Page:The Prisoner of Zenda.djvu/80

64 my hand and took from him the crown of Ruritania and set it on my head, and I swore the old oath of the king; and (if it were a sin, may it be forgiven me) I received the Holy Sacrament there before them all. Then the great organ pealed out again;, the marshal bade the heralds proclaim me, and Rudolf the Fifth was crowned king; of which imposing ceremony an excellent picture hangs now in my dining room. The portrait of the king is very good.

Then the lady with the pale face and the glorious hair, her train held by two pages, stepped from her place and came to where I stood. And a herald cried:

"Her Royal Highness the Princess Flavia!"

She courtesied low, and put her hand under mine and raised my hand and kissed it. And for an instant I thought what I had best do. Then I drew her to me and kissed her twice on the cheek, and she blushed red, and—why, then his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop slipped in front of Black Michael, and kissed my hand and presented me with a letter from the Pope—the first and last