But.... The tigers came over to her. One bent its furrowed head and sniffed. The second touched her with its cat-like paw. The third didn't even pay attention to her, as it rushed past her to the stands, where it began roaring at the Three Fat Men.
Then everyone realised that this was not a live girl, but a doll, an old, torn, useless doll.
A terrible shout went up.
The animal keeper was so confused he bit his tongue.
The lion-tamer chased the tigers back into their cage and kicked the dead doll scornfully as he left to take off his shiny blue and gold uniform.
There was complete silence for about five minutes.
And then the stillness was shattered by a bomb bursting in the blue sky over the Palace zoo.
The audience dropped, noses down, on to the floorboards of the stands.
The animals reared up.
The next moment another bomb exploded.
Now the sky was full of white puffs of smoke.
"What happened?
What could it be?" everyone shouted. ;
"The people are storming the Palace!"
"The people have cannons!"
"The Guards have betrayed us!"
"Oh!"
"Ah!" ;
"Help!"
The Palace park resounded with shouting and shooting.
The rebels had already made their way into the park, no doubt about it!
Everyone made a mad dash for the gates.
The ministers pulled out their swords.
The Three Fat Men were yelling their heads off.
And this is what they saw in the Palace park.
People were advancing from all sides.
There were great numbers of them.
Their heads were bare, their foreheads bloody, their jackets torn, but their faces were happy.
They had won the battle.
The Guards were with them.
They all had red ribbons on their hats.
The workers were also armed.
The poor, dressed in brown clothes and wooden shoes, were closing in.
The trees bent and the bushes cracked under the advancing army.
"We have won!" they shouted.
The Three Fat Men saw there was no escape.
"No! That's not true!" one of them howled.
"Guards, shoot them all!"
But the Guards stood in the same ranks with the poor.
And then a voice thundered out over the crowd.
It was Prospero the Gunsmith.
"Surrender!
The people have won!
The rule of the rich and the gluttons has come to an end!
The people have taken over the entire town.
All the fat men have been captured."
The Three Fat Men were surrounded by an excited crowd.
The people were waving red banners, sticks, swords, and shaking their fists.
And then they began to sing.
Tibul stood there in his green cape beside Prospero. His head was tied with a bloody rag.