Форд Мэдокс Форд
The Queen Who Flew
But down at the base of the tower the courtiers, discovering that the King was nicely trapped, quietly shut the door and locked it. Then they gave a sigh of relief, and left him till he died. They had been long looking out for such an opportunity.
The Queen, however, knew nothing of that. She flew on for a time, being far too excited to remember her hunger; but at last it came back to her with redoubled force, and she determined to descend at the first house she came to and try to get some food somehow. But, by that time, the country had become sandy and dry, with only a few reeds bristling out over it here and there, and no signs of cultivation or even of houses.
"Now, whatever shall I do?" she said to herself, as she flew along so dose to the ground that the wind of her flight made the sand flit about in little clouds. "I'm so awfully hungry and – Why, there is some sort of a building! – at least it looks like one."
And there, in a hollow among the sand-dunes, stood a funny little black erection, such as you might see upon a beach.
So the Queen alighted and walked towards the house. In front of the door a cat was sitting – a black cat. But not a magnificent creature with a glossy coat that sits on the rug in front of the drawing-room fire and only drinks cream, deeming mice too vulgar. This was a long-limbed, little creature, that looked half-starved and seemed as if its proper occupation would be stealing along, very lanky and grim in the moonlight, over the dunes to catch rabbits.
So the Queen stopped and looked at the cat, and the cat sat and looked at the Queen.
The black pupils of its yellow eyes dilated and diminished in a most composed manner.
"Poor pussy!" the Queen said, and bent to scratch its neck.
But the cat took no kind of notice, so the Queen lifted the cat in her arms, whereupon it gave vent to an awe-inspiring yell.
The door flew violently open, and the Queen, in alarm, let the cat go, and it dashed into the house behind an old woman, but such an ugly old woman that the Queen was quite startled.
"Well, what do you want?" the old woman sod.
"Oh, I want something to eat," the Queen said.
The old woman gave a cunning leer. "Something to eat, my dear young lady," she said, "Why, whatever made you expect to find anything to eat fit for the likes of you in such a place?"
"Oh, I'm not particular," the Queen said; "only I'm very hungry."
"And what will you pay me?" the old woman said.
"I – I can't pay you anything," the Queen said. "You see, I haven't got any money."
The old woman smiled again, in a nasty way. "Oh well," she said, "I'll give you some food, if you'll do a day's work for it."
"What sort of work?" the Queen said. "I'm not very clever at work, you know."
"Oh, quite easy work – just goose-herding."
The Queen said, "Oh, I dare say I could do that."
And the old woman answered, "Oh, very well; come along in, then."
And the Queen followed her into a dirty little room, with only a table and a long bench in it.
But there was a fine wood fire crackling on the hearth, and before it a goose was slowly turning on the spit, so that it did not look quite as dismal as otherwise it might have done.
The Queen sat herself down at the table, and the old woman and the cat were engaged in sitting on the hearth watching the fire.
They did not seem at all talkative, and so the Queen held her peace.
At last the old woman gave a grunt, for the goose was done, and so she got up and found a plate and knife and fork, and put them before the Queen, with the goose on a dish and a large hunk of bread.
"There," she said, "that's all I can give you."
And so, although the food was by no meant as dainty as what she would have had at home in the palace, the Queen was so remarkably hungry that she made a much larger meal than she ever remembered to have made.
And all the while the cat sat and stared at her, and seemed to grow positively bigger with staring so much, though when the Queen held out a piece of the goose to it, it merely sniffed contemptuously so that the Queen felt quite humiliated.
"Your cat doesn't seem to be very sociable," she said to the old woman.
And the old woman answered, "Why should he be?" and took up a large twig broom to sweep the hearth with.
That done, she leant upon it and regarded the Queen malevolently.
"Aren't you ever going to finish?" she said.
The Queen answered, "Well, I was rather hungry, you see; but I've finished now. There's no great hurry, is there?"
"I want my dinner," the old woman said, with such an emphasis on the "my" that the Queen was quite amused.
"Why, the goose is there; at least, there's some of it left."
"But I don't like goose," the old woman said. Her manner was growing more and more peculiar.
"Any one would think you were going to eat me," the Queen said; and the cat licked its jaws.
"So I am," the old woman said, and her eyes gleamed.
