Chapter I: Front Matter

A COURIER OF FORTUNE

_A Courier
of Fortune_

_By ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT_

_Author of “By Wit of Woman,” “The Queen’s Advocate,”
“By Snare of Love,” “In The Name of a
Woman,” “When I Was Czar,” etc., etc._

_A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers_
_NEW YORK_

_Copyright, 1904, by_
ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT

_Copyright, 1904, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

TO

RALPH STUART, ESQ.

MY DEAR MR. STUART: I dedicate this book to you as a memento of our delightful hours of travel and work together in writing the play--“A Courier of Fortune”--founded upon this story. The circumstances of our joint literary work were as unusual to me as they were fascinating; for, although the play was commenced in London, the last “curtain” was not written until my wife and I had crossed the Atlantic and journeyed with you on a tour of over ten thousand miles of railway travelling, through so many of the marvels of this wonderful Continent. St. Louis; Denver; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; the Pacific Seaboard north to Puget Sound; the fertile Palouse Country; Washington, Idaho, and Montana--those wealthy States of boundless promise and marvellous scenic contrasts; the cities of the Lakes, Duluth and Superior; then the young giant twins, St. Paul and Minneapolis; and by way of Milwaukee and Chicago to New York. A tour of momentous interest and a collaboration of close-knit sympathy, cementing a friendship which, I assure you, is one of the pleasantest things of my life.

Yours ever,
ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE “TIGER OF MORVAIX” 1

II. THE MAISON DE MALINCOURT 10

III. SINISTER HINTS 21

IV. THE DUKE’S PROPOSAL 33

V. THE TIGER’S CLAWS 43

VI. “I AM KNOWN AS GERARD DE COBALT” 56

VII. AT MALINCOURT 68

VIII. THE PLOT THICKENS 81

IX. WHAT DENYS KNEW 94

X. THE ACCUSATION 107

XI. THE DUKE’S SENTENCE 118

XII. GABRIELLE’S FRIEND 130

XIII. DISCOVERY 145

XIV. “I AM NOT GERARD DE COBALT” 156

XV. A PRISONER 168

XVI. PASCAL AND THE SPY 180

XVII. GABRIELLE PLEADS 190

XVIII. IN THE “TIGER’S DEN” 201

XIX. A LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE 214

XX. A DASH FOR THE WALLS 226

XXI. AT MALINCOURT AGAIN 237

XXII. PASCAL PLAYS SPY 248

XXIII. LUCETTE AS DECOY 259

XXIV. SUSPENSE 272

XXV. A RUSE 284

XXVI. AT THE CITY GATES 295

XXVII. HUNTED 308

XXVIII. A RISING AND ITS SEQUEL 322

XXIX. IN THE HALL OF AUDIENCE 333

XXX. THE TROOPS MARCH 349

A COURIER OF FORTUNE