Naked and ashamed, Jovinian sought the gate of the knight’s castle, and knocked loudly at the wicket.
“Who art thou, and what dost thou seek?” asked the porter, without unclosing the gate.
“Open, open, sirrah!” replied the emperor, with redoubled knocks on the wicket.
“In the name of wonder, friend, who art thou?” said the old porter as he opened the gate, and saw the strange figure of the emperor before the threshold.
“Who am I, askest thou, sirrah? I am thy emperor. Go, tell thy master, Jovinian is at his gate, and bid him bring forth a horse and some garments, to supply those that I have been deprived of.”
“Rascal,” rejoined the porter—“thou the emperor! Why, the emperor but just now rode up to the castle, with all his attendants, and honored my master by sitting with him at meat in the great hall. Thou the emperor! a very pretty emperor indeed; faugh, I’ll tell my master what you say, and he will soon find out whether you are mad, drunk, or a thief.”
The porter, greatly enraged, went and told his lord how that a naked fellow stood at the gate, calling himself the emperor, and demanding clothes and a good steed.
“Bring the fellow in,” said the knight.
So they brought in Jovinian, and he stood before the lord of the castle, and again declared himself to be the emperor Jovinian. Loud laughed the knight to the emperor.
“What, thou my lord the emperor! art mad, good fellow? Come, give him my old cloak; it will keep him from the flies.”