A young and benign ruler meets for the first time the aged and practically forgotten titular figure while taking stock of his employees; their conversation reveals that the old man has been having ghostly visitations in the crypt by the ruler's ancestors every night for the last 30 years and, even more distressingly, that they have lately taken to calling for the young king to come join them. When the latter absents himself for a little while, the warden is joined by an arrogant and bullying member of the Royal family (the king's brother-in-law?) who, with the sinister court adviser (having been witness to the previous encounter), conspires against the throne. He mentions in passing the doppelganger nature of the regent but, just then, the latter returns to find the old man almost on the point of dying.