(The Dowager Messengers rushing in.)
Dowager Messengers: (Together.) What is going
on? What has happened?
Guardian: What you see before you has happened.
Those young thieves came to try and to
rob the house. They were found by myself in the
very act of bringing away my golden-handled
sword! They were stopped by this honest man.
(Points to Ogre.)
1st Dowager Messenger: There would seem to be
a great deal of wickedness around this place!
Guardian: I'll put a stop to it! I'll use my
rights as Judge! To have that sort of villainy
running through the Island, it would come through
walls of glass or of marble, and lead away the best.
2nd Dowager Messenger: There must be something
gone wrong in the stars, our own young
princes having gone wild out of measure, and these
young vagabonds doing no less than house-breaking!
It is hard to live!
Ogre: Indeed, ma'am, it would be a great blessing
to the world if all the boys in it could be born
grown up.
Guardian: (Sighing.) I, myself, am beginning
to have that same opinion.
1st Dowager Messenger: And so am I myself.
Young men have strength and beauty, and old
men have knowledge and wisdom, but as to boys!
After what we saw a while ago in the supper
room!
Servant: The Court is about to sit! Take your
places!