My orders are to bring you before the Council," he said, "if you will
be good enough to follow me. We will go round by the outer corridor, so
that you will be in no danger from the mob."

"What's all this about, my dear?" whispered King Sidney, as he walked
with his wife and son between a strong guard. "I thought things had
quieted down again."

"Oh, don't ask _me_, Sidney!" she returned, "you will know quite soon
enough. But you needn't be uneasy. I've brought you through much worse
things than this." She entered the Council Hall endeavouring to look as
much like Marie Antoinette as she could. That her own Council should
arraign her like this was, as she protested, most unconstitutional--they
had no right whatever to do it. But, however that might be, they _were_
doing it--a fact which even she was compelled to recognise.

The President began the proceedings by reciting the evidence of Daphne's
title, which it now appeared had been put into the hands of the
Burgomaster and other notables of Eswareinmal by the Marshal, just
before he had gone to meet his sudden end. He then asked, in the name of
the whole Tribunal, what the present occupants of the throne had to urge
in their own defence.

If the Queen had possessed the legal mind she would have perceived at
once that the evidence was merely hearsay--inferences that the Marshal
had drawn from what Daphne had told him, and as proofs quite worthless.
But she had not a legal mind; and besides she knew that the proofs were
quite good enough for Maerchenland--also that the allegations happened to
be true.

So she did not attempt to deny them. "All I can say is," she declared,
"that this is quite new to _me_. When we were brought here I was given
to understand that the Kingdom had descended to me, and of course I
accepted the responsibility. If there has been any silly mistake about
it, you can't blame me or my husband either. We've tried to do our
duty--even so far as consenting to our son's making a marriage we could
not approve of--for the sake of saving our Country from inundation. It's
not every King and Queen who would have done _that_."

"That peril," replied the Burgomaster, "is no longer to be feared, since
the King of the Crystal Lake, on being notified of the facts in our
possession, has withdrawn his demands, saying he desires no union with a
family of ignoble and beggarly pretenders."

"That's a let-off!" said Clarence, "though he might have put it a bit