“Don’t you know that he is dead?”
‘The emotions that I felt at these words are beyond all description; and my astonishment, the paleness that overspread my face, and my silence must have betrayed them to the King.’
“At what are you astonished thus? not at the death of an old man of a hundred and eight years?”
“No,” I replied after a pause, “but I am surprised that he died at so seasonable a period.”
“Will you explain yourself more distinctly?”
“I think it is a very strange accident that the royal hermit should have entered the kingdom of heaven, and left your Majesty the terrestial crown, just when he was to show himself to the people as their lawful King.”
(To be continued.)