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 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 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.