V.

Return of the searchers.

The year granted to the Princes by the King had now come to a close.  And he and his nobles and the chief men of his people assembled on the appointed day to welcome the Princes on their return and to hear their reports concerning the time of the Golden Age.

The first to arrive was Prince Yestergold.  He was accompanied to the platform on which the throne was set by the painter and poet, who had been his companions during the year.  Having embraced his father, he stepped to the front and said:—­

“Most high King and father beloved, and you, the honorable nobles and people of his realm, on some future occasion my two companions will, the one recite the songs in which the Age which we went to search for is celebrated, and the other exhibit the pictures in which its life is portrayed.  On this occasion it belongs to me to tell the story of our search, and of what we found and of what we failed to find.  We went forth to discover the time of the Golden Age.  We went in the belief that it was the time when our Lord was on the earth.  How often have I exclaimed in your hearing, ’Oh that I had been born in that age!  How much easier to have been a Christian then!’ I have this day, with humbleness of heart, to declare that I have found myself entirely in the wrong.  I have been in the country where images of the Ages are stored.  I have seen the very copy of the Age of our Lord.  I was in it as if I had been born in it.  I saw the scenes which those who then lived saw.  I saw the crowds who moved in those scenes.  I beheld the very person of the Divine Lord.  And oh! my father, and oh! neighbors and friends, shall I shrink from saying to you, ’Be thankful it is in this Age and not in that you have been born, and that you know the Lord as this Age knows Him, and not as He was seen and known in His own.’

“We arrived at Bethany on the day when Lazarus was raised.  I mingled with the crowd around the grave.  I saw the sisters.  I was amazed to find that nothing looked to me as I had expected it to do.  Even the Lord had not the appearance of One who could raise the dead.  And when the dead man came forth, I could not but mark that some who had seen the mighty miracle turned away from the spot, jeering and scoffing at the Lord, its worker.

“When I next saw the Lord He was in the hands of the scoffers who had turned away from the grave of Lazarus.  He was being led along the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary.  The streets on both sides were crowded with stalls, and with people buying and selling as at a fair.  Nobody except a few women seemed to care that so great a sufferer was passing by.  He was bending under the weight of the Cross.  His face was pale and all streaked with blood.  I said to myself:  ’Can this be He who is more beautiful than ten thousand?’ My eyes filled with tears.  Sickness came over