ss Florina? They
assailed the palace in crowds, demanding her for their sovereign. The
riot became so dangerous that Troutina and her mother fled away to the
fairy Soussio. Then the populace stormed the tower, rescued the sick
and almost dying princess, and crowned her as their queen.

The exceeding care that was taken of her, and her longing to live in
order to see again her Blue Bird, restored Florina's health, and gave
her strength to call a council and arrange all the affairs of her
kingdom. Then she departed by night, and alone, to go over the world
in search of her Blue Bird.

The magician, who was King Charming's friend, went to the fairy
Soussio, whom he knew, for they had quarrelled and made it up again,
as fairies and magicians do, many times within the last five or six
hundred years. She received him civilly, and asked him what he wanted.
He tried to make a bargain with her but could effect nothing, unless
King Charming would consent to marry Troutina. The enchanter found
this bride so ugly that he could not advise. Still, the Blue Bird had
run so many risks in his cage: the nail it was hung upon had broken,
and the king suffered much in the fall; Minetta, the cat, had glowered
at him with her green eyes; the attendants had forgotten his hemp-seed
and his water-glass, so that he was half dying of hunger and thirst;
and a monkey had plucked at his feathers through the wires as
disrespectfully as if, instead of a king, he had been a linnet or a
jay. Worse than all, his next heir spread reports of his death, and
threatened to seize on his throne.

Under these circumstances the magician thought it best to agree with
Soussio that King Charming should be restored to his kingdom and his
natural shape for six months, on condition that Troutina should remain
in his palace, and that he should try to like her and marry her. If
not, he was to become again a Blue Bird. So he found himself once more
King Charming, and as charming as ever; but he would rather have been
a bird and near his beloved, than a king in the society of Troutina.
The enchanter gave him the best reasons for what had been done, and
advised him to occupy himself with the affairs of his kingdom and
people; but he thought less of these things than how to escape from
the horror of marrying Troutina.

Meanwhile the Queen Florina, in a peasant's dress, with a straw hat on
her head, and a canvas sack on her shoulder, began her journey:
sometimes on horse