Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. 63° CHAPTER VIII. AT THE BANQUET. A new torture was reserved for the suspicious heart of Mineleko; truly, all seemed to conspire to make him uneasy. At the banquet of the ministers, presided over by the king, the prince, as a high dignitary, occupied one of the places of honor. Not far from him was seated the minister of fine arts, aman whose wit, often wicked, was very renowned. Suddenly the attention of the ambassador was briskly attracted by a piquant conversation ex- changed between the minister and his neighbor. He comprehended immediately that they were speaking of his wife: “Yes, she is so beautiful that our king has fallen in love with her, to such an extent that they say——” z That they say—what?” “That a second history, reversing that of Napoleon and Josephine, will soon be unfolded here. This time, it will be the beautiful ambassadress who will repudiate the legitimate husband to become Queen of Thessaly.” “So, thou, buffoon! To hear you, would not one always believe that all improbabilities may be real- ized?” “Pshaw! who lives will see!” These words were a thunderbolt for the tortured heart of the prince. Become pale as death, he was about to speak, to summon, to arrest the insolent Comicbooks (E(o)