The Jester's Sword / How Aldebaran, the King's Son Wore the Sheathed Sword of Conquest

Copyright, 1908 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED) Copyright, 1909 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED) All rights reserved First Impression, June, 1909 Second Impression, August, 1909 Third Impression, October, 1910 Fourth Impression, November, 1911 Fifth Impression, November, 1912 Sixth Impression, January, 1916 Seventh Impression, August, 1917 Eighth Impression, April, 1920
TO John
To renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered.
R. L. Stevenson.

BECAUSE he was born in Mars' month, which is ruled by that red war-god, they gave him the name of a red star—Aldebaran; the red star that is the eye of Taurus. And because he was born in Mars' month, the bloodstone became his signet, sure token that undaunted courage would be the jewel of his soul.
Now all his brothers were as stalwart and as straight of limb as he, and each one's horoscope held signs foretelling valorous deeds. But Aldebaran's so far out-blazed them all, with comet's trail and planets in most favourable conjunction, that from his first year it was known the Sword of Conquest should be his. This sword had passed from sire to son all down a line of kings. Not to the oldest one always, as did the throne, though now and then the lot fell so, but to the one to whom the signs all pointed as being worthiest to wield it.
So from the cradle it was destined for Aldebaran, and from the cradle it was his greatest teacher. His old nurse fed him with such tales of it, that even in his play the thought of such an heritage urged him to greater ventures than his mates dared take. Many a night he knelt beside his casement, gazing through the darkness at the red eye of Taurus, whispering to himself the words the old astrologers had written, As Aldebaran the star shines in the heavens, Aldebaran the man shall shine among his fellows.
Day after day the great ambition grew within him, bone of his bone and strength of his sinew, until it was as much a part of him as the strong heart beating in his breast. But only to one did he give voice to it, to the maiden Vesta, who had always shared his play. Now it chanced that she, too, bore the name of a star, and when he told her what the astrologers had written, she repeated the words of her own destiny: