"What?" thought the Emperor; "I cannot see anything; this is terrible!
Am I stupid; or am I not fit to be Emperor? This would be the most
dreadful thing that could happen to me! Yes, it is very beautiful," he
said at last; "we give our highest approbation!" and he nodded as if
he were quite satisfied, and gazed at the empty looms.
He would not say that he saw nothing, and the whole of his suite
looked and looked; but, like the others, they were unable to see
anything. So they said, just like the Emperor, "Yes, it is very
pretty," and they advised him to have some clothes made from this
magnificent stuff, and to wear them for the first time at the great
procession that was about to take place. "It is magnificent!
beautiful! excellent!" they said one to another, and they were all so
exceedingly pleased with it that the Emperor gave the two rogues a
decoration to be worn in the button-hole, and the title "Imperial
Weavers."
The rogues worked throughout the whole of the night preceding the day
of the procession, and had over sixteen candles alight, so that people
should see how busy they were in preparing the Emperor's new clothes.
They pretended to take the stuff off the looms, cut it in the air with
great scissors, and sewed with needles without thread, and at last
they said:
"See! now the clothes are ready!"
The Emperor, followed by his most distinguished courtiers, came in
person, and the rogues lifted their arms up in the air, just as if
they held something, and said, "See! here are the trousers, here is
the coat, here is the cloak," and so forth.
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