THE TSAR AND THE ANGEL. -173

have none.”—‘ What! no passport? Then thou art
a vagabond. Seize him!” they cried. So they
seized him and put him in a dungeon. Shortly after
they came to examine him, and asked him: “ Whence
art thou ?”—“ From such and such a capital,” said
he, Then they ordered him to be put in irons and
taken thither.

So they took him back to that capital and put
him in another dungeon. Then the custodians came
round to examine the prisoners, and one said one
thing and one said another, till at last it came to the
turn of the T'sar.—‘ Who art thou, old man?” they
asked. Then he told them the whole truth. “Once
I was the Tsar,” said he, and he related all that had
befallen him. Then they were much amazed, for he
was not at all like a Tsar. For indeed he had been
growing thin and haggard for a long time, and his
beard was all long and tangled. And yet, for all
that, he stood them out that he was the Tsar. So
they made up their minds that he was crazy, and
drove him away. “Why should we keep this fool
for ever,” said they, “and waste the Tsar’s bread
upon him?” So they let him go, and never did any
man feel so wretched on God’s earth as did that
wretched Tsar. Willingly would he have done any
sort of work if he had only known how, but he had
never been used to work, so he had to go. along