The spectacle which met my eyes was dazzling. In a blaze of light all the Archdukes of the Imperial House, wearing their uniforms and robes of State, were grouped in a semicircle, facing a throne on which the representative of the Cæsars was seated in his Imperial mantle, wearing the great Double Eagle Crown of Austria. Before him, on a footstool, knelt a handsome lad of fifteen, in whom I had no difficulty in recognising the Archduke Karl, the destined successor to the throne. At the moment I burst in I saw the venerable Emperor raise his hands to his head, lift up the Imperial Crown, in which the huge diamonds and rubies and sapphires sparkled like founts of fire, and hold it poised in the air over his young kinsman’s bent head. In another second it would have rested on the boy’s brow, and Francis-Joseph would have ceased to reign. ‘Pardon!’ My voice rang out like the hoarse scream of a drunkard. I tottered forward and fell on my knees, while the Emperor half rose from his throne, still grasping the great crown in both hands. ‘Pardon, sire! At this hour a Russian army of eighty thousand men is encamped upon the soil of Austria!’ Francis-Joseph sank back on his seat, and mechanically replaced the diadem on his own head. * * * * * The explanations which followed between the two Governments were not communicated to me. But I learned through my friends the gipsies that the discovery of the motor, and my subsequent flight gave the alarm to the Russian War Office. The invading force retired as stealthily as it had come, and all vestiges of its having crossed the frontier were so speedily and skilfully effaced that if Count Lamsdorff fell back on a denial of the truth, it is probable that the Austrian Government found itself unable to press the charge. So the evil day has been postponed; for, as long as Francis-Joseph reigns over the Dual Monarchy, Russia will be content to bide her time. In the meanwhile I have been informed that a warrant has been issued against me, in the Russian courts, for the murder of the sentry whose fate I have described. IX THE DEATH OF QUEEN DRAGA It is with painful feelings, and only after long consideration, that I have resolved to lift the veil from the tragic mystery which surrounds the fate of the Queen who perished under the knives of assassins in Belgrade in the month of June 1903. The hesitation I have felt in approaching this melancholy story is due to reasons of a personal character. Many years before, when the late Queen of Servia occupied a private station, it was my lot to meet her, and to fall under the spell of that fascination which this extraordinary woman possessed over men, and which will cause her to be remembered in history with Helen and Cleopatra, and all those enchantresses who have involved kingdoms in ruin by their charms.