The King was holding court; he gave concerts and balls. The festivities, however, were short-lived: Ludwig I. died at Nice. All entertainments were cancelled; and again the troubled man was able to retire from the world. Those, and there were many, who desired an audience of him were compelled to put their patience to the proof, and in the end the greater number of these aspirants had to take their departure without having been granted one. Even here, in retirement, he was unaccountable. He refused foreign potentates the sight of his magnificent palaces and winter gardens; but took round one of them a Swiss student, and showed him all its beauties. He was caprice itself, unaccountable as the most changeable of women. One day he would be affable, the next inaccessible and silent. These qualities, however, were chiefly apparent in his relations with the heads of society. Among the peasantry he was amiable and straightforward; and he retained his popularity among the working classes to the end of his reign. The country people round about those places where he chiefly resided to this day tell many charming stories of him. Thus a gentleman who was touring in the mountains came one day to Hohenschwangau. As he was wandering about in the vicinity of the castle he saw a young man coming towards him. The latter wore a short black coat, had a Tyrolese hat on his head, and carried a large fish in his hand. The stranger took him for a gardener, and asked him if it was possible to see over the castle. "When the King is there no one dares to enter it," answered the young man; "but as he is not there just now, I can show you round if you wish." The offer was naturally accepted with gratitude. The fictitious gardener very obligingly showed the stranger through the apartments, where all the servants bowed respectfully. They stopped before the King's bed-chamber, the young man explaining that visitors were not allowed to enter it. After they had seen everything, he took a complaisant farewell of the stranger, who concluded by asking where his Majesty was at the time. "The King was in the castle when we went over it," was the answer. "And we did not see him?" exclaimed the gentleman in surprise. "You did see him. I am the King!" One day when Ludwig was walking alone in the mountains he met a goat-herd. "I am going to drive my goats home," said the boy, "but I don't know what time it is." "Have you no watch?" asked the King. "How could I have a watch?" answered the child. Ludwig told him, smiling, what the hour was, and the day afterwards sent him a watch as a present. When on his lonely drives he often passed through a village where he had noticed a cottage belonging to a shoemaker. The man was always to be found tending his flowers in the little patch of garden. One day Ludwig stopped the carriage outside the village and walked to the shoemaker's, where he remained outside the fence watching the man, who was busy in his garden.