t."

"He received it," replied the officer, "and I am here to acquaint
you with the fact, but Prince Peter said nothing about your release.
All he told me was that you were not to be shot this morning," and
the man emphasized the last two words.

Leopold of Lutha spent two awful days a prisoner at Blentz, not
knowing at what moment Prince Peter might see fit to carry out the
verdict of the Austrian court martial. He could convince no one that
he was the king. Peter would not even grant him an audience. Upon
the evening of the third day, word came that the Austrians had been
defeated before Lustadt, and those that were not prisoners were
retreating through Blentz toward the Austrian frontier.

The news filtered to Leopold's prison room through the servant who
brought him his scant and rough fare. The king was utterly
disheartened before this word reached him. For the moment he seemed
to see a ray of hope, for, since the impostor had been victorious,
he would be in a position to force Peter of Blentz to give up the
true king.

There was the chance that the American, flushed with success and
power, might elect to hold the crown he had seized. Who would guess
the transfer that had been effected, or, guessing, would dare voice
his suspicions in the face of the power and popularity that Leopold
knew such a victory as the impostor had won must have given him in
the hearts and minds of the people of Lutha? Still, there was a bare
possibility that the American would be as good as his word, and
return the crown as he had promised. Though he hated to admit it,
the king had every reason to believe that the impostor was a man of
honor, whose bare word was as good as another's bond.

He was commencing, under this line of reasoning, to achieve a
certain hopeful content when the door to his prison opened and Peter
of Blentz, black and scowling, entered. At his elbow was Captain
Ernst Maenck.

"Leopold has defeated the Austrians," announced the former. "Until
you returned to Lutha he considered the Austrians his best friends.
I do not know how you could have reached or influenced him. It is to
learn how you accomplished it that I am here. The fact that he
signed your pardon indicates that his attitude toward you changed
suddenly--almost within an hour. There is something at the bottom of
it all, and that something I must know."

"I am Leopold!" cried the king. "Don't you recognize me, Prince
Peter? Look at me! Maenck must kn