“Misery and despair cannot await a fixed hour!” cried the other. “If the king will not listen to unhappiness when it calls to him for redress, but waits until it pleases him to hear, he is not a good king.”
“The man is right,” said the king, “I will listen to him immediately.”
He hastily advanced to the door and opened it. Without stood an old man, poorly dressed, with a pale, thin face, from whose features despair and sorrow spoke plainly enough to be understood by all. When his great, sunken eyes fell upon the king, he cried, joyfully, “God be thanked, there is the king!” The king motioned to him to approach, and the old man sprang forward with a cry of delight.
“Come into the room,” said the king; “and now tell me what you wish from me?”
“Justice, your majesty, nothing but justice. I have been through the war, and I am without bread. I have nothing to live upon, and I have twice petitioned your majesty for a situation which is now vacant.”
“And I refused it to you, because I had promised it to another.”
“They told me that your majesty would refuse me this situation.” cried the man, despairingly. “But I cannot believe it, for your majesty owes it to me, and you are usually a just king. Hasten, your majesty, to perform your duty, and justify yourself from a suspicion which is unworthy of your kingly fame.”
The king measured him with a flashing glance, which the pale, despairing suppliant bore with bold composure.
“By what authority,” asked the king, in a thundering voice, as he approached the man, with his arm raised threateningly—“by what authority do you dare speak to me in such a tone? and on what do you ground your shameless demands?”
“On this, your majesty, that I must starve if you refuse my request. That is the most sacred of all claims, and to whom on earth dare I turn with it if not to my king?”