Bora raised the delicate hand to his lips amid the applause of the crowd, who seemed to regard the incident as a very pretty tableau. Count Radzivil lifted his hat with courtly grace, and the next moment the landau was gliding smoothly along the Boulevard de Cracovie, followed by a detachment of cavalry similar in equipments to that which had preceded it. Paul was left a victim to perplexing thoughts. What had become of the real Princess Natalie, and why had Barbara assumed the name, title, and sceptre of the daughter of Thaddeus, personating the character with such art and tact as apparently to defy detection, since Trevisa, though long resident in Czernova, had no suspicion of the substitution that had taken place? Had Barbara a just title to the throne? Recalling her air as she sat in the landau, Paul felt that he could not associate the appropriation of another's heritage with that winsome and dignified presence. No, difficult though it was to explain her conduct, he would believe anything rather than that she was a conscious and willing usurper. CHAPTER II CZERNOVESE POLITICS "Well," said Trevisa, puzzled by Paul's long silence, "what think you of this fair vestal throned in the east?" "My wonder is how you, her private secretary, compelled by your office to attend her daily, have avoided falling in love with her." "By steeling my heart and playing the philosopher. Princesses are not for common mortals like myself. Give me blue blood and a title, and I might aspire. The sovereign of Czernova must not marry a commoner, on pain of forfeiture of the crown. Her consort must be one of royal or noble birth." "Ah! is that the law?" asked Paul, with affected carelessness. "So runneth the statute of Czernova," replied the secretary. "_The sovereign must not marry a commoner!_" Why had he come to Czernova? Better to have remained in ignorance of her fate, than, on finding her, to learn that she could never be his. "You said," he remarked, after an interval of silence, "that the marriage of the princess with the duke will secure the stability of her throne. In what way?" "The explanation will require a long lecture on Czernovese politics. You will esteem me a bore." "Not at all. Go on." "To begin then. This principality of Czernova represents the last fragment of the ancient kingdom of Poland; it is one of the old palatinates, and the Lilieskis were its palatines.