city. The last verse of his greeting was in these words —

‘Welcome, O King! as much as hearts can think;

Welcome, again, as much as tongue can tell, —

Welcome to joyous tongues, and hearts that will not shrink:

God thee preserve, we pray, and wish thee ever well.

’

The people burst forth in a glad shout, repeating with one voice what the child had said. Tom Canty gazed abroad over the surging sea of eager faces, and his heart swelled with exultation; and he felt that the one thing worth living for in this world was to be a king, and a nation’s idol. Presently he caught sight, at a distance, of a couple of his ragged Offal Court comrades —