Dusky Balthasar peered inside.  Had he ever seen eyes shine as in this shepherd’s cave?  It seemed to him that he saw a new light and a new life there; but he could not understand it.  And in the air he heard a strange song, more a suggestion than words:  “You will be blessed!  You will live for ever!”

The strangers hearkened.  What was that?  You will be blessed, and you will live for ever!  For us happiness is to be found only in non-existence.  At sight of this new-born infant the idea of immortal life came to them for the first time.

They offered the poor mother precious jewels, and their hearts were glad and happy and strange within them.  Formerly these princes and wise men had only found pleasure in receiving, now they found it in giving.  Formerly Balthasar had been all sufficient unto himself, he had woven his thoughts in entire loneliness, had despised the rest of the world, and had only cared for himself.  And suddenly there came to him this joy in the joy of poor men, and this suffering at their suffering!  He shivered in his silken cloak, and when he took it off and wrapped it about the child he was warm.

They all offered gifts, precious gold and rich perfumes and healing ointments.  But they were ashamed of their gifts beside the royal offerings of the shepherds, who, though it was not much, brought all that they possessed.

Balthasar in his joy wished to hasten to Jerusalem in order to tell Herod:  I have not yet found the King of the Jews, but I have found a poor child and whoever looks upon him is happy, he knows not why.  Now kings are not so anxious to be happy; they prefer to be powerful.  A youth came forward from the back of the cave and said to Balthasar:  “Do you know the man to whom you would go?  Why, he would strangle the Emperor Tiberius if he could.  Be silent, then, about a helpless child who is loved by the people as a prince.”

“Oh, child!” said Balthasar, “you have the misfortune to be the people’s favourite.  Therefore the great hate thee.”

“Stranger, go not to Jerusalem.  Say nothing of the child.”

The strangers did not feel at ease in a land which had an emperor and a king, neither of whom was the right ruler!  And so they mounted their camels.  They took one more look at the child in the manger and they rode away straight over the stony desert.  They directed their course towards the east, towards all the starry constellations, and dreamed of a new revelation which might enable them henceforth to live rich in love and ever glad.

Meanwhile King Herod, sleeping or waking, was not at peace.  It was not on account of his wife or his brothers whom he had had murdered from a suspicion that they might kill him to secure the throne.  It was something else that caused his anxiety.  The new-born king!  No one mentioned the news at court, but he heard it from the walls of his palace, from the flowers of his garden, from the pillows of