Argosy, Vol. 1 (December 9, 1882) — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

A DASH FOR A THRONE.* BY ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT. Author of “By Right of Sword.” Being the recital of the many striking adventures that befell 2 man who died to one identity and entered upon another wherein he was called upon to assume still a third—How he became entangled in an intrigue whose goal was the throne of a kingdom, and the part he played in the plotting. CHAPTER I—My DEatTu. ‘«“T*O a man who has been dead nearly five years everything would be tor- given, probably—except his resurrection.” This half cynical thought was suggested by the extraordinary change which a few hours of one memorable July day had wrought in my circum- stances and position. As the thought occurred to me I was standing in the library of Gramberg Castle, my hands plunged deep in my pockets, deliberately dallying with my fate as I watched the black dress of the prince’s beautiful daughter moving slowly among the gaily colored flower beds in the warm sunshine, like a soothing shadow in the brilliant glare. I was face to face with a temptation which I found infinitely alluring and immeasurably difficult to resist. For five years I had been enduring an existence of monotonous emptiness that depressed me till my heart ached and my spirit wearied ; and now a chance of change had been thrust upon me all against my seeking, at which my pulses were beating high with the bound of hope; my blood running once again with the old quick tingling of excitement, and through the reopened portals of a life akin to that from which I had been thrust, desire, ambition, pleasure, hazard, were all beckoning to me with fascinating invitation. I turned from the window and threw myself into a deep easy chair to think. Five years before I had passed in a moment from a position of royal favor, with limitless ambition and opportunities, to one where death was avowedly the only alternative. And no one had recognized this more readily than I myself. I am half English by birth, My mother was an Englishwoman, and went to the Prussian court in the small suite of the bride whom “ Unser Fritz ” carried from England. My father rose very high in royal favor, and as a consequence I was thrown early in life into the company of the young princes. We grew up close and intimate companions; and when I chose the navy for my profession, every facility was employed to insure my advancement. [ had been about five years in the navy and was already a flag lieutenant *Copyright by Arthur W. Marchmont, 188. ECOMmicooolkKks CO inn