Oh , how dark and dull it was there ! And they told him : ` To-morrow you are to be hanged . ' Hearing that did not exactly cheer him , and he had left his tinder-box in the inn . Next morning he could see through the iron grating in front of his little window how the people were hurrying out of the town to see him hanged . He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching ; all the people were running to and fro . Just below his window was a shoemaker 's apprentice , with leather apron and shoes ; he was skipping along so merrily that one of his shoes flew off and fell against the wall , just where the Soldier was sitting peeping through the iron grating . ` Oh , shoemaker 's boy , you need n't be in such a hurry ! ' said the Soldier to him . ` There 's nothing going on till I arrive . But if you will run back to the house where I lived , and fetch me my tinder-box , I will give you four shillings . But you must put your best foot foremost . ' The shoemaker 's boy was very willing to earn four shillings , and fetched the tinder-box , gave it to the Soldier , and -- yes -- now you shall hear . Outside the town a great scaffold had been erected , and all round were standing the soldiers , and hundreds of thousands of people . The King and Queen were sitting on a magnificent throne opposite the judges and the whole council . The Soldier was already standing on the top of the ladder ; but when they wanted to put the rope round his neck , he said that the fulfilment of one innocent request was always granted to a poor criminal before he underwent his punishment . He would so much like to smoke a small pipe of tobacco ; it would be his last pipe in this world . The King could not refuse him this , and so he took out his tinder-box , and rubbed it once , twice , three times . And lo , and behold I there stood all three dogs -- the one with eyes as large as saucers , the second with eyes as large as mill-wheels , and the third with eyes each as large as the Round Tower of Copenhagen . ` Help me now , so that I may not be hanged ! ' cried the Soldier .
And thereupon the dogs fell upon the judges and the whole XXXXX , seized some by the legs , others by the nose , and threw them so high into the air that they fell and were smashed into pieces . '
council dogs house hurry morning round throne times town world