His eyes were very small, sharp, and glittering, and looked black as jet.

He had hardly enough of a mouth to make a smile with.
His left hand held the paper, and the long, skinny fingers of his right a pen just dipped in ink.
But the king, who for weeks had scarcely known what he did, was today so much himself as to be aware that he was not quite himself; and the moment he saw the paper, he resolved that he would not sign without understanding and approving of it.

He requested the lord chamberlain therefore to read it.

His Lordship commenced at once but the difficulties he seemed to encounter, and the fits of stammering that seized him, roused the king's suspicion tenfold.

He called the princess.
'I trouble His Lordship too much,' he said to her: 'you can read print well, my child--let me hear how you can read writing.