Hop-Frog, clinging
to the chain as it rose, still maintained his relative position in
respect to the eight maskers, and still (as if nothing were the
matter) continued to thrust his torch down toward them, as though
endeavoring to discover who they were.
So thoroughly astonished was the whole company at this ascent,
that a dead silence, of about a minute's duration, ensued. It was
broken by just such a low, harsh, grating sound, as had before
attracted the attention of the king and his councillors when the
former threw the wine in the face of Trippetta. But, on the present
occasion, there could be no question as to whence the sound issued. It
came from the fang- like teeth of the dwarf, who ground them and
gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth, and glared, with an expression
of maniacal rage, into the upturned countenances of the king and his
seven companions.
"Ah, ha!" said at length the infuriated jester. "Ah, ha! I begin
to see who these people are now!" Here, pretending to scrutinize the
king more closely, he held the flambeau to the flaxen coat which
enveloped him, and which instantly burst into a sheet of vivid
flame. In less than half a minute the whole eight ourang-outangs
were blazing fiercely, amid the shrieks of the multitude who gazed
at them from below, horror-stricken, and without the power to render
them the slightest assistance.
At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the
jester to climb higher up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as
he made this movement, the crowd again sank, for a brief instant, into
silence.
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