More Than Queen

• Watchlist

The Grand Duke Marony and his ambitious wife head a powerful party at the court of Narovia with the purpose of securing the throne. With this in view they decide to send Lieutenant Bernard, whose loyalty and absolute devotion to the queen make him a serious obstacle in their path, to Paris as the Norovian military attaché. This plan is foiled by the queen, who orders instead that the officers of the Guard choose one of their own number to fill the post. Despite her command, Bernard is ordered by the conspirators to go to Paris. The insistence used in disposing of him leads the Lieutenant to fear for the queen's safety and he so advises her. Undismayed by her first failure the scheming duchess zealously continues her plot against the queen. A Persian fete is planned at the summer palace. The duchess writes to the Queen's costumer and requests him to make for her a costume the duplicate of the one ordered by the queen. A letter is then written to Bernard in the queen's name, asking him to meet her at the pool in the courtyard the night of the fete, as she has matters which she desires to discuss with him. In response to this supposed request the lieutenant on the appointed evening keeps the tryst. Seeing the woman he supposes to be the queen he throws himself at her feet. At this juncture the duchess' fellow-accomplice, Sophia, one of the court ladies, carries out the plot by bringing the queen to see the apparent faithlessness of the lieutenant. Wounded to the heart by what she sees, the queen upbraids Bernard and then departs, leaving him little opportunity for explanation. Through the carelessness of the servants, the palace catches fire and soon is roaring with flames from basement to roof. In the confusion and panic the lieutenant seeks the queen and, finding the duchess, again mistakes her identity. He carries her to safety only to find he has saved the wrong woman. Again plunging through the flames, he finds the queen and her little son and rescues them both at the risk of his life. The grateful queen cannot conceal from her gallant rescuer the love she feels for him. As their lips meet, conscious that for the sake of her son she should drive her love from her heart, she resolves to bury the woman in the queen and not yield to her love. So the lieutenant resolves to abide her resolution by going into voluntary exile, leaving the queen to rule for the sake of her son, lonely in the atmosphere of intrigue and jealousy. So she would have continued to the end of her life, a martyr to her motherly devotion, were it not for a fatal accident which renders her childless. Determined now to follow the dictates of her heart, she abdicates the throne in favor of the Grand Duke and writes to the lieutenant that she will meet him in the city of his exile. There she tells him that her life and love are his if he will accept them, and together never to part they resolve to begin a new and happier life.