Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/66

 weaving was getting on, and whether the stuff would soon be ready. The same thing happened to him as had befallen the minister. He looked and looked, and as there was nothing but an empty loom, he could not contrive to see anything.

“Is not this a beautiful stuff?” asked the two impostors, pretending to show and expatiate on the beautiful pattern which was not there.

“I am not stupid,” thought the statesman; “it would therefore seem I were unfit for my office. That would be comical, indeed; only I must not let anybody perceive it.” So he praised the tissue which he did not see, and assured them that he admired its beautiful colours and remarkable pattern. “It is really exquisite,” reported he to the emperor.

Everybody in the town spoke of the splendid stuff that was being woven.

The emperor had now a mind to see it himself, while it was still on the loom. So he went into the room where the two cunning impostors were working away at a great rate, without either woof or warp, followed by a retinue of picked men, amongst whom were the two worthy statesmen who had been there already.

“Is it not magnificent?” said the two latter. “Will your majesty be pleased just to examine the pattern and the colours?” And they pointed to the empty loom, concluding that those present would be able to see the tissue.

“Why, how’s this?” thought the emperor. “I see nothing whatever. This is quite alarming. Can I be stupid? Am I not fit to be emperor? That would be the most shocking thing that could happen to me. Oh! its very pretty!” cried he; “it has our most gracious approval.” And he nodded condescendingly as he gazed at the empty loom, for he would not own that he saw nothing.

His whole retinue looked and looked in turn, but could not make anything more out of it than the others had done; still they repeated after the emperor, “Oh! it’s very pretty!” And they advised him to wear these beautiful new clothes on the occasion of a grand procession that was about to take place.

The words “elegant!” “splendid!” “magnificent!” were bandied about from mouth to mouth. Everybody seemed vastly delighted, and the emperor conferred on the two impostors the title of “weavers to the imperial court.”

The two impostors sat up the whole of the night preceding the day on which the procession was to take place, and had lit up more than sixteen tapers. People could see them busy at work, finishing the emperor’s new clothes. They imitated the action of taking the stuff off the loom; then they cut it out in the air with large scissors, and proceeded to sew the garments without either needles or thread, till at length they said: “The clothes are now ready.”

The emperor then came in, accompanied by the principal lords of his court, when the two impostors each raised an arm as if they were holding something up, saying: “Here are the trunk-hose; here is the vest; here is the mantle”; and so forth. “The tissue is as light as a cobweb, and one might fancy one had nothing on; but that is just its greatest beauty.”

“So it is,” said the courtiers; though they could see nothing, as nothing was there to be seen.