"Do you see the castle yonder?" said the king.
Their eyes grew as large as saucers and they looked.
Yes, indeed, they saw the castle.
"Who has dared to build such a castle on my ground?"
The courtiers bowed and scraped, but did not know. So the king sent for his soldiers. They came tramping in and presented arms.
"Send out all my soldiers and horsemen," said the king, "tear down the castle instantly, hang whoever built it, and see to this at once."
The soldiers assembled in the greatest haste and set forth. The drummers beat their drums and the trumpeters blew their trumpets, and the other musicians practiced their art, each in his own way; so that the duke heard them long before they came in sight. But this was not the first time he had heard music of this sort, and he knew what it meant, so once more he took up the scrap of paper:
"Lasse, my thrall!"
"What does my master command?"
"There are soldiers coming," said he, "and now you must provide me with soldiers and horsemen until I have twice as many as the folk on the other side of the forest. And sabers and pistols and muskets and cannon, and all that goes with them—but you must be quick about it!"