““Not for thirty reigns have there been so many grand people in the court at Goslar at one time,” said he. “Strike a medal for it, man.” “I don’t know how to strike a medal for it,” the man said. “If you find someone who does, tell him to strike a medal for it,” the Emperor said. “Put my own fine hand on it, and the motto They Come To Me Like Eagles. Why, here is a dead saint from Old Earth, the Devil-kid of Astrobe, a necromancer of unlikely powers, a transcendent ansel, a priest of Saint Klingensmith, an avatar who burns up bodies, and pilot Paul who is a broken-faced old warlock. Not for thirty reigns have there been so many grand people at court at one time, and not for thirty reigns has there been so handsome an Emperor at the head of the court.” “How long a time has the thirty reigns been?” Thomas asked him. “It has been what we call a rapid year,” the Emperor said, “perhaps the most rapid ever.””
![“[The] emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute Valentinian, [had] reached his thirty-fifth year without attaining the age of reason or courage.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/012/edward-gibbon-710_age_the-emperor-of-the-west-the-feeble-and-d_1736985.jpg)
