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Läsebok. N:o 62—63.
55
•magnanimity. Tell them how you have been entertained;
unite them to us by ties of friendship and esteem; and gain
us the hearts of those who have been disaffected. This is
the only token of gratitude that we require.
63. The Chancellor.
There was once a king who had a good and wise
chancellor. This chancellor had, in his youth, been only a poor
shepherd, and had risen step by step, by his own merit, until
at length the had attained to this important dignity. But
some of the king’s servants envied the preferment of the
chancellor, and wanted to ruin him. So they went to the
kino- and told him that the chancellor had stolen a large
o/ o
treasure. This treasure, they asserted, he had hidden in a
vault, guarded by a strong iron door. When the king heard
this, he was angry with the chancellor, who had, he thought,
misused his benefits and deceived him.
He determined, however, to visit his minister and
examine into the matter for himself. He took an early
opportunity of carrying this resolution into effect, and went through
every room of the chancellor’s house, from the highest to
the lowest. In all the establishment the king saw no tokens
of the splendour about which his servants had told him such
tales. At length, however, he came to a door, firmly
secured with iron bars and bolts. The chancellor was ordered
to open this door, that the king might see what was within.
»Sire», said the chancellor, »do not compel me to open
this door. Whatever you see in all my house, I owe to your
Majesty’s bounty. What I have treasured in this room, is
my own, and belongs to no one but me».
But the king insisted that he would see the room, and
the courtiers said among themselves, »Now we shall see the
riches this man has stored up».
The chancellor unlocked and unbarred the -door, which
suddenly flew wide open. The king and his servants stood
lost in amazement, for, instead of the riches and jewels they
had expected to behold, they saw nothing but a simple
apartment, containing only a table and a chair, of the rudest
constructions. A shepherd’s crook lay on the table, and over
it hung a wallet and a shepherd’s pipe: these were the riches
the chancellor had accumulated.
The courtiers stood round in silence: they were ashamed
of their suspicions, and of the reports they had spread abroad.
But the king asked the chancellor the meaning of what
he saw.
»Sire», said the faithful old man, »before your Majesty
honoured me with your notice, I was a simple shepherd; I
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