"Lord Dunsany - The Golden Doom (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

First Sentry:
Because if a doom from the stars fall suddenly on a
king it swallows up his people and all things round
about him, and his palace falls and the walls of his
city and citadel, and the apes come in from the woods
 and the large beasts from the desert, so that you would
not say that a king had been there at all.

Second Sentry:
But why should a doom from the stars fall on the King?

First Sentry:
Because he seldom placates them.

Second Sentry:
Ah! I have heard that said of him.

First Sentry:
Who are the stars that a man should scorn them? Should
they that rule the thunder, the plague and the
earthquake withhold these things save for much prayer?
Always ambassadors are with the King, and his
commanders, come in from distant lands, prefects of
cities and makers of the laws, but never the priests of
the stars.

Second Sentry:
Hark! Was that thunder?

First Sentry:
Believe me, the stars are angry.

{Enter a Stranger. He wanders towards the King's door,
gazing about him.}

Sentries: {lifting their spears at him}
Go back! Go back!

Stranger:
Why?

First Sentry:
It is death to touch the King's door.

Stranger:
I am a stranger from Thessaly.

First Sentry:
It is death even for a stranger.