V.

RETURN OF THE SEARCHERS.

The year granted to the Princes by the King had now come to a close.
And he and his nobles and the chief men of his people assembled on the
appointed day to welcome the Princes on their return and to hear their
reports concerning the time of the Golden Age.

The first to arrive was Prince Yestergold. He was accompanied to the
platform on which the throne was set by the painter and poet, who had
been his companions during the year. Having embraced his father, he
stepped to the front and said:--

"Most high King and father beloved, and you, the honorable nobles and
people of his realm, on some future occasion my two companions will,
the one recite the songs in which the Age which we went to search for
is celebrated, and the other exhibit the pictures in which its life is
portrayed. On this occasion it belongs to me to tell the story of our
search, and of what we found and of what we failed to find. We went
forth to discover the time of the Golden Age. We went in the belief
that it was the time when our Lord was on the earth. How often have I
exclaimed in your hearing, 'Oh that I had been born in that age! How
much easier to have been a Christian then!' I have this day, with
humbleness of heart, to declare that I have found myself entirely in
the wrong. I have been in the country where images of the Ages are
stored. I have seen the very copy of the Age of our Lord. I was in it
as if I had been born in it. I saw the scenes which those who then