Whereupon the leader of the soldiers, who had not had the fortune to get at any of the Queen’s jewellery, said, "Release the lady;" and, rather crestfallen, the soldiers obeyed him. "Oh, your Majesty," the leader said, kneeling, "we have had such a trouble to find you. The Regent, discovering that your Majesty had left the palace, told us to follow you with all haste to provide for your safety." "So you provided for it by trying to rob people’s houses," the Queen said. And the leader answered, "Oh no, your Majesty. We feared, knowing that James Grubb is a noted rebel, that he had kidnapped your Majesty, and so were making a domiciliary search." "I’m not a noted rebel," the honey-cake maker gasped. "I’m only noted for my honey-cakes." But no one noticed his little puff. The Queen said to the soldiers, "Well, I don’t want you. You can go; and don’t make any more domiciliary searches." The leader, however, answered, "Oh, but, your Majesty, domiciliary searches are most necessary in the present state of the kingdom." "I don’t care," the Queen said; "I forbid you to make them. So now go away." "But, your Majesty," the leader answered, "the Regent gave us orders to conduct your Majesty back to the palace. It is not constitutional." "I’m sure I don’t care," the Queen answered; "I’m not going back. Good-bye." And she suddenly flew straight up into the air and away over the housetops, and the last sight she had of them showed them, with their faces upturned towards her, gazing in dumb astonishment, the leader still on his knees and the honey-cake maker on his back in the street. The beggar had long since slunk round a corner and disappeared. So the Queen rose to quite a great height in the air. "I shall go right away from the town," she said "The smoke is so choking up here above the roofs. However people can live down there I can’t make out." So she went right up into the blue sky and made her way towards where, at the skirts of the town, the mountains rose steep and frowning. Up there, standing on the mountain’s crest, she had a glorious view of sea and sky and town and country. The sea threw back the deep blue of the sky above, and the white wave-horses flecked its surface, and the ships passed silently far out at sea; down below her feet, it beat against the rocky base of the cliff, and in and out amongst the spray the seagulls flew like a white cloud. The town lay in a narrow valley, broad at the sea face, and running inwards into narrowness between grey, grand hills, right to where it disappeared in the windings of the pass. Down below, in the harbour, she could see the boats getting ready for sea.