fully. Across the
platform hopped the raven. The carrier pigeon fluttered to the
Hermit's shoulder. And from the trees all roundabout came winging,
with a call answering to John's, a flock of birds who had followed him
from the forest, and who had been hidden in the forbidden trees of the
King's park until this very hour. They fluttered like a cloud about
the heads of the pair, so that one could scarcely see them.

Every one stood amazed; even the King sank back in his seat, stupefied.
The guards fell back with lowered weapons. The crowd was silent,
staring open-mouthed. Then a murmur arose, and words passed from man
to man.

"A miracle! It is a miracle! They must be God's saints!"

But Tonio was not long silent. "Tricks! Tricks!" he cried. "Gigi has
become an animal-trainer. But he is our boy still. Give him to us!"

"Seize them!" repeated the King in a choking voice.

Once more the guards made a rush forward. But the animals leaped up
and stood at bay so fiercely that they dared not come nearer. The
Hermit raised his hand, and there was sudden silence. He faced the
King and spoke sternly.

"O King," he said, "you see that they will never take us alive. In
sight of all these people will you add more deaths to your record?"
The murmur of the crowd grew louder. "Nay, all has not yet been said,"
he went on. "Listen, O King. You judge too quickly. There is not
proof enough of the lad's ownership."

"Not enough?" snarled the King. "I say there is enough and to spare.
Can this boy dispute the words of these men?"

John now looked at the Hermit eagerly. His heart beat with hope of
something, he knew not what.

The King sneered. "You see!" he cried triumphantly.

But once more the Hermit held up his hand. "Will you not question
these fellows further?" he asked. "Dare you hear more, O King?"

"Dare I!" blustered the King, "and why not, pray? If there be more to
say, tell it," he commanded the mountebanks.

"Ay," they answered eagerly, "we can indeed prove that the boy is ours."

"Tell how you came by him," interrupted the Hermit, in a tone not to be
disobeyed.

Tonio answered sullenly:--

"We have told already. We bought him for a gold piece, of a fisherman
on a distant coast. He had found the babe, nearly dead with cold and
hunger, floating in a basket on the sea. It was a castaway, a
foundling; no one wanted it. We took it away with us, and had hard
work to make it live."

"