Delphi Works of Ford Madox Ford (Illustrated) (36 page)

So the spring came on, and the earth grew green, and it was the time of sowing, and the Queen had almost forgotten that she was able to fly — indeed, the mostly left her wind-flower crown at home.

But one day her eye fell upon it, and the thought suddenly struck her that the bat had said that the wind-flowers had the power of curing blindness.

“Now, if only I knew how it was to be done, or if I had a few more of them I’d cure h
im.
Now, it’s not really so very far from here to there. I might just fly over to the palace garden and ask the bat, and be back this very evening” — for it was then the early morning. “And I won’t tell them anything about it, and it’ll be delightful.”

And so, without any more hesitation, she just opened the little window and was up among the dawn-clouds that were sweeping up from over the sea. It was a little chilly and very lonely up there, and the silent flights of seagulls that she caught up and overpassed seemed too alarmed to talk to her. The Queen felt a little lost, as if there were something missing.

“Somehow it doesn’t seem half as nice as it used to do,” she said to herself “I wonder why it is? I don’t think, after I get home — I mean back here — I shall ever go flying again.”

But she folded her hands in her cloak and went silently on over the grey shimmering sea. The sun grew higher and higher, and it was about eight in the morning before she was hovering over the city.

She alighted in a street that seemed somewhat empty, because she disliked the attention that her mode of progression usually excited.

Just in front of her, under a shed formed by the pushing up of the shutters of his shop, a tailor was seated, cross-legged, working away with his head bent down over his work.

“Good morning!” the Queen said. “Can I be of any use to you?”

The tailor peered up at her through a great pair of horn spectacles.

“Eh?” he said.

“I said, ‘Can I be of any use to you?’” the Queen replied.

And the tailor regarded her in a dazed way. Suddenly he said —

“Oh yes; many me, marry me, only marry me!”

The Queen said, “Oh, nonsense,” because she had just remembered the elixir.

But the tailor answered, “It isn’t nonsense — it really isn’t It’s true I’m married already; but I’ll knock my wife on the head, and then I’ll be free.”

But before the Queen could answer anything at all there began a sudden growling sound that resolved itself into a succession of footsteps coming rapidly down wooden steps, and, in, a moment, a door burst open just behind the tailor’s back. There was an old woman with a great broom just behind it.

“Ah, would ye now! murder your wife, a respectable married woman, for the sake of a hussy that comes dropping down out of the chimney-tops. I’ll teach you.”

And with one sweep of her broom she knocked the poor little tailor off his board, and made a dash at the Queen.

But the Queen took to her heels and ran off “Why, she’s worse than Mrs. Hexer,” she said to herself. “But really this elixir is a great nuisance. It makes it impossible to have any peace. But I wonder what all the flags and decorations are about.”

Just at that moment two people, who appeared to be a servant-girl and her mother, came out of a neighbouring house. They were very gay in holiday costume.

“What is to happen to-day?” the Queen asked.

And the mother answered, Why, don’t you know? The Queen is twenty-one to-day, and she’s going to marry the Regent, Lord Blackjowl.”

“Going to many the Regent!” the Queen said “Why, who told you so?”

“Everybody knows it,” the mother answered “But how did everybody get to know it?” the Queen asked And the mother answered, “The Regent told them, I suppose.”

And the girl said, “It’s up among the Royal proclamations, on the notice-board at the palace.”

The Queen said, “Oh! Will you show me the way to the palace?” she continued “Why, certainly,” the girl said “We were just going that way to see the procession.”

So they set off through the gay streets. As they went along the Queen could see the young men on every side falling in love with her; but she paid no attention to them.

“Are you glad the Queen’s going to be married?” she asked her guides.

And the girl answered, “Oh yes; we get a holiday to go and see the procession.”

“Why, then, I suppose you’d be just as glad if the Queen died, and you could go and see her funeral?”

And the old woman said, “Of course!”

By that time they had come to the market-place. It was crowded with those who had come to see the sights, and the fountains were running wine instead of water; so, of course, there was rather a scramble to get at the fountains. That left the ground clear for the Queen to get to the notice-board where the Royal Proclamation hung.

There she saw, sure enough, the Regent’s proclamation, saying that the Queen would marry him that day. At the end of it there was the signature,
“Eldrida, Queen.”

“Why, it isn’t my signature at all,” the Queen said.

And the mother and daughter looked at her askance.

“Have any of you ever seen the Queen?” she asked.

And the mother answered, “No; no one has ever seen the Queen but the Regent; but there was a story that a beggar told about a year ago, that she had flown out of the palace and away. And they did say that Grubb the Honey-cake maker and some soldiers knew something about it But the Regent had them all executed, so we never came to know the rights of the story. Anyhow, we’ve had to pay taxes just the same.”

Now the Queen grew really angry with the Regent Blackjowl.

