"Lead him in to me," said the king. "I'd like to see him."
Accordingly, the boy was led before the throne.
"What is your name, my lad?" asked the king kindly.
"I am called José the Beast Slayer, your majesty," replied the boy as he bowed low before the throne.
"Who are your parents?" asked the king.
"My father is dead," replied José, "and my mother is a princess who ran away from a tower in the forest."
José had often heard the story of his mother's life in the tower. It was the tale he liked best of all.
At the boy's words the king started and looked at him sharply.
"Tell me about this tower," he said eagerly.
"It was a tower in the deep forest," replied José. "It had no door, only a little window through which food was passed to her. She could never have any meat with a bone. This was because the Wise Man of the Forest had told her father that it was the best way to bring her up. One day her father went away and the servants gave her meat with a bone in it and—"