Orakel Classics
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 22 chapter-aware companion links.
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CHAPTER 1: The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs
CHAPTER 1: The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs from The Prisoner of Zenda. “I wonder when in the world you’re going to do anything, Rudolf?” said my brother’s
Open2CHAPTER 2: Concerning the Colour of Men’s Hair
CHAPTER 2: Concerning the Colour of Men’s Hair from The Prisoner of Zenda. It was a maxim of my Uncle William’s that no man should pass through Paris without spending four-and-twenty hours there. My uncle spoke out of a ripe experience of the world, and I honoured his advice by putting up for a day and a night at “The Continental” on my way to--the Tyrol. I called on George Featherly at the Embassy, and we had a bit of dinner together at Durand’s, and afterwards dropped in to the Opera;
Open3CHAPTER 3: A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative
CHAPTER 3: A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative from The Prisoner of Zenda. I was not so unreasonable as to be prejudiced against the duke’s keeper because he disliked my complexion; and if I had been, his most civil and obliging conduct (as it seemed to me to be) next morning would have disarmed me. Hearing that I was bound for Strelsau, he came to see me while I was breakfasting, and told me that a sister of his who had married a well-to-do tradesman and lived in the capital, had invited
Open4CHAPTER 4: The King Keeps His Appointment
CHAPTER 4: The King Keeps His Appointment from The Prisoner of Zenda. Whether I had slept a minute or a year I knew not. I awoke with a start and a shiver; my face, hair and clothes dripped water, and opposite me stood old Sapt, a sneering smile on his face and an empty bucket in his hand. On the table by him sat Fritz von Tarlenheim, pale as a ghost and black as a crow under the
Open5CHAPTER 5: The Adventures of an Understudy
CHAPTER 5: The Adventures of an Understudy from The Prisoner of Zenda. With Fritz von Tarlenheim and Colonel Sapt close behind me, I stepped out of the buffet on to the platform. The last thing I did was to feel if my revolver were handy and my sword loose in the scabbard. A gay group of officers and high dignitaries stood awaiting me, at their head a tall old man, covered with medals, and of military bearing. He wore the yellow and red ribbon of the Red Rose of Ruritania--which, by
Open6CHAPTER 6: The Secret of a Cellar
CHAPTER 6: The Secret of a Cellar from The Prisoner of Zenda. We were in the King’s dressing-room--Fritz von Tarlenheim, Sapt, and I. I flung myself exhausted into an armchair. Sapt lit his pipe. He uttered no congratulations on the marvellous success of our wild risk, but his whole bearing was eloquent of satisfaction. The triumph, aided perhaps by good wine, had made a new man of
Open7CHAPTER 7: His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau
CHAPTER 7: His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau from The Prisoner of Zenda. I put my arm round Sapt’s waist and supported him out of the cellar, drawing the battered door close after me. For ten minutes or more we sat silent in the dining-room. Then old Sapt rubbed his knuckles into his eyes, gave one great gasp, and was himself again. As the clock on the mantelpiece struck one he stamped his foot on the floor,
Open8CHAPTER 8: A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother
CHAPTER 8: A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother from The Prisoner of Zenda. A real king’s life is perhaps a hard one; but a pretended king’s is, I warrant, much harder. On the next day, Sapt instructed me in my duties--what I ought to do and what I ought to know--for three hours; then I snatched breakfast, with Sapt still opposite me, telling me that the King always took white wine in the morning and was known to detest all highly seasoned dishes. Then came the Chancellor, for another three
Open9CHAPTER 9: A New Use for a Tea-table
CHAPTER 9: A New Use for a Tea-table from The Prisoner of Zenda. If I were to detail the ordinary events of my daily life at this time, they might prove instructive to people who are not familiar with the inside of palaces; if I revealed some of the secrets I learnt, they might prove of interest to the statesmen of Europe. I intend to do neither of these things. I should be between the Scylla of dullness and the Charybdis of indiscretion, and I feel that I had far better confine
Open10CHAPTER 10: A Great Chance for a Villain
CHAPTER 10: A Great Chance for a Villain from The Prisoner of Zenda. It was the custom that the Prefect of Police should send every afternoon a report to me on the condition of the capital and the feeling of the people: the document included also an account of the movements of any persons whom the police had received instructions to watch. Since I had been in Strelsau, Sapt had been in the habit of reading the report and telling me any items of interest which it might contain. On the
Open11CHAPTER 11: Hunting a Very Big Boar
CHAPTER 11: Hunting a Very Big Boar from The Prisoner of Zenda. The terrible temptation which was assailing me will now be understood. I would so force Michael’s hand that he must kill the King. I was in a position to bid him defiance and tighten my grasp on the crown--not for its own sake, but because the King of Ruritania was to wed the Princess Flavia. What of Sapt and Fritz? Ah! but a man cannot be held to write down in cold blood the wild and black thoughts that storm his
Open12CHAPTER 12: I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook
