THREE years had passed since the marriage of King Rudolf with his cousin, the Princess Flavia. For the three years they had ruled over Ruritania, and the secret of the Prisoner of Zenda had been successfully guarded.
Yet often, when the King was more fretful than usual, my memory flew back across those years to the time when Rudolf Rassendy11. the Englishman, had been crowned in his stead and for three months had held his throne, aided only by Colonel Sapt, Constable of Zenda, and by me, Fritz von Tarlenheim, now Chamberlain to Her Majesty. For there had been a plot to assassianate King Rudolf on the day of his coronation and to seize his throne, and we three had foiled it.
