[ WP ] You just discovered England 's biggest secret : every time they say long live the queen it extends the queens life .

I'm waiting for the Queen. We're all waiting for her. We've been waiting for three long minutes. Finally, she emerges. She takes heavy, measured steps to her throne. As she walks, she eyes the crowd. She is waiting for our judgement, it weighs on her old, ancient body, threatens to drag her down beneath the earth. She eyes the cameras, perched like vultures eyeing a pile of carrion. She swallows, and takes her place on the throne. 
 
 Though the Queen has taken up her scepter and donned her crown, it is silence that rules these hallowed halls. Silence, and the sound of thousands of soft breaths, like so many leaves falling on a grave. Finally, the tension is shattered when a member of Parliament speaks into the microphone. His rusty, iron voice booms throughout the halls, tolling like a great bell. 
 
 `` We are gathered here once more, to perform the duties vested in us by our government and the eternal crown. It is our duty to choose she who would hold the scepter and sit upon the throne. Our great country is in your hands. God save the Queen.'' 
 
 Those last words echoed throughout the halls and reverberated in my mind. I glanced nervously to my left and to my right. The fellow on my left was staring at the floor. The chap to my right was staring at the Queen, but could n't meet her eyes. After all, it was a human life we were tasked with judging. This was the first Queen I've seen that might not be saved. 
 
 We waited some more. I felt a pain deep inside my stomach. I felt guilty; I wanted it to be over with, to get this awful judgement finished so I could get back to my life, and not have Evelyn IV's on my conscience. But I did n't agree with her policies or her new laws. They threatened my job, and my wife. My kids. Five lives for one wrinkled, gnarled tree of a woman, I kept telling myself. 
 
 It was getting close. Nobody had uttered the phrase which would give her life, and her frail body was beginning to convulse. She was coughing, and I think I saw what could have been tears. She had seen the polls, knew where she stood with the people. But who is ever ready for death? Those pale grey eyes accused us all, impaled us like bugs underneath glass, our bodies and consciences still squirming. 
 
 At last she collapsed, nothing more than a pile of robes, a scepter, and a crown. The members of Parliament nodded, and a younger, more beautiful Queen stepped forward. Donning the Evelyn's garb, she turned to us, and smiled. But the smile was thin, knowing she would face the same judgment, time and time again, just like her predecessor. 
 
 Our footsteps were numerous and chaotic, a disjointed clamor that echoed throughout the halls. It was n't enough to drown out the thoughts racing through my head. I tried to catch someone's eye, but nobody could look at me.
