How does the queen protect hamlet

• jamarquez2065: The answer is that she blames it on his madness.
  
  Hope this helps! :)
• aencabo: Gertrude is fearful of what could happen to her son if the truth came out about Polonius’ death. For this reason, she calmly downplays the whole situation when she explained it to Claudius. She simply said that he yelled about there being a rat, then “in brainish apprehension, kill[ed] the unseen good old man,” (166) who would be Polonius. She could have chosen to not tell Claudius about the murder, but instead made the situation less suspicious seeming by explaining it right off the bat. 
  The correct answer is:She blames it on his madness and the queen doesnt protect hamlet she  goes straight to Claudius to tell  how he killed Polonius