“I cannot tell what was the association of idea,” observed he, very
      tranquilly, and as if he had never tasted wine in his life, “but just
      after your majesty, had struck the girl and thrown the wine in her face—just
      after your majesty had done this, and while the parrot was making that odd
      noise outside the window, there came into my mind a capital diversion—one
      of my own country frolics—often enacted among us, at our
      masquerades: but here it will be new altogether. Unfortunately, however,
      it requires a company of eight persons and—”


      “Here we are!” cried the king, laughing at his acute discovery of the
      coincidence; “eight to a fraction—I and my seven ministers. Come! what is the diversion?”


      “We call it,” replied the cripple, “the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs, and
      it really is excellent sport if well enacted.”


      “We will enact it,” remarked the king, drawing himself up, and lowering
      his eyelids. “The beauty of the game,” continued Hop-Frog, “lies in the fright it
      occasions among the women.”


      “Capital!” roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry. “I will equip you as ourang-outangs,” proceeded the dwarf; “leave all that
      to me. The resemblance shall be so striking, that the company of
      masqueraders will take you for real beasts—and of course, they will
      be as much terrified as astonished.”


      “Oh, this is exquisite!” exclaimed the king. “Hop-Frog! I will make a man
      of you.”


      “The chains are for the purpose of increasing the confusion by their
      jangling. You are supposed to have escaped, en masse, from your keepers. Your majesty cannot conceive the effect produced, at a masquerade, by
      eight chained ourang-outangs, imagined to be real ones by most of the
      company; and rushing in with savage cries, among the crowd of delicately
      and gorgeously habited men and women. The _contrast_ is inimitable.”


      “It must be,” said the king: and the council arose hurriedly (as it was
      growing late), to put in execution the scheme of Hop-Frog. His mode of equipping the party as ourang-outangs was very simple, but
      effective enough for his purposes. The animals in question had, at the
      epoch of my story, very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized
      world; and as the imitations made by the dwarf were sufficiently
      beast-like and more than sufficiently hideous, their truthfulness to
      nature was thus thought to be secured. The king and his ministers were first encased in tight-fitting stockinet
      shirts and drawers. They were then saturated with tar. At this stage of
      the process, some one of the party suggested feathers; but the suggestion
      was at once overruled by the dwarf, who soon convinced the eight, by
      ocular demonstration, that the hair of such a brute as the ourang-outang
      was much more efficiently represented by _flax_. A thick coating of
      the latter was accordingly plastered upon the coating of tar. A long
      chain was now procured. First, it was passed about the waist of the king,
      _and tied;_ then about another of the party, and also tied; then
      about all successively, in the same manner. When this chaining
      arrangement was complete, and the party stood as far apart from each
      other as possible, they formed a circle; and to make all things appear
      natural, Hop-Frog passed the residue of the chain in two diameters, at
      right angles, across the circle, after the fashion adopted, at the
      present day, by those who capture chimpanzees, or other large apes, in
      Borneo. The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a circular
      room, very lofty, and receiving the light of the sun only through a single
      window at top. At night (the season for which the apartment was especially
      designed) it was illuminated principally by a large chandelier, depending
      by a chain from the centre of the sky-light, and lowered, or elevated, by
      means of a counter-balance as usual; but (in order not to look unsightly)
      this latter passed outside the cupola and over the roof. The arrangements of the room had been left to Trippetta’s superintendence;
      but, in some particulars, it seems, she had been guided by the calmer
      judgment of her friend the dwarf. At his suggestion it was that, on this
      occasion, the chandelier was removed. Its waxen drippings (which, in
      weather so warm, it was quite impossible to prevent) would have been
      seriously detrimental to the rich dresses of the guests, who, on account
      of the crowded state of the saloon, could not all be expected to keep from
      out its centre; that is to say, from under the chandelier. Additional
      sconces were set in various parts of the hall, out of the war, and a
      flambeau, emitting sweet odor, was placed in the right hand of each of the
      Caryaides [Caryatides] that stood against the wall—some fifty or
      sixty altogether. The eight ourang-outangs, taking Hop-Frog’s advice, waited patiently until
      midnight (when the room was thoroughly filled with masqueraders) before
      making their appearance. No sooner had the clock ceased striking, however,
      than they rushed, or rather rolled in, all together—for the
      impediments of their chains caused most of the party to fall, and all to
      stumble as they entered. The excitement among the masqueraders was prodigious, and filled the heart
      of the king with glee. As had been anticipated, there were not a few of
      the guests who supposed the ferocious-looking creatures to be beasts of
      some kind in reality, if not precisely ourang-outangs. Many of the women
      swooned with affright; and had not the king taken the precaution to
      exclude all weapons from the saloon, his party might soon have expiated
      their frolic in their blood. As it was, a general rush was made for the
      doors; but the king had ordered them to be locked immediately upon his
      entrance; and, at the dwarf’s suggestion, the keys had been deposited with
      him. While the tumult was at its height, and each masquerader attentive only to
      his own safety (for, in fact, there was much real danger from the pressure
      of the excited crowd), the chain by which the chandelier ordinarily hung,
      and which had been drawn up on its removal, might have been seen very
      gradually to descend, until its hooked extremity came within three feet of
      the floor. Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the
      hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and,
      of course, in immediate contact with the chain.