"And will not you stop either? Do not be fooled by this madman: what use is it to go to buy when the shops are all shut, and the market empty?" Then he hung down his head, and looked as though he would have turned back, and fallen into the throng; but his fellow seized him by the hand, and bid him take courage, and think upon his kind master, and upon the king's son, whose very blood had been shed for them; and with that he seemed to gather a little confidence, and held for a while on in his way with the other. Then their old companion turned all his seeming love into hatred, and he called upon the crowd round him to lay hands on them and stop them; and this the rabble would fain have done, but that, as it seemed to me, a power greater than their own was with those servants, and strengthened them; until they pushed the rude people aside on the right and on the left, and passed safely through them into another street. Here there were fewer persons, and they had a breathing-time for a while; and as they heard the sound of music and of the crowd passing by at some little distance from them, they began to gather heart, and to talk to one another. "I never thought," said the one, "that I could have held on through that crowd; and I never could, if you had not stretched out your hand to help me." "Say, rather, if our master's strength had not been with us," said the other. "But do you think," said he that was fearful, "that he will accept any thing we can bring him now, when the best part of the day is over?" "Yes, I do," he replied. "I have a good hope that he will; for I remember how he said, 'Return, ye backsliding children, return ye even unto me.'" "But how can one who is so trembling and fearful as I am ever traffic for him?" "You can, if you will but hold on; for he has once spoken of his servants 'as faint yet pursuing.'" "Well," said the other, "I wish that I had your courage; but I do believe that I should not dare to meet such another crowd as that we have just passed through; I really thought that they would tear us in pieces." "Our king will never let that be," said the other, "if only we trust in him." "But are you sure," replied he, "that our king does see us in this town?" Just as he said this, and before his companion had time to answer him again, they heard a louder noise than ever, of men dancing, and singing, and crowding, and music playing, and horns blowing, as if all the mad sports of the city were coming upon them in one burst. At the front of all they could see their old companion; for the band had turned round by a different street, and now were just beginning to come down that one up which they were passing. Then he who had been affrighted before, turned white as snow; and he looked this way and that, to see what he could do.