ed too highly, for, thanks to you, there will be
fewer cripples and unsightly wooden legs. I shall issue orders to select
five of the bravest and most deserving invalids from every regiment of
my army, and you will restore to them their lost arms, legs and hands,
at my expense. Indeed, sir, you imitate the Creator, and the wonder
would be complete if you knew also how to replace lost heads."

"Sire, I do know that, too," said Maelzl, smiling.

"Yes, a head of wax or painted wood!"

"No, sire, a head that moves, opens, and closes its eyes, and--thinks."

"A head that thinks?" exclaimed Napoleon, laughing. "Ah, that is a
pretty strong assertion, which you could hardly prove."

"Pardon me, your majesty, I engage to furnish the proof."

"How so?"

"If your majesty will acknowledge that one must think in order to play a
game of chess, then the artificial man in my possession is able to
think."

"Where have you that man with the thinking head?"

"Sire, I have caused my assistants to set it up in the adjoining room.
But I must observe that this man was not made by myself; it is the
master-piece of the late Mr. Kempeler, a well-known mechanician, of
whose son I bought my slave."

"Ah," said Napoleon, laughing, "do you not know that the trade in human
chattels is now prohibited in our civilized states? But let us see your
slave.--Come, gentlemen," added Napoleon, turning toward his marshals
and adjutants, "let us look at the work of this modern Prometheus." He
walked toward the door, but, before leaving the cabinet, he turned to
the chamberlain. "When the Duke de Cadore comes bring me word
immediately." He then stepped into the adjoining room and the marshals
and Mr. Maelzl followed him.

In the middle of the room, at a small table, on which was a chess-board,
sat a neatly-dressed male figure, looking like a boy fourteen years old.

"That, then, is the celebrated chess-player," remarked Napoleon,
advancing quickly. "The face is made of wax, but who will warrant that
there is not a human countenance concealed under it, and that this
prepossessing and well-proportioned form does not really consist of
flesh and blood?"

"Sire, this will convince your majesty that such is not the case," said
Maelzl, touching a spring on the neck of the automaton, and taking the
head from the trunk.

"You are right," exclaimed Napoleon, laughing, "I am fully convinced. It
is true men are walking about without heads, but they are not