Beverly of Graustark

  Produced by Jonathan Ferro, Charles Franks and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team.

  BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK

  BY GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON

  CONTENTS

  I East of the Setting Sun II Beverly Calhoun III On the Road from Balak IV The Ragged Retinue V The Inn of the Hawk and Raven VI The Home of the Lion VII Some Facts and Fancies VIII Through the Ganlook Gates IX The Redoubtable Dangloss X Inside the Castle Walls XI The Royal Coach of Graustark XII In Service XIII The Three Princes XIV A Visit and Its Consequences XV The Testing of Baldos XVI On the Way to St. Valentine's XVII A Note Translated XVIII Confessions and Concessions XIX The Night Fires XX Gossip of Some Consequence XXI The Rose XXII A Proposal XXIII A Shot in the Darkness XXIV Beneath the Ground XXV The Valor of the South XXVI The Degradation of Marlanx XXVII The Prince of Dawsbergen XXVIII A Boy Disappears XXIX The Capture of Gabriel XXX In the Grotto XXXI Clear Skies

  BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK

  CHAPTER I

  EAST OF THE SETTING SUN

  Far off in the mountain lands, somewhere to the east of the setting sun,lies the principality of Graustark, serene relic of rare old feudaldays. The traveler reaches the little domain after an arduous, sometimesperilous journey from the great European capitals, whether they be northor south or west--never east. He crosses great rivers and wide plains;he winds through fertile valleys and over barren plateaus; he twists andturns and climbs among sombre gorges and rugged mountains; he touchesthe cold clouds in one day and the placid warmth of the valley in thenext. One does not go to Graustark for a pleasure jaunt. It is too farfrom the rest of the world and the ways are often dangerous because ofthe strife among the tribes of the intervening mountains. If one hungersfor excitement and peril he finds it in the journey from the north orthe south into the land of the Graustarkians. From Vienna and otherplaces almost directly west the way is not so full of thrills, for therailroad skirts the darkest of the dangerlands.

  Once in the heart of Graustark, however, the traveler is charmed intodreams of peace and happiness and--paradise. The peasants and the poetssing in one voice and accord, their psalm being of never-endinglove. Down in the lowlands and up in the hills, the simple worker of thesoil rejoices that he lives in Graustark; in the towns and villages thehumble merchant and his thrifty customer unite to sing the song of peaceand contentment; in the palaces of the noble the same patriotism warmsits heart with thoughts of Graustark, the ancient. Prince and pauperstrike hands for the love of the land, while outside the great,heartless world goes rumbling on without a thought of the rare littleprincipality among the eastern mountains.

  In point of area, Graustark is but a mite in the great galaxy ofnations. Glancing over the map of the world, one is almost sure to missthe infinitesimal patch of green that marks its location. One could notbe blamed if he regarded the spot as a typographical or topographicalillusion. Yet the people of this quaint little land hold in their heartsa love and a confidence that is not surpassed by any of the lordlymonarchs who measure their patriotism by miles and millions. TheGraustarkians are a sturdy, courageous race. From the faraway centurywhen they fought themselves clear of the Tartar yoke, to this very hour,they have been warriors of might and valor. The boundaries of their tinydomain were kept inviolate for hundreds of years, and but one victoriousfoe had come down to lay siege to Edelweiss, the capital. Axphain, apowerful principality in the north, had conquered Graustark in thelatter part of the nineteenth century, but only after a bitter war inwhich starvation and famine proved far more destructive than the arms ofthe victors. The treaty of peace and the indemnity that fell to the lotof vanquished Graustark have been discoursed upon at length in at leastone history.

  Those who have followed that history must know, of course, that thereigning princess, Yetive, was married to a young American at the verytag-end of the nineteenth century. This admirable couple met in quiteromantic fashion while the young sovereign was traveling incognitothrough the United States of America. The American, a splendid fellownamed Lorry, was so persistent in the subsequent attack upon her heart,that all ancestral prejudices were swept away and she became his bridewith the full consent of her entranced subjects. The manner in which hewooed and won this young and adorable ruler forms a very attractivechapter in romance, although unmentioned in history. This being the taleof another day, it is not timely to dwell upon the interesting eventswhich led up to the marriage of the Princess Yetive to GrenfallLorry. Suffice it to say that Lorry won his bride against all wishes andodds and at the same time won an endless love and esteem from the peopleof the little kingdom among the eastern hills Two years have passedsince that notable wedding in Edelweiss.

  Lorry and his wife, the princess, made their home in Washington, butspent a few months of each year in Edelweiss. During the periods spentin Washington and in travel, her affairs in Graustark were in the handsof a capable, austere old diplomat--her uncle, Count CasparHalfont. Princess Volga reigned as regent over the principality ofAxphain. To the south lay the principality of Dawsbergen, ruled by youngPrince Dantan, whose half brother, the deposed Prince Gabriel, had beenfor two years a prisoner in Graustark, the convicted assassin of PrinceLorenz, of Axphain, one time suitor for the hand of Yetive.

  It was after the second visit of the Lorrys to Edelweiss that a seriousturn of affairs presented itself. Gabriel had succeeded in escaping fromhis dungeon. His friends in Dawsbergen stirred up a revolution andDantan was driven from the throne at Serros. On the arrival of Gabrielat the capital, the army of Dawsbergen espoused the cause of the Princeit had spurned and, three days after his escape, he was on his throne,defying Yetive and offering a price for the head of the unfortunateDantan, now a fugitive in the hills along the Graustark frontier.