those straightforward blue eyes gave the lie