With a movement of intense indignation, the monarch sprang up from the chair in which he had just seated himself.
“Now, by Heaven!” he exclaimed; “Von Glauben goes too far! He shall suffer for this!”
“Why?” queried the Prince calmly; “You know that what he says is perfectly true. True? Why, there is scarcely a Royal house in the world save our own, without its hereditary curse of disease or insanity. We pay more attention to the breeding of horses than the breeding of kings!”
The plain candour and veracity of the statement, left no room for denial.
“You have seen Gloria,” went on the Prince; “You know she is the most beautiful creature your eyes ever rested upon! Von Glauben told me you were stricken dumb, and almost stupefied at sight of her——”
“Damn Von Glauben!” said the King.
His son smiled ever so slightly, but continued.
“You have made yourself acquainted with her history—”
“Yes!” said the King; “That she is a foundling picked up from the sea—a castaway from a wreck!—no one knows who her father and mother were, and yet you, in your raving madness and folly of love, would make her Crown Princess and future Queen!”
The Prince went on unheedingly.