Then I saw the gardens and orchards of Damascus, watered by the streams of Abana and Pharpar, with their sloping swards inlaid with bloom, and their thickets of myrrh and roses.  I saw also the long, snowy ridge of Hermon, and the dark groves of cedars, and the valley of the Jordan, and the blue waters of the Lake of Galilee, and the fertile plain of Esdraelon, and the hills of Ephraim, and the highlands of Judah.  Through all these I followed the figure of Artaban moving steadily onward, until he arrived at Bethlehem.  And it was the third day after the three wise men had come to that place and had found Mary and Joseph, with the young child, Jesus, and had laid their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh at his feet.

Then the other wise man drew near, weary, but full of hope, bearing his ruby and his pearl to offer to the King.  “For now at last,” he said, “I shall surely find him, though it be alone, and later than my brethren.  This is the place of which the Hebrew exile told me that the prophets had spoken, and here I shall behold the rising of the great light.  But I must inquire about the visit of my brethren, and to what house the star directed them, and to whom they presented their tribute.”

The streets of the village seemed to be deserted, and Artaban wondered whether the men had all gone up to the hill-pastures to bring down their sheep.  From the open door of a low stone cottage he heard the sound of a woman’s voice singing softly.  He entered and found a young mother hushing her baby to rest.  She told him of the strangers from the far East who had appeared in the village three days ago, and how they said that a star had guided them to the place where Joseph of Nazareth was lodging with his wife and her new-born child, and how they had paid reverence to the child and given him many rich gifts.

“But the travellers disappeared again,” she continued, “as suddenly as they had come.  We were afraid at the strangeness of their visit.  We could not understand it.  The man of Nazareth took the babe and his mother and fled away that same night secretly, and it was whispered that they were going far away to Egypt.  Ever since, there has been a spell upon the village; something evil hangs over it.  They say that the Roman soldiers are coming from Jerusalem to force a new tax from us, and the men have driven the flocks and herds far back among the hills, and hidden themselves to escape it.”

Artaban listened to her gentle, timid speech, and the child in her arms looked up in his face and smiled, stretching out its rosy hands to grasp at the winged circle of gold on his breast.  His heart warmed to the touch.  It seemed like a greeting of love and trust to one who had journeyed long in loneliness and perplexity, fighting with his own doubts and fears, and following a light that was veiled in clouds.

“Might not this child have been the promised Prince?” he asked within himself, as he touched its soft cheek.  “Kings have been born ere now in lowlier houses than this, and the favourite of the stars may rise even from a cottage.  But it has not seemed good to the God of wisdom to reward my search so soon and so easily.  The one whom I seek has gone before me; and now I must follow the King to Egypt.”