People discreetly dropped
their eyes before my proud gaze, and into their hearts I know I
forced the query, What manner of man can this mortal be? I was
superior to convention, and the very garb which otherwise would have
damned me tended toward my elevation. And all this was due, not to
my royal lineage, nor to the deeds I had done and the champions I had
overthrown, but to a certain hogskin belt buckled next the skin. The
sweat of months was upon it, toil had defaced it, and it was not a
creation such as would appeal to the aesthetic mind; but it was
plethoric. There was the arcanum; each yellow grain conduced to my
exaltation, and the sum of these grains was the sum of my mightiness.
Had they been less, just so would have been my stature; more, and I
should have reached the sky.
And this was my royal progress through that most loyal city. I
purchased a host of things from the tradespeople, and bought me such
pleasures and diversions as befitted one who had long been denied. I
scattered my gold lavishly, nor did I chaffer over prices in mart or
exchange.
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