the final reduction of dollfort would have taken longer than it actually did if the citadel at the top of it had not been closed for spring cleaning. selim and rose would certainly have taken refuge there, and would have been defended by those that remained of the wooden soldiers. the citadel was very strong, and it might not have been possible to take it by assault at all. they might have had to starve it into surrender, and that would have taken a long time.
however, by a lucky chance, the commander of the fort, who was rather fussy, had said the day before that he couldn’t have the place looking like a pig-sty, and it was to be thoroughly cleaned out and white-washed. this was being done when selim drove into the fort, and the fighting had followed so soon that there had been no opportunity of putting the citadel into any sort of shape to resist attack.
soon after the fort was taken, peggy and the others were allowed to ride into it through the gateway that had been opened by the attacking party. as they came[pg 253] into the first narrow street of the fort a wooden officer was standing by the gate. it was none other than captain louisa, who saluted his old friends, and said he was very glad to see them there.
another officer who was standing with him, patted him on the back, and said, “you haven’t told them that it was you who was first over the wall.”
“that was nothing,” said captain louisa modestly. “i was only doing my duty as a soldier should.”
they congratulated him heartily on his gallant feat of arms. he had said nothing about it himself, but it was plain that he was pleased at having it known to them. peggy had thought it rather boastful of him when he had said in wooden’s drawing-room that nobody would do his duty as a soldier better than he should, but it had turned out to be quite true. wooden said how pleased his wife would be to hear what he had done, and his friend said that he would be made a major for it, or perhaps even a colonel.
they got off their horses at the entrance to the fort, for the streets were too narrow and steep to let them ride any more.
dollfort was an old-fashioned though a very powerful fort. there were houses and shops in the narrow streets, and as they went up through them they saw[pg 254] the soldiers taking refreshment in the inns, which were rather foreign-looking, and made peggy think of the places she had seen in france.
the two sides had already made friends again, and leads and woods were eating and drinking at the same tables, and talking in an eager way about the glorious fight they had had. that is the best of a toy army. when one side wins, the other side bears no malice, and of course the regiments that have fought each other today may very well be fighting on the same side tomorrow.
the ambulance corps had already finished its work inside the fort, and was on its way out to the soldiers still lying on the downs. all the defenders of the fort who had fallen had been picked up again, and, to judge by the merry noise they were making, were none the worse for the experience.
captain louisa and his friend walked up through the streets with them, and peggy was interested to learn that the friend, whose name was lieutenant napoleon, belonged to a regiment which had defended the fort. he was very indignant at what he had heard about selim. “still, it was a good thing we didn’t know what a rascal he was,” he said, “or we shouldn’t have had this glorious scrap.”
[pg 255]
that was the spirit of all the soldiers who had been fighting. they often had sham battles, but this had been a real one, and they had thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the knocking down of the houses outside the fort. they would not have been allowed to knock them down in a sham fight.
the exciting and interesting thing now was to find selim and rose, and get to know where they had hidden the queen and lady grace and wooden’s mother.
lieutenant napoleon told them that the two carriages had come driving quickly into the fort, and the king had put his head out of the window of the first and told the sentries to close the gates, and to send the commander of the fort to him at once at the busby arms, which was the chief inn in the place. then they had driven into the courtyard of the inn, and the gates of that had been closed too.
the commander of the fort was general wellington-vera. he was an uncle of lieutenant napoleon’s, and had taken his wife’s name upon marriage, as is the custom in toyland. general wellington-vera was a brave and capable officer, and had hurried at once to the king, as of course he thought him, to take his orders. these were that the fort was to be stoutly defended to the last man and the last ounce of powder,[pg 257] against a cowardly and treacherous attack that would shortly be made upon the king’s life by the lead soldiers of dolltown, who had revolted. that was what selim had told him, and of course he had believed it.
orders had quickly been given out that every man should be found at his post. then general wellington-vera had made up his mind that he would not wait to be attacked, but would himself attack first; and selim had approved of this. the result had been as we have already seen, and we need not go over the same ground again.
lieutenant napoleon was his uncle’s aide-de-camp, and had been by his side during the greater part of the battle and the siege. he was now free for a time, because the general, who was an old man, had been somewhat exhausted by his exertions, and had gone home to lie down. he said that his uncle had told him nothing about any ladies being with selim. he had talked to him in a room alone. in fact, lieutenant napoleon was surprised to hear that there were any ladies there at all, and still more surprised to hear that one of them was queen rosebud. he had known by this time that she was alive, and that selim was a usurper, but not that he had tried to run away with her.
