The king is outside the city walls

In Mosiah 7, we read of a group of explorers who leave the relative safety of Zarahemla and travel back to the land of Nephi to find out what happened to a group of Nephites who had left 2 generations earlier to seek out the land of their first inheritance.

They are captured and held in prison for 2 days before finally being able to speak with the king, who asks them:

10 And now, I desire to know the cause whereby ye were so bold as to come near the walls of the city, when I, myself, was with my guards without the gate?

This is King Limhi, the grandson of the first king of this group. Why was he outside the city walls with his guards?

We find out the answer to this question in Mosiah 21:19

19 And the king himself did not trust his person without the walls of the city, unless he took his guards with him, fearing that he might by some means fall into the hands of the Lamanites.

In chapter 21, we get much more detail about the pressures king Limhi and his people were under, as tension with the Lamanites had escalated into war and bondage.

In a single read-through, a detail like this would almost certainly go unnoticed.  And yet the text was dictated in a single draft without reference to any written notes.

The Book of Mosiah is complicated!