"I think, Madam," he replied smoothly, "that you would find none here to address." "How dare you tell me that, when you can hear them calling for 'their Queen' at this very moment!" "But not for _you_, Madam. The Queen they are demanding is the Lady Daphne." "Miss Heritage!" gasped Queen Selina. "Why should they want _her_?" "It seems," he said, "that certain information has reached the Burgomaster and chief citizens which has convinced them of her title to the throne, and they are now in conference with the Council on the matter." "So that treacherous old vixen of a Court Godmother had betrayed the secret after all, in spite of her promise!" concluded Queen Selina. But the battle was not lost yet by any means. She was not going to give in, when she had so many chances in her favour. "They might have had the decency to invite us to be present," she said. "Surely we have _some_ right to be consulted!" "They will summon you before them presently, no doubt," he said, and almost as he spoke an official came towards them and whispered to the Captain of the Guard, who turned to the Queen: "My orders are to bring you before the Council," he said, "if you will be good enough to follow me. We will go round by the outer corridor, so that you will be in no danger from the mob." "What's all this about, my dear?" whispered King Sidney, as he walked with his wife and son between a strong guard. "I thought things had quieted down again." "Oh, don't ask _me_, Sidney!" she returned, "you will know quite soon enough. But you needn't be uneasy. I've brought you through much worse things than this." She entered the Council Hall endeavouring to look as much like Marie Antoinette as she could. That her own Council should arraign her like this was, as she protested, most unconstitutional--they had no right whatever to do it. But, however that might be, they _were_ doing it--a fact which even she was compelled to recognise. The President began the proceedings by reciting the evidence of Daphne's title, which it now appeared had been put into the hands of the Burgomaster and other notables of Eswareinmal by the Marshal, just before he had gone to meet his sudden end. He then asked, in the name of the whole Tribunal, what the present occupants of the throne had to urge in their own defence. If the Queen had possessed the legal mind she would have perceived at once that the evidence was merely hearsay--inferences that the Marshal had drawn from what Daphne had told him, and as proofs quite worthless. But she had not a legal mind; and besides she knew that the proofs were quite good enough for Maerchenland--also that the allegations happened to be true.