age. Imperfect though that recollection may be, however, it is quite
certain that I can distinctly recall the day, two years later, when my
brother, the Crown Prince Maximilian, being then a big boy of nine, led
his regiment past my father on parade for the first time. I can also
remember crying bitterly, because I was not permitted to accompany him,
which eagerness on my part, so I have been informed since, was taken by
my mother's Ladies-in-Waiting to be a sign that a great military career
awaited me. That I have never so far justified either their hopes or
their good opinion of me must be set down by the charitably-minded as
the result of a lack of opportunity. In a sense, however, I must confess
it has proved almost true, but how it came about will be told in its
proper place. In the meantime, having a long story to tell, and not much
space to tell it in, it is necessary that I should return to my earliest
recollections with as much speed as possible.

To enter upon my story proper, it is only fit that I should commence
with a brief description of the life of my poor father. Maximilian the
Second, King of Pannonia, as all the world is aware, was a monarch
foredoomed to trouble from his cradle. His succession to the throne was
the result of an accident. But for a fatal shot, fired in the excitement
of a wolf hunt, and which stretched the heir lifeless upon the snow, he
would in all human probability never have been called upon to undertake
the responsibilities for which he was, not only by nature, but also by
inclination, so totally unfitted. A scholar of the finest type,
essentially a recluse, more at his ease in his library than in the
Council Chamber, happier when holding a pen than when carrying a sword,
I must admit it is to me a matter of wonderment that he succeeded even
as well as he did. A loveless marriage, thrust upon him by the
exigencies of State, when his inclinations tended in another and very
different direction, marked the next downward step in his career. My
mother was the eldest daughter of Alexander the Tenth, King of Gothia,
and was as ambitious as my father was the reverse. Where he was only too
glad to find an opportunity of effacing himself, she, at first, boldly
courted the admiration of the world. Among other things, she insisted
upon all the extremes of court ceremonial being observed, and under her
rule the sleepy old palace woke to new life. Neighbouring Sovereigns
were repeatedly our gu