Charles, Prince of Wales, is having a little trouble with his son Harry.
Romans knew about difficult offspring. They told a story of a father who discovered his son was plotting against his life. Unable to believe a son would commit such an outrage, he received confirmation on oath from his wife that he was their son, and then summoned him to a meeting. There he gave him a sword and told him to cut his father’s throat. The son, horrified by his father’s reaction, threw it away, saying: ‘I ask only that you should not think my love for you to be of little value because it arises from repentance.’ But since one can hardly expect anything as old-fashioned as repentance from Harry — it implies sin, which in California is something done only by people in the Bible, an old book written by some king, apparently — the all too harried Prince of Wales might be tempted to consider another Roman solution: adopt a son in Harry’s place.
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