THE SWARM 55 



fashion, instead of being straight, like that of the ordinary 

 bee — save only in the case of her doing battle with an 

 equal ; in other words, with a sister queen. 



No bee, it would seem, dare take on itself the horror 

 of direct and bloody regicide. Whenever, therefore, the 

 good order and prosperity of the republic appear to demand 

 that a queen shall die, they endeavour to give to her death 

 some semblance of natural disease, and by infinite subdivision 

 of the crime, to render it almost anonymous. 



They will therefore, to use the picturesque expression 

 of the apiarist, " ball " the queenly intruder ; in other words, 

 they will entirely surround her with their innumerable, 

 interlaced bodies. They will thus form a sort of living 

 prison wherein the captive is unable to move ; and in this 

 prison they will keep her for twenty-four hours, if need be, 

 till the victim die of suffocation or hunger. 



But if, at this moment, the legitimate queen draw 

 near, and, scenting a rival, appear disposed to attack her, 

 the living walls of the prison will at once fly open : and 

 the bees, forming a circle around the two enemies, will 

 eagerly watch the strange duel that will ensue, though 

 remaining strictly impartial, and taking no share in it. 

 For it is written that against a mother the sting may be 

 drawn by a mother alone ; only she who bears in her flanks 

 close on two million lives appears to possess the right with one 

 blow to inflict close on two million deaths. 



But if the combat last too long, without any result ; 

 if the circular weapons glide harmlessly over the heavy 

 cuirasses, if one of the queens appear anxious to make her 

 escape, then, be she the legitimate sovereign or be she the 



