Robert Louis Stevenson

The Complete Novels of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated)


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sea. Gray not only saved his money, but being suddenly smit with the desire to rise, also studied his profession, and he is now mate and part owner of a fine full-rigged ship, married besides, and the father of a family. As for Ben Gunn, he got a thousand pounds, which he spent or lost in three weeks, or to be more exact, in nineteen days, for he was back begging on the twentieth. Then he was given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he still lives, a great favourite, though something of a butt, with the country boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and saints’ days.

      Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean out of my life; but I dare say he met his old Negress, and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small.

      The bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island; and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts or start upright in bed with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: “Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!”

       The End

      A Romance

       Table of Contents

       Book I. Prince Errant

       Chapter I. In which the Prince Departs on an Adventure

       Chapter II. In which the Prince Plays Haroun-Al-Raschid

       Chapter III. In which the Prince Comforts Age and Beauty and Delivers a Lecture on Discretion in Love

       Chapter IV. In which the Prince Collects Opinions by the Way

       Book II. Of Love and Politics

       Chapter I. What Happened in the Library

       Chapter II. ‘On the Court of Grünewald,’ Being a Portion of the Traveller’s Manuscript

       Chapter III. The Prince and the English Traveller

       Chapter IV. While the Prince is in the Anteroom . . .

       Chapter V. … Gondremark is in My Lady’s Chamber

       Chapter VI. The Prince Delivers a Lecture on Marriage, with Practical Illustrations of Divorce

       Chapter VII. The Prince Dissolves the Council

       Chapter VIII. The Party of War Takes Action

       Chapter IX. The Price of the River Farm; In which Vainglory Goes before a Fall

       Chapter X. Gotthold’s Revised Opinion; And the Fall Completed

       Chapter XI. Providence von Rosen: Act the First She Beguiles the Baron

       Chapter XII. Providence von Rosen: Act the Second She Informs the Prince

       Chapter XIII. Providence von Rosen: Act the Third She Enlightens Seraphina

       Chapter XIV. Relates the Cause and Outbreak of the Revolution

       Book III. Fortunate Misfortune

       Chapter I. Princess Cinderella

       Chapter II. Treats of a Christian Virtue

       Chapter III. Providence von Rosen: Act the Last In which She Gallops Off

       Chapter IV. Babes in the Wood

       Bibliographical Postscript to Complete the Story

      Book I

       Prince Errant

       Table of Contents

      Chapter I

       In which the Prince Departs on an Adventure

       Table of Contents

      You shall seek in vain upon the map of Europe for the bygone state of Grünewald. An independent principality, an infinitesimal member of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning ghost. Less fortunate than Poland, she left not a regret behind her; and the very memory of her boundaries has faded.

      It was a patch of hilly country covered with thick wood. Many streams took their beginning in the glens of Grünewald, turning mills for the inhabitants. There was one town, Mittwalden, and many brown, wooden hamlets, climbing roof above roof, along the steep bottom of dells, and communicating by covered bridges over the larger of the torrents. The hum of watermills, the splash of running water, the clean odour of pine sawdust, the sound and smell of the pleasant wind among the innumerable army of the mountain pines, the dropping fire of huntsmen, the dull stroke of the wood-axe, intolerable roads, fresh trout for supper in the clean bare chamber of an inn, and the song of birds and the music of the village-bells — these were the recollections of the Grünewald tourist.

      North and east the foothills of Grünewald sank with varying profile into a vast plain. On these sides many small states bordered with the principality, Gerolstein, an extinct grand duchy, among the number. On the south it marched with the comparatively powerful kingdom of Seaboard Bohemia, celebrated for its flowers and mountain bears, and inhabited by a people of singular simplicity and tenderness of heart. Several intermarriages had, in the course of centuries, united the crowned families of Grünewald and Maritime Bohemia; and the last Prince of Grünewald, whose