"Kyan," cried the King, "what is the matter with you? Has your sweetheart betrayed you? Have you no money? You look just like Prometheus, with an invisible eagle devouring your liver."
Kyan turned slowly round, much after the fashion of a wooden doll, and drew a deep sigh; so deep was it that it extinguished a six-light candelabra that was standing near him.
"Kyan, what is the matter with you?" repeated the King.
"Your Majesty," replied the Baron, "personally, there is nothing the matter with me. I am neither hungry, nor in love, nor in debt, nor jealous; but I am in despair."
"Why? What has happened? Speak!"
"I am grieving over our beloved monarch!" answered Kyan. "Born to be happy; endowed with a godlike face, with Herculean strength, with a generous heart; created to have the world lie at your feet--and yet your Majesty is sad!"
"Yes, that is true!" said Augustus, frowning. "I am sad!"
"Fifteen of us are sitting here, and none of us know how to make you merry; the women betray you, and grow old; the wine turns sour; your money is stolen; and when in the evening you wish to enjoy yourself in merry company, your faithful subjects meet you with death's-head faces. What wonder, then, that I, who love my King, am in despair?"
Augustus smiled; then, seizing a goblet, he knocked with it on the table. Immediately two dwarfs stepped forth from behind the sideboard, and stood before the King.
"Iramm," said the King, "order a big-bellied bottle of Ambrosia to be brought here! Kyan, I make you cup-bearer."