They had been greater, but for the
knowledge that Flavia was with me; and for this reason I suffered her to
stay, though I hated to have her where danger was, and though every
day of our present sweet intercourse strained my endurance almost to
breaking. As a final blow, nothing would content my advisers, Strakencz
and the Chancellor (who came out from Strelsau to make an urgent
representation to me), save that I should appoint a day for the public
solemnization of my betrothal, a ceremony which in Ruritania is well
nigh as binding and great a thing as the marriage itself. And this--with
Flavia sitting by me--I was forced to do, setting a date a fortnight
ahead, and appointing the Cathedral in Strelsau as the place. And this
formal act being published far and wide, caused great joy throughout the
kingdom, and was the talk of all tongues; so that I reckoned there were
but two men who chafed at it--I mean Black Michael and myself; and but
one who did not know of it--that one the man whose name I bore, the King
of Ruritania.
In truth, I heard something of the way the news was received in the
Castle; for after an interval of three days, the man Johann, greedy for
more money, though fearful for his life, again found means to visit us.
He had been waiting on the duke when the tidings came.
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