‘What book have you there, my lord?’ asked the king—­while some of his courtiers stood near the door, and others gazed from the window on the moat and the swelling, towering mass of the keep.  ’I like to know what books my friends read.’

’Sir, it is old master John Gower’s book of verses, entitled Confessio Amantis,’ answered his lordship.

‘It is a book I have never seen before,’ said the king, glancing at its pages.

‘Oh!’ returned the marquis, ’it is a book of books, which if your majesty had been well versed in, it would have made you a king of kings.’

‘Why so, my lord?’ asked the king.

‘Why,’ said the marquis, ’here is set down how Aristotle brought up and instructed Alexander the Great in all his rudiments, and the principles belonging to a prince.  Allow me, sir, to read you such a passage as will show your majesty the truth of what I say.’

He opened the book and read: 

   ’Among the vertues one is chefe,
    And that is trouthe, which is lefe (dear)
    To God and eke to man also. 
    And for it hath ben ever so,
    Taught Aristotle, as he well couth, (knew)
    To Alisaundre, how in his youth
    He shulde of trouthe thilke grace (that same)
    With all his hole herte embrace,
    So that his word be trewe and pleine
    Toward the world, and so certeine,
    That in him be no double speche. 
    For if men shulde trouthe seche,
    And found it nought within a king,
    It were an unfittende thing
    The worde is token of that within;
    There shall a worthy king begin
    To kepe his tunge and to be trewe,
    So shall his price ben ever newe.’

’And here, sir, is what he saith as to the significance of the kingly crown, if your majesty will allow me to read it.’

‘Read on, my lord; all is good and true,’ said the king.

   ’The gold betokneth excellence,
    That men shuld done him reverence,
    As to her lege soveraine. (their liege)
    The stones, as the bokes saine,
    Commended ben in treble wise. 
    First, they ben hard, and thilke assise (that attribute)
    Betokeneth in a king constaunce,
    So that there shall be no variaunce
    Be found in his condicion. 
    And also by description
    The vertue, whiche is in the stones,
    A verray signe is for the nones
    Of that a king shall ben honest,
    And holde trewely his behest (promise)
    Of thing, which longeth to kinghede.’ (belongeth)

’And so on—­for I were loath to weary your majesty—­of the colour of the stones, and the circular form of the crown.’

‘Read on, my lord,’ said the king.

Several passages, therefore, did the marquis pick out and read—­amongst which probably were certain concerning flatterers—­taking care still to speak of Alexander and Aristotle, and by no means of king and marquis, until at length he had ’read the king such a lesson,’ as Dr. Bayly informs us, ’that the bystanders were amazed at his boldness.’