But she said, “Thank you,” and “Good-bye,” to the mother and daughter, and slipped away through the crowd to the side-wall of the palace, where, in the road, she had first commenced her travels.

Here there were very few people about, because there was little chance of seeing the procession from there. She waited until the street was almost empty, and then flew quietly over the palace wall and down into the familiar garden.

There it was, a little more neglected and a little more weed overgrown than ever, but otherwise just the same. Only it seemed to have grown a great deal smaller in the Queen’s eyes; but that was because she had grown accustomed to great prospects and wide expanses of country.

The long, thorny arms of the roses had grown so much, that it was quite difficult to get under them into the little seat “Now I shall have ever so much trouble to wake him, and he’ll be fearfully surly,” the Queen said to herself.

But it is always the unexpected that happens — as you will one day learn — and the Queen found that the rustling that the leaves made at her entrance had awakened the bat.

“Hullo!” he said, “you there! Glad to see you. Heard from a nightingale that you’d been seen in disreputable company, going about with geese. Well, and what did you think of the world?”

“Oh, it’s a very nice place when you’re used to it.”

“That’s
what you
think,” the bat said. “Wait till you come to be my age. But now, tell me your adventures.”

“I’d better humour him,” the Queen said to herself, and so she plunged into the recital.

When she had finished the bat said,” H’m! and so you’re going to marry the Regent?”

“I’m not going to do an) thing of the sort,” the Queen said.

And the bat asked, “Who are you going to marry, then?”

The Queen answered, “No one; at least—”

And the bat said, “Just so.”

And the Queen replied, “Don’t be stupid. Oh, and tell me how one can cure blindness with wind-flowers.”

The bat said, “Do you know how to make tea?”

“Of course I do,” the Queen answered.

“Well, you make an infusion of dried windflowers just like tea, and then you give it to the young scamp to drink.”

“He’s not a scamp,” the Queen said; “but you’re a dear good old bat all the same.”

The bat said, “H’m!”

The Queen rose to her feet “Well, I must be off,” she said. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

The bat said, “Wait a minute; I’m coming too;” and he dropped down and hung on to the Queen’s shoulder. He was rather a weight, but the Queen suffered it.

“Why, there aren’t any wind-flowers left!” the Queen said, surveying the spot where they had grown.

The bat said, “No; the weeds have choked them all.”

The Queen rubbed her chin and said nothing.

And the bat merely ejaculated, “H’m!”

So the Queen entered the palace.

All the great halls were silent, and empty of people, and she passed through one after the other, shivering a little at their vastness.

At last she came before the curtain that separated her from the Throne Hall. It was large enough to contain the whole nation.

She pushed the curtain aside and found herself standing behind the great throne. Through the interstices of the carved back she could see everything that was going on. The Great Hall was thronged full of people from end to end. On the throne platform the Regent was waiting, evidently about to begin a speech.

The Queen stopped and peeped; there was a great flourish of trumpets that echoed and echoed along the hall, and the Regent began.

“Ladies noble, my lords, dames commoner, and gentlemen!” His great voice sounded clearly through the silence. “As you are well aware, our gracious and high mighty sovereign, the Queen Eldrida, has deigned to favour my unworthy self with the priceless honour of her hand, and that on this auspicious day. Her hand and seal affixed to the weighty document you have seen in the market-place.”

The Queen walked round the opposite side of the throne into the view of the people, who set up a tumultuous cheer. The Regent, however, thought they were cheering him, and went on with his speech.

“I had also announced that it was her Majesty’s royal pleasure to reveal herself to her loyal people’s eyes on this day.”

The Queen slowly ascended the steps of the throne and seated herself thereon. The great gold crown — it was six feet high, and so heavy that no head could bear its weight — hung above her head by a great gold chain.

The people cheered again, and still the Regent, whose back was to the throne, deemed that they were applauding his speech. He ran his fingers through his black beard and continued —

“It is, however, my painful duty to apprise you that her Majesty has been pleased to alter her design. We shall, therefore, be married in private in the Queen’s apartments. The Queen’s maiden modesty will not allow her to reveal her charms to the vulgar multitude.”

He paused and watched the effect of his speech, nervously fingering his beard and blinking with his little eyes. The people whispered among themselves, evidently unable to understand what it meant Suddenly the Queen’s voice rang through the hall “My people,” she said, “it is an infamous lie! I am here.”

The Regent started and turned round; his face grew as pale as death. But from the people a great shout went up at the discomfiture of the hated Regent It echoed and reverberated through the great hall, and then silence fell again.

The Regent fell on his knees. “Oh, your Majesty,” he said, “marry me! marry me! marry me! I adore you! oh, only marry me!”

But the Queen was very pale and stem. “This man,” she said to the people, “has concealed my absence, has forged my name, has slandered me. I unmake him; I degrade him; and I banish him the land!”