As soon as the coals began to burn him, the King came to himself and stood up. “Ho! my captain of the guards!” his Majesty¹ exclaimed, stamping his royal feet with rage. O piteous spectacle! the King’s nose was bent² quite crooked³ by the blow of Prince Giglio! His Majesty ground his teeth with rage. “Hedzoff,” he said, taking a death-warrant out of his dressing-gown pocket, “Hedzoff, good Hedzoff, seize upon the Prince. Thou’lt find him in his chamber⁴ two pair up. But now he dared, with sacrilegious hand, to strike the sacred night-cap of a king — Hedzoff, and floor me with a warming-pan! Away, no more demur⁵, the villain⁶ dies! See it be done, or else — h’m — ha! — h’m! mind thine own eyes!” And followed by the ladies, and lifting up the tails of his dressing-gown, the King entered his own apartment.

Captain Hedzoff was very much affected⁷, having a sincere love for Giglio. “Poor, poor Giglio!” he said, the tears rolling over his manly⁸ face, and dripping down his moustachios; “my noble young Prince, is it my hand must lead thee to death?”

“Lead him to fiddlestick, Hedzoff,” said a female voice. It was Gruffanuff, who had come out in her dressing-gown when she heard the noise. “The King said you were to hang the Prince. Well, hang the Prince.”

“I don’t understand you,” says Hedzoff, who was not a very clever man.

“You Gaby! he didn’t say WHICH Prince,” says Gruffanuff.

“No; he didn’t say which, certainly,” said Hedzoff.

“Well then, take Bulbo, and hang HIM!”

When Captain Hedzoff heard this, he began to dance about for joy. “Obedience is a soldier’s honor,” says he. “Prince Bulbo’s head will do capitally;” and he went to arrest the Prince the very first thing next morning.

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