The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain Chapter 32 Page 12

no one moved, no one spoke; indeed, no one knew how to act or what to say, in so strange and surprising an emergency. While all minds were struggling to right themselves, the boy still moved steadily forward, with high port and confident mien; he had never halted from the beginning; and while the tangled minds still floundered helplessly, he stepped upon the platform, and the mock-King ran with a glad face to meet him; and fell on his knees before him and said —

“Oh, my lord the King, let poor Tom Canty be first to swear fealty to thee, and say, ‘Put on thy crown and enter into thine own again!

’”

The Lord Protector’s eye fell sternly upon the new-comer’s face; but straightway the sternness vanished away, and