Udo could not comprehend how Fortune should have refused to his crowned friend a favour which she lavished upon every shepherd. The King’s unmarried state not being to his own inclination, he could not refrain from asking him to solve the riddle. Waidewuth gave him, without hesitation, the wished-for explanation. “You know that I possess the gift of prescience, which reveals the dark future to my eyes, whilst you and others draw your lots without knowing whether a blank or a prize will come to your share. When I consult the stars, and find that the advantage is not on my side I renounce a deceitful love whose possession would be followed by the most bitter repentance. The most brilliant hopes are often the most deceiving. If the lovers always knew how to draw the horoscope of future destiny few brides would touch the bridal bed, and the army of bachelors become innumerable.” Udo terminated the conversation with the following good advice: “that in choosing a consort we should not examine the future with prophetic eye, but simply study the temper of the bride; for if all obeyed the king’s rule the number of bachelors would certainly much increase.” The king of the Amber Shore followed the prince’s recommendation, searched in the neighbourhood for
