think,
led him to a marble bath of tepid water. There he was stripped of his
tattered clothes and washed as clean as snow. Then, as some of the
attendants dried him with fine linen towels, others came carrying
clothes fit for a prince to wear, and clad the beggar in them from head
to foot. After that, still without saying a word, they let him out from
the bath again, and there he found still other attendants waiting for
him--two of them holding a milk-white horse, saddled and bridled, and
fit for an emperor to ride. These helped him to mount, and then, leaping
into their own saddles, rode away with the beggar in their midst.

They rode of the garden and into the streets, and on and on they went
until they came to the king's palace, and there they stopped. Courtiers
and noblemen and great lords were waiting for their coming, some of whom
helped him to dismount from the horse, for by this time the beggar was
so overcome with wonder that he stared like one moon-struck, and as
though his wits were addled. Then, leading the way up the palace steps,
they conducted him from room to room, until at last they came to one
more grand and splendid than all the rest, and there sat the king
himself waiting for the beggar's coming.

The beggar would have flung himself at the king's feet, but the king
would not let him; for he came down from the throne where he sat, and,
taking the beggar by the hand, led him up and sat him alongside of him.
Then the king gave orders to the attendants who stood about, and a feast
was served in plates of solid gold upon a table-cloth of silver--a feast
such as the beggar had never dreamed of, and the poor man ate as he had
never eaten in his life before.

All the while that the king and the beggar were eating, musicians played
sweet music and dancers danced and singers sang.

Then when the feast was over there came ten young men, bringing flasks
and flagons of all kinds, full of the best wine in the world; and the
beggar drank as he had never drank in his life before, and until his
head spun like a top.

So the king and the beggar feasted and made merry, until at last the
clock struck twelve and the king arose from his seat. "My friend," said
he to the beggar, "all these things have been done to show you that Luck
and Fate, which have been against you for all these years, are now for
you. Hereafter, instead of being poor you shall be the richest of
the rich, for I will give you the greatest thing t