Yet the queen was more determined than ever to secure the magic cloak. As soon as she had reëntered her palace and by more incantations had again transformed her hair to yellow and her eyes to black and dressed herself in her royal robes, she summoned her generals and counselors and told them to make ready to war upon the kingdom of Noland.
Chapter XIII.
TULLYDUB RESCUES THE KINGDOM.
All soldiers love to fight; so when the army of Ix learned that they were to go to war, they rejoiced exceedingly over the news.
They polished up their swords and battle-axes, and sewed all the missing buttons on their uniforms, and mended their socks, and had their hair cut, and were ready to march as soon as the queen was ready to have them start.
King Bud of Noland had an army of seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven men, besides a general ten feet high; but the Queen of Ix had an army more than twice as big, and she decided to lead it in person, so that when she had conquered the city of Nole she herself could seize the precious magic cloak which she so greatly coveted.
“QUEEN ZIXI RODE OUT AT THE HEAD OF HER ARMY, CLAD IN A SUIT OF MAIL.”
Therefore Queen Zixi rode out at the head of her army, clad in a suit of mail, with a glittering helmet upon her head that was surmounted by a flowing white plume. And all the soldiers cheered their queen and had no doubt at all that she would win a glorious victory.
Quavo the minstrel, who wandered constantly about, was on his way to Noland again; and while Queen Zixi’s army was cutting a path through the forest and making a bridge to cross the river, he came speedily by a little-known path to the city of Nole, where he told Tullydub, the lord high counselor, what was threatening his king.
So, trembling with terror, Tullydub hastened to the palace and called a meeting of the five high counselors in the king’s antechamber.