But the Queen said, "Nonsense!"
"But it's not nonsense," the old woman said; and the cat began to grow visibly.
"Well, but you didn't say anything about it before," the Queen said. "I only agreed to herd your geese."
"But you won't be able to," the old woman said.
The Queen said, "Why not?"
"Because they're wild ones."
The cat was growing larger and larger, till the Queen grew positively afraid.
"Well, at any rate, I'll have a try," she said.
And the old woman answered, "You may as well save yourself the trouble."
But the Queen insisted, and so they went outside, the old woman carrying her broom, for all the world like a crossing-sweeper.
The great cat rubbed against her skirt and licked its jaws. It was about the size of a lion now.
They came to the back of the house, and there the pen was – a cage covered completely over, and filled with a multitude of geese. The old woman undid the door and threw it wide, and immediately, with a mighty rustle of wings filling the air, the geese swept out of the pen away into the sky.
The old woman chuckled, and the cat crouched itself down as if preparing to spring, lashing its sides with its long tail. But the Queen only smiled, and started off straight into the air, faster even than the geese had gone.
The old woman gave a shriek, and the cat a horrible yell, and then the Queen saw the one mounted upon her broom, and the other without any sort of steed at all, come flying after her.
Then ensued a terrific race. The Queen put up one hand to hold her crown on, and the other to shield her eyes, and then flew as fast as she could, with her hair streaming out upon the wind.
Right through the startled geese she went, and the old woman and the cat followed after; but, fast as she went, they gained upon her, and at last the cat was almost upon her. In despair, she doubled back and almost ran into the old woman, who aimed a furious blow at her with her broom; but the Queen just dodged it, and it lighted full in the face of the cat, and, locked fast together, the cat and the old woman whirled to the ground.
They were both of them too enraged to inquire who was who, and such a furious battle raged that the sand they threw up completely hid the earth from view for miles around.
The Queen, however, after she had recovered her breath, hovered over the spot to see what would happen.
All of a sudden there was a loud explosion, and a column of blue flame shot up.
"Now what has happened?" the Queen thought to herself, and prepared to fly off at full speed. But the cloud of sand sailed quietly off down the wind, and, save for a deep hole, there remained no trace of the old woman and her cat.
Just at that moment the Queen heard a mighty rustling of wings, and, looking up, saw the great herd of wild geese swirling round and round her head.
"Dear me!" the Queen said to herself, "I wonder if I could talk to them. Perhaps they will understand bat's language."
Now, it is a rather difficult thing to give you a good idea of what the bat's language is like, because, although one may produce a fairly good imitation by rubbing two corks together, or by blowing through a double button, it doesn't mean any more in bat's language than "Huckery hickyhoo" would in ours, if any one were foolish enough to produce such sounds.
Suffice it, then, to say that the Queen said in the bat's language, "Oh, come, that's a good thing!"
And the geese answered, "Yes, isn't it scrumptious?"
You see, geese are rather vulgar kinds of fowls, and so they speak a vulgar language – about as different from the aristocratic bat's as a London costermonger's is from that of a well-brought-up young person. So that, if you can imagine a gander and a bat proposing each to the lady of his choice, the goose would say, "'Lizer, be my disy;" whereas the bat would lay one claw upon its velvet coat over its heart and begin, "Miss Elizabeth," or "Miss Vespertilio," – for that is the bat's surname – "if the devotion of a lifetime can atone for – " and so on, in the most elegant of phrases.
At any rate, the geese understood the Queen, and the Queen understood the geese, which is the main thing.
"Now what shall I do?" the Queen said
And the geese consulted among themselves. Then an elderly gander spoke up for the rest.
"Ma'am," he said, or rather hissed, "you have saved our lives."
The Queen said, "I'm sure I'm very glad."
The poor gander blushed, not being used to speaking in public; but he began again bravely.
"Ma'am, seeing as how you're saved our lives, we've made up our minds to be your faithful servants, and to go where you go, and do what you do."
"I'm sure it's very good of you," the Queen said, not knowing exactly whether to be glad or sorry. "But I don't quite know where I am going; though, as it's getting late in the day, I think I'd better be moving on."
"Why don't you go back to the cottage?" the old gander said. "There'll be no one there to bother you now."
"It's rather a good idea," the Queen said. "I've a good mind to."
