Next morning, when the king awoke, I wis
No heart was lighter in the land than his;
For all the grievous burden of his pains
Had fall’n from off his limbs, and in his veins
Upleapt the glad new life, and the sick soul
Seemed like its body all at once made whole. 
But hardly was the king uprisen before
There knock’d and entered at the chamber-door
His chief physician (a right skilful leech,
But given to hollow trickeries of speech,
And artful ways and wiles) who said, “O king,
Be not deceived, I pray thee.  One good thing
Comes of another, like from like.  The weed
Beareth not lilies, neither do apes breed
Antelopes.  Thou art healed of thy pain
Not by the wearing of an iron chain—­
An iron chain forsooth!”—­(hereat he laughed
As ’twere a huge rare jest) “but by the draught
Which I prepared for thee with mine own hands
From certain precious simples grown in lands
It irks me tell how many leagues away: 
Which medicine thou tookest yesterday.”

Then said the king, “O false and jealous man,
Who lovest better thine own praises than
Thy master’s welfare!  Little ’tis to such
As thou, that I should be made whole; but much
That men should go before thee, trumpeting
“‘Behold the man that cured our lord the king.’”
And he was sore displeased and in no mood
To hearken.  But the chief physician stood
Unmoved amid this hail of kingly scorn,
With meek face martyr-like, as who hath borne
Much in the name of Truth, and much can bear. 
And from the mouth of him false words and fair
So cunningly flowed that in a little while
The royal frown became a royal smile,
And the king hearkened to the leech and was
Persuaded.  So that morn it came to pass
That when the Prince appeared before the throne
To claim his rightful meed, the emerald stone,
The king denied his title to receive
The jewel, saying, “Think’st thou I believe
Yon jingling chain hath healed my body?  Nay;
For whatsoever such as thou may say
I am not found so easy to beguile: 
As for the gem thou wouldest, this good while
It hath adorned the crown I wear, nor shall
The stone be parted from the coronal.”

Scarce had the false king spoken when behold
Through the high ceiling’s goodly fretted gold
A sudden shaft of lightning downward sped
And smote the golden crown upon his head,
Yea, melted ev’n as wax the golden crown. 
And from the molten metal there fell down
A grassgreen Splendour, and the Emerald Stone
Tumbled from step to step before the throne,
And lay all moveless at the Prince’s feet! 
And the king sat upon his royal seat
A dead king, marble-mute:  but no man stirred
Or spake:  and only silence might be heard.

Then he before whose feet the gem did lie
Said not a word to any man thereby,
But stooped and lifted it from off the floor,
And passing outward from the open door
Put the mysterious jewel in his breast
And went his way, none daring to molest
The stranger.  For the whisper rose and ran,
“Is not the lightning leagued with this man?”