"why, certainly," the girl said. "we were just going that way to see the procession."

so they set off through the gay streets. as they went along the queen could see the young men on every side falling in love with her; but she paid no attention to them.

"are you glad the queen's going to be married?" she asked her guides.

and the girl answered, "oh yes; we get a holiday to go and see the procession."

"why, then, i suppose you'd be just as glad if the queen died, and you could go and see her funeral?"

and the old woman said, "of course!"

by that time they had come to the market-place. it was crowded with those who had come to see the sights, and the fountains were running wine instead of water; so, of course, there was rather a scramble to get at the fountains. that left the ground clear for the queen to get to the notice-board where the royal proclamation hung.

there she saw, sure enough, the regent's proclamation, saying that the queen would marry him that day. at the end of it there was the signature, "eldrida, queen."

"why, it isn't my signature at all," the queen said.

and the mother and daughter looked at her askance.

"have any of you ever seen the queen?" she asked.

and the mother answered, "no; no one has ever seen the queen but the regent; but there was a story that a beggar told about a year ago, that she had flown out of the palace and away. and they did say that grubb the honey-cake maker and some soldiers knew something about it. but the regent had them all executed, so we never came to know the rights of the story. anyhow, we're had to pay taxes just the same."

now the queen grew really angry with the regent blackjowl.

but she said, "thank you," and "good-bye," to the mother and daughter, and slipped away through the crowd to the side-wall of the palace, where, in the road, she had first commenced her travels.

here there were very few people about, because there was little chance of seeing the procession from there. she waited until the street was almost empty, and then flew quietly over the palace wall and down into the familiar garden.

there it was, a little more neglected and a little more weed overgrown than ever, but otherwise just the same. only it seemed to have grown a great deal smaller in the queen's eyes; but that was because she had grown accustomed to great prospects and wide expanses of country.

the long, thorny arms of the roses had grown so much, that it was quite difficult to get under them into the little seat.

"now i shall have ever so much trouble to wake him, and he'll be fearfully surly," the queen said to herself.

but it is always the unexpected that happens—as you will one day learn—and the queen found that the rustling that the leaves made at her entrance had awakened the bat.

"hullo!" he said, "you there! glad to see you. heard from a nightingale that you'd been seen in disreputable company, going about with geese. well, and what did you think of the world?"

"oh, it's a very nice place when you're used to it."

"that's what you think," the bat said. "wait till you come to be my age. but now, tell me your adventures."

"i'd better humour him," the queen said to herself, and so she plunged into the recital.

when she had finished the bat said, "h'm! and so you're going to marry the regent?"

"i'm not going to do anything of the sort," the queen said.

and the bat asked, "who are you going to marry, then?"

the queen answered, "no one; at least——"

and the bat said, "just so."

and the queen replied, "don't be stupid. oh, and tell me how one can cure blindness with wind-flowers."

the bat said, "do you know how to make tea?"

"of course i do," the queen answered

"well, you make an infusion of dried wind-flowers just like tea, and then you give it to the young scamp to drink."

"he's not a scamp," the queen said; "but you're a dear good old bat all the same."

the bat said, "h'm!"

the queen rose to her feet. "well, i must be off," she said. "i've got a lot to do."

the bat said, "wait a minute; i'm coming too;" and he dropped down and hung on to the queen's shoulder. he was rather a weight, but the queen suffered it.

"why, there aren't any wind-flowers left!" the queen said, surveying the spot where they had grown.

the bat said, "no; the weeds have choked them all."

the queen rubbed her chin and said nothing.

and the bat merely ejaculated, "h'm!"

so the queen entered the palace.

all the great halls were silent, and empty of people, and she passed through one after the other, shivering a little at their vastness.

at last she came before the curtain that separated her from the throne hall. it was large enough to contain the whole nation.

she pushed the curtain aside and found herself standing behind the great throne. through the interstices of the carved back she could see everything that was going on. the great hall was thronged full of people from end to end. on the throne platform the regent was waiting, evidently about to begin a speech.

the queen stopped and peeped; there was a great flourish of trumpets that echoed and echoed along the hall, and the regent began.

"ladies noble, my lords, dames commoner, and gentlemen!" his great voice sounded clearly through the silence. "as you are well aware, our gracious and high mighty sovereign, the queen eldrida, has deigned to favour my unworthy self with the priceless honour of her hand, and that on this auspicious day. her hand and seal affixed to the weighty document you have seen in the market-place."

the queen walked round the opposite side of the throne into the view of the people, who set up a tumultuous cheer. the regent, however, thought they were cheering him, and went on with his speech.

"i had also announced that it was her majesty's royal pleasure to reveal herself to her loyal people's eyes on this day."

the queen slowly ascended the steps of the throne and seated herself thereon. the great gold crown—it was six feet high, and so heavy that no head could bear its weight—hung above her head by a great gold chain.

the people cheered again, and still the regent, whose back was to the throne, deemed that they were applauding his speech. he ran his fingers through his black beard and continued—

"it is, however, my painful duty to apprise you that her majesty has been pleased to alter her design. we shall, therefore, be married in private in the queen's apartments. the queen's maiden modesty will not allow her to reveal her charms to the vulgar multitude."

he paused and watched the effect of his speech, nervously fingering his beard and blinking with his little eyes. the people whispered among themselves, evidently unable to understand what it meant.

suddenly the queen's voice rang through the hall.

"my people," she said, "it is an infamous lie! i am here."

the regent started and turned round; his face grew as pale as death. but from the people a great shout went up at the discomfiture of the hated regent. it echoed and reverberated through the great hall, and then silence fell again.

the regent fell on his knees. "oh, your majesty," he said, "marry me! marry me! marry me! i adore you! oh, only marry me!"

but the queen was very pale and stern. "this man," she said to the people, "has concealed my absence, has forged my name, has slandered me. i unmake him; i degrade him; and i banish him the land!"

once again the people cheered to see the regent led off by the guards.

then one of the nobles spoke, "your majesty," he said, "it is for the good of the nation that you should marry. the late regent was a tyrant, and, as such, unfitted for the inestimable honour; but i am the first noble in the realm. i am beloved by the people; therefore, your majesty, adding to it the fact that i respectfully adore your majesty, i beg your majesty to let these things weigh down the balance of your mind, and marry me."

but hardly were the words out of his mouth when a tumult arose, the like of which was never heard in any land, for every man of the nation was shouting, "marry me! marry me!" till the whole building quivered.

the queen held up her hand for silence. "listen!" she said. "i shall marry no one of you; and i will not even remain your queen. for i am quite unfitted for a ruler, and i don't in the least want to be one. therefore, choose a ruler for yourselves."

but the people with one voice shouted, "be you our ruler!"

the queen, however, said, "no; i cannot and will not. it wouldn't be any good at all; besides, all the men would love me a great deal too much, and all the women would hate me a great deal too much, because of their husbands and sweethearts and all. so you must choose a king for yourselves."

but confusion became doubly confounded, for every man in that vast assembly voted for himself as king.

"oh, this will never do," the queen said; "because, at this rate, you'll all go on quarrelling for ever, and the kingdom had better have remained under the regent. shall i choose a king for you?"

and with one voice the people answered, "yes."

so the queen said, "the king i choose is very fit in one way, for he is not likely to be partial, since he is in this vast assembly the only one that is not in love with me. he will be very economical, because he neither needs much food, nor cares for rich robes. therefore, the taxes will not be heavy; and, even if he is a little weak-eyed, he will not be a bit more blind to your interests, perhaps, than you are yourselves."

so saying, the queen arose from the throne and, taking the bat from her shoulder, set him on the vacant seat, where he scuttled about and did not seem particularly comfortable.

"now, you're the king," the queen said to him.

"h'm!" he said. "will they give me some raw meat?"

the queen said, "oh yes; and anything else you like to ask for."

the bat said, "h'm! this seat isn't very comfortable. what's that thing up there?"

"that's the crown," the queen said.

and the king remarked, "h'm!" and in a moment he was hanging upside down from the bottom of the crown.

and the people cheered their king.

but the queen just said, "good-bye, your majesty."

"good-bye," the bat said. "i suppose you won't marry me?"

"don't be silly," the late queen said; and she slipped behind the curtain and ran through the deserted halls again, and once more out into the garden. and once again she watered her favourite plants, for the last time, and then flew right up into the air and away, away over the troubled seas, to the land that lay low in the horizon.

"how delightful it feels not to be a queen any longer!" she said to herself. "i always used to feel afraid, when i sat under that great crown, that it might fall on my head and squash me altogether. but i wonder how the bat got on."

that the queen never knew; but this was what happened. the bat took to kingship quite as easily as a duck takes to water, and, for reasons that the queen gave, made a most popular ruler—even though he was strictly just. true, there were only three people in the kingdom who understood him, and they were mouse-trap makers who had learnt the bat language from mice. but, as the king always superintended the carrying out of his own edicts, they did not care to play tricks. and the bat language was taught in all the schools, so that it became the state tongue. and all the ladies took to wearing brown sealskin cloaks with great puffed sleeves and capes, so as to look as much like bats as possible, and they all pretended to be very weak-sighted and turned night into day, in imitation of the king.

so that altogether the king was a great success from every point of view, as he was very long-lived, the last news that has reached here from the narrowlands, reported that his majesty was still hanging head downwards from the great crown, and was still setting the fashion throughout the kingdom, though the news does not tell us that his people have yet resorted to hanging from the chandeliers by their toes.

but the narrowlands is very far away from here, so that news does not often reach us from it; there is even no talk of opening the country up, which alone shows how difficult it must be to reach.

