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.