FIVE hundred years ago or more, a king died, leaving two sons: one was
the child of his first wife, and the other of his second, who surviving
him became his widow. When the king was dying he took off the royal
crown which he wore, and set it upon the head of the elder born, the son
of his first wife, and said to him: "God is the lord of the air, and of
the water, and of the dry land: this gift cometh to thee from God. Be
merciful, over whatsoever thou holdest power, as God is!" And saying
these words he laid his hands upon the heads of his two sons and died.
Now this crown was no ordinary crown, for it was made of the gold
brought by the Wise Men of the East when they came to worship at
Bethlehem. Every king that had worn it since then had reigned well and
uprightly, and had been loved by all his people; but only to himself was
it known what virtue lay in his crown; and every king at dying gave it
to his son with the same words of blessing.
So, now, the king's eldest son wore the crown; and his step-mother knew
that her own son could not wear it while he lived, therefore she looked
on and said nothing. Now he was known to all the people of his country,
because of his right to the throne, as the king's son; and his brother,
the child of the second wife, was called the queen's son. But as yet
they were both young, and cared little enough for crowns.
After the king's death the queen was made regent till the king's son
should be come to a full age; but already the little king wore the royal
crown his father had left him, and the queen looked on and said nothing.
More than three years went by, and everybody said how good the queen was
to the little king who was not her own son; and the king's son, for his
part, was good to her and to his step-brother, loving them both; and all
by himself he kept thinking, having his thoughts guarded and circled by
his golden crown, "How shall I learn to be a wise king, and to be
merciful when I have power, as God is?"
So to everything that came his way, to his playthings and his pets, to
his ministers and his servants, he played the king as though already his
word made life and death. People watching him said, "Everything that has
touch with the king's son loves him." They told strange tales of him:
only in fairy books could they be believed, because they were so
beautiful; and all the time the queen, getting a good name for herself,
looked on and said nothing.
One night the king's son was lying half-asleep upon his bed, with wise
dreams coming and going under the circle of his gold crown, when a mouse
ran out of the wainscot and came and jumped up upon the couch. The poor
mouse had turned quite white with fear and horror, and was trembling in
every limb as it cried its news into the king's ear. "O king's son," it
said, "get up and run for your life! I was behind the wainscot in the
queen's closet, and this is what I heard: if you stay here, when you
wake up to-morrow you will be dead!"
The king's son got up, and all alone in the dark night stole out of the
palace, seeking safety for his dear life. He sighed to himself, "There
was a pain in my crown ever since I wore it. Alas, mother, I thought you
were too kind a step-mother to do this!"
Outside it was still winter: there was no warmth in the world, and not a
leaf upon the trees. He wandered away and away, wondering where he
should hide.
The queen, when her villains came and told her the king's son was not to
be found, went and looked in her magic crystal to find trace of him. As
soon as it grew light, for in the darkness the crystal could show her
nothing, she saw many miles away the king's son running to hide himself
in the forest. So she sent out her villains to search until they should
find him.
As they went the sun grew hot in the sky, and birds began singing. "It
is spring!" cried the messengers. "How suddenly it has come!" They rode
on till they came to the forest.
The king's son, stumbling along through the forest under the bare
boughs, thought, "Even here where shall I hide? Nowhere is there a leaf
to cover me." But when the sun grew warm he looked up; and there were
all the trees breaking into bud and leaf, making a green heaven above
his head. So when he was too weary to go farther, he climbed into the
largest tree he could find; and the leaves covered him.
[Illustration]
The queen's messengers searched through all the forest but could not
find him; so they went back to her empty handed, not having either
the king's crown or his heart to show. "Fools!" she cried, looking in
her magic crystal, "he was in the big sycamore under which you stopped
to give your horses provender!"
The sycamore said to the king's son, "The queen's eye is on you; get
down and run for your life till you get to the hollow tarn-stones among
the hills! But if you stay here, when you wake to-morrow you will be
dead."
When the queen's messengers came once more to the forest they found it
all wintry again, and without leaf; only the sycamore was in full green,
clapping its hands for joy in the keen and bitter air.
