"Why are you talking to yourself, man?" he asked. The man answered:
"Because, soldier, I like to talk to a sensible man, and I like to hear a sensible man talk."
"Ha, ha!" laughed the king. "Pretty good, pret-ty good! They tell me that all things please you. Is it true?"
"The care of fine clothes is too much of a burden--I have long ago refused to be fashion's slave."
"Of those that I have had, the good are dead, and happier so than here; the evil ones have left me and are befriending some one else, for which I say, 'Joy go with them.'"
"And is there nothing that you want?" As the king asked this question he looked at the man in a peculiarly eager way, nor did the answer disappoint him.
"I have all of the necessities of life and many of the luxuries. I am perfectly content. I know I have neither land nor money, but is not the whole world mine? Can even the king himself take from me my delight in the green trees and the greener fields, in that dainty little cloud flecking heaven's blue up yonder like a bit of foam on a sunlit sea? Oh, no! I am rich enough, for all nature is mine--"
"And _I_ am yours," said a sweet young voice. The man looked up in surprise, and there before him, holding out her pretty hands toward him, stood the Princess Madge, who had slipped into the cell unnoticed.
The man sprang to his feet, clasped the little hands in his, and said:
"I know not what you mean, sweet lady, when you say that you are mine; but oh, you are passing beautiful!"
"Papa," called the princess, "this is quite dreadful. Quick, take off that ugly soldier's coat and tell him who we are and all about it!"
The king, starting as if from a dream, threw off the rough coat and hat and stepped forth into the beam of sunlight, resplendent in gold and ermine.
"Thou dost not know me, my man? I am the king. Hast thou not read our last proclamation?"
"No, your Majesty; I never do read proclamations."
"Then thou didst not know that the hand of the princess is offered to the first contented man who enters the palace?"
"Then know it now, and know, too, that thou art the man. To thee I give my daughter, together with half my kingdom. No, no--not a word. Thou deservest her. May you be happy!"
The prisoner, almost dumb with astonishment, almost dazed with joy, knelt and kissed the princess's white hands, then looked into her eyes and said: