Chapter 10 🔊✎
He was in the region of asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329 and 330. 🔊✎ He decided to visit them. 🔊✎ He thought it would give him something to do, and maybe he would learn something. 🔊✎
The first asteroid was inhabited by a king. 🔊✎ He sat, robed in purple and ermine, on a throne that was very simple but still quite majestic. 🔊✎
“Ah! 🔊✎ Here comes a subject,” cried the king when he noticed the little prince. 🔊✎
And the little prince asked himself:
“How can he recognise me when he’s never seen me before!” 🔊✎
He didn’t know that, for kings, the world is much simpler. Everyone is a subject. 🔊✎
“Come close, so that I can see you properly,” said the king, who was very proud of being king over someone.
The little prince looked around for somewhere to sit, but the whole planet was covered by the king’s magnificent ermine robe. 🔊✎ So he remained standing up, and since he was very tired, he yawned. 🔊✎
“It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,” said the monarch. “I forbid you to do so.”
“I couldn’t help it,” said the little prince in a confused tone. “I’ve had such a long trip and I haven’t slept…”
“In that case,” said the king, “I order you to yawn. 🔊✎ It’s years since I saw anyone yawn. Yawns, for me, are a kind of curiosity. 🔊✎ Come on! Yawn again. That is an order.” 🔊✎
“You’re scaring me… I can’t…” said the little prince, going very red. 🔊✎
“Hm! Hm!” said the king. “Well, then I… I order you sometimes to yawn, and sometimes to, uh…” 🔊✎
He stammered a little over his order and looked rather cross. 🔊✎ Because the most important thing for him was that his authority should be respected. 🔊✎ He did not tolerate disobedience, he was an absolute monarch. 🔊✎ But, since he was very kind, he made sure he gave reasonable orders. 🔊✎
“if I ordered,” he would often say, “If I ordered a general to change himself into a sea-bird and the general didn’t obey, that wouldn’t be the general’s fault. It would be my fault.” 🔊✎
“May I sit down?” asked the little prince timidly. 🔊✎
“I order you to sit down,” said the king, and majestically pulled aside a fold of his ermine robe. 🔊✎
But the little prince was astonished. The planet was tiny. Who did the king reign over? 🔊✎
“Sire,” he said… “I beg permission to ask you a question…” 🔊✎
“I order you to ask me a question,” said the king quickly. 🔊✎
“Sire… who do you reign over?” 🔊✎
“Over everything,” said the king with great simplicity. 🔊✎
“Over everything?” 🔊✎
The king, with a discreet gesture, indicated his own planet, the other planets and the stars. 🔊✎
“Over all that?” asked the little prince. 🔊✎
“Over all that…” replied the king. 🔊✎
Because he was not just an absolute monarch, he was also a universal monarch. 🔊✎
“Of course,” said the king. “They obey me at once. I do not tolerate indiscipline.” 🔊✎
This power amazed the little prince. 🔊✎ If he had possessed it, he would have been able to watch not just forty-four sunsets in one day, but seventy-two, or a hundred, or even two hundred, all without moving his chair! 🔊✎ And since the memories of the planet he had left were making him feel a bit sad, he thought he would dare ask the king for a favour. 🔊✎
“I would so like to see a sunset… That would be very kind of you… Please order the sun to set…” 🔊✎
“If I ordered a general to flit from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to change himself into a sea-bird, and the general didn’t obey the order he’d received, whose fault would it be, his or mine?” 🔊✎
“It would be your fault,” said the little prince firmly. 🔊✎
“Exactly so. You can only demand what people are able to give you,” said the king. 🔊✎ “Authority is based on reason. If you order your people to jump into the sea, there’ll be a revolution. 🔊✎ I have the right to request obedience because my orders are reasonable.” 🔊✎
“So what about my sunset?” said the little prince, who never let go of a question once he had asked it. 🔊✎
“You will get your sunset,” said the king. “I will request it. 🔊✎ But following my principles of government, I will wait until the conditions are favourable.” 🔊✎
“And when will that be?” asked the little prince. 🔊✎
“Hm! Hm!” replied the king, as he consulted a large almanac. 🔊✎ Hm! Hm! That will be, around… around… that will be around twenty to eight. And you will see how promptly I am obeyed.” 🔊✎
The little prince yawned. He was annoyed about missing his sunset. 🔊✎ And he was already getting a bit bored. 🔊✎
“I think I’m done here,” he said to the king. “I’m going to leave.” 🔊✎
“Don’t leave,” said the king, who was still very proud to have a subject. 🔊✎ “Don’t leave. I will make you a minister!” 🔊✎
“But there is no one to judge!” 🔊✎
“You never know,” said the king. 🔊✎ “I have not yet visited all my kingdom. I am very old, and there is no room for a coach, and I am too tired to walk.” 🔊✎
“Oh! I’ve already checked that out,” said the little prince, who bent over to take another quick look at the opposite side of the planet. 🔊✎ “There’s no one there either.” 🔊✎
“Then you will judge yourself,” replied the king. “It is the hardest thing to do. It is much more difficult to judge yourself than it is to judge other people. 🔊✎ If you can judge yourself fairly, then you have true wisdom.” 🔊✎
“But I can judge myself anywhere,” said the little prince. “I don’t need to live here to do it.”
“Hm! Hm!” said the king, “I think that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. 🔊✎ You can judge the old rat. You will condemn him to death every now and then, so his life will depend on your justice. 🔊✎ But you will have to pardon him afterwards. He’s the only one we’ve got.” 🔊✎
“I don’t want to condemn anyone to death,” said the little prince. “And now I think I’m going.” 🔊✎
The little prince was ready to depart, but he didn’t want to hurt the old monarch’s feelings. 🔊✎
“If Your Majesty desires to be obeyed faithfully, he should give me a reasonable order. 🔊✎ He could, for example, order me to leave one minute from now. It seems to me that the conditions are favourable…”
The king said nothing. The little prince hesitated for a moment, then with a sigh he left.
“I make you ambassador!” shouted the king quickly. He had a superb air of authority. 🔊✎
“Grown-ups are very strange,” said the little prince to himself as he travelled along. 🔊✎