The Prince of Graustark | Page 6

made him their
real ruler with the same joyous spirit that had attended him in the days
when he sat in the great throne and "made believe" that he was one of
the mighty, despite the fact that his little legs barely reached to the edge
of the gold and silver seat,--and slept soundly through all the
befuddling sessions of the cabinet. He was seven when the great revolt
headed by Count Marlanx came so near to overthrowing the
government, and he behaved like the Prince that he was. It was during
those perilous times that he came to know the gallant Truxton King in
whose home he was now a happy guest. But before Truxton King he
knew the lovely girl who became the wife of that devoted adventurer,
and who, to him, was always to be "Aunt Loraine."
As a very small boy he had paid two visits to the homeland of his father,
but after the death of his parents his valuable little person was guarded
so jealously by his subjects that not once had he set foot beyond the
borders of Graustark, except on two widely separated occasions of
great pomp and ceremony at the courts of Vienna and St. Petersburgh,
and a secret journey to London when he was seventeen. (It appears that
he was determined to see a great football match.) On each of these
occasions he was attended by watchful members of the cabinet and

certain military units in the now far from insignificant standing army.
As a matter of fact, he witnessed the football match from the ordinary
stands, surrounded by thousands of unsuspecting Britons, but carefully
wedged in between two generals of his own army and flanked by a
minister of police, a minister of the treasury and a minister of war, all
of whom were excessively bored by the contest and more or less
appalled by his unregal enthusiasm. He had insisted on going to the
match incog, to enjoy it for all it was worth to the real spectators--those
who sit or stand where the compression is not unlike that applied to a
box of sardines.
The regency expired when he was twenty years of age, and he became
ruler in fact, of himself as well as of the half-million subjects who had
waited patiently for the great day that was to see him crowned and
glorified. Not one was there in that goodly half million who stood out
against him on that triumphant day; not one who possessed a sullen or
resentful heart. He was their Prince, and they loved him well. After that
wonderful coronation day he would never forget that he was a Prince or
that the hearts of a half million were to throb with love for him so long
as he was man as well as Prince.
Mr. Blithers was very close to the truth when he said (to himself, if you
remember) that the financial situation in the far-off principality was not
all that could be desired. It is true that Graustark was in Russia's debt to
the extent of some twenty million gavvos,--about thirty millions of
dollars, in other words,--and that the day of reckoning was very near at
hand. The loan was for a period of twelve years, and had been arranged
contrary to the advice of John Tullis, an American financier who long
had been interested in the welfare of the principality through friendship
for the lamented Prince Consort, Lorry. He had been farsighted enough
to realise that Russia would prove a hard creditor, even though she may
have been sincere in her protestations of friendship for the modest
borrower.
A stubborn element in the cabinet overcame his opposition, however,
and the debt was contracted, taxation increased by popular vote and a
period of governmental thriftiness inaugurated. Railroads, highways,

bridges and aqueducts were built, owned and controlled by the state,
and the city of Edelweiss rebuilt after the devastation created during the
revolt of Count Marlanx and his minions. There seemed to be some
prospect of vindication for the ministry and Tullis, who lived in
Edelweiss, was fair-minded enough to admit that their action appeared
to have been for the best. The people had prospered and taxes were
paid in full and without complaint. The reserve fund grew steadily and
surely and there was every prospect that when the huge debt came due
it would be paid in cash. But on the very crest of their prosperity came
adversity. For two years the crops failed and a pestilence swept through
the herds. The flood of gavvos that had been pouring into the treasury
dwindled into a pitiful rivulet; the little that came in was applied, of
necessity, to administration purposes and the maintenance of the army,
and there was not so much