No, no! You must not suffer hardship on my account. Have I deserved that of you?

THE KING.

Do you know, my child, that if I had not had you with me, my treasure, as guardian angel, I should very probably be hanging today on a high gallows for highway robbery?——(He sits down again by the road-side.) And now, let us tarry here in patient expectation of the all-powerful man whose return will decide whether our desire to live in communion with mankind is to be fulfilled.


ACT II


Scene One.


THE WORKSHOP OF A LADIES' TAILOR.

(The King, in journeyman's clothes, sits cross-legged on a table,
working on a woman's gown of rich material.
Master Pandolfo bustles into the room.
)