_What Prince Prigio found in the Garret_.
The prince walked from room to room of the palace; but, unless he wrapped
himself up in a curtain, there was nothing for him to wear when he went
out in the rain. At last he climbed up a turret-stair in the very oldest
part of the castle, where he had never been before; and at the very top
was a little round room, a kind of garret. The prince pushed in the door
with some difficulty--not that it was locked, but the handle was rusty,
and the wood had swollen with the damp. The room was very dark; only the
last grey light of the rainy evening came through a slit of a window, one
of those narrow windows that they used to fire arrows out of in old
times.
But in the dusk the prince saw a heap of all sorts of things lying on the
floor and on the table. There were two caps; he put one on--an old,
grey, ugly cap it was, made of felt. There was a pair of boots; and he
kicked off his slippers, and got into _them_. They were a good deal
worn, but fitted as if they had been made for him. On the table was a
purse with just three gold coins--old ones, too--in it; and this, as you
may fancy, the prince was very well pleased to put in his pocket. A
sword, with a sword-belt, he buckled about his waist; and the rest of the
articles, a regular collection of odds and ends, he left just where they
were lying. Then he ran downstairs, and walked out of the hall door.