[pg 258]
“we ought to find them at once,” he said. “i am in command here as long as uncle is lying down, and i shall be pleased to put myself at your disposal.”
they went first of all to the busby arms. the gate of the courtyard was still shut, and lieutenant napoleon banged on it with the hilt of his sword, and called out that if it was not opened at once he would give orders for it to be blown up with gunpowder.
“you had all better take shelter,” he said, as he was waiting for a reply. “they might try sniping at us. i don’t mind for myself, but i shouldn’t like to see any of you hit.”
so they went behind a wall, all except colonel jim and the colonel of lancers and captain louisa, who, being soldiers, scorned to shelter themselves, and waited with lieutenant napoleon.
but there was no occasion for alarm. the gate was soon opened by the innkeeper, who had been terrified by the bombardment of the fort, especially as one of the cannon balls had fallen into the garden behind the inn and broken a cucumber frame.
the innkeeper was as shocked as all the rest when he heard how wicked selim had really been, and very surprised at being told that one of the ladies who had come in the carriage with him was queen rosebud.
[pg 259]
“she must have been the one they said was ill,” he said. “her head was all covered up when they brought her in. they asked for a cup of tea for her, so i went down into the kitchen myself, because, you see, the girl what——”
“never mind about all that,” said the lord chancellor. “where are they now? take us to them at once.”
but alas! the innkeeper could only tell them that they had gone.
“the king,” he said—“well, i suppose i mustn’t call him that now—but selim, he went out with the general when the firing began, and soon after he’d gone the ladies must have slipped off. that’s how i think it must have happened. anyhow, when i went up to tell them about my cucumber frame they’d gone, and i haven’t set eyes on them since.”
they did not waste much more time at the inn. they set out to make a thorough search of the houses in the fort, under the direction of lieutenant napoleon, who now showed himself very zealous on the scent.
there were not, after all, a great many hiding places. it was only in the lower streets of the fort that there were shops and houses. above that there were only[pg 260] barracks and defence works, and the citadel at the top of all.
none of the soldiers whom lieutenant napoleon questioned had seen anything of selim since the taking of the fort. up to that time he had been with general wellington-vera, overlooking the defence, and many of them had seen him. of the queen, and the other lady dolls, nobody had seen anything, from first to last.
“the only thing left is to search the citadel,” said lieutenant napoleon. “i don’t suppose they are there, but i don’t see where else they can be.”
so they set out, and climbed the steep streets up to the top of the fort.
as they went up, they met a lot of female dolls coming down with pails and mops and brooms. these were the char-dolls who had been cleaning up the citadel, and it speaks well for their sense of duty that they had not left off their work during the bombardment. but they were all wives of soldiers, and had been trained to do their duty, whate’er befell.
peggy was interested in these dolls, who were chattering away at a great rate, and anxious to know what had been happening while they were busy. but, being wives of soldiers, they were too well disciplined to ask[pg 261] questions of the officers, and nobody took much notice of them except peggy.
they were mostly dressed in print gowns, but some of them wore big cloaks, because the evening was beginning to get a trifle chilly. peggy noticed in the crowd of them two who had the hoods of their cloaks right over their heads. one of them was very tall, but was bent, as if she had rheumatism. she had the[pg 262] arm of the other one, who was carrying a pail, and they were talking with their heads close together, but not speaking to anybody else.
they had just passed, rather quickly, when an idea suddenly sprang into peggy’s mind. she clutched at wooden’s arm, and said, “look at those two! i believe they are disguised.”
it was the remembrance of colonel jim’s cloak when he had got in to them in the house of cards that had made the idea come into her head. and perhaps the same connection of ideas made colonel jim himself sharper than he generally was; for the moment peggy had spoken he called out to the char-dolls to stop.
most of them, being well disciplined, stopped at once, at the word of command, but the two in cloaks went on, as if they had not heard, slightly quickening their pace, but not running.
that was enough for teddy. he sprang after them. “here, you two!” he said. “let’s have a look at your faces. i’m sure you’ve no reason to be ashamed of them.”
they began to run. but teddy ran after them, and put his foot in front of the tall one, who tripped and fell sprawling in the road. teddy tore off the cloak,[pg 263] and disclosed, not an inoffensive char-doll like the rest, but the gross form and sinister features of the rascally selim.
