Chap­ter 7 — His Majesty Sleeps in Strel­sau begins with Rudolf Rassendyll and Colonel Sapt catch­ing their breath after a tense and dan­ger­ous mis­sion. They had nar­row­ly escaped from the hunt­ing lodge where the real King had been impris­oned by Duke Michael’s men. Now back in the cap­i­tal, Rassendyll must con­tin­ue the daunt­ing role of imper­son­at­ing the King to pro­tect both the king­dom and the cap­tive monarch. With Michael hold­ing the King hostage, every moment becomes a race against time, and every deci­sion must be cal­cu­lat­ed to avoid expos­ing the truth. As Rassendyll dons the crown in name only, the bur­den of respon­si­bil­i­ty weighs heav­i­ly on his shoul­ders.

Over a hur­ried meal, Rassendyll and Sapt dis­cuss their next steps. Rassendyll sug­gests mobi­liz­ing the army to raid Zen­da, but Sapt reminds him that such a move would only alert Michael and poten­tial­ly pro­voke the King’s exe­cu­tion. Instead, Sapt pro­pos­es main­tain­ing the cha­rade, know­ing that Michael can­not pub­licly accuse Rassendyll of being an impos­tor with­out reveal­ing his own betray­al. This strat­e­gy, while dan­ger­ous, keeps the bal­ance of pow­er tem­porar­i­ly in their favor and buys them time to for­mu­late a prop­er res­cue plan. Yet beneath their tac­ti­cal exchange lies a grow­ing anxiety—if the King does not sur­vive, Rassendyll may be forced to rule indef­i­nite­ly, a thought that trou­bles him deeply.

As they pre­pare to leave the lodge, a somber task remains: bury­ing Josef, the loy­al ser­vant who had been mur­dered dur­ing their ear­li­er encounter with Michael’s men. Just as they begin the grim work, they notice sus­pi­cious move­ment out­side. Michael’s men have returned, pos­si­bly to clean up any evi­dence of their crime. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, Rassendyll and Sapt launch a swift coun­ter­at­tack, dis­patch­ing the intrud­ers with stealth and effi­cien­cy. The moment reveals Rassendyll’s resolve and quick-think­ing under pres­sure, traits that increas­ing­ly dis­tin­guish him as a leader in his own right.

With the threat elim­i­nat­ed, the two men begin their secre­tive jour­ney back to Strel­sau. The ear­ly morn­ing streets, still qui­et and cloaked in fog, pro­vide the per­fect cov­er for their return to the palace. Though their iden­ti­ties remain con­cealed to most, the weight of decep­tion grows heav­ier with every step. Once inside, they are met by Fritz von Tar­len­heim, whose con­fu­sion and loy­al­ty momen­tar­i­ly blur the lines between real­i­ty and per­for­mance. Believ­ing Rassendyll to be the King, Fritz offers heart­felt support—an emo­tion­al exchange that rein­forces just how con­vinc­ing the dis­guise has become, even to those clos­est to the real monarch.

The chap­ter touch­es deeply on the con­flict­ing iden­ti­ties Rassendyll must nav­i­gate. Pub­licly, he is the King—respected, admired, and bur­dened by roy­al duty. Pri­vate­ly, he remains a for­eign­er play­ing a dan­ger­ous game, unsure of how long the cha­rade can last. As Sapt qui­et­ly reminds him, the illu­sion is their most pow­er­ful weapon. Duke Michael may hold the real King, but he can­not use him with­out also risk­ing expo­sure. Until the time is right, Rassendyll must con­tin­ue walk­ing the line between hero and fraud.

What makes this chap­ter par­tic­u­lar­ly com­pelling is its fusion of moral intro­spec­tion and polit­i­cal urgency. Rassendyll is no longer just pre­tend­ing to be some­one else—he’s becom­ing a pro­tec­tor of a king­dom he bare­ly knew. The loy­al­ty shown by Fritz, the silent respect from Sapt, and even the people’s ado­ra­tion dur­ing pub­lic appear­ances rein­force the seri­ous­ness of his tem­po­rary reign. And yet, the real King remains impris­oned, a pawn in Michael’s cal­cu­lat­ed scheme.

Chap­ter 7 solid­i­fies the stakes of the unfold­ing dra­ma. Through the lens of loy­al­ty, decep­tion, and pow­er, we see how deeply entan­gled Rassendyll has become in a sit­u­a­tion far more com­plex than he antic­i­pat­ed. His trans­for­ma­tion from an idle Eng­lish­man into a deci­sive fig­ure of author­i­ty reveals not only his courage but also the emo­tion­al weight of imper­son­at­ing a man whose life and throne hang in the bal­ance. As the chap­ter ends, the read­er is left with a sense of urgency—and the chill­ing real­iza­tion that the most dan­ger­ous moves are still to come.