"Do," the geese said. "There's a nice river near by."
And, although the latter inducement was inconsiderable, the Queen did as she was asked. In their mad career they had come so great a distance that it was close on nightfall before they reached the cottage again.
There everything was quiet and as they had left it, only the fire had almost died away on the hearth.
So the Queen, who rather disliked the darkness, threw one or two turfs on it and blew it up well with the bellows, so that the light glowed and danced cheerfully on the farthest wall of the cottage.
So the Queen sat and looked at the leaping flames, and her shadow danced large upon the walls. But outside, on the dunes before the door, the geese were all asleep, with their heads under their wings. Their shadows did not move in the moonlight. Only the old gander remained as a sentinel, marching up and down before the door. No sentry was ever more perfect in his goose-step.
So, when a fit of nervousness came over the Queen, and she went to look out at the door for fear the old woman and her cat should return, she felt quite reassured.
"It was we who saved the capitol," the old gander said; "so you're quite safe."
And the remembrance soothed the Queen, so that she went and lay down on the couch of dried fern that served for a bed, and soon was fast asleep.
After all, the geese were some companionship, and it was better to sleep quietly on the bracken-couch than to glide along in a ghostly way under the moon, with no company but one's shadow on the fields far, far down below.
So the Queen slept until morning, and the first sound that awakened her was the quacking of the geese, a really tremendous noise. The sun was just up. The Queen sprang up, too, and dressed herself. There was a pail in the hut, and, at no great distance, a well. So thither she went, and, drawing a pail of water, washed herself well in it. It was delightfully cold and refreshing.
The geese saluted her with a general chorus of good mornings and good wishes, for which the Queen thanked them.
So, having made herself comfortable, she began to feel not a little hungry, as did the geese. After looking about in the hut, she discovered the cellar door, and, opening it, she went down, not without being a little afraid that it might be full of old women or black cats. She found no trace of either, but merely quite a lot of bread and cheese, and hard biscuits, and a sack of corn, which was evidently intended for the geese.
So she filled a measure with it and threw it to them, and gave them a great pan of water from the well, after which she made a frugal breakfast off a biscuit and an egg which one of the geese had laid.
Then the geese wanted to set forth for the river, and asked the Queen to come with them, which she did willingly enough, after she had tidied the house a little and had made up the fire so that it might not quite go out.
Then gaily they trooped off over the sand-dunes towards the river, the geese marching gravely in line; only the old grey gander went beside the Queen and talked to her.
Just where the river ran was a green meadow with several pools of water in it. And the meadow was perfectly alive with birds; everywhere their wings seemed to be flapping and fluttering and showing the whites underneath them.
They eyed the Queen with something like alarm, but the old grey gander made a speech in which he referred to the Queen as their preserver and friend; and the Queen said that, far from wishing to do them any harm, she was very fond of birds.
And so the flapping of wings went on again, and the sun shone down upon the gay meadow. But the geese led the Queen to the river's edge, and there she sat down on the bank beneath a willow tree, whilst they jumped in and revelled in the clear water.
So the sun rose higher and higher, and the shade of the tree grew more and more grateful to the Queen, and the geese came out of the river and arranged themselves for a nap on the grass around her.
During the sun's height, too, all the other birds were more silent; it was too hot for violent exercise.
So the river gurgled among the rushes, and they rustled and bent their heads, and the willow leaves forgot to tremble for want of a breeze. And the great, placid flow of the river was without a dimple on its face, save when a fish sprang gleaming out after a low-flying midge.
So the Queen felt happy and contented, and she, too, dozed off into a little nap, whilst the woolly clouds slowly sailed across the blue heaven.
But towards evening the birds all woke up; the peewits flew off in a flock to the marshy flats down the river, and the snipe whirred away to the mud-banks, and the geese arose and cropped the greensward with their bills.
And then, towards sunset, they all rose in the air, and the Queen with them, and went whirling round in great clouds of rustling pinions, dyed red in the sunset, geese and peewits, and snipe and herons, all wheeling about in sheer delight of life; until, when the sun was almost down, the geese, with a great cry of farewell, flew off through the gloaming with the Queen towards the hut.
And there she once more blew up the fire for company, whilst the geese outside slept calmly. And so she went to bed again.
