Rulers of Kings
A Novel
By
Gertrude Atherton
Harper & Brothers Publishers
New York and London
1904
Copyright, 1904, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
Published April, 1904.
To
Poultney Bigelow
one of the
small band of American writers
who dares at all times to tell the truth
whose patriotism is genuine and useful
and who has revealed to us so
much of modern Europe
May it not be that in every family there are unbornchildren—souls that have come too late perhaps tofind a medium, yet, in consequence of their hereditaryparticles, unable to seek it elsewhere? We know notwhat mysterious dissolutions and recombinations ofspirit take place in the realm where the released forcesgo, with what deliberation the essences of families are remixed;oftenest, no doubt, with commonplace results;sometimes with intent to bring humiliation and disasterupon a house which has transgressed too many laws;yet again, combining the great characteristics of mindand soul and temperament of those who have distinguishedthemselves in history, with such weaknessesas must inevitably destroy all three—as in the notableinstance of the last Rudolf von Hapsburg. Again,the best may have been remixed with only enoughof human weakness and passion that love may be inspiredinstead of awe, that happiness without disastermay be possible. And yet the most fortunate of thesefusions may be finished too late for its generation, andbe forced to bide its time invisible; or perhaps, by somespiritual statute of limitations, is deprived of its earthlyrights forever. Nevertheless, it may linger in spiritwhere it should walk in its servant of flesh, and unknown,unsuspected, take its part in the daily lifeof its kin, having its own influence perhaps on theirdestinies and on history. And the romanticist, somuch of whose time is spent in the unreal world, mayfancy, once in a way, that one of these belated soulshas swum into his ken, and that his privilege is torescue it, to fit it to the part for which Nature so tirelesslyequipped it.
Note.—The dinner described in Chapter IV., Part II. occurredin 1897, but it being necessary that the action of the storyshould take place several years later, I have brought it forward.This of course could not have been done had certain circumstancesarisen which might have given immediate historic resultsto the speech of the Emperor of Germany. Those circumstancesnot having arisen, it makes little difference whether thespeech was delivered yesterday or six years ago. Otherwise, thedinner, the speech, its effect upon the Hungarian magnates present,its reception next day by the Hungarian press and people,were