Marco Loristan and a crippled boy called The Rat are sent across Europe carrying a sign to the secret supporters of a lost dynasty, and are told nothing more than they need. Burnett wrote it during the Balkan wars, inventing the kingdom of Samavia out of the newspapers, and made the whole plot turn on two children's discipline rather than on any weapon. The Rat's transformation is the real story; the throne is the excuse. Fifty-eight plates of moonlit streets, gardens and quiet interiors by painters such as John Atkinson Grimshaw and Luke Fildes catch the same hushed, watchful Europe the boys cross.
