The Swarm 
way into others too weak for self-defence. 
Nor is it easy to restore to the paths of 
duty a hive become thus depraved. 
t3 
All things go to prove that it is not 
the queen, but the spirit of the hive, that 
decides on the swarm. With this queen 
of ours it happens as with many a chief 
among men, who though he appear to 
give orders, is himself obliged to obey 
commands far more mysterious, far more 
inexplicable, than those that he issues to 
his subordinates. The hour once fixed, 
the spirit will probably let it be known 
at break of dawn, or the previous night, 
if indeed not two nights before; for 
scarcely has the sun drunk in the first 
drops of dew when a most unaccustomed 
stir, whose meaning the bee-keeper rarely 
will fail to grasp, is to be noticed within 
and around the buzzing city. At times one 
would almost appear to detect a sign of 
dispute, hesitation, recoil. It will happen 
even that for day after day a strange 
43 
