The whole suite gazed and gazed, but saw nothing more than all the others.  However, they all exclaimed with his Majesty, ’It is very beautiful!’ and they advised him to wear a suit made of this wonderful cloth on the occasion of a great procession which was just about to take place.  ‘It is magnificent! gorgeous! excellent!’ went from mouth to mouth; they were all equally delighted with it.  The Emperor gave each of the rogues an order of knighthood to be worn in their buttonholes and the title of ‘Gentlemen weavers.’

[Illustration:  Then the emperor walked along in the procession under the gorgeous canopy, and everybody in the streets and at the windows exclaimed, ’How beautiful the Emperor’s new clothes are!’]

The swindlers sat up the whole night, before the day on which the procession was to take place, burning sixteen candles; so that people might see how anxious they were to get the Emperor’s new clothes ready.  They pretended to take the stuff off the loom.  They cut it out in the air with a huge pair of scissors, and they stitched away with needles without any thread in them.  At last they said:  ’Now the Emperor’s new clothes are ready!’

The Emperor, with his grandest courtiers, went to them himself, and both the swindlers raised one arm in the air, as if they were holding something, and said:  ’See, these are the trousers, this is the coat, here is the mantle!’ and so on.  ’It is as light as a spider’s web.  One might think one had nothing on, but that is the very beauty of it!’

‘Yes!’ said all the courtiers, but they could not see anything, for there was nothing to see.

’Will your imperial majesty be graciously pleased to take off your clothes,’ said, the impostors, ’so that we may put on the new ones, along here before the great mirror?’

The Emperor took off all his clothes, and the impostors pretended to give him one article of dress after the other of the new ones which they had pretended to make.  They pretended to fasten something round his waist and to tie on something; this was the train, and the Emperor turned round and round in front of the mirror.

‘How well his majesty looks in the new clothes!  How becoming they are!’ cried all the people round.  ’What a design, and what colours!  They are most gorgeous robes!’

’The canopy is waiting outside which is to be carried over your majesty in the procession,’ said the master of the ceremonies.

‘Well, I am quite ready,’ said the Emperor.  ’Don’t the clothes fit well?’ and then he turned round again in front of the mirror, so that he should seem to be looking at his grand things.

The chamberlains who were to carry the train stooped and pretended to lift it from the ground with both hands, and they walked along with their hands in the air.  They dared not let it appear that they could not see anything.

Then the Emperor walked along in the procession under the gorgeous canopy, and everybody in the streets and at the windows exclaimed, ’How beautiful the Emperor’s new clothes are!  What a splendid train!  And they fit to perfection!’ Nobody would let it appear that he could see nothing, for then he would not be fit for his post, or else he was a fool.