"'What!' said he, 'is not this the hour when we may drop the weary pomp of our rank, and become free and happy men?' "'Yes,' said I; 'but why use our liberty to muffle ourselves in that ugly garb?' "'You shall see; I have a scheme,' said the Prince, who was already disrobing; then, putting his lips to my ear, he added, 'I marry, to-night. You'll see what a lark it will be.' "'What! you're going to be married, and in that dress?' I cried, looking at the Prince in his beggarly disguise. "'Come, hurry,' he said; 'or we sha'n't find the bride.' The Prince was half way downstairs. I quickly donned a dress like his, and, urged by curiosity, followed him. "'But,' I exclaimed, 'all those blind men whom you quartered in the stable?' "'We will join them.' "'In the stable?' I asked. "I did not understand a blessed thing; but I had confidence in the whimsical fancy of the Prince, and I patiently waited for him to solve the mystery. The blind men had collected in the great courtyard of the palace, and I saw that we were dressed precisely like them. The poor fellows had the most comical faces imaginable, with their lashless eyelids, their flat noses, their thick lips, and their stupidly happy expression. Nagato put a staff in my hand, and said: 'Let us be off.' "The gates were thrown open. The blind men, holding one another by the skirt, started out, tapping the ground with their sticks as they went. Nagato, bending his back and shutting his eyes, followed in their rear. I saw that I was expected to do the same, and I tried my best to imitate him. There we were in the streets in the train of that band of blind men. I could restrain myself no longer. I was seized with a frantic fit of laughter, which all my comrades soon shared." "Nagato has certainly lost his senses!" cried the Prince of Tosa's hearers, writhing with laughter. "And Tosa was scarcely better!" "The Prince of Nagato, he never laughed," continued the story-teller; "he was very angry. I tried to find out something of the Prince's plans from the blind man nearest me, but he knew nothing of them. I only learned that the corporation of which I formed a part belonged to that confraternity of blind men whose business it is to go among the middle classes to rub sick people and those who are not strong. The idea that we might perhaps have to rub some one, sent me off again into such a fit of merriment that, in spite of my efforts to keep a straight face to please the Prince, I was obliged to stop and sit down on a stone to hold my sides. "Nagato was furious. 'You'll put a stop to my marriage,' he said. "I set off again, winking my eyes and imitating the gait of my strange fellow-travellers as best I could. They struck the ground with their sticks, and, at this noise, people leaned from their windows and called them in. In this way we came to a house of poor appearance. The noise of sticks was redoubled. A voice demanded two shampooers. "'Come,' said Nagato to me; 'this is the place.'