“Don’t hesitate. You decided to go away. Now go!”

She was a proud flower.

He found himself[22] in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, to visit them.

The first of them was inhabited by a king. The king was in royal purple and ermine, and was sitting upon a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.

“Ah! Here is a subject[23],” exclaimed the king, when he saw the little prince.

And the little prince asked himself:

“How does he recognize me?”

He did not know how the world is simple for kings. To them, all men are subjects.

“Approach, so that I may see you better,” said the king. He was very proud to be a king over somebody.

The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the entire planet was obstructed by the king’s magnificent robe. So he was standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned.

“It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,” the monarch said to him. “I forbid you to do so.”

“Sorry, I can’t stop myself,” replied the little prince, embarrassed. “I came on a long journey, and I had no sleep.”

“Ah, then,” the king said. “I order you to yawn. Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order.”

“That frightens me. I cannot yawn any more,” murmured the little prince.

“Hum! Hum!” replied the king. “Then I—I order you sometimes to yawn and sometimes to—”

He seemed vexed. The king hated disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable.

“If I ordered a general,” he said, “if I order a general to change himself into a bird, and if the general does not obey me, that is not the fault of the general. It is my fault.”

“May I sit down?” came a timid inquiry from the little prince.

“I order you to do so,” the king answered him.

But the little prince was wondering. The planet was tiny. Over what did this king really rule?

“Your majesty,” he said to him, “may I ask you a question—”

“I order you to ask me a question,” the king assured him.

“Your majesty, over what do you rule?”

“Over everything,” said the king, with magnificent simplicity.

“Over everything?”

The king made a gesture, which pointed at his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.

“Over all that?” asked the little prince.

“Over all that,” the king answered.

For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.

“And the stars obey you?”

“Certainly they do,” the king said. “They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination.”

Such power was marveling. “If I am so powerful,” the little prince thought, “I will be able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times.” And because he remembered his little planet, he asked the king a favor:

“I want to see a sunset. Do me that kindness. Order the sun to set.”

“If I order a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a bird, and if the general does not carry out the order[24], which one of us is wrong?” the king demanded. “The general, or myself?”

“You,” said the little prince firmly.

“Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform,” the king said. “If you order your people to go and throw themselves into the sea[25], they will make a revolution. My orders are reasonable.”

“And what about my sunset?” the little prince reminded him.

“You will have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait until conditions are favorable.”