ing's feet and told him all her fears that
her brother was sent for only to be imprisoned or executed, and she
begged and prayed the king to leave him in peace up there in his
village. She assured the king that he was loyal and good, and would do
no evil.

The king was rather abashed that his design had been discovered, but he
was firm in his purpose. He assured the queen that the blacksmith should
come to no harm, but rather good; and he ordered the queen to obey him,
threatening her that if she refused he would be sure that she was
disloyal also, and there would be no alternative but to send and arrest
the blacksmith by force, and punish her, the queen, too. Then the queen
said that if the king swore to her that her brother should come to no
harm, she would write as ordered. _And the king swore._

So the queen wrote to her brother, and adjured him by his love to her to
come down to the Golden City. She said she had dire need of him, and she
told him that the king had sworn that no harm should come to him.

The letter was sent off by a king's messenger. In due time the
blacksmith arrived, and he was immediately seized and thrown into prison
to await his trial.

When the queen saw that she had been deceived, she was in despair. She
tried by every way, by tears and entreaties and caresses, to move the
king, but all without avail. Then she tried by plotting and bribery to
gain her brother's release, but it was all in vain. The day for trial
came quickly, and the blacksmith was tried, and he was condemned and
sentenced to be burnt alive by the river on the following day.

On the evening of the day of trial the queen sent a message to the king
to come to her; and when the king came reluctantly, fearing a renewal of
entreaties, expecting a woman made of tears and sobs, full of grief, he
found instead that the queen had dried her eyes and dressed herself
still more beautifully than ever, till she seemed to the king the very
pearl among women. And she told the king that he was right, and she was
wrong. She said, putting her arms about him and caressing him, that she
had discovered that it was true that her brother had been plotting
against the king, and therefore his death was necessary. It was
terrible, she said, to find that her brother, whom she had always held
as a pattern, was no better than a traitor; but it was even so, and her
king was the wisest of all kings to find it out.

The king was delighted to find his qu