"What sort of illness is this, Fool?
If you cannot explain it, you shall be sent to bed, and the physicians shall practise experiments upon your vile body, until they find out what your complaint is, for the advancement of their learning." "They would advance me more than their science, Sire," answered Adonis, in a voice that still quaked with past fear, "for they would send me to paradise at once and learn nothing that they wished to know." "That is probable," observed Don John, thoughtfully, for he had little belief in medicine generally, and none at all in the present case.
"May it please your Majesty," said Adonis, taking heart a little, "there are musk melons on the table." "Well, what of that ?" asked the King.
"The sight of melons on your Majesty's table almost kills me," answered the dwarf.
"Are you so fond of them that you cannot bear to see them?
You shall have a dozen and be made to eat them all.

That will cure your abominable greediness." "Provided that the King had none himself, I would eat all the rest, until I died of a surfeit of melons like your Majesty's great-grandsire of glorious and happy memory, the Emperor Maximilian." Philip turned visibly pale, for he feared illness and death as few have feared either.
"Why has no one ever told me that ?" he asked in a muffled and angry voice, looking round the room, so that the gentlemen and servants shrank back a little.
No one answered his question, for though the fact was true, it had been long forgotten, and it would have been hard for any of those present to realize that the King would fear a danger so far removed.

But the dwarf knew him well.
"Let there be no more melons," said Philip, rising abruptly, and still pale.
Don John had suppressed a smile, and was taken unawares when the King rose, so that in standing up instantly, as was necessary according to the rules, his gloves slipped from his knees, where he had kept them during supper, to the floor, and a moment passed before he realized that they were not in his hand.

He was still in his place, for the King had not yet left his own, being engaged in saying a Latin grace in a low tone, He crossed himself devoutly, and an instant later Don John stooped down and picked up what he had dropped.

Philip could not but notice the action, and his suspicions were instantly roused.
"What have you found ?" he asked sharply, his eyes fixing themselves again.
"My gloves, Sire.