Presently they spake unto a citizen and said, Who is King in Ephesus?
And the citizen answered and said, Whence come ye that ye know not that great Laertius reigns in Ephesus?
They looked one at the other, greatly perplexed, and presently asked again, Where, then, is the good King Maximilianus?
The citizen moved him apart, as one who is afraid, and said, Verily these men be mad, and dream dreams, else would they know that the King whereof they speak is dead above two hundred years agone.
Then the scales fell from the eyes of the Seven, and one said, Alas, that we drank of the curious liquors.

They have made us weary, and in dreamless sleep these two long centuries have we lain.

Our homes are desolate, our friends are dead.

Behold, the jig is up--let us die.

And that same day went they forth and laid them down and died.