"I am king," said Alice, "and you are my slave, so go directly!"
So the fisherman was obliged to go; and he muttered as he went along, "This will come to no good. It is too much to ask. The fish will be tired at last, and then we shall repent of what we have done." He soon arrived at the sea, and the water was quite black and muddy, and a mighty whirlwind blew over it; but he went to the shore, and said,
"O man of the sea!
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plague of my life,
Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"
"What would she have now!" said the fish.
"Ah!" said the fisherman, "she wants to be emperor."
"Go home," said the fish. "She is emperor already."
So he went home again; and as he came near he saw his wife sitting on a very lofty throne made of solid gold, with a great crown on her head full two yards high, and on each side of her stood her guards and attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the tallest giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And before her stood princes, and dukes, and earls: and the fisherman went up to her and said, "Wife, are you emperor?"
"Yes," said she, "I am emperor."
"Ah!" said the man as he gazed upon her, "what a fine thing it is to be emperor!"
"Husband," said she, "why should we stay at being emperor; I will be pope next."