jumped to his feet. As he
did so, _his cap dropped off_. The officer fell on his knees at once,
crying:

"Pardon, my prince, pardon! I never saw you!"

This was more than the prince could be expected to believe.

"Nonsense! Count Frederick von Matterhorn," he said; "you must be
intoxicated. Sir! you have insulted your prince and your superior
officer. Consider yourself under arrest! You shall be sent to a prison
to-morrow."

On this, the poor officer appealed piteously to everybody in the tavern.
They all declared that they had not seen the prince, nor ever had an
idea that he was doing them the honour of being in the neighbourhood of
their town.

More and more offended, and convinced that there was a conspiracy to
annoy and insult him, the prince shouted for the landlord, called for
his bill, threw down his three pieces of gold without asking for change,
and went into the street.

"It is a disgraceful conspiracy," he said. "The king shall answer for
this! I shall write to the newspapers at once!"

He was not put in a better temper by the way in which people hustled him
in the street. They ran against him exactly as if they did not see
him, and then staggered back in the greatest surprise, looking in every
direction for the person they had jostled. In one of these encounters,
the prince pushed so hard against a poor old beggar woman that she fell
down. As he was usually most kind and polite, he pulled off his cap to
beg her pardon, when, behold, the beggar woman gave one dreadful scream,
and fainted! A crowd was collecting, and the prince, forgetting that he
had thrown down all his money in the tavern, pulled out his purse. Then
he remembered what he had done, and expected to find it empty; but, lo,
there were three pieces of gold in it! Overcome with surprise, he thrust
the money into the woman's hand, and put on his cap again. In a
moment the crowd, which had been staring at him, rushed away in every
direction, with cries of terror, declaring that there was a magician in
the town, and a fellow who could appear and disappear at pleasure!

[Illustration: Page 35]

By this time, you or I, or anyone who was not so extremely clever as
Prince Prigio, would have understood what was the matter. He had put
on, without knowing it, not only the seven-league boots, but the cap of
darkness, and had taken Fortunatus's purse, which could never be empty,
however often you took all the money out. All those and many other
d