Page XI

FOREWORD

age of eighteen to be a royal bride. It was something she had never understood. For twelve solid years now, some horrible misfortune had overshadowed her whole life, and never once had she felt really free from it !
Although the blow had not yet fallen, she was always conscious of its threatening peril. The most terrifying part of the whole business was that her enemy seemed to be in touch with all the intimacies of her daily life. He might almost have moved in the very inner circle of the State-and known its secrets ! One whose aim might almost be the Crown itself !
To-day things had come to a head-the King had gone to sign a Treaty. They had both worked and schemed so hard for this. They had built and planned for the future of their country on the foundation of the very prosperity this Treaty seemed to promise ! With renewed prosperity, the stability of the Crown would be assured and the succession made secure for their son. Her heart throbbed anxiously as she thought of their child ; and with the thought came the birth of a fresh fear-would the Treaty be safely signed after all? It seemed almost too much to expect that so important a step as this could be taken without her unseen foe making some effort to prevent it! Yet, hardly half an hour ago, her husband himself had rung her up-just before entering the Cabinet Room with the young Prince Carl-to say that all was well. It was almost time now for them to return. She was watching for the first sign of their arrival. It was only a very short distance from the Audience Hall to the private apartments ; and the gardens they would have to cross were in sight of her window all the tune.