Prince Otto, a Romance. Robert Louis Stevenson
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Prince Otto, a Romance
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664637024
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I—IN WHICH THE PRINCE DEPARTS ON AN ADVENTURE
CHAPTER II—IN WHICH THE PRINCE PLAYS HAROUN-AL-RASCHID
CHAPTER III—IN WHICH THE PRINCE COMFORTS AGE AND BEAUTY AND DELIVERS A LECTURE ON DISCRETION IN LOVE
CHAPTER IV—IN WHICH THE PRINCE COLLECTS OPINIONS BY THE WAY
CHAPTER I—WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LIBRARY
CHAPTER II—‘ON THE COURT OF GRÜNEWALD,’ BEING A PORTION OF THE TRAVELLER’S MANUSCRIPT
CHAPTER III—THE PRINCE AND THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER
CHAPTER IV—WHILE THE PRINCE IS IN THE ANTE-ROOM . . .
CHAPTER V—. . . GONDREMARK IS IN MY LADY’S CHAMBER
CHAPTER VI—THE PRINCE DELIVERS A LECTURE ON MARRIAGE, WITH PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DIVORCE
CHAPTER VII—THE PRINCE DISSOLVES THE COUNCIL
CHAPTER VIII—THE PARTY OF WAR TAKES ACTION
CHAPTER IX—THE PRICE OF THE RIVER FARM; IN WHICH VAINGLORY GOES BEFORE A FALL
CHAPTER X—GOTTHOLD’S REVISED OPINION; AND THE FALL COMPLETED
CHAPTER XI—PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE FIRST SHE BEGUILES THE BARON
CHAPTER XII—PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE SECOND SHE INFORMS THE PRINCE
CHAPTER XIII—PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE THIRD SHE ENLIGHTENS SERAPHINA
CHAPTER XIV—RELATES THE CAUSE AND OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION
CHAPTER II—TREATS OF A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
CHAPTER III—PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE LAST IN WHICH SHE GALLOPS OFF
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL POSTSCRIPT TO COMPLETE THE STORY
BOOK I—PRINCE ERRANT
CHAPTER I—IN WHICH THE PRINCE DEPARTS ON AN ADVENTURE
You shall seek in vain upon the map of Europe for the bygone state of Grünewald. An independent principality, an infinitesimal member of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning ghost. Less fortunate than Poland, she left not a regret behind her; and the very memory of her boundaries has faded.
It was a patch of hilly country covered with thick wood. Many streams took their beginning in the glens of Grünewald, turning mills for the inhabitants. There was one town, Mittwalden, and many brown, wooden hamlets, climbing roof above roof, along the steep bottom of dells, and communicating by covered bridges over the larger of the torrents. The hum of watermills, the splash of running water, the clean odour of pine sawdust, the sound and smell of the pleasant wind among the innumerable army of the mountain pines, the dropping fire of huntsmen, the dull stroke of the wood-axe, intolerable roads, fresh trout for supper in the clean bare chamber of an inn, and the song of birds and the music of the village-bells—these were the recollections of the Grünewald tourist.
North and east the foothills of Grünewald sank with varying profile into a vast plain. On these sides many small states bordered with the principality, Gerolstein, an extinct grand duchy, among the number. On the south it marched with the comparatively powerful kingdom of Seaboard Bohemia, celebrated for its flowers and mountain bears, and inhabited by a people of singular simplicity and tenderness of heart. Several intermarriages had, in the course of centuries, united the crowned families of Grünewald and Maritime Bohemia; and the last Prince of Grünewald, whose history I purpose to relate, drew his descent through Perdita, the only daughter of King Florizel the First of Bohemia. That these intermarriages had in some degree mitigated the rough, manly stock of the first Grünewalds, was an opinion widely held within the borders of the principality. The charcoal burner, the mountain sawyer, the wielder of the broad axe among the congregated pines of Grünewald, proud of their hard hands, proud of their shrewd ignorance and almost savage lore, looked with an unfeigned contempt on the soft character and manners of the sovereign race.
The precise year of grace in which this tale begins shall be left to the conjecture of the reader. But for the season of the year (which, in such a story, is the more important of the two) it was already so far forward in the spring, that when mountain people heard horns echoing all day about the north-west corner of the principality, they told themselves that Prince Otto and his hunt were up and out for the last time till the return of autumn.
At this point the borders of Grünewald descend somewhat steeply,