Once there was a wise old king who lived in a sturdy fortress set on a high hill at the very centre of his beautiful kingdom. Every day he would walk around the tall battlements inspecting the thick walls, the narrow loop-holes, the broad moat and the solid gate house with its heavy iron draw-bridge. Then he would climb to the top of the main tower where, beyond the pleasant meadows and thick forests, he could see to the furthest limits of his kingdom.

And it was the horizon that always worried him. Fifty years earlier, when he first became king, he had heard that his neighbours were planning an attack, hoping to seize his beautiful kingdom for themselves and believing him to be too inexperienced to know how to defend it.

And so he had the built the sturdy fortress that he loved so much and his neighbours, much impressed, had left him in peace.

But now the rumours had started again and the old king gathered his knights around him to listen to their advice.

"Our enemies think you're too old and no longer capable of defending our kingdom," the knights told him.

"Do they indeed?" said old king. "And what do you think?"

"We know you are still strong but we think the fortress is weak and will not withstand an attack from all our enemies," the knights replied.

"But the fortress is no older than I am," the old king said. "It has served me wonderfully all these years and we all know it so well. My enemies know its strength too and have never dared to attack me yet."

"All the same," the knights insisted, "we need newer and better defences in the meadows around the fortress, with thicker walls and deeper ditches, a wider moat and taller towers from which to fight and defend you when the attack comes."

"Well," said the old king, "if this is what you truly believe, go ahead and build your new defences and defend them bravely. But be sure of one thing, I shall make my stand here in the fortress I first built."

And so for nearly a year his army dug deep into the soil of the pleasant green meadows of his childhood until the yellow king-cups and purple thistle flowers were replaced by a new ring of stone and timber and iron. Satisfied at last, the knights raised the royal standard and their battle pennants over the formidable new defences and said:

"Now we can repel our enemies and win any battle they force upon us."

One day, soon afterwards, the old king was making his routine tour of the old fortress. He walked around the tall battlements inspecting the thick walls, the narrow loop-holes, the broad moat and the solid gate house with its heavy iron draw-bridge. Then he climbed to the top of the main tower and, looking beyond the thick forests to the furthest limits of his kingdom, saw on the horizon the enemy armies advancing.

The cry went out and he offered a silent prayer as he watched his troops preparing themselves for the attack. Then the old king climbed down to the fortress courtyard to marshal the final defence of his kingdom.

And there he was amused though not surprised to find all his knights awaiting him and gathered not on the new defences but within the old and familiar fortress walls.