e dominoes, heard the command of
the King that the maiden's eyes should be unveiled they all got behind
one another, and cowered down, shaking in their shoes. And when the
maiden's glance rested on them they cowered down still more, as if
they were trying to hide their heads in their necks and their necks in
their shoulders. Still they shrivelled and shrunk, until they no
longer appeared like six tall courtiers, but like half a dozen ugly
little dwarfs, barely three feet high. And when they saw how small
they had become they uttered a cry of terror, and seemed to rush into
one another's arms. And with that--though how it came about would be
impossible to say--there stood only a single dwarf, a great deal
stouter and uglier than the six, but with precisely the same cast of
features and general appearance.

'That is the creature that called itself the Lord High Sheepstealer
of England,' said the maiden.

'What have you to say for yourself, sirrah?' said the King sternly.

'Mercy! spare my life!' cried the dwarf, falling on his knees. 'And
bethink yourself that we are brothers, and that in destroying me you
would unmake yourself.'

'That is the very thing that decides me to show you no mercy,'
answered King Yellow-cap. 'I am sick of all this stage-play.'

'Have a care what you do, Sire,' said Silvia, with a frown on her
face, which looked much older and less pretty than it had done
hitherto. 'He is your brother, and you are bound to him by the vows of
the Order.'

'I shall know how to break those bonds,' Yellow-cap replied. 'In the
first place, let my guards loose all the prisoners who are in the cart
and let them go free.'

When this had been done he turned to the village maiden.

'Get up behind me on the donkey,' he said, 'and put your arms round my
waist.'

The maiden obeyed, the donkey standing quite still, and not so much as
moving the end of its tail.

'Now let Assimund, Prince of Sprats, approach,' said the King.

'People of England,' he then continued, facing the audience, 'I have
been King over you for half an hour, and I have had enough of it. But,
before abdicating, I will place the crown on brows worthier to wear it
than mine. Behold Prince Assimund, no longer a pretender, but to be
hereafter your absolute and legitimate monarch. And behold Silvia, his
fitting queen and consort, whose hand I place in his.' He suited the
action to the word, and then, removing the crown, he set it upon
Assimund's h