He raised his hand
with a solemnity which ill comported with his soiled and sorry aspect,
and delivered this note of warning--

“I forbid you to set the crown of England upon that forfeited head.  I
am the King!”

In an instant several indignant hands were laid upon the boy; but in
the same instant Tom Canty, in his regal vestments, made a swift step
forward, and cried out in a ringing voice--

“Loose him and forbear!  He _is_ the King!”

A sort of panic of astonishment swept the assemblage, and they partly
rose in their places and stared in a bewildered way at one another and
at the chief figures in this scene, like persons who wondered whether
they were awake and in their senses, or asleep and dreaming.