Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. The Shadow of the Czar [Illustration: THE CORONATION DUEL. _Frontispiece_] The Shadow of the Czar By John R. Carling _Illustrated_ Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1903 _Copyright, 1902_, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. _All rights reserved._ Published September, 1902 UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. Contents PROLOGUE CHAPTER PAGE I. THE MEETING IN THE FOREST 1 II. THE CASTLE BY THE SEA 3 III. FEVER AND CONVALESCENCE 30 IV. THE SEALED CHAMBER 45 V. THE RETURN OF THE "MASTER" 60 THE STORY I. TWO YEARS AFTERWARDS 78 II. CZERNOVESE POLITICS 92 III. A MENACE FROM THE CZAR 110 IV. THE PRINCESS AND THE CARDINAL 122 V. ON THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 136 VI. KATINA THE PATRIOT 149 VII. WHAT HAPPENED IN RUSSOGRAD 170 VIII. PAUL AND THE PRINCESS 186 IX. A DISPLAY OF SWORDSMANSHIP 200 X. THE DEED OF MICHAEL THE GUARDSMAN 215 XI. THE ENVOY OF THE CZAR 230 XII. THE POLISH CONSPIRACY 254 XIII. THE FATE OF THE APPROPRIATION BILL 274 XIV. NEARING A CRISIS 300 XV. THE EVE OF THE CORONATION 326 XVI. THE CRIME THAT FAILED 343 XVII. THE BEGINNING OF THE CORONATION 361 XVIII. THE GREAT WHITE CZAR 377 XIX. THE CORONATION DUEL 395 XX. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 410 THE SHADOW OF THE CZAR PROLOGUE CHAPTER I THE MEETING IN THE FOREST Paul Cressingham, captain in Her Britannic Majesty's army, had seen some active service, and was therefore not unused to sleeping on the ground at night wrapt in his military cloak. Nevertheless he had a civilian weakness, if not for luxury, at least for comfort, and much preferred a four-poster, whenever the same was procurable. At the time, however, when this story opens it seemed likely that if he slept at all, his slumbers would have to be _à la belle étoile_, for he found himself late at night wandering in a deep pine-forest of Dalmatia.