THE PRINCE OF THE CAPTIVITY The Epilogue to a Romance BY SYDNEY C. GRIER AUTHOR OF ‘AN UNCROWNED KING,’ ‘ THE WARDEN OF THE MARCHES,’ ETC., ETC. (_Fourth in the Balkan Series_) WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MCMII CONTENTS. I. BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION II. BORN IN THE PURPLE III. THE BURDEN OF A SECRET IV. HIT AND MISS V. MANŒUVRES VI. _TOTÂ QUOD MENTE PETISTI_ VII. A FAMILY LIKENESS VIII. LOVE IN IDLENESS IX. A CHANGE OF VENUE X. A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS XI. KNOWN TOO LATE XII. MURDERED FAITH XIII. _MALA SORTE_ XIV. FOR PITY’S SAKE XV. NOT LONG A-DOING XVI. BEYOND RECALL XVII. MISSING XVIII. WANDERING FIRES XIX. A CHANCE WORD XX. FOILED XXI. QUEEN AND KING XXII. OPENING THE PRISON DOORS XXIII. THE PRICE TO BE PAID XXIV. _RISORGIMENTO_ THE PRINCE OF THE CAPTIVITY. CHAPTER I. BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION. There were only a few passengers by the South Wales Express, and to one young man in a first-class carriage the fact was very welcome. He had bought a paper almost unconsciously from the boy who came to the window, but it did him good service as a shield, from behind which he could cast suspicious and hostile glances, after the manner of the travelling Briton, at any one who seemed inclined to disturb his solitude, as long as the train was in the station. But when once the dreary and dirty buff brick surroundings of the terminus had been left behind, the paper fell to the floor, and Lord Usk gazed out of the window with an expression which seemed too ecstatic to be evoked even by the busy harvest-fields and the nursery-gardens full of asters and late roses on which his bodily eyes were resting. And indeed the scene before him might still have been a brick-and-mortar desert for all that he saw of it. His mental gaze was fixed upon the face of Miss Félicia J. Steinherz, the sight of which had changed the whole course of his life.