And she begins again—
"Among the rocks his city was:
Before his palace, in the sun,
He sat to see his people pass,
And judge them every one"
—and as she tells the manner of his judging, Luigi again exclaims:
"That king should still judge, sitting in the sun!"
But the song goes on—
"His councillors, to left and right,
Looked anxious up—but no surprise
Disturbed the king's old smiling eyes,
Where the very blue had turned to white";
and those eyes kept their tranquillity even when, as legend tells, a Python one day "scared the breathless city," but coming, "with forked tongue and eyes on flame," to where the king sat, and seeing the sweet venerable goodness of him, did not dare
"Approach that threshold in the sun,
Assault the old king smiling there . . .
Such grace had kings when the world begun!"
"And such grace have they, now that the world ends!"
cries Luigi bitterly, for at Vienna the Python is the king, and brave men lurk in corners "lest they fall his prey." . . . He hesitates no more—