when platoff reported the left-handed man's words to the emperor, the latter instantly exclaimed with joy: "i knew that my russian people had not betrayed me!" and he ordered a melkoscope to be brought on a cushion.
the melkoscope was brought that very minute, and the emperor took the flea, and placed it under the glass, first with its back, then with its side, then with its belly upward,—in short, he turned it on all sides, but nothing was to be seen. but even then the emperor did not lose faith, and said merely: "bring hither instantly that gunsmith who is downstairs."
platoff announced: "his clothing must be changed. i took him just as he was, and now he is in very evil plight."
but the emperor replied: "bring him just as he is."
[pg 56]
platoff said: "here now, you thus-and-so, go yourself and make answer before the eyes of the emperor."
and the left-handed man replied: "assuredly i will go and will make answer."
so he goes, just as he is, in his voluminous trousers, one leg tucked into his boot, the other flapping unrestrainedly, and his old kaftan, whose hooks would not fasten because they were lost, and which had a rent on the stomach; but he took no heed of this—he felt no confusion.
"what of it?" he said to himself. "if it pleases the emperor to see me, i must go; and if i have no tugament with me, i am not to blame, and i will tell how the matter came about."
when the left-handed man entered and made his obeisance, the emperor immediately said to him: "what is the meaning of this, my good man, that[pg 57] we have examined it thus and thus, and have placed it under the melkoscope, and can descry nothing noteworthy?"
and the left-handed man replied: "did your majesty deign to look at it in the right way?"
the grandees made signs to him, "don't speak so!" but he did not understand that one must express one's self in the court fashion, flatteringly, or with craft, and he spoke simply.
the emperor said: "stop your prudent interference with him; let him answer as he pleases."
and immediately he said to him: "this is the way we placed it," and laid the flea under the melkoscope. "look for yourself," said he, "there is nothing to be seen."
the left-handed man replies: "in that manner it is impossible to see anything, your majesty, because our work[pg 58] is far more secret, in comparison with such proportions."
the emperor asked: "but how, then, must one do it?"
"it is necessary," says he, "to bring only one of its feet, in detail, under the melkoscope, and to scrutinize separately every heel wherewith it walks."
"really, you don't say so," says the emperor. "that is very powerfully small."
"it cannot be helped," replies the left-handed man, "if our work is only to be observed thus; and then all the marvel of it will be displayed."
they placed it as the left-handed man directed, and no sooner had the emperor peeped through the upper glass, than he fairly beamed all over, took the left-handed man just as he was—unkempt, dusty, unwashed—into his arms, embraced him, and kissed him, and then turned to all the [pg 59]courtiers and said: "do you see? i knew better than any one else that my russians would not fail me. please to look, for these rascals have shod the english flea with horse-shoes!"
