there lay the villain who had worked such mischief among the simple and generous inhabitants of toyland, and, above all, to their noble queen, who had loaded him with benefits. he lay on the muddy road, blinking and scowling at his captors, well knowing that his game was up and his doom would soon fall. he was a sorry spectacle, in his discovery and disgrace. it was checkmate for him finally, and no further move was left to him.
as for the chief partner in his crimes, who had tried to escape with him—the renegade composition doll rose, who had so completely failed to obey the natural instincts of upright dollhood—it was easy enough to recognize her in the other cloaked figure, when once selim’s disguise had been torn from him. it was wooden’s aunt who sprang forward and snatched the cloak away from rose. “so here you are, my beauty!” she exclaimed exultantly. “got you at last! and if you try to get away i’ll scratch your eyes out.”
[pg 265]
but rose made no effort to get away. she did not cower before them, as the wretched selim did. he made no effort even to rise from the ground until lieutenant napoleon called up two soldiers to seize him and hold him fast. but rose drew herself up to her full height, and flashed scorn upon her captors from her dark eyes. there was something grand in her, in spite of the wickedness of her behaviour, but it was not the sort of grandeur that it does anybody any good to admire. the only thing that can be said about her is that with such a bold character it is a pity that she had not used her powers to do right instead of wrong. then they might have led her to great heights. as it was, they had brought her down to ruin.
they questioned her as to what had been done with the queen and the other dolls who had been carried off; but she would answer them nothing. her contemptuous look seemed to say, “you may do what you like with me, and i shall only go on despising you. but you will get nothing out of me, so it is waste of time to try.”
the wretched selim, however, was more amenable to pressure. “if you will let me free to go away,” he whined, “i will tell you everything.”
“give him a twist of the arm,” said lieutenant napoleon,[pg 266] “and see if that will make him tell us. he isn’t going to be let free.”
one of the soldiers screwed selim’s arm, not very hard, because it wasn’t necessary. directly he felt the slightest pain, selim gave way at once. “oh, don’t hurt me!” he cried out—the wretched, cowardly creature! “they are in the citadel—quite safe and comfortable. i might have executed them all, but i haven’t touched a hair of their heads.”
“bring the prisoners along with us,” said lieutenant napoleon. “we will go up to the citadel at once.”
they mounted to the top of the fort. the citadel was a great barrack of a place, with one fine hall, and a regular hive of smaller rooms, besides the fortified works. if it could have been used for a final defence of dollfort there would have been room in it for lots of soldiers, and everything would have been there to enable the defenders to support a long siege. but it had all been cleared out. the courtyard inside the gates was encumbered with furniture, and even the guns had dust-sheets over them. the great hall and the lower rooms had all been thoroughly cleaned, but the char-dolls had not reached the upper rooms yet, and it was to one of these that selim, who was now eager to tell everything, led them.
[pg 267]
he had locked the door, and thrown away the key out the window, as he was obliged to confess, but it did not take long to break it open. colonel jim, who was the biggest and strongest of them all, and who was very anxious to rescue lady grace as quickly as possible, put his shoulder to the door and gave one mighty push, and it flew open.
the room was very small. it had a narrow, barred window, and the only furniture in it was a low bed and a wooden chair. it was, in fact, a prison cell, used for locking up soldiers who had committed offences. and this was the place in which selim had locked up the unfortunate queen, and the other two dolls, without any food or even water. supposing he had escaped, as he had hoped to do! they would have stayed there all night, and could only have been released if they had managed to attract the attention of the char-dolls who would come to the citadel the next morning.
colonel jim was not very quick at understanding things, as we have seen, but he understood this directly his eyes took in what was inside the door he had burst open. he turned round and gave selim a violent buffet on the side of his face, which made the miserable creature cower away and cry out. he had still to be[pg 268] punished for his crimes, but this first instalment of his punishment made everybody feel better.
queen rosebud was sitting on the chair with her hands on her lap, the picture of stately patience; lady grace and wooden’s mother were sitting on the bed, and it was evident that lady grace had been crying.
the queen rose slowly from her chair. “i wish to be taken away from this place,” she said.
she was very royal, even under the dreadful circumstances in which she found herself, and after all she had gone through. the lord chancellor advanced towards her and bowed very low. “if your majesty will deign to lead your loyal subjects to the great hall,” he said, “justice can be done at once on these malefactors, and in the meantime preparations can be made for your majesty’s convenience for the night. it will be too late to go back to your majesty’s capital until tomorrow.”
the queen simply said, “come, lady grace,” and walked out of the cell. the wretched selim tried to draw her attention to himself with a whining prayer for mercy, as she passed him. but she took not the smallest notice. she did, however, make a slight inclination of the head towards peggy, as she passed her; and peggy felt proud and honoured, just as if[pg 269] it had been a real queen who had taken notice of her. but it cannot be too often repeated that queen rosebud was like a real queen, in all her ways and in all her deeds.
they went into the great hall, and a seat was brought for the queen at the top of it. all the rest of them stood. selim, between two soldiers, and rose, between two others, were brought up before her.
the lord chancellor cleared his throat, as if it lay with him to open the proceedings, but he was a very different lord chancellor before queen rosebud from what he had been in the hall of audience before the usurping selim. when the queen held up her hand he stopped his preparations for speech at once, and listened respectfully to what she had to say.
she spoke slowly, in a low musical voice, and every word she said could be heard plainly by everybody in the great hall.
