180 ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT OF THE QUEEN. 



queen, we find that this piping or humming was still more 

 discernible to the auricular organ of Mr. Huber in the 

 evening, and it then consisted of several monotonous notes, 

 expressed in rapid succession like those of a trombone, 

 although we may venture to opine not quite so sonorous. 



Seven dreary days did the bees keep their future monarch 

 imprisoned, and on the eighth, she piped most vociferously, 

 when the bees no longer able to withstand the pressing 

 entreaties of the incarcerated queen, uttered in such queru- 

 lous, but melodious tones, proceeded on the ninth day to 

 remove the barricade and open the cell, when he saw the 

 young queen come forth, lively, slender, and of a brown 

 colour. Now, however, the time was come, when Mr. Huber 

 arrived at the solution of a great and momentous problem. 

 He had previously candidly avowed his ignorance of the 

 cause of the bees confining their queen, but the light of it 

 on a sudden burst upon him, and all was at once clear and 

 manifest to him; nevertheless, we shall find in the sequel 

 that that, which was at that precise and fortunate moment 

 so clear and manifest to him, was very soon afterwards dis- 

 covered to be false and illusory. 



According to the observations of Huber, the young queen 

 had formed, it would appear, an erroneous judgment in 

 regard to the complete development of her organic structure, 

 for the common bees were far better informed on that im- 

 portant point, than she was herself, as, by virtue of some 

 penetrating power, they had ascertained, that when her 

 majesty first attempted to emerge from her cell, she was not 

 in a proper condition to fly, whatever her own opinion might 

 have been on the subject ; and therefore the bees very wisely 

 and politically determined to keep her majesty in a state of 

 incarceration, until it was clear and manifest to them that 

 she could fly. In what manner, or through what channel, 

 Mr. Huber attained to the knowledge of these important 

 points, is to us an insoluble mystery. 



