You gave me food and drink, and did with princely
courtesy send away the servants, so that my low breeding might not shame
me before them--ah, yes, this also you remember.”

As Tom checked off his details, and the other boy nodded his head in
recognition of them, the great audience and the officials stared in
puzzled wonderment; the tale sounded like true history, yet how could
this impossible conjunction between a prince and a beggar-boy have come
about?  Never was a company of people so perplexed, so interested, and
so stupefied, before.