Then said the king:
'I thank you, my good beasts; and I hope to visit you ere long.
Take these evil men with you, and go to your place.'
Like a whirlwind they were in the crowd, scattering it like dust.
Like hounds they rushed from the city, their burdens howling and
raving.
What became of them I have never heard.
Then the king turned once more to the people and said, 'Go to your
houses'; nor vouchsafed them another word. They crept home like
chidden hounds.
The king returned to the palace. He made the colonel a duke, and
the page a knight, and Peter he appointed general of all his mines.
But to Curdie he said:
'You are my own boy, Curdie. My child cannot choose but love you,
and when you are grown up - if you both will - you shall marry each
other, and be king and queen when I am gone. Till then be the
king's Curdie.'
Irene held out her arms to Curdie. He raised her in his, and she
kissed him.
'And my Curdie too!' she said.
Thereafter the people called him Prince Conrad; but the king always
called him either just Curdie, or my miner boy.
They sat down to supper, and Derba and the knight and the housemaid
waited, and Barbara sat at the king's left hand. The housemaid
poured out the wine; and as she poured for Curdie red wine that
foamed in the cup, as if glad to see the light whence it had been
banished so long, she looked him in the eyes.
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