he matter, the
King caused a great palace to be built, and placed his son therein, and
caused him to be waited on there by a number of maidens, the most
beautiful that could anywhere be found. And he ordered them to divert
themselves with the prince, night and day, and to sing and dance before
him, so as to draw his heart towards worldly enjoyments. But 'twas all of
no avail, for none of those maidens could ever tempt the king's son to any
wantonness, and he only abode the firmer in his chastity, leading a most
holy life, after their manner thereof. And I assure you he was so staid a
youth that he had never gone out of the palace, and thus he had never seen
a dead man, nor any one who was not hale and sound; for the father never
allowed any man that was aged or infirm to come into his presence. It came
to pass however one day that the young gentleman took a ride, and by the
roadside he beheld a dead man. The sight dismayed him greatly, as he never
had seen such a sight before. Incontinently he demanded of those who were
with him what thing that was? and then they told him it was a dead man.
"How, then," quoth the king's son, "do all men die?" "Yea, forsooth," said
they. Whereupon the young gentleman said never a word, but rode on right
pensively. And after he had ridden a good way he fell in with a very aged
man who could no longer walk, and had not a tooth in his head, having lost
all because of his great age. And when the king's son beheld this old man
he asked what that might mean, and wherefore the man could not walk? Those
who were with him replied that it was through old age the man could walk
no longer, and had lost all his teeth. And so when the king's son had thus
learned about the dead man and about the aged man, he turned back to his
palace and said to himself that he would abide no longer in this evil
world, but would go in search of Him Who dieth not, and Who had created
him.[NOTE 2]

So what did he one night but take his departure from the palace privily,
and betake himself to certain lofty and pathless mountains. And there he
did abide, leading a life of great hardship and sanctity, and keeping
great abstinence, just as if he had been a Christian. Indeed, an he had
but been so, he would have been a great saint of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so
good and pure was the life he led.[NOTE 3] And when he died they found
his body and brought it to his father. And when the father saw dead before
him that son whom he lov