before. Notwithstanding the embroidered silk and velvet hangings
decorating the fronts of the rich people's houses, he caught glimpses of
filthy side streets, squalid alleys, and tumble-down tenements. He saw
forlorn little children scud away like rats into their holes as he drew
near, and wretched, vicious-looking men and women fighting with each
other for places in the crowd. Sharp, miserable faces peered round
corners at him, and nobody smiled because every one hated or distrusted
his neighbor, and they dreaded and disliked the young King because all
the King Mordreths had been evil and selfish, and he was their
descendant.

When they saw that he was so tall and powerful and carried his handsome
head so high, often looking upward, they feared him still more; as their
own heads hung down they never saw anything but the dirt and dust
beneath their feet or the quarrels about them, so their minds were full
of fears and ugly thoughts, and they at once began to be afraid of him
and suspect him of being proud. He could do twice as much evil as the
other Kings, they said, since he was twice as strong and twice as
handsome. It was their nature to first think an evil thought of anything
or anybody and to be afraid of all things at the outset.

The princes and nobles who rode in the procession tried to prevent King
Amor seeing the wretched-looking people and ill-kept streets. They
pointed out the palaces and decorations and beautiful ladies throwing
flowers in his path from the balconies. He praised all the splendors and
saluted the balconies, looking up with such radiant and smiling eyes
that the ladies almost threw themselves after their flowers and cried
out that never, never had there been crowned such a beautiful young King
before.