"I spoke not of that," said the king, "but of your life, yourself."
"My life," said the man faltering, "what is that? Is it not ended?"
"It is begun," said the king. "Your life—yourself, what of that?"
"I had not thought of that," said the man, "only of the jewel, not of myself, my life."
"Think of it now," said the king, "and think clearly. Have you not learned courage and hardiness? Have not your labours brought you strength; your perils, wisdom; your wounds, patience? Has not your task broken chains for you, and lifted you out of sloth and above fear? Do you say that the stone that has done this for you is false, a thing of naught?"
"Is this true?" said the man, trembling and sinking on his knee.
"It is true," answered the king, "as God lives, it is true. Come, stand at my right hand. My jewels that I seek are not dead, but alive. But the stone which led you here—look! has it a flaw?"
He stooped and lifted the jewel. The light of his face fell upon it. And in the blue depths of the sapphire the man saw a star.
