Robin Hood's Barn 



cellor, and Minister of State. It was his privilege 

 to grant an audience and to present. Yet might 

 he not more becomingly have installed himself as 

 Knight of the Bedchamber or First Groom? 

 About my father and myself, it did not much 

 matter. We were the trembling populace whom 

 fear makes neuter. We kept a proper distance 

 from the throne. 



For the most part we were convinced that we 

 were servitors of Solomon. More terrible than 

 an army with banners he had come among us 

 and had seized upon his kingdom with a preda- 

 tory clutch. Sheba, we knew, for a lady fond 

 of panoply and trappings. She would have in- 

 sisted on full coronation rites, preferring a 

 graceful exaltation to her chair of state to any 

 greedy downward swoop. And being feminine, 

 she would have, striven for a personal adulation 

 and have contrived to win her subjects' hearts by 

 luring wile. 



Besides our sovereign's appetite was mascu- 

 line. So was his thirst. Sheba would have simu- 

 lated delicacy at the table and have sought in- 

 dulgence in a woman's nibbling way between her 



[ii6] 



