They did listen, and heard a roar in the distance coming nearer and nearer, then a great mass of people came sweeping up the street, crying out, “Long live Queen Rose!” “Let us see our new Queen!” “Where is the Rose-Princess?” “Ah, where indeed?” cried the Queen, weeping. “I have not seen our beautiful daughter since the mob attacked the palace.” “She would easily be recognised,” said the doctor. “I’m not so sure of that,” replied the King, looking at the Queen. “You know our Princess is enchanted by the faeries.” “Faeries?” echoed the doctor; “I never saw one.” “But I did,” said the Queen. “Excuse me, my dear madam—dyspepsia,” returned the doctor gravely, for you see he did not know how the Princess changed to a rosebud every night. The Queen was very angry, but dared not say anything, lest the doctor should deliver her up to the mob, who were now surging in the wide street, listening to a man who was speaking. “That is Ardram the student,” said the doctor. “I saw his sick mother last night—she gave me this rosebud.” “Ah,” sighed the Queen, as she took the rosebud from the doctor, “how like my poor lost daughter!” “I do not see the resemblance, sire and madam,” said the doctor; “but listen to Ardram;” and he went out of the room, leaving the King and Queen to hearken to the man who had taken their throne from them. He was talking in a loud tone to the mob, and telling them they ought to elect the Rose-Princess for their Queen, as she would know how to govern better than her parents. The sun was just rising, and the golden beams were shining on his face, so that he looked truly noble. “A seditious traitor!” cried the King. “Cut his head off!” said the Queen. But they had not the power to do so, and, amid cries of “Long live Queen Rose!” Ardram leaped from his standing-place, and all the mob swept down the street to look for the lost Princess. The King and Queen turned from the window in great anger, when they saw to their surprise that the Rose-Princess was standing in the room. “My child, my child!” said the King, kissing her. “It was your rosebud, then?” said the Queen, folding the beautiful girl in her arms. “What rosebud?” asked the Rose-Princess in surprise; “and how did I come here?” “The doctor brought you,” said the King. “Did he carry me through the streets?” asked the Princess, very much astonished. “I wonder I was not recognised.” “No one could recognise you as you were then,” said the Queen, and nodded wisely, but she did not tell the Princess that she had been a rosebud when she was carried by the doctor. “I’ve had such a lot of adventures,” said the Rose-Princess; “but I don’t know how I came from one place to the other. First, I was in the palace, then in Ardram’s room, then by his sick mother’s bedside, and now here. It must be the faeries.” “It is the faeries,” observed the Queen, kissing her daughter again. “You’ll know all about it when you marry the exiled Prince, and break the spell.”