"I--I'd rather the Council explained it to them, my dear," he said. "The Council have been sitting tight with closed doors all the morning," said Clarence, "like a bally lot of broody hens. I don't know, of course, but I've a notion they're discussing a Republic or something." "If _you_ won't speak to the people, Sidney," declared the Queen, with the courage of despair, "I must order the guards to close the Courtyard gates, and tell the mob that, if they promise to be quiet and behave themselves, I'll come out and talk to them myself." "Good egg, Mater!" cried Clarence, "I'll come with you. It's really _my_ show!" "You'll only make them worse! Much better keep indoors and take no notice. More dignified," said the King. But as his wife and son paid no attention to him, he followed them out for very shame. As they came down the front steps and advanced to within hearing distance of the crowd, which had not attempted as yet to break through the closed gates, they were received with yells and howls of execration, frantic shaking of fists and brandishing of improvised weapons. The strength of the gates and the presence of the guards gave the Queen more confidence than she might otherwise have felt. "Now, good people!" she said in rather a tremulous voice, "it's quite impossible to speak while you're making all this noise!" She had sent up for her crown, and perhaps this impressed them unconsciously, though she had been too nervous to put it on straight. Gradually silence was obtained. "I know why you've come," she began, "and we _quite_ understand your feelings about our son's engagement. In fact we _share_ them." This provoked a renewal of the uproar and a vehement desire to know why, if that were so, the union had ever been contracted. "If you'll only listen, I'll tell you," said the Queen. "We shouldn't have consented to it at all but for the sake of our beloved people." At this the beloved people very nearly had the gates down. "You don't understand," she shouted. "Even now, if you insist on the marriage being broken off, we are quite willing--indeed we shall be only too happy--to put a stop to it." Here there were shouts of "We do! We do insist! Stop it! No marriage!" "Very well then," said Queen Selina with more assurance, "only I am bound to tell you what the consequences will be. The Crystal Lake will overflow till the whole of Maerchenland is under water. At least that's what the Lake King threatens. _You_ know best whether he can do it or not." Her hearers knew too well, and the cries and murmurs took an altered tone at once, though some voices cursed the Prince whose weakness and folly had brought them to such a dilemma. "Weakness and folly!" cried the Queen indignantly. "How can you be so wretchedly ungrateful? When my poor, noble, unselfish boy is sacrificing himself--for you don't suppose he can have any affection for a Water-nixie?--sacrificing himself on--on the altar of his country!"