And, although he had been much frightened during Inga's defiance of the army of King Gos, he now began to turn the matter into a joke.
"Why, my boy," said he, "you whipped the big black-bearded King exactly as if he were a schoolboy, even though you used no warlike weapon at all upon him.

He was cowed through fear of your magic, and that reminds me to demand from you an explanation.

How did you do it, Inga?
And where did the wonderful magic come from ?" Perhaps it would have been wise for the Prince to have explained about the magic pearls, but at that moment he was not inclined to do so.
Instead, he replied: "Be patient, Your Majesty.

The secret is not my own, so please do not ask me to divulge it.

Is it not enough, for the present, that the magic saved you from death to-day ?" "Do not think me ungrateful," answered the King earnestly.