“That both the child and his tutor left that part of the country the very next day.”

“There, you see there is some truth in what you relate, since, in point of fact, the poor child died from a sudden attack of illness, which makes the lives of all children, as doctors say, suspended as it were by a thread.”

“What your majesty says is quite true; no one knows it better than yourself — no one believes it more strongly than myself.

But yet, how strange it is — ”

“What can it now be?” thought the queen.

“The person who gave me these details, who was sent to inquire after the child’s health — ”