



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover art]




[Illustration: Sample page]

[Transcriber's note: the above sample page is for right-hand
(odd-numbered) pages.  For left-hand (even-numbered) pages, use a mirror
image of the sample page.]




[Illustration: Frontispiece]




                         _*The Queen Who Flew*_

                             *A Fairy Tale*


                                   By

                             *FORD HUEFFER*

                       AUTHOR OF "THE BROWN OWL"
                      "SHIFTING OF THE FIRE," ETC.



                        _With a Frontispiece by_
                           SIR E. BURNE JONES

                                  AND

                           _Border Design by_
                            C. R. B. BARRETT



                                 LONDON
                         BLISS, SANDS & FOSTER
                      CRAVEN STREET, STRAND, W.C.
                                  1894




                                   TO

                       A PRINCESS OF THE OLD TIME
                               BEFORE US

                               THIS TALE

                         IS DUE AND DEDICATED.

    _Over the leas the Princess came,_
    _On the sward of the cliffs that breast the sea,_
    _With her cheeks aglow and her hair aflame,_
    _That snared the eyes and blinded them,_
    _And now is but a memory._

    _Over the leas, the wind-tossed dream,_
    _Over the leas above the sea,_
    _Passed and went to reign supreme._
    _--No need of a crown or diadem_
    _In the kingdom of misty Memory._




                         *THE QUEEN WHO FLEW.*


Once upon a time a Queen sat in her garden. She was quite a young, young
Queen; but that was a long while ago, so she would be older now.  But,
for all she was Queen over a great and powerful country, she led a very
quiet life, and sat a great deal alone in her garden watching the roses
grow, and talking to a bat that hung, head downwards, with its wings
folded, for all the world like an umbrella, beneath the shade of a rose
tree overhanging her favourite marble seat.  She did not know much about
the bat, not even that it could fly, for her servants and nurses would
never allow her to be out at dusk, and the bat was a great deal too
weak-eyed to fly about in the broad daylight.

But, one summer day, it happened that there was a revolution in the
land, and the Queen's servants, not knowing who was likely to get the
upper hand, left the Queen all alone, and went to look at the fight that
was raging.

But you must understand that in those days a revolution was a thing very
different from what it would be to-day.

Instead of trying to get rid of the Queen altogether, the great nobles
of the kingdom merely fought violently with each other for possession of
the Queen's person.  Then they would proclaim themselves Regents of the
kingdom and would issue bills of attainder against all their rivals,
saying they were traitors against the Queen's Government.

In fact, a revolution in those days was like what is called a change of
Ministry now