lance to her daughter, but of a fairer
complexion, her hair and eyes being also of a lighter brown. She was
picturesquely, even richly, dressed, in a kind of long tunic of scarlet
cloth trimmed with swan's-down, over which she wore a robe of leopard
skin; slippers and buskins of the same material as her gown, but thickly
set with coloured beads and spangles. A tiara, similarly ornamented and
surmounted by ostrich feathers, completed her attire.

She greeted her visitors as they moved up to her chair with graceful
courtesy.

"You are English, I am told?" she said, interrogatively; "if so, my
countrymen, and the first I have beheld for six and twenty years. But I
have not forgotten the dear old language, in which, indeed, I and my
daughter always converse, and it will delight us both to hear it from
other lips beside our own."

"Yes, madam," answered De Walden, "we are English--my three younger
companions entirely so; while I am of English descent and English
parentage on the father's side. We thank you for your kind reception of
us, which, it is needless to say, is most welcome after the toils and
dangers we have undergone."

"Your appearance is that of a missionary," rejoined the Queen. "May I
ask if that is the case, and if so, what is your name, and where have
you of late been residing?"

"I am a preacher of the Gospel," said De Walden, "and my name is
Theodore De Walden. I have been for many years in different parts of
South Africa, both to the north and west of this land."

"I have heard of you," said the Queen, "and have long been desirous of
meeting with you, or some other of your calling. I myself am by birth a
member of the English Church, and still account myself one, though so
long cut off from its ministrations."

"The English Church--indeed!" exclaimed Warley. "May we presume to ask
how--how--"

"How it comes that an English Churchwoman should be living in this wild
country, so far from her native land, and the ruler of a barbarian
tribe--that is what you would ask," said the Queen, smiling. "Well, of
course I knew you would wish to learn the particulars of my strange
history, and it is perhaps as agreeable to me to relate, as it is to you
to hear it. Seat yourselves"--she beckoned to the attendants to bring
forward chairs, as she spoke--"and I will tell you the whole tale."

"I was born in one of the midland counties of England, and am the
daughter of a man of good family, though at the