'Like the Spartan boy,' whispered Robert.

But the Queen ruled that nobody could have any possible reason for owning a fox, and still less for stealing one.

And she did not believe that there were any foxes in Babylon; she, at any rate, had never seen one.

So the boy was released.
The people came to the Queen about all sorts of family quarrels and neighbourly misunderstandings--from a fight between brothers over the division of an inheritance, to the dishonest and unfriendly conduct of a woman who had borrowed a cooking-pot at the last New Year's festival, and not returned it yet.
And the Queen decided everything, very, very decidedly indeed.

At last she clapped her hands quite suddenly and with extreme loudness, and said-- 'The audience is over for today.' Everyone said, 'May the Queen live for ever!' and went out.
And the children were left alone in the justice-hall with the Queen of Babylon and her ladies.
'There!' said the Queen, with a long sigh of relief.