“king selim is to be taken at once to the coast,” she said, “and put into a boat, with oars and a sail, and enough food for several days. he is to row or sail away from my kingdom, and never to come back here. if he does so, he is to be executed. take him away.”
that was all, and she waited for her commands to[pg 270] be carried out before speaking again. she had given the miserable creature his title. he was a king, though not king of toyland. he had been cast on the shores of her island destitute and solitary, and had been right royally treated. and he had repaid her as we have seen. but she made no accusation against him. he was simply to be sent away.
the wretched being was led off by the two soldiers who had guarded him. he went without a word. he knew that his life had been most mercifully spared, for he could row or sail to land in a few hours, or be picked up by a ship. let us hope that he felt some compunction for his many crimes. he passed out of the hall between the two guards, the great door clanged after him, and he was seen no more.
the queen’s face changed as she turned towards rose. selim was a foreigner, and in getting rid of him she had done all that she needed to do. but rose was her own subject, and must be dealt with in a different fashion.
“as for you,” she said, “you must stand your trial according to the laws of the land. if you choose to stand it now, with me for your judge, you may do so. say whatever you please in your own defence, and i will listen to you. if not, i wash my hands of you,[pg 271] and you will be sent to prison to await your trial by jury.”
it was an extraordinary act of clemency for the queen to deal with rose’s case herself, and no doubt rose knew that she would get more merciful treatment than if her crimes were left to the judgment of a jury of dolls, who could not help being furious with her for what she had done.
but all she said, in a voice of scorn, was, “oh, try me now, and finish it. i have done what i have done, and i wish i had succeeded. as i’ve failed, do what you like with me.”
the queen looked at her with her calm, steady gaze, and rose’s eyes dropped before it. “i am more sorry for you than you are for yourself,” the queen said. “i know that you have been led away by spite and jealousy, and those are feelings that cause great unhappiness to whoever possesses them. it is your misfortune that you have those bad qualities, but it is in your power to conquer them. it is my hope that you will succeed in doing so. go! you are free.”
the guards on either side of rose fell away from her. she stood staring at the queen with wide eyes, as if she could hardly believe what had been said to her. then she realized that she was free, to go where[pg 272] she liked, and that she was not to be punished at all. she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears, and then hurried away out of the hall. her proud and rebellious spirit would not have quailed before any punishment that might have been meted out to her, but the punishment would have left her no better than she had been before. but the free pardon, which she could never have expected, had broken her down. it was to be hoped that she would really repent of her bad ways now, and be a better doll than she had ever been before.
when rose had left the hall, the queen’s face lightened. “all that is left for me now,” she said, “is to thank such of my subjects as have been so active and successful in setting me free from the plots that have surrounded me. and first of all, i must thank the dear little girl who is not my subject, but has come here on a visit to find us in trouble that is now at an end. she must come again. that is the only way in which i can reward her.”
she smiled graciously and sweetly at peggy, who felt extraordinarily pleased.
then she turned to wooden. “you have always had my respect and liking,” she said, “and i had intended to have appointed you today to a post of honour[pg 273] about my person. i do so now, under the title of lady-in-waiting in ordinary, and extra bed-doll of the royal chamber. your duties will bring you into constant relationship with me, and i look forward with pleasure to making you my friend.”
it was most graciously said, and wooden was so overcome with pride and pleasure that she could only stammer out her thanks, and promise to perform her duties as well as ever she could.
the queen then called for a sword. colonel jim handed her his, and to his great surprise she knighted him with it, and then conferred the same honour upon teddy, who was even more surprised, as he was the first bear in toyland who had ever received it.
when she had done this, she rose from her seat, and intimated that she[pg 275] wished to retire for the night, but before doing so she said a few gracious words to all who were in the hall. she said with a smile to colonel jim that she hoped soon to know him under the title of sir jim lady-grace, which was a happy way of saying that she would forward a marriage between him and her favourite lady-in-waiting. and she told teddy, who was so overcome with the honour that had been conferred on him that his customary flightiness had departed for the moment, that she thought he ought to get married too, and she should always be pleased to welcome to her court sir teddy and lady bear-wooden’s-aunt.
it may readily be guessed into what a flutter this suggestion put wooden’s aunt. while the queen was[pg 276] talking to her, and hearing about her having been tied up to the tree by selim and rose, she was quiet and respectful. but directly the queen’s back was turned, and teddy came up to her with a grin to see whether she liked the idea of marrying him, she cut a caper, and teddy cut another, so that wooden’s mother had to remind them both that they would belong for the future to the upper ten thousand, and must learn to behave themselves.
the shades of evening were beginning to close in as the queen left the hall, and suddenly peggy began to feel as if she had had a very long day, and would like to go to sleep in her own little bed at home, if only she could get there. she began to wonder if it would be necessary to go over again all the long journey between toyland and her home, and turned to ask wooden how they were to get back.
but as she turned, the hall and all the dolls in it seemed to be fading away, and as she opened her mouth to speak——
she awoke, to find herself lying in her own little white bed, with dear wooden in her arms, and teddy[pg 277] with his impudent face lying on the pillow, pointing one paw towards the open window, into which the happy morning sun was shining.
