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 CHAPTER XIV. A NIGHT OUTSIDE THE CASTLE.

would have surprised the good people of Ruritania to know the foregoing talk; for, according to the official reports, I had suffered a grievous and dangerous hurt from an accidental spear thrust, received in the course of my sport. I caused the bulletins to be of a very serious character, and created great public excitement whereby three things occurred: first, I gravely offended the medical faculty of Strelsau by refusing to summon to my bedside any of them save a young man, a friend of Fritz's, whom we could trust; secondly, I received word from Marshal Strakencz that my orders seemed to have no more weight than his, and that the Princess Flavia was leaving for the Tarlenheim under his unwilling escort (news whereat I strove not to be glad and proud); and thirdly, my brother, the Duke 186