is another question. Gorman,
Michael Gorman, M.P., would no doubt do it better. Though he has no
financial interests in the island, he was mixed up in its affairs and
knows a great deal about them. But Gorman will not do it. He says,
perhaps truly, that there is no money in histories of recent events.
William Peter Donovan paid heavily for his knowledge of Salissa and is
certainly entitled to such credit as may be won by writing a history
of the recent troubles. But Donovan has devoted his later years to the
cult of indolence, and he suffers from disordered action of the heart.
Miss Daisy Donovan--I prefer to use her original name--might have
given us a picturesque account of the events in which she played the
leading part. But she is now very fully occupied with more personal
affairs. Lieutenant-Commander Phillips, R.N.R., is barred by
professional regulations from writing the story, and in any case he
had no direct knowledge of the beginning of it. King Konrad Karl II of
Megalia knows most of the facts, but it is doubtful whether the
British public would tolerate a book from the pen of a man who is
legally an alien enemy.

I have, at all events, leisure to devote to the work, and I have heard
the story from the lips of those chiefly concerned. They have allowed
me to question them on various points, and placed all, or almost all,
they knew at my disposal.

CHAPTER II

Konrad Karl II began to reign over Megalia in 1908. He obtained the
throne through the good offices of his uncle, who wanted to get rid of
him. Konrad Karl, at that time prince, was the hero of several
first-rate scandals, and had the reputation of being the most
irrepressible blackguard of royal blood in all Europe. He was a
perpetual source of trouble in the Imperial Court. Gorman says that
the Emperor pushed him on to the vacant throne in the hopes that the
Megalians would assassinate him. They generally did assassinate their
kings, and would no doubt have cut the throat of Konrad Karl II if he
had not left the country hurriedly after reigning two years.

As king in exile Konrad Karl made a tour of the central European
courts, staying as long as he could in each. He was never allowed to
stay very long because of Madame Corinne Ypsilante. This lady had
shared with him the palace, but not the throne, of Megalia. She
accompanied him in his flight and subsequent wanderings. In these
democratic days Grand Dukes, Kings, and even Emperors, must