"Is it not strange so few Kings abdicate; and none yet heard of has been known to commit suicide? Fritz the First, of Prussia, alone tried it; and they cut the rope."
It was a moment or two before the King's brain registered the sense of the words.
He read the sentences a second time.
Then he turned, mechanically, to the title page of the book—
"The French Revolution, a History.
"by Thomas Carlyle."
Suddenly, with the open book still in his hand, the King sank down on to the sofa.
This could not be chance. This was not a coincidence. This was no accident.
Uncle Bond had called his attention to the book—a book which might interest him! It was Uncle Bond's pencil which had scored these sentences, so apposite to his own position, so heavily. Uncle Bond must have left the book, open at this page, on the window sill, deliberately.
The inference was unmistakable.
Uncle Bond knew who he was!