by galloping troopers of the Household
Guard, the Queen's carriage is driven to the railway station at a
furious pace. No one--I mean no ordinary person--knows the hour at which
she will start or the streets through which she will go. The special
royal train is waiting at the platform, and the royal carriage goes
whirling toward it through the most unexpected streets. Every loyal
Briton loves to show his love for her Majesty by a hearty roar, but no
one has a chance to cheer her on her travels. There is a distant clatter
of hoofs; it comes nearer, and you hear the rattling of sabres and whir
of wheels. A blur of redcoats and nodding plumes shoots past, and the
hoof-beats are dying in the distance before you can say, "There goes the
Queen."

Of course the royal coach goes at a sedate pace during a royal progress
or parade. Then there are more soldiers along the streets than you or I
could count, and the Queen appears bowing in her open carriage of state,
with all her outriders and officers and guards and the burly English
footmen and Scotch gillies necessary for display.

When the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India travels
she occupies her own special car. A special locomotive is reserved for
her, and it is run by a special engineer, always the most experienced
man in the company's service. On the London and Southwestern Railway,
for example, engine No. 575 draws the Queen's car. Thomas Higgs, a fine,
keen-eyed old Briton, an engineer for nearly forty years, holds the
lever and the throttle. It is his boast that during this long period of
service not one of his millions of passengers has ever been killed. Not
one even has been injured. He is more careful than ever when her Majesty
is aboard. Between Windsor and Gosport alone there are fifteen
junctions, and every one of these is a possible danger-spot. A pilot
train runs a short distance in advance of the Queen's special to make
sure that the way is clear, and that the track has not been put out of
order.

The interior of the Queen's car is furnished after the fashion of the
white drawing-room at Windsor Castle. There are white silk cushions,
embroidered with the initials V.R. (_Victoria Regina_), and the Garter
and its motto, all in gold thread. The carpet is of velvet. The curtains
at the windows are hung on silver poles, and the door-handles are plated
with gold. The Queen's own comfortable arm-chair is at the rear of the
saloon and faces the e