Some day I will visit his grave. Tell her Majesty
that there is still a Rassendyll, if she has need of one."
The offer was such as should come from a man of Rudolf's name,
yet I trust that the queen needs no further service than such as
it is our humble duty and dear delight to render her. It is our
part to strive to lighten the burden that she bears, and by our
love to assuage her undying grief. For she reigns now in
Ruritania alone, the last of all the Elphbergs; and her only joy
is to talk of Mr. Rassendyll with those few who knew him, her
only hope that she may some day be with him again.
In great pomp we laid him to his rest in the vault of the kings
of Ruritania in the Cathedral of Strelsau. There he lies among
the princes of the House of Elphberg. I think that if there be
indeed any consciousness among the dead, or any knowledge of what
passes in the world they have left, they should be proud to call
him brother. There rises in memory of him a stately monument, and
people point it out to one another as the memorial of King
Rudolf. I go often to the spot, and recall in thought all that
passed when he came the first time to Zenda, and again on his
second coming.
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