ff my royal
robes, except for one short hour in the morning to perform ablutions in
the regal tub, and even then I was not allowed to remove my crown.
Seated on my throne from morning until night, overburdened by the weight
of my crown and the heavily brocaded and bejewelled robes, I felt as
lonely as a stranded limpet in the middle of the Sahara desert.

'At last things came to such a pass, that, except perhaps to bring me
food or drink, not one of my subjects would dare to draw nearer than to
the outer door of my ante-room, and even there they would fall upon
their faces and grovel in the dust and quake, so that the very clicking
of their bones could be distinctly heard from my place upon the throne,
as they trembled in every joint.

'Ah, how I missed the old days,--the cheerful cup of tea, the pipe of
baccy and the homely game of dominoes with that primest of all Prime
Ministers. How gladly would I have snatched from the royal board the
dainties now prepared for me,--the asparagus truffles, the prawn
cutlets, the anchovy jelly, and suchlike, and hurled from me the trivial
and shimmering mass, tweaking my old rascal of a waiter by the nose, and
calling for a hunk of bread and some cheese. Even my sparkling and
frolicsome old chum, the Prime Minister, had seemingly quite forgotten
our loyal chumship and never appeared before me now except upon his
hands and knees and with his head bent low to the ground. And what of my
old friend the Secretary of State? Where were his gibes, his playful
fancies, his quirks and rare conceits, the droll! Alas, only rarely now
could I glimpse the rogue, and with real sorrow did I see his erstwhile
bonny and jovial old face distorted by expressions of the most abject
servility. And that respectful mute, the Minister of Education, does he
dream that I forget his winsome pranks and jokes? Does he imagine for a
moment that those glorious evenings, when the four of us used to meet
and gladden the very stars by the sounds of our joviality, were nothing
to me? Alas, in my solitude what would have befallen me but for those
sweet memories!

[Illustration: HE COMMENCED HIS TALE]

'One evening the Prime Minister appeared on his hands and knees at the
door of the throne-room, bearing on a little plate upon his back the
slight supper that was served to me in this strange manner every
evening. With drooping head, and visibly quaking with awe, he gradually
crawled near, and when at the foot of the t