Prince Michael’s murder

Prince Michael’s murder is the concealed crime at the center of the investigation at Chimneys: the apparent governess Mademoiselle Brun was actually Queen Varaga, and she killed Prince Michael when he recognized her. Her effort to escape recognition and implicate Herman Isaacstein turned the death into both a personal exposure and a political mystery.

Background and mistaken identities

Anthony Cade explains that he initially suspected the woman posing as Mademoiselle Brun because there had been a light in her room on the night of the murder. He then made inquiries in Brittany and accepted that she was who she claimed to be, partly because the Comtesse de Breteuil had employed a Mademoiselle Brun and spoken well of her. He had not considered that the real governess might have been kidnapped on her way to her new post and replaced by an impostor.

Cade’s suspicions shifted to Mr Fish before returning to the supposed governess. The turn came after he learned that Fish was a Pinkerton’s man pursuing King Victor. Cade also reconsidered Virginia Revel’s recognition of the woman: Virginia had only said that the explanation of her familiarity was that she had been the Comtesse de Breteuil’s governess. Since Virginia was the only member of the house party who had been to Herzoslovakia, keeping her away from Chimneys had been important to the plot.

The encounter and killing

The false Mademoiselle Brun had reason to remain out of Prince Michael’s ordinary social orbit: royal guests did not usually meet governesses, and she could avoid encounters by withdrawing, as she did on the day the Baron visited. But while searching for the jewel on the night of the murder, she unexpectedly came face to face with Prince Michael. He recognized her, and the prospect of exposure led her to shoot him.

The murder was thus not the result Cade had first suspected. He had considered the possibility that someone was impersonating Prince Michael, but later concluded that this was mistaken. The crucial imposture was the woman’s assumed identity, which had allowed her to remain near the royal guests without being recognized until the encounter that ended in Prince Michael’s death.

Framing and investigation

After shooting Prince Michael, the woman put the revolver in Herman Isaacstein’s suitcase, intending to confuse the trial and make him appear implicated. The planted weapon connected the murder to the political and financial circle around Isaacstein and George Lomax, who were already under scrutiny alongside the Herzoslovakian Loyalist Party. Superintendent Battle warned Isaacstein that he and Lomax were in serious trouble, while the investigation began to disentangle the political suspicion from the actual killer’s deception.

The wider mystery depended on several people holding incomplete, mistaken, or deliberately obscured versions of events. Battle insisted that George Eversleigh and Cade had a right to know the secret, since Eversleigh was Lomax’s secretary and Cade had been drawn into the affair. Later, at Dover, Cade and Fish discovered a mysterious stranger held captive and recognized the same pattern of a kidnapped real person replaced by an impostor. That discovery helped Cade understand the false identities surrounding the case, while Battle’s inquiries to Paris about fingerprints and other identifying evidence exposed the false French colleague.

Revelation and significance

Cade’s reconstruction links the murder to the larger history of the revolution. He believed Queen Varaga had survived because the bodies recovered after the palace killings were mutilated and unrecognizable; she had then remained hidden in fear of the Comrades of the Red Hand. After King Victor’s release, Cade says, the two planned to recover the diamond. Prince Michael’s unexpected recognition interrupted that plan and made the concealed identity impossible to protect.

The murder’s solution reverses the apparent case against Isaacstein: he was framed through the revolver, while the woman who had passed as Mademoiselle Brun was the killer. It also turns the investigation’s many false leads into a coherent chain. The failed impersonation, Virginia’s partial recognition, the effort to keep her from Chimneys, and the planted weapon all point toward the same secret: the supposed governess was Queen Varaga, and Prince Michael’s recognition of her precipitated his death.