arned clerk at his side and asked what those
words meant, for he knew no Latin.

"They mean, 'He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and hath
exalted them of low degree,'" answered the clerk.

"It is well the words are in Latin, then," said the king angrily, "for
they are a lie. There is no power on earth or in heaven which can put
me down from my seat!" And he sneered at the beautiful singing, as he
leaned back in his place.

Presently the king fell asleep, while the service went on. He slept
deeply and long. When he awoke the church was dark and still, and he
was all alone. He, the king, had been left alone in the church, to
awake in the dark! He was furious with rage and surprise, and,
stumbling through the dim aisles, he reached the great doors and beat
at them, madly, shouting for his servants.

The old sexton heard some one shouting and pounding in the church, and
thought it was some drunken vagabond who had stolen in during the
service. He came to the door with his keys and called out, "Who is
there?"

"Open! open! It is I, the king!" came a hoarse, angry voice from
within.

"It is a crazy man," thought the sexton; and he was frightened. He
opened the doors carefully and stood back, peering into the darkness.
Out past him rushed the figure of a man in tattered, scanty clothes,
with unkempt hair and white, wild face. The sexton did not know that
he had ever seen him before, but he looked long after him, wondering at
his wildness and his haste.

In his fluttering rags, without hat or cloak, not knowing what strange
thing had happened to him, King Robert rushed to his palace gates,
pushed aside the startled servants, and hurried, blind with rage, up
the wide stair and through the great corridors, toward the room where
he could hear the sound of his courtiers' voices. Men and women
servants tried to stop the ragged man, who had somehow got into the
palace, but Robert did not even see them as he fled along. Straight to
the open doors of the big banquet hall he made his way, and into the
midst of the grand feast there.

The great hall was filled with lights and flowers; the tables were set
with everything that is delicate and rich to eat; the courtiers, in
their gay clothes, were laughing and talking; and at the head of the
feast, on the king's own throne, sat a king. His face, his figure, his
voice were exactly like Robert of Sicily; no human being could have
told the difference; no one dre