"Mean you God?"
"And now, my Lord, thou hast pronounced it."
The stillness in the chamber was very deep. Every man seemed to be asking, what next?
"One day, Your Majesty—it was in my tenth year of government—a function was held in a tent erected for the purpose—a shamiana vastly larger than any hall. I went up to it in state, passing through lines of elephants, an hundred on either hand, covered with cloth of gold and with houdahs of yellow silk roofed with the glory of peacocks. Behind the mighty brutes soldiery blotted out the landscape, and the air between them and the sky was a tawny cloud of flaunting yak-tails; nor had one use for ears, so was he deafened by beat of drums and blowing of brazen horns twice a tall man's height. I sat on a throne of silver and gold, all my ministers present. My brother entered, he the next entitled. Halfway down the aisle of chiefs I met him, and then led him to my seat, and saluted him Rajah of Meywar. Your Majesty, so I parted with crown and title—laid them down voluntarily to search the world for men in power in love with God enough to accept him as their sum of faith. Behold why I travel making the earth a study! Behold why I am in Constantinople!"
Constantine was impressed.
"Where hast thou been?" he at length asked—"where before coming here?"
"It were easier did Your Majesty ask where I have not been. For then I could answer, Everywhere, except Rome."
"Dost thou impugn our devotion to God?"
"Not so, not so, my Lord! I am seeking to know the degree of your love of Him."
"How, Prince?"