“BUT HE HAS GOT NOTHING ON!”
“How capitally the clothes fit!” said all present. “What a beautiful pattern, and what vivid colours! What a costly attire!”
“They are waiting outside with the canopy that is to be carried over your majesty’s head in the procession,” said the master of the ceremonies, now coming in.
“I am quite ready, as you may perceive,” answered the emperor. “My dress fits nicely—does it not?” added he, turning once more to the glass, to make it appear as if he were examining its beauties most minutely. The lords of the bedchamber, who were to bear the train, pretended to pick it up from the floor with both hands, and then did as if they were holding something in the air; for they did not venture to show that they saw nothing.
The emperor then went forth, in grand procession, under the splendid canopy, while the people in the street, and others at their windows, all exclaimed: “Dear me! how incomparably beautiful are the emperor’s new clothes! What a fine train he has, and how well it is cut!” No one, in short, would let his neighbour think that he saw nothing, for it would have been like declaring himself unfit for his office, whatever that might be, or, at best, extremely stupid. None of the emperor’s clothes had ever met with such universal approbation as these.
“But he has got nothing on!” cried at length one little child.
“Only listen to that innocent creature,” said the father; and the child’s remark was whispered from one to the other as a piece of laughable simplicity.
“But he has got nothing on!” cried at length the whole crowd.
This startled the emperor, for he had an inkling that they were in the right, after all; but he thought: “I must, nevertheless, face it out till the end, and go on with the procession.”
And the lords-in-waiting went on marching as stiffly as ever, and carrying the train that did not exist.
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