spin and whirl around him
at such a rate that presently he sank in the chilly snow and knew no
more.

"'I am tired of the palace,' said the Duke to some courtiers. 'Let us
go into the streets this blustering night: it may be that we shall
meet with an adventure.'

"The Duke, with a few muffled followers, glided out of one of the
palace gates, and the gleamings of their lanterns shot down the
street. Presently the Duke stumbled over some object, lying
half-buried in the snow.

"'What's here?'

"'A dead man,' answered a courtier.

"'A drunken tinker,' answered an attendant, turning over the body of a
man lying like a log in the snow. 'How he snores! Dead drunk, as I
live!'

"'He would perish here before morning,' said the Duke.

"'What is to be done?' asked a courtier.

"'Take him to the palace, and we will have some sport with him. I will
cause him to be washed and dressed and perfumed, and to be laid in a
chamber of state. He will awake sober in the morning, when we will
persuade him that _he_ is the Duke, and that we are his attendants.
To-morrow the whole Court of Burgundy shall serve a poor tinker!'

"The attendants carried the unconscious tinker to the palace, where
they washed him, and, putting upon him an elegant night-dress, laid
him on a silk-curtained bed, in a very gorgeous chamber.

"The poor tinker, on waking in the morning, looked about the room in
wonder. He concluded that he must be dreaming, or that he had become
touched in mind, or that he had died the night before and had been so
happy as to get to heaven.

"At last, the Duke entered the apartment in the habit of the ducal
chamberlain.

"'What will your Worship have this morning?' asked the Duke.

"The tinker stared.

"'Has your Worship no commands?'

"'I am Christopher Sly,--Sly, the tinker. Call me not your Worship.'

"'You have not fully recovered yet, I see. But you will be yourself
again soon. What suit will your Worship wear to-day? Which doublet,
and what stockings and shoes?'

[Illustration: AMAZEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER SLY.]

"'I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor
more shoes than feet; nay, sometime, more feet than shoes. I tell you
I am Christopher Sly, and I am a tinker,' was the puzzled reply.

"But the ducal chamberlain only bowed the more.

"Sly continued to look about him in amazement. At last, he said, with
much hesitation,--

"'You may bring me my best suit. The day is pleasant.