"Fetch raiment of another sort; clothe him like a prince!" My idea worked.

I wanted to keep things as they were till the eclipse was total, otherwise they would be trying again to get me to dismiss the darkness, and of course I couldn't do it.

Sending for the clothes gained some delay, but not enough.

So I had to make another excuse.

I said it would be but natural if the king should change his mind and repent to some extent of what he had done under excitement; therefore I would let the darkness grow a while, and if at the end of a reasonable time the king had kept his mind the same, the darkness should be dismissed.