King Victor—Mademoiselle Brun

King Victor and Mademoiselle Brun are linked as accomplices in an attempted recovery of the diamond at Chimneys. Their cooperation turns on impersonation and misdirection: the woman posing as Mademoiselle Brun is in fact Queen Varaga, while King Victor moves under a false identity. Anthony Cade’s reconstruction shows how their plan relied on communicating without exposing the partnership and on keeping others from intervening.

The partnership and its purpose

The alliance formed around the search for the diamond. Anthony explains that after King Victor was released, he and Queen Varaga planned to recover it together. At Chimneys, she was searching for the jewel when she unexpectedly encountered Prince Michael; their meeting exposed her concealed identity and led to her shooting him. The partnership therefore brought the pair together around a shared objective, but also placed Queen Varaga in a situation where secrecy could no longer be maintained.

Concealment and mistaken identity

The scheme depended on Queen Varaga’s ability to pass as the real Mademoiselle Brun. Anthony had initially accepted the governess’s identity after making inquiries in Brittany, unaware that the genuine woman might have been kidnapped on her way to her new post and replaced by an impostor. The assumed identity also explained why the woman’s face seemed familiar to Virginia Revel: Virginia had recognized her only after Anthony described her as the governess employed by the Comtesse de Breteuil.

Queen Varaga had been believed dead after the revolution, but Anthony recalls that the body recovered at the palace steps was mutilated and unrecognizable. He believes she escaped to America and spent years in fear of the Comrades of the Red Hand, who had promoted the revolution and remained hostile to her. This history supplies the background to her concealed life and eventual partnership with King Victor; it also explains why being recognized at Chimneys threatened exposure and disgrace.

Misdirection at Chimneys

The accomplices’ plan intersected with the false Lemoine’s effort to control the household. After Anthony gave a misleading tip about the diamond’s location, the false Lemoine sought to pass the information to his accomplice while keeping everyone in the room. He sent a note to Queen Varaga, directing Tredwell to take it to the schoolroom. He then accused Anthony of being King Victor, creating a diversion that prevented the others from leaving. By the time the party went to the library to search for the stone, the false Lemoine expected it to have been removed.

Anthony says he recognized and played along with the false Lemoine’s tactic, both because he admired its ingenuity and because it puzzled the impostor. The episode demonstrates how the King Victor–Mademoiselle Brun partnership was embedded in a larger contest of disguises: a message passed through the household, an accusation redirected suspicion, and the search for the diamond offered cover for the attempted transfer.

Exposure and consequences

Queen Varaga’s encounter with Prince Michael overturned the protection her assumed role had afforded her. Royal guests would not ordinarily meet governesses, and she could avoid contact on occasion, as she had when the Baron visited by claiming a migraine. But when Prince Michael recognized her face, the danger of discovery became immediate. Anthony identifies her as the person who placed the revolver in Herman Isaacstein’s suitcase to confuse the trial and who returned the letters.

The partnership is thus revealed not through an open declaration between the accomplices but through the reconstruction of their linked actions: the false identity, the search for the jewel, the message to the schoolroom, and the framing attempt. King Victor and Queen Varaga’s shared pursuit of the diamond depended on secrecy, yet the very need to protect that secrecy led to diversions and false trails that ultimately exposed the conspiracy.