richest reds.
I then asked whether the King on coming there brought with him a great concourse of extraneous people low and vulgar along with him?
He answered me friendly but laughing at the question, saying, "When the King purposes to come hither, he dismisses all his counsellors and every stranger and enters alone, nobody approaching the fount except himself and its Keeper alone, the care of which a very simple man has. Verily the simplest man can best supply his place, since he does nothing else than warm the fount."
I again enquired whether the King was a friend to the fount, or the fount a friend to him?
He answered, "They love one another reciprocally in a wonderful manner, the fount attracts the King and not the King the fount, for it is as it were the Mother to the King."
I next interrogated of what kind the King was?
He answered, "He comes from the fount which makes him such as he is without any other thing whatever."
I enquired whether he had many counsellors. He said he has six forsooth who expect the succession, if by any chance or any means the King should die, they will also rule the Kingdom like him; hence it is that they serve him because they hope from him Dominion and possessions.
Then I asked whether he was an old man.
He answered, that he was older than the forest and more mature than any of his own subjects.
How happens it therefore, I asked, that these do not kill the King who expect so much inheritance from his death, since he is so old?