"I don't understand quite what you mean," the Queen said. "But come with me somewhere where we can get some food, and you shall have as much as you like."
The fern-seller arose with alacrity.
"There's a shop near here where they sell some delicious honey-cakes."
"I can't make it out," the Queen said to herself. "If he's hungry he can't be contented; and yet the Regent said every one was contented in the land, because of his being Regent. He must have been mistaken, or else this man must be one of the traitors."
And aloud she said, "Is there a bill of attainder out against you?"
The beggar shook his head. "I guess not," he said. "Tradesmen won't let the likes of me run up bills."
It was a remark the Queen could not understand at all. They crossed the market-place that lay before the palace door.
"There's no market to-day because the people are all afraid the revolution isn't over yet."
"Oh, but it is," the Queen said; "I made the Lord Blackjowl Regent to-day."
The beggar looked at her with a strange expression; but the Queen continued—