'That's the talk!' called out a man from the pit. 'Give it 'em, youngster, and we'll see fair play.'
'Well, you have got the best of me,' said the King, shrugging his shoulders good-humouredly, 'and I have only one regret.'
'What may that be?' Yellow-cap inquired.
'Only that, since you have got the best of me, I am prevented from enjoying the pleasure I had looked forward to of making you my successor. But, after all, it comes to the same thing in the end—for you, at any rate. And things being as they are, of course they could not be otherwise. Come—despatch!' And so saying the venerable monarch wrapped his mantle round his head and struck an heroic attitude.
'What are you waiting for? Let him have it!' whispered Silvia at Yellow-cap's elbow.
But Yellow-cap thought there was no need of hurrying; so he put the bit of paper in his pocket and said, gently pulling the King's mantle from before his face—
'My dear King, pray let us understand each other. I am sure that we can manage this thing without any trouble to either of us. As you yourself say, what need is there for me to be a usurper, if I can be a successor?'
'Ah, it's very kind of you to think of that,' replied the King, shaking his head; 'but I couldn't be guilty of such inhospitality as to hinder a stranger from carrying out so capital a plot. No—say no more. I see how it is. You have taken a great deal of trouble about this conspiracy, and so far you have managed it very well. I shall not interfere with your triumph for the sake of a selfish whim of my own. Never, my dear boy, never! My spirit is too royal to stoop to such meanness. And I think it unkind of you to expect such a thing of me; and if you don't stop it I shall have to tell the executioner to cut off your head.'
'That last argument of yours is a strong one, and rather than drive you to such extremities I would let you have it your own way,' said Yellow-cap. 'But still I think this affair can be arranged. All I want, you see, is to sit on your throne; to make a rhyme to your name, and to trample you under the feet of the metrical system. Have nothing to do with that. Come, oblige me this once, and I will do as much for you the next time.'