So the confusion fell apart, and the hall was very still, and a man in
battered armour stumbled through the silence and stood in front of the
throne. He was breathing hard, for he was weary and angry and afraid,
and the sobbing of his breath shook him from head to foot. But his
anger was stronger than his weariness and his fear, so he lifted his
eyes hardily and looked the king in the face.
It was like the face of a mountain, very calm and very high, but not
unkind. When the man saw it clearly he knew that he was looking at the
true king; but his anger was not quenched, and he stood stiff, with
drawn brows, until the king said, "Speak!"
For answer the man drew from his breast a golden chain, at the end of
which was a jewel set with a great blue stone. He looked at it for a
moment with scorn, as one who had a grievance. Then he threw it down
on the steps of the throne, and turned on his heel to go.
"Stay," said the king. "Whose is this jewel?"
"I thought it to be yours," said the man.
"Where did you get it?" asked the king.
"From an old servant of yours," answered the man. "He gave it to me
when I was but a lad, and told me it came from the king--it was the
blue stone of the Truth, perfect and priceless. Therefore I must keep
it as the apple of mine eye, and bring it back to the king perfect and
unbroken."
"And you have done this?" said the king.
"Yes and no," answered the man.
"Divide your answer," said the king. "First, the _yes_."
The man delayed a moment before he spoke. Then his words came slow and
firm as if they were measured and weighed in his mind.
"All that man could do, O king, have I done to keep this jewel of the
Truth. Against open foes and secret robbers I have defended it, with
faithful watching and hard fighting. Through storm and peril, through
darkness and sorrow, through the temptation of pleasure and the
bewilderment of riches, I have never parted from it. Gold could not
buy it; passion could not force it; nor man nor woman could wile or
win it away. Glad or sorry, well or wounded, at home or in exile, I
have given my life to keep the jewel. This is the meaning of the
_yes_."
"It is right," said the king. "And now the _no_."
The man answered quickly and with heat.
[Illustration: The King's Jewel]
"The _no_ also is right, O king! But not by my fault. The jewel is not
untarnished, not perfect. It never was. There is a flaw in the
stone. I saw it first when I entered the light of your palace-gate.
Look, it is marred and imperfect, a thing of little value. It is not
the crystal of Truth. I have been deceived. You have claimed my life
for a fool's errand, a thing of naught; no jewel, but a bauble. Take
it. It is yours."
The king looked not at the gold chain and the blue stone, but at the
face of the man. He looked quietly and kindly and steadily into the
eyes full of pain and wounded loyalty, until they fell before his
look. Then he spoke gently.
"Will you give me my jewel?"
The man lifted his eyes in wonder.
"It is there," he cried, "at your feet!"
"I spoke not of that," said the king, "but of your life, yourself."
"My life," said the man faltering, "what is that? Is it not ended?"
"It is begun," said the king. "Your life--yourself, what of that?"
"I had not thought of that," said the man, "only of the jewel, not of
myself, my life."
"Think of it now," said the king, "and think clearly. Have you not
learned courage and hardiness? Have not your labours brought you
strength; your perils, wisdom; your wounds, patience? Has not your
task broken chains for you, and lifted you out of sloth and above
fear? Do you say that the stone that has done this for you is false, a
thing of naught?"
"Is this true?" said the man, trembling and sinking on his knee.
"It is true," answered the king, "as God lives, it is true. Come,
stand at my right hand. My jewels that I seek are not dead, but alive.
But the stone which led you here--look! has it a flaw?"
He stooped and lifted the jewel. The light of his face fell upon it.
And in the blue depths of the sapphire the man saw a star.
[Illustration]