Bladud, concealed from observation by one of the rude pillars that
supported the roof of the building, contemplated the scene in silence,
which was broken only by the agitated beating of his swelling heart.
He observed that the queen, his mother, looked sad and pale, and that
she scarcely tasted of the cheer before her. She sighed deeply from
time to time, and kept her eyes fixed on the vacant place which, in
former happy days used to be occupied by her only son!

King Hurdebras endeavored to prevail upon her to partake of some of the
dainties with which the board was spread.

"How can I partake of costly food," she replied, "when my only child is
a wanderer on the face of the earth, and, perchance, lacketh bread?"

Bladud, unable longer to restrain the emotions under which he labored,
now softly stole from behind the pillar, and, unperceived, dropped the
agate ring into his mother's goblet.

"Nay," replied the king, "but this is useless sorrow, my lady queen.
Thinkest thou that I have borne the loss of our only son without grief
and sorrow? Deeply have I also suffered; but we must not forget that
it is our duty to bow with humility to the wise decrees of the great
Disposer of all human events?"

"But canst thou feel our loss in like degree with me?" she exclaimed,
bursting into tears; "what shall equal a mother's love, or the grief of
her who sorroweth for her only one?"

"Fill high the goblet, Hetha," said the king, turning to the favorite