Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Mad King Edgar Rice Burroughs

All Lustadt was in an uproar. The mad king had escaped. Little knots of excited men stoodupon the street corners listening to each latest rumor concerning this most absorbingoccurrence. Before the palace a great crowd surged to and fro, awaiting they knew notwhat. For ten years no man of them had set eyes upon the face of the boy-king who had beenhastened to the grim castle of Blentz upon the death of the old king, his father. There had been murmurings then when the lad's uncle, Peter of Blentz, had announced tothe people of Lutha the sudden mental affliction which had fallen upon his nephew, andmore murmurings for a time after the announcement that Peter of Blentz had beenappointed Regent during the lifetime of the young King Leopold, "or until God, in Hisinfinite mercy, shall see fit to restore to us in full mental vigor our beloved monarch."But ten years is a long time. The boy-king had become but a vague memory to the subjectswho could recall him at all. There were many, of course, in the capital city, Lustadt, who still retained a mental pictureof the handsome boy who had ridden out nearly every morning from the palace gatesbeside the tall, martial figure of the old king, his father, for a canter across the broad plainwhich lies at the foot of the mountain town of Lustadt; but even these had long since givenup hope that their young king would ever ascend his throne, or even that they should seehim alive again.