III.

Now on his son's birth-day feast there came unto the king some
five and fifty chosen men, schooled in the star-lore of the
Chaldaeans. These the king called into his presence, and asked
them, severally, to tell him the future of the new-born babe.
After long counsel held, they said that he should be mighty in
riches and power, and should surpass all that had reigned before
him. But one of the astrologers, the most learned of all his
fellows, spake thus: "From that which I learn from the courses of
the stars, O king, the advancement of the child, now born unto
thee, will not be in thy kingdom, but in another, a better and a
greater one beyond compare. Methinketh also that he will embrace
the Christian religion, which thou persecutest, and I trow that
he will not be disappointed of his aim and hope." Thus spake the
astrologer, like Balaam of old, not that his star-lore told him
true, but because God signifieth the truth by the mouth of his
enemies, that all excuse may be taken from the ungodly.

But when the king heard thereof, he received the tidings with a
heavy heart, and sorrow cut short his joy. Howsoever he built,
in a city set apart, an exceeding beautiful palace, with
cunningly devised gorgeous chambers, and there set his son to
dwell, after he had ended his first infancy; and he forbade any
to approach him, appointing, for instructors and servants, youths
right seemly to behold. These he charged to reveal to him none
of the annoys of life, neither death, nor old age, nor disease,
nor poverty, nor anything else grievous that might break his
happiness: but to place before him everything pleasant and