“Good!” said the King. “Please have this seat,” and he led her to a deep blue velvet chair.
The King then touched a button under the table, and a door opened.
In came a large man with a large beard. Mary Frances knew him at once. He was Blue Beard. He was trembling terribly.
“Fetch in the pirate, Blue Beard,” ordered the King.
Blue Beard bowed and left the room. Soon there came the clanging of chains, and Blue Beard led the pirate into the room, all wound up in a great section of the iron-chain curtain. He was dreadfully pale and very angry. His mouth was frothing and his breath was coming out of his nostrils like smoke.
He glowered at Mary Frances as though he would like to bite her, but she was not afraid.
“Behave!” said the King. “You cannot frighten a person who has been so brave as to part the iron-chain curtain. If she had been afraid of the old witch, the curtain would not have parted, and all the children in the world would have been still waiting for new stories.”
He turned to the Queen. “Have you a fitting punishment, my dear?” he asked.
“I have,” said the Queen, very solemnly. “It is this: the pirate shall never again hear a story or read a story!”
On hearing his fate the pirate screamed, “Anything rather than that! Please have mercy!” And he fell down in a dead faint.