The Fate of a Crown

When Robert Harcliffe is asked by his uncle Nelson to go to Brazil to act as private secretary and confidant to Dom Miguel de Pintra, head of the revolutionary movement fighting the emperor Dom Pedro, the suggestion of excitement and adventure thrills the young man and he readily agrees to go. Boarding a Brazilian trading ship headed for Rio de Janeiro, Robert soon realizes that he embarked on a mission of peril: De Pintra, surrounded by the emperor's spies, finds himself in a very hot-bed of intrigue and danger, and his plans to send for a new private secretary are well known to the royalists. Even worse, they have a spy on board Robert's ship, and his mission is quite simple: the new secretary for the revolution must not reach Rio ... The Fate of a Crown was the first adult work of fiction of L. Frank Baum of Land of Oz fame. The fast-paced tale of political intrigue, betrayal, espionage and romance set in Brazil in 1889, during the revolution that brought the Empire of Brazil to its end, was originally published under the pen name Schuyler Staunton because of concerns that it might interfere with his reputation as a writer for children. Annotated version with additional footnotes and About the Author section.