While Edward, the true king, is wandering about London on Coronation Day being mistreated, Tom Canty is just beginning to enjoy and deal effectively in his new position as king. With the help of his so-called whipping-boy, he has lost most of his early fears: "his misgivings faded out and died; his embarrassments departed, and gave place to an easy and confident bearing." In fact, Tom has learned to actually enjoy the splendid clothes, the grandeur, the attention, and the other royal privileges attendant upon his being considered royalty. For example, once when the Lady Mary argued with him over the wisdom of pardoning so many people who would otherwise be hanged, he "was filled with generous indignation, and commanded her to go to her closet, and beseech God to take away the stone that was in her breast, and give her a human heart."
This was not always so, obviously. At the beginning of the novel, Tom Canty had many painful thoughts about Edward, the real prince, but these thoughts eventually faded; likewise, at first, he sorely missed his poor mother and sisters, but later the very thought of their appearing in rags before him made him shudder.
At midnight, on the eve of his coronation, Tom Canty goes to sleep in his splendid bed, watched over by "loyal vassals." At the same time, the true king — "hungry and thirsty, soiled and draggled, worn with travel, and clothed in rags and shreds . . . [is] wedged in among a crowd of people who [are] watching with deep interest" the final preparations for the coronation of the young boy king.
