While all minds were
struggling to right themselves, the boy still moved steadily
forward, with high port and confident mien; he had never halted from
the beginning; and while the tangled minds still floundered
helplessly, he stepped upon the platform, and the mock king ran with a
glad face to meet him; and fell on his knees before him and said:
'Oh, my lord the king, let poor Tom Canty be first to swear fealty
to thee, and say " Put on thy crown and enter into thine own again!"'
The Lord Protector's eye fell sternly upon the new-comer's face;
but straightway the sternness vanished away, and gave place to an
expression of wondering surprise. This thing happened also to the
other great officers. They glanced at each other, and retreated a step
by a common and unconscious impulse. The thought in each mind was
the same: 'What a strange resemblance!'
The Lord Protector reflected a moment or two in perplexity, then
he said, with grave respectfulness:
'By your favor, sir, I desire to ask certain questions which-'
'I will answer them, my lord.'
The duke asked him many questions about the court, the late
king, the prince, the princesses. The boy answered them correctly
and without hesitating. He described the rooms of state in the palace,
the late king's apartments, and those of the Prince of Wales.
It was strange; it was wonderful; yes, it was unaccountable- so
all said that heard it. The tide was beginning to turn, and Tom
Canty's hopes to run high, when the Lord Protector shook his head
and said:
'It is true it is most wonderful- but it is no more than our
lord the king likewise can do.
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