away. The man she is betrothed to is one of my servants."

"Your servant?"

"Without doubt. I met him in a distant town reduced
to carrying away dust and rubbish from the houses. I
had pity on him and engaged him as one of my servants."

"It is impossible!" cried the King.

"Do you wish me to prove what I say? This young man
returned in a vessel which I fitted out for him, an
unseaworthy ship with a black battered hull, and the sailors
were infirm and crippled."

"It is quite true," said the King.

"It is false," cried the minister's son. "I do not know
this man!"

"Sire," said the young captain, "order your daughter's
betrothed to be stripped, and see if the mark of my ring
is not branded upon his back."

The King was about to give this order, when the
minister's son, to save himself from such an indignity,
admitted that the story was true.

"And now, sire," said the young captain, "do you not
recognize me?"