So saying, he took her by the hand, led her to the palace, and begged an audience of the king and queen. The porter glanced at Agnes, immediately admitted them, and showed them into a great splendid room, where the king and queen sat every day to review lost children, in the hope of one day thus finding their Rosamond. But they were by this time beginning to get tired of it. The moment they cast their eyes upon Agnes, the queen threw back her head, threw up her hands, and cried, “What a miserable, conceited, white-faced little ape!” and the king turned upon the soldier in wrath, and cried, forgetting his own decree, “What do you mean by bringing such a dirty, vulgar-looking, pert creature into my palace? The dullest soldier in my army could never for a moment imagine a child like that , one hair’s-breadth like the lovely angel we lost!”
“I humbly beg your Majesty’s pardon,” said the soldier, “but what was I to do? There stands your Majesty’s proclamation in gold letters on the brazen gates of the palace.”
“I shall have it taken down,” said the king. “Remove the child.”
“Please your Majesty, what am I to do with her?”
“Take her home with you.”
“I have six already, sire, and do not want her.”
“Then drop her where you picked her up.”
“If I do, sire, someone else will find her and bring her back to your Majesties.”
“That will never do,” said the king. “I cannot bear to look at her.”
“For all her ugliness,” said the queen, “she is plainly lost, and so is our Rosamond.”
“It may be only a pretence, to get into the palace,” said the king.