Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/91

Rh Being reduced to beggary, having no shoes to his feet, and in ragged apparel, he sat himself by the road side, and began to think, the king's passion being subsided, how much of his desire to re-possess the treasure still remained. Seeing his deplorable condition, he said to himself, "I have thought of nothing but doing this thing ever since. Albeit I am almost out of hope, yet am I in so low a state that I can lose nothing. I will go to the king once more, and will endeavour to awaken his sympathy for what has befallen me, in being driven from my father's roof; and also revive the great hopes (in naming which I will use my tongue eloquently) that may still attend this one attempt." When he came to the king, he pitied him not, and listened to his hopes as we do to the memory of one who is dead, and forbade him his presence. But Philippo, lingering at the gate till some hours after, when the king came out, dropped upon his knee, and said, "If I do not succeed, banish me forth of Naples. But, I pray thee, let me once more try my hitherto evil fortune." The king, from his earnestness and great desire, was once more deluded into the hope of success; ordered the money to be given him, and that he should try again. But out, alas! he failed again: and yet so reasonable