The showman said to them in a hoarse voice: 

“Take Harlequin, bind him securely, and then throw him on the fire to burn.  I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.”

Only imagine that poor Harlequin!  His terror was so great that his legs bent under him, and he fell with his face on the ground.

At this agonizing sight Pinocchio, weeping bitterly, threw himself at the showman’s feet and, bathing his long beard with his tears, he began to say, in a supplicating voice: 

“Have pity, Sir Fire-Eater!”

“Here there are no sirs,” the showman answered severely.

“Have pity, Sir Knight!”

“Here there are no knights!”

“Have pity, Commander!”

“Here there are no commanders!”

“Have pity, Excellence!”

Upon hearing himself called Excellence the showman began to smile and became at once kinder and more tractable.  Turning to Pinocchio, he asked: 

“Well, what do you want from me?”

“I implore you to pardon poor Harlequin.”

“For him there can be no pardon.  As I have spared you he must be put on the fire, for I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.”

“In that case,” cried Pinocchio proudly, rising and throwing away his cap of bread crumb—­“in that case I know my duty.  Come on, gendarmes!  Bind me and throw me amongst the flames.  No, it is not just that poor Harlequin, my true friend, should die for me!”

These words, pronounced in a loud, heroic voice, made all the puppets who were present cry.  Even the gendarmes, although they were made of wood, wept like two newly born lambs.

Fire-Eater at first remained as hard and unmoved as ice, but little by little he began to melt and to sneeze.  And, having sneezed four or five times, he opened his arms affectionately and said to Pinocchio: 

“You are a good, brave boy!  Come here and give me a kiss.”

Pinocchio ran at once and, climbing like a squirrel up the showman’s beard, he deposited a hearty kiss on the point of his nose.

“Then the pardon is granted?” asked poor Harlequin in a faint voice that was scarcely audible.

“The pardon is granted!” answered Fire-Eater; he then added, sighing and shaking his head: 

“I must have patience!  Tonight I shall have to resign myself to eat the mutton half raw; but another time, woe to him who displeases me!”

At the news of the pardon the puppets all ran to the stage and, having lighted the lamps and chandeliers as if for a full-dress performance, they began to leap and to dance merrily.  At dawn they were still dancing.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XII

PINOCCHIO RECEIVES A PRESENT OF FIVE GOLD PIECES

The following day Fire-Eater called Pinocchio to one side and asked him: 

“What is your father’s name?”