THE SWARM 



regicide. Whenever, therefore, the good 

 order and prosperity of the republic ap- 

 pear to demand that a queen shall die, 

 they endeavour to give to her death some 

 semblance of natural decease, and by infi- 

 nite subdivision of the crime, to render it 

 almost anon\'mous. 



They v;ill, therefore, to use the pictur- 

 esque expression of the apiarist, " ball " 

 the queenly intruder: in other v/ords, 

 they will entirely surround her v.ith their 

 innumerable interlaced bodies. They will 

 thus form a sort of living prison v.-herein 

 the captive is unable to move ; and in 

 this prison they v.dll keep her for twenty- 

 four hours, if need be, till the victim die 

 of suffocation or hunger. 



But if, at this moment, the legitimate 

 [ so] 



