The Prince and the Pauper - Chapters XXVI and XXVII - Mark Twain

The Prince and the Pauper

Chapters XXVI and XXVII - Mark Twain

The King sat musing a few moments, then looked up and said—
"'Tis strange—most strange.  I cannot account for it."
"No, it is not strange, my liege.  I know him, and this conduct is but natural.  He was a rascal from his birth."
"Oh, I spake not of HIM, Sir Miles."
"Not of him?  Then of what?  What is it that is strange?"
"That the King is not missed."
"How?  Which?  I doubt I do not understand."
"Indeed?  Doth it not strike you as being passing strange that the land is not filled with couriers and proclamations describing my person and making search for me?  Is it no matter for commotion and distress that the Head of the State is gone; that I am vanished away and lost?"