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Updated: June 28, 2025
These soldiers, as they looked upon Nerle and the prince, seemed fully as much astonished and certainly more frightened than their prisoners. They were dressed in bright yellow uniforms with green buttons, and the soldiers who had arrested the prince had both torn their left coat-sleeves and had patches of the same shape upon the seats of their trousers.
"And then perhaps the wolves will attack us," said Nerle, cheerfully, "and tear us into pieces with their sharp teeth and claws." But even as he spoke they rode around a turn in the path and saw a sight that made them pause in astonishment.
But the king himself, with his horrid, ugly head, was like a great blot on a fair parchment, and even Prince Marvel could not repress a shudder as he gazed upon him. Terribus placed his guest upon his right hand and loaded him with honors. Nerle stood behind the prince's chair and served him faithfully, as an esquire should.
"I'd like to get out of it in double-quick time," answered Nerle; "and we should even now be on the other side of the hedge were it not for that wicked pair of Ki-Ki, who are determined to kill us." "It is strange," said the prince, thoughtfully, "that the fierce-looking old Ki should be our friends and the gentle Ki-Ki our enemies.
For a moment his eye roved around the chamber uncertainly. Then he shouted, suddenly: "Ho, there! Keepers of the royal menagerie appear!" Three men entered the room and bowed before the king. They were of the Gray Men of the mountains, who had followed Prince Marvel and Nerle through the rocky passes.
"With good reason, too, if such is the case," laughed Marvel; "for, mark you, Nerle, the king has discovered we are more powerful than he is, and had he continued to oppose us, we might have destroyed his entire army." On they rode through the rough hill paths, winding this way and that, until they lost all sense of the direction in which they were going.
Knowing that at last they were free to roam according to their desire, the travelers rode gaily along the paths, taking but scant heed of their way. "Our faces are set toward new adventures," remarked the prince. "Let us hope they will prove more pleasant than the last." "To be sure!" responded Nerle.
But it is a hard thought that the son of Baron Neggar should serve Prince Marvel!" "Do not worry about that," said the prince; "for I assure you my rank is so far above your own that it is no degradation for the son of Neggar to serve me. But come, we must dispose of these thieves. What is the proper fate for such men?" "They are always hanged," answered Nerle, getting upon his feet.
"Thank you," answered Nerle, "my hands are still smarting very comfortably from the pricks of yesterday." "Therefore I must make the attempt myself," said the prince, and drawing his sword he whispered a queer word to it, and straightway began slashing at the hedge.
But the other servants treated Nerle with much deference, noting in him an air of breeding that marked him the unusual servant of an unusual master.
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