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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com-The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain


ironically: ‘Mind not thy mischance, good man; there be others in the world
whose identity is denied, and whose claims are derided. Thou hast company.’
‘Ah, my king,’ cried Hendon, coloring slightly, ‘do not thou condemn mewait,
and thou shalt see. I am no impostor-she will say it; you shall hear it from the
sweetest lips in England. I an impostor? Why I know this old hall, these pictures
of my ancestors, and all these things that are about us, as a child knoweth its
own nursery. Here was I born and bred, my lord; I speak the truth; I would not
deceive thee; and should none else believe, I pray thee do not thou doubt me-I
could not bear it.’ ‘I do not doubt thee,’ said the king, with a childlike simplicity
and faith.

‘I thank thee out of my heart!’ exclaimed Hendon, with a fervency which
showed that he was touched. The king added, with the same gentle simplicity:
‘Dost thou doubt me?’ A guilty confusion seized upon Hendon, and he was
grateful that the door opened to admit Hugh, at that moment, and saved him the
necessity of replying.

A beautiful lady, richly clothed, followed Hugh, and after her came several
liveried servants. The lady walked slowly, with her head bowed and her eyes
fixed upon the floor. The face was unspeakably sad. Miles Hendon sprang
forward, crying out: ‘Oh, my Edith, my darling-’ But Hugh waved him back,
gravely, and said to the lady: ‘Look upon him. Do you know him?’ At the sound
of Miles’s voice the woman had started slightly, and her cheeks had flushed; she
was trembling now. She stood still, during an impressive pause of several
moments; then slowly lifted up her head and looked into Hendon’s eyes with a
stony and frightened gaze; the blood sank out of her face, drop by drop, till
nothing remained but the gray pallor of death; then she said, in a voice as dead
as the face, ‘I know him not!’ and turned, with a moan and stifled sob, and
tottered out of the room.

Miles Hendon sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands. After a
pause, his brother said to the servants: ‘You have observed him. Do you know
him?’ They shook their heads; then the master said: ‘The servants know you not,
sir. I fear there is some mistake. You have seen that my wife knew you not.’ ‘Thy
wife!’ In an instant Hugh was pinned to the wall, with an iron grip about his
throat. ‘Oh, thou fox-hearted slave, I see it all! Thou’st writ the lying letter
thyself, and my stolen bride and goods are its fruit. There-now get thee gone,
lest I shame mine honorable soldiership with the slaying of so pitiful a manikin!’
Hugh, red-faced and almost suffocated, reeled to the nearest chair, and
commanded the servants to seize and bind the murderous stranger. They
hesitated, and one of them said: ‘He is armed, Sir Hugh, and we are
weaponless.’ ‘Armed? What of it, and ye so many? Upon him, I say!’ But Miles
warned them to be careful what they did, and added: ‘Ye know me of old-I
have not changed; come oh, an it like you.’ This reminder did not hearten the
servants much; they still held back.

‘Then go, ye paltry cowards, and arm yourselves and guard the doors, while I
send one to fetch the watch,’ said Hugh. He turned, at the threshold, and said to
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