He was taken out, and on the way from the palace he saw a badly dressed servant in front of the gates. He was the doorman, and he was asking the passers-by in a quavering voice for money to buy clothes. The prophet stopped and laughed in astonishment at the poor man. He went on further and saw a young man with new shoes in his hand purchasing leather patches. The prophet laughed again; but he would go no further through the market place to be a spectacle for the people he was looking at. He longed for the forest, often looked back towards it, and tried in spite of refusals to go in that direction.

On reaching home, the servants told the story of his two laughs and of his attempt to return to the woods. Rodarch wanted to know what his laughter meant and promptly issued orders for his release, and gave him permission to go back to his familiar woods if he would explain his laughs.

Merlin, recovering his spirits, answered, 'The doorman in front of the gates was sitting in shabby clothes and was begging passers-by to give him money for buying clothes. Yet all the time he was secretly rich, for he had a secret hoard of coins under him. So I laughed. Turn up the earth beneath him; you will find coins which have been hidden there a long time. From there they took me further on to the market place, and I saw a man buying shoes and with them the patches to repair and renew them when worn and holed by use. I laughed again: the poor fellow will be in no position to use his shoes, or fix the [extra] patches on them later. He is already rowned and floating in to the shore. Go and look for yourself: you will see."

To check his words Rodarch ordered his men to make an immediate search all along the river and to hurry back and tell him at once if they saw such a drowned man by the shore. They carried out the prince's instructions, and on their tour of the rivers they found the drowned youth on a desolate strand. They returned home and told the king.

Meanwhile the king had had the doorman moved and had dug and turned up the earth and found a hoard secreted beneath the surface. In high spirits he congratulated the prophet.

Vita Merlini