As soon as the king heard this, he called his heralds and sent them
everywhere through his land to sound their trumpets and call aloud:--

"Hear, ye minstrels! King Rene, our gracious king, bids ye come to play
at his court on May-day, for love of the Queen Imogen."

The minstrels were men who sang beautiful songs and played on harps; and
long ago they went about from place to place, from castle to castle,
from palace to cot, and were always sure of a welcome wherever they
roamed.

They could sing of the brave deeds that the knights had done, and of
wars and battles, and could tell of the mighty hunters who hunted in the
great forests, and of fairies and goblins, better than a story book; and
because there were no story books in those days, everybody, from little
children to the king, was glad to see them come.

So when the minstrels heard the king's message, they made haste to the
palace on May-day; and it so happened that some of them met on the way
and decided to travel together.

One of these minstrels was a young man named Harmonius; and while the
others talked of the songs that they would sing, he gathered the wild
flowers that grew by the roadside.

"I can sing of the drums and battles," said the oldest minstrel, whose
hair was white and whose step was slow.

"I can sing of ladies and their fair faces," said the youngest minstrel;
but Harmonius whispered: "Listen! listen!"

"Oh! we hear nothing but the wind in the tree-tops," said the others.
"We have no time to stop and listen."

Then they hurried on and left Harmonius; and he stood under the trees
and listened, for he heard something very sweet. At last he knew that it
was the wind singing of its travels through the wide world; telling how
it raced over the blue sea, tossing the waves and rocking the white
ships, and hurried on to the hills, where the trees made harps of their
branches, and then how it blew down into the valleys, where all the
flowers danced gayly in time to the tune.

Harmonius could understand every word:--

"_Nobody follows me where I go,
Over the mountains or valleys below;
Nobody sees where the wild winds blow,
Only the Father in Heaven can know_."

That was the chorus of the wind's song. Harmonius listened until he knew
the whole song from beginning to end; and then he ran on and soon
reached his friends, who were still talking of the grand sights that
they were to see.

"We shall see the king and speak