"Bless you," said Pinocchio.
"Thank you. But all the same some pity is due me too, because if I let you go, you see I shall have no wood to make the fire to finish cooking my mutton, and you would have made a fine fire. But now that I am going to spare you, I shall have to wait and look around a bit. I shall have to burn some one of my company instead. Ho, gendarme, come here."
At this command two wooden guards or policemen, who are called gendarmes in Italy, appeared immediately, with caps on their heads and swords by their sides. The showman said to them in a hoarse voice. "Bring in Harlequin, bound tightly, mind you, and throw him on the fire. I want that roast well done."
Imagine how poor Harlequin must have felt! He was so scared that his legs doubled under him, and he fell face downward on the floor. Pinocchio at this pitiful sight, threw himself at the feet of the manager, and crying into the long black beard of Fire Eater, so that he dampened it with his tears, said pleadingly, “Have pity, Sir Fire Eater."
