uld at the empty loom.

'It is magnificent!' said both the honest officials. 'Only see, your
Majesty, what a design! What colours!' And they pointed to the empty
loom, for they thought no doubt the others could see the stuff.

'What!' thought the Emperor; 'I see nothing at all! This is terrible! Am
I a fool? Am I not fit to be Emperor? Why, nothing worse could happen to
me!'

'Oh, it is beautiful!' said the Emperor. 'It has my highest approval!'
and he nodded his satisfaction as he gazed at the empty loom. Nothing
would induce him to say that he could not see anything.

The whole suite gazed and gazed, but saw nothing more than all the
others. However, they all exclaimed with his Majesty, 'It is very
beautiful!' and they advised him to wear a suit made of this wonderful
cloth on the occasion of a great procession which was just about to take
place. 'It is magnificent! gorgeous! excellent!' went from mouth to
mouth; they were all equally delighted with it. The Emperor gave each of
the rogues an order of knighthood to be worn in their buttonholes and
the title of 'Gentlemen weavers.'

[Illustration: _Then the emperor walked along in the procession under
the gorgeous canopy, and everybody in the streets and at the windows
exclaimed, 'How beautiful the Emperor's new clothes are!'_]

The swindlers sat up the whole night, before the day on which the
procession was to take place, burning sixteen candles; so that people
might see how anxious they were to get the Emperor's new clothes ready.
They pretended to take the stuff off the loom. They cut it out in the
air with a huge pair of scissors, and they stitched away with
needles without any thread in them. At last they said: 'Now the
Emperor's new clothes are ready!'

The Emperor, with his grandest courtiers, went to them himself, and both
the swindlers raised one arm in the air, as if they were holding
something, and said: 'See, these are the trousers, this is the coat,
here is the mantle!' and so on. 'It is as light as a spider's web. One
might think one had nothing on, but that is the very beauty of it!'

'Yes!' said all the courtiers, but they could not see anything, for
there was nothing to see.

'Will your imperial majesty be graciously pleased to take off your
clothes,' said, the impostors, 'so that we may put on the new ones,
along here before the great mirror?'

The Emperor took off all his clothes, and the impostors pretended to
give him one article of dres