'Well, you have got the best of me,' said the King, shrugging his shoulders good-humouredly, 'and I have only one regret.'
'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.'
The King stroked his long white beard thoughtfully.
'The fact is,' he said at length, 'I am rather in a muddle about the whole business. If it had been a simple pantomime I could have seen through it; but this combination of two rival performances in one is beyond me. Let me consider. Hum! Ha! I have it. Let us draw lots from the donkey!'