self is seeing to matters."

"Dear, dear!" sighed his Majesty, "I do wish he would manage to get his
urgent business done at the proper time!"

"I think, sir," said the General, "that this matter is one of sufficient
importance to justify a suspension of the ordinary rules." He paused, as
though about to say more, but thought better of it; after all the matter
did not lie within his department.

"Very well," said the King, "let him come in, then!" And in due course
the Premier entered.

It was evident at a glance that he was the bearer of important, nay,
even alarming, intelligence; his eye was startled and anxious, his
manner full of discomposure, and without waste of a moment he opened
abruptly upon the business which had brought him.

"I have come to inform your Majesty," said he, "that we have at last
discovered the Princess Charlotte's whereabouts."

"Oh?" said the King, excluding from his tone any indication of gratitude
over the too long delayed discovery. "And pray, where is she?"

"I regret to say, sir, that her Royal Highness is at this moment in
Stonewall Jail."

"Good Heavens!" exclaimed the King, startled out of his coldness.
"Whatever took her there?"

"She was taken, sir, in a 'Molly Hold-all'[1] along with several others.
And she has been there for the last ten days."

[Footnote 1: Jingalese equivalent for "Black Maria."]

"Yes, yes; but what I want to know is what has she been doing? In this
country one doesn't get put into prison for nothing, I should hope."

"The charge, sir, was for assaulting the police. No doubt there has been
a very regrettable mistake; there was, unquestionably, in the
magistrate's court, some conflict of evidence."

"Assaulting the police!" exclaimed the King petulantly.

"But what else are the police there for?--when there's trouble, I mean.
And how many of them did she assault, pray?"

"I believe only one, sir," replied the Prime Minister; "at least only
one of them gave any evidence against her, and there were five witnesses
to say that she did not assault him. The magistrate who convicted,
however, accepted the constable's evidence; he is, I believe, rather
hard of hearing; and I am told that he thought the witnesses in her
favor were all giving evidence against her. If that is so, it
sufficiently accounts for the conviction. On the other hand there can be
no doubt that the Princess did intend to get arrested."

"When did all this take place?"

"In the c