He found himself in the vicinity of Asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329 and 330. So he started by visiting these, to find some occupation and to educate himself.

The first was inhabited by a king. Clad in purple and ermine, the king was in sitting - on a very simple yet majestic throne.

'Ah! Here comes a subject.' exclaimed the king when he caught sight of the little prince.

And the little prince said to himself:

'How can he recognize me, when he has never seen me before?'

The little prince did not realize that for kings the world is very simple: all men are subjects.

'Come nearer, so that I may see you better.' said the king, who felt very proud at last to be a king in the eyes of somebody.

The little prince looked around him quickly for somewhere to sit, but the entire planet was taken up by the king's magnificent ermine robe. So he remained standing, and, because he was tired, he yawned.

'It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,' said the monarch. 'I forbid you to yawn.'

'I can't help myself,' replied the little prince, quite abashed. 'I have had a long journey, and have not slept.'

'In which case,' said the king, 'I command you to yawn. It is years since I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns are, to me, an object of curiosity. Hurry up! Yawn again. That is a command.'

'Now I feel intimidated... I can't, just at the moment...' murmured the little prince, going very red in the face.

'H'm! H'm!' replied the king. 'In that case I — I command you sometimes to yawn and at other times to ...'

He muttered something, and seemed put out.

For what this king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority be respected. He would not tolerate disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. At the same time, since at heart he was a very good man, he made his commands reasonable.

'Were I,' he would often say, 'were I to command a general to change into a sea-bird, and were this general not to obey, it would not be the general's fault. It would be my fault.'

'May I sit down?'the little prince now enquired timidly.

'I command you to sit down,' replied the king, majestically drawing in a fold of his ermine mantle.

The little prince was astonished. This planet was minuscule. Over what, precisely, could the king be said to reign?

'Sire,' he said, 'I beg to be excused for asking you a question-'

'I command you to ask me a question,' the king interjected hurriedly.

'Sire, over what do you reign?'

'Over everything,' replied the king, with huge simplicity.

'Over everything?'

With a quiet gesture the king indicated his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.

'Over all that?' asked the prince.

'Over all that,' replied the king.

For not only was he an absolute monarch, he was a universal monarch.

'And do the stars obey you?'

'Naturally,' said the king. 'They obey promptly. I do not tolerate indiscipline.'

The little prince marvelled at such power. Had he wielded it himself, he'd have been able to sit and watch, nor forty-four sunsets in a single day, but seventy-two, even a hundred, even two hundred, without ever having to move his chair! And, since at the thought of his little forsaken planet he felt himself becoming sad, he plucked up courage to ask a favour of the king:

'I would like to see a sunset ... Do me this kindness: command the sun to set.'

'Were I to command a general to fly from one flower to the next, like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to change into a sea-bird, and were this general not to carry out my command, which of us would be in the wrong - he or I?'

'You would be.' said the little prince firmly.

'Correct. One must require of each what each is able to give,' continued the king. 'Authority rests first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to go and throw themselves into the sea, there will be a revolution. I have the right to demand obedience because my orders are reasonable?

'And my sunset?' the little prince reminded him, for he never forgot a question once he had asked it.

'You shall have your sunset. I shall insist upon it. But I shall wait, in keeping with my science of government, until conditions are favourable.'

'When will that be?' enquired the little prince.

'H'm! H'm!' replied the king, consulting an outsized almanac. 'H'm! H'm! That will be at around ... around ... That will be this evening, at around twenty minutes to eight! Then you shall see how I'm obeyed.'

The little prince yawned. He was regretting his missed sunset. And he was already beginning to be a little bored.

'I have nothing further to do here,' he said to the king. 'So I'll be on my way!'

'Don't leave,' replied the king, who was very proud at having a subject. 'Don't leave, I shall make you a Minister!'

'Minister of what?'

'Of- of Justice!'

'But there is nobody here to judge!'

'We do not know for certain,' said the king. 'I have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. I am very old. There is no room here for a state coach, and it tires me to walk.'

'But I have already looked!' said the little prince, bending again to glance around the other side of the planet. There's no one over there either.'

'In that case, you shall judge yourself.' replied the king. 'That is the most difficult thing of all. It is far more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself correctly, then you are truly a man of wisdom.'

'But I can judge myself anywhere,' said the little prince. 'I do not need to live on this planet.'

'H'm! H'm!' said the king. 'I do believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You may judge this old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. Hence his life will depend on your justice. But you will reprieve him each time, so as to save him up. He's the only one we have.'

'But I don't like condemning to death,' said the little prince, 'and I really do think I should be going now.'

'No,' said the king.

Having completed his preparations, but with no wish to distress the old monarch, the little prince said:

'If Your Majesty wishes to be obeyed promptly, he might give me a reasonable command. He might, for example, command me to leave within the next minute. It seems to me that conditions are favourable.'

As the king made no reply, the little prince hesitated; then, with a sigh, he took his leave.

'I make you my Ambassador.' the king cried out hurriedly after him.

He had a wonderful air of authority.

'Grown-ups are very strange,' the little prince said to himself as he continued on his voyage.