‘This palace is haunted,’ he said. ‘In the middle of the night a dreadful spiked ball was thrown in my face. I lighted a match. There was nothing.’
The Queen said, ‘Nonsense! You must have been dreaming.’
But next morning it was her turn to come down with a bandaged face. And the night after, the King had the spiky ball thrown at him again. And then the Queen had it. And then they both had it, so that they couldn’t sleep at all, and had to lie awake with nothing to think of but their wickedness. And every five minutes a very little voice whispered:
‘Who stole the kingdom? Who killed the [p116 Princess?’ till the King and Queen could have screamed with misery.
And at last the Queen said, ‘We needn’t have killed the Princess.’
And the King said, ‘I’ve been thinking that, too.’
And next day the King said, ‘I don’t know that we ought to have taken this kingdom. We had a really high-class kingdom of our own.’
‘I’ve been thinking that too,’ said the Queen.
By this time their hands and arms and necks and faces and ears were very sore indeed, and they were sick with want of sleep.
‘Look here,’ said the King, ‘let’s chuck it. Let’s write to Ozymandias and tell him he can take over his kingdom again. I’ve had jolly well enough of this.’