“I have it, Your Majesty!” cried out the little minstrel breathlessly; “I have it, every note; here is the wonderful tune!”
“What! The wonderful tune?” cried the King, leaping to his feet. “Quick, somebody, ring all the bells, send trumpeters through the streets, assemble the orchestra, and call hither the Violinist-in-Chief, the Lord Organist, and the Grand Harper. We shall play it over at once!”
“H-m,” said the Violinist-in-Chief, after he had put on his huge spectacles and studied the wonderful tune, “Don’t you feel that those last bars ought to be played very fast, like this: tum-diddy-tum—tum-diddy-tum—tum-diddy-tum—diddy-dum-dum-dum?”
“No, I do not agree with you,” shouted the Lord Organist
“No, I do not agree with you,” replied the Lord Organist, a huge personage with a majestic air and a bad temper. “Those bars should be played slowly,” here he waved a large, solemn finger, “like this: tum—tum—tum—tum—tum—tum—tum—tum—tum!”
“You are both entirely wrong,” interrupted the Grand Harper, a short contradictory fellow with long arms and long fingers. “To my way of thinking the entire tune should be played throughout in the same time, in this fashion; listen to my tapping now: da-da—dee-dee—da-da—dee-dee—da-da—dee-do-dum.”
“Impossible! Absurd! No, never!” cried the Lord Organist and the Violinist-in-Chief in one long indignant breath. “We appeal to the King!”
But the King had ideas of his own on the matter.