As soon as he reached the great gate, he seized the bars, and tried to shake them, shouting-- “Open! Unbar the gates!” The soldier that had maltreated Tom obeyed promptly; and as the prince burst through the portal, half-smothered with royal wrath, the soldier fetched him a sounding box on the ear that sent him whirling to the roadway, and said-- “Take that, thou beggar’s spawn, for what thou got’st me from his Highness!” The crowd roared with laughter.