Thus it fell about that the Queen remained quite a long time in the hut with the geese for her companions.
The days she spent down where the river whispered to the rushes. When the sun was very hot, she would bathe in the stream and lie among the rushes; and, having cut a pipe, she played upon it in tune with the gurgle of the river.
Then the geese and the gulls and the peewits and the gaunt grey herons would gather round and listen attentively – so attentively that if one of the gulls made a slight rustling in changing legs, he always got a good peck for disturbing them. And the great herons buried their bills in the feathers of their breasts and shut their eyes, and did not move even when the frogs crept out of the water and listened, with their gold-rimmed eyes all agog, and their yellow throats palpitating.
Then when she had finished, the herons snapped their bills; and the gulls cried, "Kee-ah;" and the peewits, "Peewit;" and the geese hissed, with their necks stretched out – but that too signified applause.
As for the frogs, they made haste to spring with a plop into the rushes, without any applause at all; but that was because the herons had opened their eyes and were stalking towards them.
So the Queen was very much beloved in the bird-meadow, and the gulls would come out of the shining pools to greet her when she came in the freshness of the morning, and the herons would lay fish at her feet, and the peewits would perch upon her shoulder and fly round her head, and the whirr of wings was everywhere. But the geese were her guard of honour.
One morning before they set out for the bird-meadow, whilst the Queen was engaged in tidying up the hut, the geese suddenly set up a most terrible hissing and quacking.
"Dear me!" the Queen said, "there'll be a terrible rain-storm soon."
But at that moment the old grey gander came running excitedly into the hut.
"There's a man – two men – three men coming," he said, quite out of breath.
The Queen said, "Good gracious! and my hair in such a state!"
But she went to the door all the same.
There, sure enough, she saw three men coming one after the other. The first two were quite near, but the third was a great way off, though he appeared to hop along over the dunes in a most remarkable manner. He seemed to be habited in a suit of black, and carried a black bag; but he was still a great way off, and the Queen turned her attention to the other two, who were now quite close to her.
The first one was a handsome, very bronzed young man, in a suit of shining armour, that, to the Queen's critical eyes, did not seem to fit him to perfection; whilst the second, a delicate-looking, haughty youth, with a very fair skin, was habited in a shepherd's coarse garments, and carried a crook and a sling at his side.
The man in armour bowed a clumsy sort of bow and said —
"Good morning;" whilst the shepherd bowed in a most courteous and elegant manner.
"Good morning, fair madam. Is Mrs. Hexer at home?"
The Queen said, "No, there's no one of that name living here."
"Dear me," the man in armour said, "how annoying! I am the – the Prince of Kamschkatka, and this is a shepherd of Pendleton." He said it in a great hurry, just as you might say a newly learned lesson.
But the shepherd of Pendleton said, "Ah, perhaps Mrs. Hexer does not live here."
The Queen said, "No, she doesn't; I live here."
"What, alone!" they both said.
And the Queen answered, "No; I live with my geese."
The shepherd said, "Oh, then perhaps you could tell us where Mrs. Hexer does live."
"I've never heard of her," the Queen said.
"What! never heard of Mrs. Hexer?" they both said.
"The famous witch who has the well of the Elixir of Life," the prince said.
But the shepherd said, "Of lore."
The mention of "witch" brought something to the Queen's mind.
"There used to be a horrible old woman who lived here with a great black cat," she said. "Perhaps she was Mrs. Hexer; but she disappeared some time ago."
"That must have been her," the prince said.
And the shepherd continued, "Ah, if you would let us sit for a while on the coping of your well, or even give us a draught of its water, we should be infinitely obliged to you."
The Queen said, "Oh, you're very welcome," and turned into the house to get her bucket, when she was astonished to see a coal-black thing with horns and a long tail sitting in the very middle of her fire.
She rubbed her eyes in surprise, and when she looked again there was only a gentleman, clad in an elegant suit of black, with his coal-black hair carefully parted in the middle and falling in sinuous lines on either side of his forehead. He held his hat in one hand, and in the other a black bag and long narrow book.
"Oh, good morning, Mrs. Hexer," he said. "You will excuse my liberty; but I saw you were agreeably engaged, and so I took the opportunity of slipping in by the back way."
"I didn't know there was a back way," the Queen said.