CHAPTER 12: I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook from The Prisoner of Zenda. About five miles from Zenda--on the opposite side from that on which the Castle is situated, there lies a large tract of wood. It is rising ground, and in the centre of the demesne, on the top of the hill, stands a fine modern chateau, the property of a distant kinsman of Fritz’s, the Count Stanislas von Tarlenheim. Count Stanislas himself was a student and a recluse. He seldom visited the house, and had, on Fritz’s
Open13CHAPTER 13: An Improvement on Jacob’s Ladder
CHAPTER 13: An Improvement on Jacob’s Ladder from The Prisoner of Zenda. In the morning of the day after that on which I swore my oath against the Six, I gave certain orders, and then rested in greater contentment than I had known for some time. I was at work; and work, though it cannot cure love, is yet a narcotic to it; so that Sapt, who grew feverish, marvelled to see me sprawling in an armchair in the sunshine, listening to one of my friends who sang me amorous songs in a mellow
Open14CHAPTER 14: A Night Outside the Castle
CHAPTER 14: A Night Outside the Castle from The Prisoner of Zenda. It would have surprised the good people of Ruritania to know of the foregoing talk; for, according to the official reports, I had suffered a grievous and dangerous hurt from an accidental spear-thrust, received in the course of my sport. I caused the bulletins to be of a very serious character, and created great public excitement, whereby three things occurred: first, I gravely offended the medical faculty of
Open15CHAPTER 15: I Talk with a Tempter
CHAPTER 15: I Talk with a Tempter from The Prisoner of Zenda. Ruritania is not England, or the quarrel between Duke Michael and myself could not have gone on, with the extraordinary incidents which marked it, without more public notice being directed to it. Duels were frequent among all the upper classes, and private quarrels between great men kept the old habit of spreading to their friends and dependents. Nevertheless, after the affray which I have just related, such reports
Open16CHAPTER 16: A Desperate Plan
CHAPTER 16: A Desperate Plan from The Prisoner of Zenda. As I had ridden publicly in Zenda, and had talked there with Rupert Hentzau, of course all pretence of illness was at an end. I marked the effect on the garrison of Zenda: they ceased to be seen abroad; and any of my men who went near the Castle reported that the utmost vigilance prevailed there. Touched as I was by Madame de Mauban’s appeal, I seemed as powerless to befriend her as I had proved to help the King.
Open17CHAPTER 17: Young Rupert’s Midnight Diversions
CHAPTER 17: Young Rupert’s Midnight Diversions from The Prisoner of Zenda. The night came fine and clear. I had prayed for dirty weather, such as had favoured my previous voyage in the moat, but Fortune was this time against me. Still I reckoned that by keeping close under the wall and in the shadow I could escape detection from the windows of the chateau that looked out on the scene of my efforts. If they searched the moat, indeed, my scheme must fail; but I did not think they would. They
Open18CHAPTER 18: The Forcing of the Trap
CHAPTER 18: The Forcing of the Trap from The Prisoner of Zenda. The position wherein I stood does not appear very favourable to thought; yet for the next moment or two I thought profoundly. I had, I told myself, scored one point. Be Rupert Hentzau’s errand what it might, and the villainy he was engaged on what it would, I had scored one point. He was on the other side of the moat from the King, and it would be by no fault of mine if ever he set foot on the same side again. I had
Open19CHAPTER 19: Face to Face in the Forest
CHAPTER 19: Face to Face in the Forest from The Prisoner of Zenda. For a moment I could see nothing, for the glare of lanterns and torches caught me full in the eyes from the other side of the bridge. But soon the scene grew clear: and it was a strange scene. The bridge was in its place. At the far end of it stood a group of the duke’s servants; two or three carried the lights which had dazzled me, three or four held pikes in rest. They were huddled together; their weapons were
Open20CHAPTER 20: The Prisoner and the King
CHAPTER 20: The Prisoner and the King from The Prisoner of Zenda. In order to a full understanding of what had occurred in the Castle of Zenda, it is necessary to supplement my account of what I myself saw and did on that night by relating briefly what I afterwards learnt from Fritz and Madame de Mauban. The story told by the latter explained clearly how it happened that the cry which I had arranged as a stratagem and a sham had come, in dreadful reality, before its time, and had
Open21CHAPTER 21: If love were all!
CHAPTER 21: If love were all! from The Prisoner of Zenda. It was night, and I was in the cell wherein the King had lain in the Castle of Zenda. The great pipe that Rupert of Hentzau had nicknamed “Jacob’s Ladder” was gone, and the lights in the room across the moat twinkled in the darkness. All was still; the din and clash of strife were gone. I had spent the day hidden in the forest, from the time when Fritz had led me off, leaving Sapt with the princess. Under cover of
Open22CHAPTER 22: Present, Past--and Future?
CHAPTER 22: Present, Past--and Future? from The Prisoner of Zenda. The details of my return home can have but little interest. I went straight to the Tyrol and spent a quiet fortnight--mostly on my back, for a severe chill developed itself; and I was also the victim of a nervous reaction, which made me weak as a baby. As soon as I had reached my quarters, I sent an apparently careless postcard to my brother, announcing my good health and prospective return. That would serve to
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