* * * * *

in the mean while the queen had come to the other shore. she flew straight to the little cottage in the valley, and the cock who was standing on the doorsill greeted her with a lusty crow, being glad to see her again.

in the house there was no one to be found.

"the little mother must have gone to her bleaching," the queen said to herself, "and he—oh, he told me he was going to work in the wood to-day, so now i'll see about making the infusion. the kettle's on the boil, and it won't take long."

she took off the faded wind-flower crown, and looked at it for a moment.

"you poor thing!" she said, "it seems a shame, but still it can't be helped," and in a moment she had dropped it into the boiling water, which rapidly assumed the golden straw colour of a weak cup of tea. this she poured into a drinking-horn, and then set off with it into the wood at the back of the house. it was rather a ticklish task, walking through the low, dusky wood with the horn in her hand, for it was getting on in the day and the light was bad, and the small trees of which the wood was composed were difficult to walk among.

by her side the stream rushed and rustled over its rocky bottom, and her feet crackled too on the flooring of last year's fallen leaves, but the sound that she paused every now and then to listen for she could not hear. there came no sharp ringing of the axe down the valley among the trees.

"he must be binding the faggots together," she said to herself, and went on until she came to the clearing where he should have been at work; but there he was not.

the light came down the valley duskily through the mist; it gleamed upon the stream and glimmered on the white ends of the newly chopped faggots that were neatly bound together with withies.

"he must have gone further on," she said to herself, and ran quite swiftly up the steep path that climbed into the heart of the mountains. the falling of the night frightened her a little, and she was anxious to find him.

up and up the rocky path went, whilst the stream foamed down beside it, and at last she saw him in a slant of light that came down a west-facing valley. he was crossing the stream just above where it thundered over a great boulder.

there was a bridge across the torrent, but it was only a tree-trunk, and he preferred, in his blindness, to cross on the stream bottom, over the boulders with the aid of a good staff. the water foamed up to his knees.

she came as close to the water's edge as she could, and called—

"why, where are you going to?"

in spite of the roaring of the waters he heard her and turned.

"who are you?" he asked

and she answered, "i am eldrida."

and in a moment, with a great splashing of the black water, he was at her side.

"i thought you had gone for good," he said. "and so i worked as long as i felt able to; but just now it was all so silent and so dreadfully lonely, that i could not stand it, and i was about to set out to search for you through the world."

"what all alone, and blind?" she said.

and he answered, "yes, since you were gone i was alone and blind; but if i had found you i should not have been alone, and hardly blind at all."

she put the horn into his hand, and said, "drink this."

"why, what is it?" she asked.

"it is what i went to fetch," she said; "drink it and see."

the light was shining on his face as he raised it to his mouth and drank it off, and suddenly there came into his eyes a look of great joy.

"why," he said, "i can see!" and in a moment he had thrown his arms round her and drew her tightly to him. "i love you more than all the world!" he said. "do you love me?"

she seemed to have forgotten all about the elixir, for instead of saying, "don't be ridiculous!" she just said, "yes, i love you very much."

and the stream roared on over the great boulder and whirled back over the rocky shallows, and the shadows in the valleys grew darker and darker; but they both had a great deal to say, though, as a matter of fact, it might most of it have been said with three words and a kiss.

but, you see, they preferred to do it in another way; at least, as far as the speaking went—in my experience, there is only one way of kissing.

"so you see, i shan't be able to fly away any more," she said, after she had related her story, "because the poor wind-flower crown is all boiled."

"oh, well," he said, "i dare say you won't want it again, unless you get very tired of me."

and she said, "don't be ridiculous!" but even that had nothing to do with the elixir.

and so they went home down the dark valley to the cottage.

the little mother smiled to see eldrida.

"i knew you would come back," she said; "but my son was in a dreadful state—weren't you, son, son?"

and he only answered, "mother, mother, i was. and i am very hungry; and i can see again!"

so there was great rejoicing in the cottage that night, and the little old woman's eyes grew bright with joy-tears.

but next day eldrida and her love were married, and, from that time forth, they worked together, and went hand in hand up the tranquil valley or in among the storms on the hillcrests, and so lived happily ever after.