Describing the death of Queen Blenda (the mother of Charles Xavier Vseslav), Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions one alin by which Countess de Fyler (the queen's lady-in-waiting) beat all seven counsilors, dressed in their formal splendor and carrying like plum cakes replicas of various regalia, who came striding down the stairs of stone, in dignified haste, and spat out the news of the queen's death: