The Cart and the Carriage - A King Matthias Story

King Matthias may have been the grandest king of all, but he still enjoyed disguising himself as a commoner and wandering from town to town, village to village, hamlet to hamlet, so that he could see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears the condition his country was in, and how people treated one another when they thought the royals were afar. 

Once, during one of his rambles about the countryside, he grew tired of walking.  He was near a main road, so he walked to it and stopped the first cart that was headed his way.  Its horse was straining against his heavy load, but the poor peasant driving it cheerfully invited the tired traveler to hop on; his weight wouldn't make much difference to the horse.  So the king accepted and sat on the cart next to the peasant and chatted with him to pass the time, but he did not reveal to the man that he was indeed the king.

The cart went on quietly for a while, but soon they saw dust up ahead; another vehicle was approaching quickly in the opposite direction.  Since the road was only one lane wide, one of them would have to give way to let the other pass.  They saw that the other carriage must have belonged to a rich man, for it was an ornate carriage pulled by six beautiful horses.  Indeed, it belonged to a proud baron, and as a matter of courtesy the peasant started to give way and move his horse and cart.

As he was already starting to make way, the carriage's driver couldn't resist shouting down haughtily at the peasant.  The cart's driver yelled haughtily down at the peasant. "Get out of our way, you mangy thing!  The baron is an important man and has no time for your kind to keep him waiting!"  And he let loose a string of profanities directed at the peasant.  King Matthias grew angry and quietly instructed the peasant to keep on the road instread of making way. When the poor man protested, he himself took the reins from him and stopped the cart so that he would have no chance of moving off the road. 

Seeing this, the carriage's driver grew furious and started screaming more at them.  Even the baron stood in his seat and ordered his driver to lash the insolent man who would not turn out of the way.  He ordered the man to approach the carriage to get his lashes.  So the king jumped down from the cart, stood in front of the carriage driver.  "Shall I remove my coat so the lash can reach my back better?"  he asked, and without waiting for an answer, he started to unbutton his ragged coat.  Underneath the tattered, dirty cloth was a royal outfit of velvet, with necklaces of gold.  The baron recognized King Matthias immediately. He grew terrified and started shaking like a leaf.

The king remained calm.  "I command you to take two of your horses and give them to the peasant there; four horses are enough to pull your carriage, even if it is a shiny one." The driver quickly did as he was told, but King Matthias instructed the baron to get down from his seat and assist him. When they were finished, he continued.  "Now you can get up, back on your carriage. Hurry, hurry, giddy-up. But I command you to make way for this peasant's cart, because empty carriages need make way to fully loaded ones." And from that day forward, it was the law that carts with heavier burdens were given the right of way, no matter how humble they might be.