see that they were busy to finish the
emperor's new suit. They pretended to take the cloth from the loom,
and worked about in the air with big scissors, and sewed with
needles without thread, and said at last: "The emperor's new suit is
ready now."

The emperor and all his barons then came to the hall; the
swindlers held their arms up as if they held something in their
hands and said: "These are the trousers!" "This is the coat!" and
"Here is the cloak!" and so on. "They are all as light as a cobweb,
and one must feel as if one had nothing at all upon the body; but that
is just the beauty of them."

"Indeed!" said all the courtiers; but they could not see anything,
for there was nothing to be seen.

"Does it please your Majesty now to graciously undress," said
the swindlers, "that we may assist your Majesty in putting on the
new suit before the large looking-glass?"

The emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put the
new suit upon him, one piece after another; and the emperor looked
at himself in the glass from every side.

"How well they look! How well they fit!" said all. "What a
beautiful pattern! What fine colours! That is a magnificent suit of
clothes!"

The master of the ceremonies announced that the bearers of the
canopy, which was to be carried in the procession, were ready.

"I am ready," said the emperor. "Does not my suit fit me
marvellously?" Then he turned once more to the looking-glass, that
people should think he admired his garments.

The chamberlains, who were to carry the train, stretched their
hands to the ground as if they lifted up a train, and pretended to
hold something in their hands; they did not like people to know that
they could not see anything.

The emperor marched in the procession under the beautiful
canopy, and all who saw him in the street and out of the windows
exclaimed: "Indeed, the emperor's new suit is incomparable! What a
long train he has! How well it fits him!" Nobody wished to let
others know he saw nothing, for then he would have been unfit for
his office or too stupid. Never emperor's clothes were more admired.

"But he has nothing on at all," said a little child at last. "Good
heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child," said the father,
and one whispered to the other what the child had said. "But he has
nothing on at all," cried at last the whole people. That made a deep
impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were
right;