here. 'See, your Majesty, what a texture! What colours!' And then
they pointed to the empty loom, for they believed that the others
could see the cloth quite well.

'What!' thought the Emperor, 'I can see nothing! This is indeed
horrible! Am I stupid? Am I not fit to be Emperor? That were the most
dreadful thing that could happen to me. Oh, it is very beautiful,' he
said. 'It has my gracious approval.' And then he nodded pleasantly,
and examined the empty loom, for he would not say that he could see
nothing.

His whole Court round him looked and looked, and saw no more than the
others; but they said like the Emperor, 'Oh! it is beautiful!' And
they advised him to wear these new and magnificent clothes for the
first time at the great procession which was soon to take place.
'Splendid! Lovely! Most beautiful!' went from mouth to mouth; everyone
seemed delighted over them, and the Emperor gave to the impostors the
title of Court weavers to the Emperor.

Throughout the whole of the night before the morning on which the
procession was to take place, the impostors were up and were working
by the light of over sixteen candles. The people could see that they
were very busy making the Emperor's new clothes ready. They pretended
they were taking the cloth from the loom, cut with huge scissors in
the air, sewed with needles without thread, and then said at last,
'Now the clothes are finished!'

The Emperor came himself with his most distinguished knights, and each
impostor held up his arm just as if he were holding something, and
said, 'See! here are the breeches! Here is the coat! Here the cloak!'
and so on.

'Spun clothes are so comfortable that one would imagine one had
nothing on at all; but that is the beauty of it!'

'Yes,' said all the knights, but they could see nothing, for there was
nothing there.

[Illustration: The Emperor Comes to See His New Clothes]

'Will it please your Majesty graciously to take off your clothes,'
said the impostors, 'then we will put on the new clothes, here before
the mirror.'

The Emperor took off all his clothes, and the impostors placed
themselves before him as if they were putting on each part of his new
clothes which was ready, and the Emperor turned and bent himself in
front of the mirror.

'How beautifully they fit! How well they sit!' said everybody. 'What
material! What colours! It is a gorgeous suit!'

'They are waiting outside with the canopy which your Majesty is wont