ggetty steed saluted with
agitated air and a rather white face.

"The danger is over, your Majesty," he gasped, a little out of breath,
"only a few horses are down; no one is killed."

The King nodded acceptance of the news; and as he did so noticed a tiny
fleck of blood upon the officer's cheek--no more than if he had cut
himself in shaving. It seemed to give the correct measure of the
catastrophe, and to assure him more than words could have done that the
damage was really small.

Except for that one moment when he had impulsively put his head through
glass, the King had kept his wits and remained calm; and now his royal
instinct told him the right thing to be done.

"If you want to manage that crowd," he said, "we had much better drive
on. Until we do they may think that anything has happened. Tell them to
start, and not to drive fast."

The officer went forward bearing the royal order.

"Alicia," said the King, "there really is nothing to cry about; the most
important thing is to show the people that we are not hurt. Pull
yourself together, my dear. There! now we are starting again. And if you
think you can manage it, stand right up at your window and I will stand
at mine; then nobody can have any doubt at all."

He removed some shattered glass from her lap as he spoke, and gave an
encouraging squeeze to her hand; and as the coach moved forward they
stood up and confidently presented themselves to the public gaze.

Sure enough that sight had a magical effect equal to the controlling
force of a thousand police. The crowd recovered its wits and allowed
itself to be shoved back into place. Out through the gates sallied the
piebald ponies; and from end to end all Regency Row broke into a roar.
Ahead went the troops and the police, pressing back the once more
amenable crowd; men and women were weeping, moist handkerchiefs were
ecstatically waved, quite new and reputable hats were thrown up into
air, and allowed to fall unreclaimed and unregarded. And truly it was a
sight well calculated to stir the blood, for there, emerging unhurt from
dust and smoke, from rumor and sound of terror, came the monarch and his
Queen standing upon their feet and bowing undaunted to a furore of
cries.

Through all that vast multitude word of the outrage had sped, like a
black raven flapping its wings, charged ominously with tidings of death;
and as confusion had spread wide nothing more could be heard, till once
more a resumption