"He is a wizard!" muttered the soldiers; but they shrank back, afraid
to touch him.

"Why do you treat me thus?" asked John wistfully.

"Because you say you are a friend to that vile magician of the woods,
by whose arts the Prince was wounded, they say, and who yet holds him
at death's door." So spoke the Captain of the guards. "The Prince
still lives. But when he passes, the King has decreed that the wizard
shall die the death. You come in time to share it, if you be his
pupil!"

"Oh, hasten, hasten!" cried John, clasping his hands. "Please take me
to him! Perhaps I may yet save the good old man. If it is not too
late, perhaps I can also save the Prince."

"Ay, we will take you to him fast enough, if you will call off your
growling beasts," said the Captain.

"Nay, we must all go together," answered John, who saw how they meant
to trap him. "Oh, come, let us be moving, for there is no time to
lose!"

Grumbling, but afraid either to delay or to venture near John, the
guards formed in a hollow square about him and his pets, and they all
began to march in a strange company through the city streets to the
palace.

A crowd gathered as they passed. Men, women, and children craned their
necks to look at this group of animals, such as had not been seen in