‘I don’t believe that could make you invisible,’ exclaimed the queen. ‘Let me try.’
And she snatched the hat out of his hand and put it on. Of course she was now in turn invisible, and he sought her in vain; but worse than that, she rang the bell for the guard and bid them turn the shabby youth out and give him a bastonata.
Full of fresh indignation he ran to his youngest brother and told him all his story, begging the loan of his horn, that he might punish the queen by its means; and the brother lent it him.
He sounds the horn and One comes.[4]
‘I want an army with cannons to throw down the palace,’ said the youth; and instantly there was a tramp of armed men, and a rumble of artillery waggons.
The queen was sitting at dinner, but when she heard all the noise she came to the window; meantime the soldiers had surrounded the palace and pointed their guns.
‘What’s all this about! What’s the matter!’ cried the queen out of the window.
‘The matter is, that I want my purse and my hat back,’ answered the youth.
‘To be sure! you are right; here they are. I don’t want my palace battered down, so I will give them to you.’
The youth went up to receive them; but when he got upstairs he found the queen sunk half fainting in a chair.