"Rupert of Hentzau" is a sequel by Anthony Hope to the world-famous novel "The Prisoner of Zenda," telling the story of a political turmoil and secret love in the mysterious kingdom of Ruritania. The author continues the adventures of the beloved characters: Rudolf Elphberg, the monarch of Ruritania; Rudolf Rassendyll, the English gentleman who had acted as his political decoy, being his distant cousin and lookalike; Flavia, the princess, now queen, who's still in love with Rudolf Rassendyll.

Action, excitement, loyalty, honor, and feats of strength and bravery -- this sequel to Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda has something to appeal to every reader. A swashbuckling adventure set in the fictional country of Ruritania, this novel more than lives up to the high standards of its predecessor.

Thus, worse than widowed, she lived for three years; and once only in each year she sent three words to the man she loved, and received from him three words in answer. Then her strength failed her. A pitiful scene had occurred in which the king peevishly upbraided her in regard to some trivial matter — the occasion escapes my memory — speaking to her before others words that even alone she could not have listened to with dignity. I was there, and Sapt; the colonel’s small eyes had gleamed in anger. “I should like to shut his mouth for him,” I heard him mutter, for the king’s waywardness had well-nigh worn out even his devotion. The thing, of which I will say no more, happened a day or two before I was to set out to meet Mr. Rassendyll. I was to seek him this time at Wintenberg, for I had been recognized the year before at Dresden; and Wintenberg, being a smaller place and less in the way of chance visitors, was deemed safer. I remember well how she was when she called me into her own room, a few hours after she had left the king. She stood by the table; the box was on it, and I knew well that the red rose and the message were within. But there was more to-day. Without preface she broke into the subject of my errand...FROM THE BOOKS