Page:Baron Trump's marvellous underground journey.pdf/106

82 upon them, they broke out into the wildest lamentation, repeating over and over again in piteous tones.—

"A speck in her heart! A speck in her heart! O dire mis-fortune! O woful day! She never can be our princess if she hath a speck in her heart." By this time my arrangements were complete. I had placed the princess Crystallina just outside the door of the throne room where she stood concealed behind the thick hangings, and near her I had stationed Doctor Nebulosus with a large circular mirror of burnished silver in his hand. Calling out in a loud voice for silence, I thus addressed the weeping subjects of Queen Galaxa:—

"O Mikkamenkies, Men of Goggle Land, Transparent Folk, I count myself most happy to be among you at this hour and to be permitted, by your gracious queen, to raise my voice in defence of the unfortunate princess with the speck in her heart. Being of noble birth and an inhabitant of another world, it was lawful for me to look through the sorrowing princess, and I have done it. Yes, Mikkamenkies, I have gazed upon her heart; I have seen the speck within it! Give ear. Men of Goggle Land, and you shall know how that speck came there for it is not, as you doubtless think, a coal-black spot within that fair enclosure, clearer than the columns of Galaxa's throne. Oh, no, Mikkamenkies, a thousand times no: it is a tiny blemish of reddish hue, a drop of princely blood from the upper world, which I inhabit, and this drop in all these countless centuries has coursed through the veins of a thousand kings, and still kept its roseate glow, still remembered the glorious sunshine which called it into being; and now. Men of Goggle Land, lest you think that for some dark purpose of mine own I speak other than the pure and sober truth, behold, I show you the fair Crystallina's heart, in its very life and being as it is, beating and throbbing with hope and fear comingled. Look and judge for yourselves! And with this I signalled to those on the outside of the palace to carry out my instructions.

In an instant the thick curtains were drawn and the throne