The messengers searched, and beat down the leaves, but the king's son
was not there. They went back to the queen. She looked long in her magic
crystal, but little could she see; for the king's son had hidden himself
in a small cave beside the tarn-stones, and into the darkness the
crystal could not pry.
Presently she saw a flight of birds crossing the blue, and every bird
carried a few crumbs of bread in its beak. Then she ran and called to
her villains, "Follow the birds, and they will take you to where the
little wizard is; for they are carrying bread to feed him, and they are
all heading for the tarn-stones up on the hills."
The birds said to the king's son, "Now you are rested; we have fed you,
and you are not hungry. The queen's eye is on you. Up, and run for your
life! If you stay here, when you wake up to-morrow you will be dead."
"Where shall I go?" said the king's son. "Go," answered the birds, "and
hide in the rushes on the island of the pool of sweet waters!"
When the queen's messengers came to the tarn-stones, it was as though
five thousand people had been feeding: they found crumbs enough to fill
twelve baskets full, lying in the cave; but no king's son could they lay
their hands on.
The king's son was lying hidden among the rushes on the island of the
great pool of sweet waters; and thick and fast came silver-scaled
fishes, feeding him.
It took the queen three days of hard gazing in her crystal, before she
found how the fishes all swam to a point among the rushes of the island
in the pool of sweet waters, and away again. Then she knew: and running
to her messengers she cried: "He is among the rushes on the island in
the pool of sweet waters; and all the fishes are feeding him!"
The fishes said to the king's son: "The queen's eye is on you; up, and
swim to shore, and away for your life! For if they come and find you
here, when you wake to-morrow you will certainly be dead."
"Where shall I go?" asked the king's son. "Wherever I go, she finds me."
"Go to the old fox who gets his poultry from the palace, and ask him to
hide you in his burrow!"
When the queen's messengers came to the pool they found the fishes
playing at _alibis_ all about in the water; but nothing of the king's
son could they see.
The king's son came to the fox, and the fox hid him in his burrow, and
brought him butter and eggs from the royal dairy. This was better fare
than the king's son had had since the beginning of his wanderings, and
he thanked the fox warmly for his friendship. "On the contrary," said
the fox, "I am under an obligation to you; for ever since you came to be
my guest I have felt like an honest man." "If I live to be king," said
the king's son, "you shall always have butter and eggs from the royal
dairy, and be as honest as you like."
The queen hugged her magic crystal for a whole week, but could make
nothing out of it: for her crystal showed her nothing of the king's
son's hiding-place, nor of the fox at his nightly thefts of butter and
eggs from the royal dairy. But it so happened that this same fox was a
sort of half-brother of the queen's; and so guilty did he feel with his
brand-new good conscience that he quite left off going to see her. So in
a little while the queen, with her suspicions and her magic crystal, had
nosed out the young king's hiding-place.
The fox said to the king's son: "The queen's eye is on you! Get out and
run for your life, for if you stay here till to-morrow, you will wake up
and find yourself a dead goose!"
"But where else can I go to?" asked the king's son. "Is there any place
left for me?" The fox laughed, and winked, and whispered a word; and all
at once the king's son got up and went.
The queen had said to her messengers, "Go and look in the fox's hole;
and you shall find him!" But the messengers came and dug up the burrow,
and found butter and eggs from the royal dairy, but of the king's son
never a sign.
The king's son came to the palace, and as he crept through the gardens
he found there his little brother alone at play,--playing sadly because
now he was all alone. Then the king's son stopped and said, "Little
brother, do you so much wish to be king?" And taking off the crown, he
put it upon his brother's head. Then he went on through underground ways
and corridors, till he came to the palace dungeons.
Now a dungeon is a hard thing to get out of, but it is easy enough to
get into. He came to the deepest and darkest dungeon of all, and there
he opened the door, and went in and hid himself.
The queen's son came running to his mother, wearing the king's crown.
"Oh, mother," he said, "I am frightened! while I was playing, my brother
came looking all dead and white, and put this crown on my head. Take it
off for me, it hurts!"
When the queen saw the crown on her son's head, she was horribly afraid;
for that it should have so come there was the most unlikely thing of
all. She fetched her crystal ball, and looked in, asking where the
king's son might be, and, for answer, the crystal became black as night.