He was answered in the affirmative. He desired them to be sought
for and brought before him. As one of his chamberlains hastened
on the errand, the monarch looked at August with compassion.

"You are very pale, little fellow: when did you eat last?"

"I had some bread and sausage with me; yesterday afternoon I
finished it."

"You would like to eat now?"

"If I might have a little water I would be glad; my throat is
very dry."

The king had water and wine brought for him, and cake also; but
August, though he drank eagerly, could not swallow anything. His
mind was in too great a tumult.

"May I stay with Hirschvogel?--may I stay?" he said, with
feverish agitation.

"Wait a little," said the king, and asked, abruptly; "What do you
wish to be when you are a man?"

"A painter. I wish to be what Hirschvogel was,--I mean the master
that made _my_ Hirschvogel."

"I understand," said the king.

Then the two dealers were brought into their sovereign's
presence. They were so terribly alarmed, not being either so
innocent or so ignorant as August was, that they were trembling
as though they were being led to the slaughter, and they were so
utterly astonished too at a child having come all the way from
Tyrol in the stove, as a gentleman of the court had just told
them this child had done, that they could not tell what to say or
where to look, and presented a very foolish aspect indeed.

"Did you buy this Nuernberg stove of this little boy's father for
two hundred florins?" the king asked them; and his voice was no
longer soft and kind as it had been when addressing the child,
but very stern.

"Yes, your majesty," murmured the trembling traders.

"And how much did the gentleman who purchased it for me give to
you?"

"Two thousand ducats, your majesty," muttered the dealers,
frightened out of their wits, and telling the truth in their
fright.

The gentleman was not present: he was a trusted counsellor in art
matters of the king's, and often made purchases for him.

The king smiled a little, and said nothing. The gentleman had
made out the price to him as eleven thousand ducats.

"You will give at once to this boy's father the two thousand gold
ducats that you received, less the two hundred Austrian florins
that you paid him," said the king to his humiliated and abject
subjects. "You are great rogues. Be thankful you are not more
greatly punished."

He dismissed them by a sign to his courtiers, and to one