"None but the good and true can get in."
Then he tried to go in himself; but the gates would not move.
The king bowed his head in shame, and walked back to his old palace.
"Alas!" said he to himself, "wise and great as I am, I thought _I_
could go in. I see it must be because I am filled with pride. Let me
hide my face; for what would Blanche say if she knew, that, because my
heart is proud, I am shut out of my own castle? I am not worthy that
she should love me; but I hope I shall learn of her to be humble and
good."
The next day he sailed for the home of his childhood. When Blanche saw
him, she blushed, and cast down her eyes; but Victor knew they were
full of tears of joy. He held her hand, and whispered,--
"Will you go with me and be my bride, beautiful Blanche?"
"I will go with you," she answered softly; and Victor's heart
rejoiced.
All the while Blanche never dreamed that he was a great prince, and
that the men who came with him were his courtiers.
When they reached Victor's kingdom, and the people shouted "Long live
the queen!" Blanche veiled her face, and trembled; for Victor
whispered in her ear that the shouts were for her. And, as the people
saw her beautiful face through her gossamer veil, they cried all the
more loudly,--
"Long live Queen Blanche! Thrice welcome, fair lady!"
The sun was sinking in the west, and his rays fell with dazzling
splendor upon the castle of gems. When Blanche saw the silent, closed
castle and its golden gates, she remembered the words of Queen
Fontana, who had said that her lily should have power to "open the
strongest locks, and swing back the heaviest doors."
Like one walking in a dream, she led Victor toward the resplendent
castle. She touched, with her lily, the lock which fastened one of the
gates.
"Gates of gold could not withstand
One touch of that magic wand."
In an instant, the hinges trembled; and the massive door swung open so
far, that forty people could walk in side by side. Then it slowly
closed, and locked itself without noise.
One of the people who passed in was the king, whose heart was no
longer proud. The others, who had entered unwittingly, could not speak
for wonder. Some of them were poor, and some were lame or blind; but
all were good and true.
At the rising of the moon a wonderful thing came to pass. The people
entered the castle of gems, and became beautiful. This was through the
power of the magic lily.
Now there were no more crooked backs and lame feet and sightless eyes;
and the king looked at these people, who were beautiful as well as
good, and declared he would have them live in the castle; and the
gentlemen should be knights; and the ladies, maids of honor.
To this day Victor and Blanche rule the kingdom; and such is the charm
of the lily,--so like the pure heart of the queen,--that the people
are becoming gentle and good.
Until Queen Fontana shall call for the magic spectacles and the lily
of pearl, it is believed that Victor and Blanche will live in the
castle of gems, though the time should be a hundred years.