



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, save for the fact that they were rather fond of indulging
themselves by decapitating their rivals when they had the chance, which
of course one would never think of doing nowadays.

The Queen and the bat had been talking a good deal that afternoon--about
the weather and about the revolution and the colour of cats and the
like.

"The raven will have a good time of it for a day or two," the bat said.

But the Queen shuddered.  "Don't be horrid," she said.

"I wonder who'll get the upper hand?" the bat said.

"I'm sure I don't care a bit," the Queen retorted.  "It doesn't make any
difference to me. They all give me things to sign, and they all say I'm
very beautiful."

"That's because they want to marry you," the bat said.

And the Queen answered, "I suppose it is; but I shan't marry them.  And
I wish _all_ my attendants weren't deaf and dumb; it makes it so awfully
dull for me."

"That's so that they shan't abuse the Regent behind his back," the bat
said.  "Well, I shall take a fly."  The truth was, he felt insulted that
the Queen should say she was dull when she had him to talk to.

But the Queen was quite frightened when he whizzed past her head and out
into the dusky evening, where she could see him flitting about jerkily,
and squeaking shrilly to paralyze the flies with fright.

After a while he got over his fit of sulks, and came back again to hang
in his accustomed bough.

"Why--you can fly!" the Queen said breathlessly. It gave her a new idea
of the importance of the bat.

The bat said, "I can."  He was flattered by her admiration.

"I wish _I_ could fly," the Queen said.  "It would be so much more
exciting than being boxed up here."

The bat said, "Why don't you?"

"Because I haven't got wings, I suppose," the Queen said.

"You shouldn't suppose," the bat said sharply. "Half the evils in the
world come from people supposing."

"What are the 'evils in the world'?" the Queen said.

And the bat answered, "What! don't you even know that, you ignorant
little thing?  The evils in the world are ever so many--strong winds so
that one can't fly straight, and cold weather so that the flies die, and
rheumatic pains in one's wing-joints, and cats and swallows."

"I like cats," the Queen said; "and swallows are very pretty."

"That's what _you_ think," the bat said angrily. "But you're nobody.
Now, I hate cats because they always want to eat me; and I hate swallows
because they always eat what I want to eat--flies. They are the real
evils of the world."

The Queen saw that he was angry, and she held her peace for a while.

"I'm not nobody, all the same," she thought to herself, "I'm the Queen
of the'most prosperous and contented nation in the world,' though I
don't quite understand what it means. But it will never do to offend the
bat, it is so dreadfully dull when he won't talk;" so she said, "Would
it be possible for me to fly?" for a great longing had come into her
heart to be able to fly away out of the garden with the roses and the
marble bench.

"Well