[A Herald marches in and blows his trumpet.
Herald: The Ambassador of the Emperor.
[Enter the Ambassador. He bows to the King from his place near the door.
King: For what purpose to my Court from Eng-Bathai comes thus the Ambassador of the Emperor?
Ambassador: I bring to the King's Majesty a gift from the great Emperor, [Ambassador and his men bow] who reigns in Eng-Bathai, the reward of obedience to his edict, a goblet of inestimable wine.
[He signs and there enters a page bearing a goblet of glass. He has a pretty complexion and yellow hair falling as low as his chin and curling inwards. He wears a cerise belt round his tunic exactly matching the wine in the goblet he carries.
He prays you drink it, and to know that it was made by vintners whose skill is lost, and stored in secret cellars over a hundred years; and that the vineyards whence it came have been long since whelmed by war, and only live now in legend and this wine.
King: A gift, you say, for obedience.
Ambassador: A gift from the old wine-gardens of the sun.
King: How knew the Emperor that I had thus obeyed him?