But the King would eat none of them.
"The King needs medicine," said the Court Physician, so he searched
the countryside for growing things and he brewed rose-leaf tea, and he
made a potion of everlasting flowers mixed with rosemary, and he
distilled wild honeysuckle with dew gathered at sunrise, but the King
would drink none of these.
"Perhaps music would divert the King," suggested the Court Wise Man.
"It might make him forget whatever is troubling him." And as music was
the only remedy for the King's most sorrowful illness that had not
been tried, the Court Herald hastened through the streets, calling as
loudly as he could:
"Music for the King! Music for the King! Riches and honor for whoever
can play the prettiest tune and the one that will make his majesty
forget his sorrow."
Immediately the palace was filled with music, some of it very
beautiful and all of it played by very famous people. A sweet singer
came with his lute and sang to the King of all the princesses and
queens that had listened to his tunes. But at the end the King was
still weak and sorrowful. A harpist from a far country came and played
music that sounded like the mighty wind on high mountain tops and the
rushing flow of great mountain streams. But the King only thanked the
harpist and requested that he be paid for his pains and his journey
and go back to his home.
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