ection which was his by inheritance soon changed to a heartfelt
admiration and love of the virtues which all men perceived him to
possess. Surely no monarch ever began to reign under more auspicious
skies. One of his palaces, his chief pleasure-house, had been built for
him by command of the late king, and was of unique excellence. Its
progress during erection had been impatiently watched by the monarch,
who desired to see it complete and be assured of its perfection before
he closed his eyes on the world, so that the skilful builders who
wrought day and night were distracted between the injunction laid on
them that it should be in every part of unrivalled beauty, and the
hourly repetition of the royal mandate that the task be accomplished
immediately. But, notwithstanding, so well did they succeed that among
all the wonderful palaces of that age and land there was none to compare
with The Magic Isle, for thus was it called, because by ingenious device
it floated on the bosom of one of the lakes by which that country was
diversified. No bridge led to this palace, but gilded barges were ever
ready to spread their silken sails and convey the king to and from the
elysium, which sometimes, as if in coquetry, receded at his approach
among flower-decked islands, and sometimes bore down to meet the gay
flotilla, branches spread and garlands waving, like some enchanted
vessel of unknown fashion and fragrance.

"But strange to tell, the young king grew every day more grave and
pensive in the midst of all these delights. Music nor mirth could win
him from the melancholy which overshadowed him. The truth was, that amid
so much adulation as surrounded him, the idol of a nation, his soul no
longer increased in wisdom; and loving virtue beyond all other things,
he secretly bemoaned his defection whilst not perceiving its cause. His
virtues, the cynosure of all eyes, withered like tender flowers meant to
blossom in the shade, but unnaturally exposed to noon-day. His adoring
people bewailed what they thought must be a foreshadowing of mortal
illness, and the wise counsellors of his childhood vainly strove to
fathom his mood. But those who know us best are ever the Unseen, and
about the young monarch hovered the benignant influences that had
watched his infancy, and now rightly interpreted the sorrow of his
heart. In sooth, that this sorrow was matter of rejoicing in the Air, I
gather from the joyous mien of that river-sprite which one d