It was then that Feet-in-the-Ashes appeared before them, "Good health to you, King," said he.
"Good health to you, good man," said the King, "and what, may I ask, have you come here for?"
He was covered with the feathers of the eagle and the mud of the bog, and, as you may be sure, the King and the captains and the guards looked sourly at him.
"I have come first of all, King," said he, "to give you advice."
"And what is your advice?" asked the King.
"My advice to you is that you send away all these you have around you--your captains and your guards--and that you turn them into dog-boys or horse-boys or anything else in which they would give useful service, for as they are here, they can neither serve nor guard you."
"All that may be true," said the King, "but what right have you to s
