RANSVESTIA

the birth as a rallying point for the population. "The war will come and sweep over us. We must preserve the republic for our children, yours and mine we must save ourselves for our Prince.” The tide of war did wash over the state but since the wealth of the country consisted largely in something that could not be stolen it was relatively mild. The treas- ures were carefully hidden away and the king and his family went into exile. (In point of fact, the king simply moved up into the mountains.)

for the sake of the

"I was raised as a boy. I had to be a boy, you see country. And I spent the first seven years of my life in the mountains, living like a shepherd boy. The truth was as closely guarded a secret as any in the world."

After the war the king returned to the castle and the country began re- building and restoring. Meanwhile the education of the prince was be- gun: schooling, of course, instructions and practice in all the royal arts and sciences, from riding to military drill to political theory, "for ten or more hours every day, from the time I was eight or nine, I guess, until I was mature."

The education of a Prince was interrupted by two cataclysmic events. The first of these involved the fallacy of the Prince's own self: maturation brought its own problems to the girl prince. With considerable effort, much planning, and good fortune, the problems were minimized when they could not be avoided to the extent that no one outside the royal fam- ily knew anything.

The second event, within the past two years, had been the death of the old King.

“Of course, every Prince that ever lived grows up in the knowledge that one day the King will die that's the nature of things. But that does not remove the sorrow. I loved him as a son and as a daughter share, you see."

a double

The planning and the years of work had managed to produce a Prince, an heir to the throne who was completely capable, but technically in- eligible to rule. It was necessary for the Prince to marry.

"Which was, of course, the unavoidable stumbling block. My father and I spent many long hours trying first this and then that solution. One thing seemed certain: I would be unable to marry because of the un-