were lost to him in the great world without, of which he knew
scarce anything. But at last across this twilight life, which
was more than half a dream, there struck one day a flash of
sunshine. Then to the patient, studious prisoner all was
changed. Life was no longer a twilight dream, but real. He knew
how deep joy might be, how sharp sorrow. Life was worth living,
he learned, freedom worth having, and at length freedom came, and
the Prince returned to his country a free King and a happy lover.

How all this happened King James has told us himself in a book
called The King's Quair, which means the King's little book,
which he wrote while he was still a prisoner in England.

King James tells us how one night he could not sleep, try as he
might. He lay tossing and tumbling, "but sleep for craft on
earth might I no more." So at last, "knowing no better wile," he
took a book hoping "to borrow a sleep" by reading. But instead
of bringing sleep, the book only made him more and more wide
awake. At length he says:--

"Mine eyen gan to smart for studying,
My book I shut, and at my head it laid,
And down I lay but* any tarrying."

*Without.

Again he lay thinking and tossing upon his bed until he was
weary.

"Then I listened suddenly,