Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

148 HER ROYAL LOVER. Scarcely had the Intendant retired before the king rang. | An officer of the service appeared. Charles Ferdi- nand XVIII gave him the order to go immediately and command his chief physician, Geheimrath Schlotz, to come to the palace. He knew that this man was also the physician of the Minelekos. The impatience of the king was great until the arrival of the Geheimrath Schlotz; nothing could distract his anxious waiting. He was losing himself in conjectures. What, great God! all this had been able to happen to Najeska Ivanowna! They were positively speaking of blows of a whip struck on her face. But who could have dared to lay a hand upon the Ambassadress of Caucasus? The arrival of Geheimrath put an end to the multitude of questions that the sovereign was ask- ing himself. The doctor had, indeed, just left the princess, and confirmed in every particular the re- cital of Wolff. There remained, no doubt, about the kind of wounds received. The beautiful equestrienne had certainly been brutally struck with a whip. But that was not the strangest part of the adventure. The princess, not being able to deny the blows, whose marks were flagrant, positively refused to name the person who had inflicted them. She pre- tended not to have recognized him. “That, your majesty,” concluded the Geheimrath, “is inadmissable; for, since the ambassadress has still had sufficient presence of mind, after the out- rage, to cling to her horse, how can we admit that, having been struck three times, she would not have recognized her assailant?” | The king remained mute. For him, the report of Gomichooks (G(o) m