CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14191, 13 October 1906, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

a novelist’s apventup.e.

A writer in “M.A.P.,” tells the story of an interesting

adventure which befel Mr William Le Queux; an adventure that belongs to the large and growing category of those that have “ narrowly ©scaped having very serious consequences.” The sensational novelist was one® at dinner in a London hotel with a beautiful and charming princess, travelling incognita, who had entrusted him with her jewels, including a famous pearl necklet valued at £30,000, to he returned to her bankers in Italy. Mr L© Queux was to set out for Florence next day, and the princess insisted on talking indiscreetly of his mission, although he begged her to beware of allowing herself to he overheard. When he is travelling, we are told, Mr Le Queux always carries his valuables in a leather belt' with pockets, which he wears around his waist under his clothing. He went home, placed the pearls in the belt and put it on. Then he set out for Florence, having previously communicated with the Italian police that he should be travelling on a certain day between Modane on the Italian frontier and Florence, and that he would' have valuable jewels with, him! On board the boat from Lover to Calais Mr Le Queux noticed a suspicious-looking Englishman looking hard at him, but thought nothing of it. In Paris Mr Le Queux took the train for Italy. Soon after they started, the conductor of the sleeping-car went up to him and said, “ I am sorry, sir, but you can’t have a small apartment to yourself as usual, as we ark very full to-night.” In a little while Mr Le Queux decided, to go to'bed. When he went to his berth he found his companion in the compartment was the same suspicious-looking Englishman who had been following him fn board the boat. One does not need to be a dramatic novelist for th© possibilities of such a situation to. strike one in their full force. “Shall !go to bed and take my chance, or shall I sit up?” thought Mr Le Queux.' He decided to sit up, and kept awake all that night. When the train reached Modane and the detective joined Mr Le Queux the man decamped, and, as he was not molested in any ■way, Mi' Le Queux was able to carry out the princess’s commission. One wonders whether the incident would have been thought worth recording if Mr Le Queux had 1 not been a sensationalist by trade.

BOOK PRICES.

According to tlie annual review in the

“ Daily News,” the book sales of last season were quite dominated bj r Shakespeare. A first quarto “Merchant of Venice” brought £460, and “ King Lear ” £395. Thou came .Knox’s “Genevan Liturgy,” said to bo the first book printed in Gallic, which sold for £305. Three Shakespeares, “ Merry Wives,” “ Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and a faulty First Folio brought £295, £2BO and £245 respectively. A very interesting series of seventeen pro-Shakespeareau plays came up for sale in. June. They had been discovered in an Irish country house, and were put on the market in separate lots. Ingclend’e The Disobedient Child,” dating about 1565, brought £233. and the others were close up, the whole series realising £2602. These plays included “ Theterlude of Youth,” “ Welthand Helth,” “Gammor Gurton’s Nedle,” Wapell’s “ Tyde Taryeth No Man,” and similar works. Almost the only modern work to bring a high price was an uncut copy of_Sholley’e “ Queett Mali,” which

sold for £l6B. Gray’s “ Elegy,” however, brought £95. It was originally issued at 6d. The romance of bookbuying has not entirely disappeared - In July a work catalogued as “ FitzGeftrey. Sir Frances Drake, Life's Commendation,” brought £lsl. The volume, compiled by a contemporary of Drake, was discovered in an old stable in. a Yorkshire village, among a number of old, rat-eaten books. A copy of “ King Glumpus,” again, with a pot© in Thackeray’s handwriting, was picked up in a book-stall for an old song, and. sold at auction, for £lOl. Among other interesting sales of the season were-Walpole’s copy of “Tristram Shandy,” of which he wrote a scathing criticism, £B3; Renouard’s copy of the first edition of Plutarch’s “ Lives,” 1509-19, £75; “Poems,’' 1846-57, by the Bronte sisters, £57; Grimm’s “ Ger-

man Popular Stories,” 1823-6, £B2; Thackeray’s “Second Funeral of Napoleon,” 1841, £4l; Dickens’ “Sketches by Bez,” 1839, in the. original parts, with the wrappers and advertisements, £7O 10s. In manuscripts, the record price of £5400 was paid for letter©, battle-plans, relics and. souvenirs of the Marquis de Lafayette; but the most interesting sale was the famous Nelson manuscript ‘ relating to Trafalgar, which brought £3600.

The formalities. of Royal etiquette are a

INCOGNITO.

little hit piiazling to the • outsider until he becomes better acquainted with their meaning. The formal announcement that “ The King is travelling under the name of the Duke of Lancaster,” appearing in the Court circular, would seem to he rather a futile foam ofv incognito, but the purpose of this disguise as not to prevent the King being recognised. It means principally that sovereigns through, whose domains he travels aye relieved from the necessity of visitin' him in full state. When his Majesty’? visits are informal the term “ incognito” is used, and when he desires lias presence to pass absolutely unnoticed the word© “strict incognito” are employed. Before he ascended the throne, his Majgsty travelled as the Earl of Chester, hut this title is now the property of the Prince of Wales. In his early youth the King travelled about the country a good deal with his tutor “ strictly incognito,” and at times not always to his personal comfort. Upon one occasion a hotel proprietor in the ' West of England had been, apprised of the coming of the King and pi hi® incognito. Tli© best apartments were reserved, and when a gentleman and' a boy arrived, the proprietor,'believing them to be the Prince and his tutor, showed them - deferentially to their ropnis. Later in the afternoon two gentlemen and a second hoy arrived, asking - for accommodation. '‘Very sorry, gentlemen,” said the landlord, “ we have .only room for two of your party, hut perhaps we can manage tp make up a bed for the young gentle- ■ mau on the sofa.” This was done, apd in the morning it was discovered that the youth who had occupied the “shake down” was the heir apparent, while the hoy who occupied the best room was Master Robinson, travelling with his father. At this period the. King occasionally travelled a® Lord Renfrew. During a visit to the United States a wealthy magnate, introduced to his Royal Highness, remarked, “Lord Renfrew, eh! But you’re no better than anybody else. I’ll call yon Mr Renfrew.” And he did, for the whole of the visit, tp the intense amusement pf the Prince and hisi party. Queen Alexandra once stayed in Paris as Mrs Stephens, and other Royal incognito© which are well-known are the Queen of Norway’s “ Miss Mills,” the Princes? of Wales’s .Countess of Killarney, the late Queen Victoria’s Countess of Balmoral and the Duke of Cambridge’s Lord Culloden. Outside its value as a hint for privacy, the incognito carries little advantage. People who “ dearly love a lord ” are quick to penetrate even an unexpected alias.