“Really,” he said, turning to the weavers, “your cloth has our most
gracious approval;” and nodding contentedly he looked at the empty loom,
for he did not like to say that he saw nothing. All his attendants, who were
with him, looked and looked, and although they could not see anything
more than the others, they said, like the emperor, “It is very beautiful.” And
all advised him to wear the new magnificent clothes at a great procession
which was soon to take place. “It is magnificent, beautiful, excellent,” one
heard them say; everybody seemed to be delighted, and the emperor
appointed the two swindlers “Imperial Court weavers.”
The whole night previous to the day on which the procession was to take
place, the swindlers pretended to work, and burned more than sixteen
candles. People should see that they were busy to finish the emperor’s new
suit. They pretended to take the cloth from the loom, and worked about in
the air with big scissors, and sewed with needles without thread, and said at
last: “The emperor’s new suit is ready now.”
The emperor and all his barons then came to the hall; the swindlers held
their arms up as if they held something in their hands and said: “These are
the trousers!” “This is the coat!” and “Here is the cloak!” and so on. “They
are all as light as a cobweb, and one must feel as if one had nothing at all
upon the body; but that is just the beauty of them.”
“Indeed!” said all the courtiers; but they could not see anything, for there
was nothing to be seen.
