Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/177

1904] And now Bud rode through the gate, perched among the bundles on the donkey’s back and looking composedly upon the throng of anxious faces that greeted him.

“Forty-seven!” cried the chief counselor; and then in his loudest voice he continued:

“Long live the new King of Noland!”

All the high counselors prostrated themselves in the dusty road before the donkey. The old woman was thrust back in the crowd by a soldier, where she stood staring in amazement, and Margaret, clothed in her beautiful cloak, stepped to the donkey’s side looked first at her brother and then at the group of periwigged men, who bobbed their heads in the dust before him and shouted:

“Long live the king!”

Then, while the crowd still wondered, the lord high counselor arose and took from a soldier a golden crown set with brilliants, a jeweled scepter, and a robe of ermine. Advancing to Bud, he placed the crown upon the boy’s head and the scepter in his hand, while over his shoulders he threw the ermine robe.

The crown fell over Bud’s ears, but he pushed it back upon his head, so it would stay there; and as the kingly robe spread over all the bundles on the donkey’s back and quite covered them, the boy really presented a very imposing appearance,

The people quickly rose to the spirit of the occasion. What mattered it if the old king was dead, now that a new king was already before them? They broke into a sudden cheer, and, joyously waving their hats and bonnets above their heads, joined eagerly in the ery:

“Long live the King of Noland!”

Aunt Rivette was fairly stupefied. Such a thing was too wonderful to be believed. A man in the crowd snatched the bonnet from the old woman’s head, and said to her brusquely:

“Why don’t you greet the new king? Are you a traitor to your country?”

So she also waved her bonnet and screamed:“Long live the king!” But she hardly knew what she was doing or why she did it.

Meantime the high counselors had risen from their knees and now stood around thedonkey.

“May it please your Serene Majesty to condescend to tell us who this young lady is?” asked Tullydub, bowing respectfully.