“I am going away to find a home for you and me: so adieu, dearest Blanche!”
Now Victor thought the ship in which he sailed moved very slowly; for he longed to reach the land which he could see through his magic spectacles: it was a beautiful kingdom, rich with mines of gold and silver.
When the ship touched shore, the streets were lined with people who walked to and fro with sad faces. The king’s daughter, a beautiful young maiden, was very ill; and it was feared she must die.
Victor asked one of the people if there was no hope.
It so happened that this man was the greatest physician in the kingdom and he answered,—
“Alas, there is no hope!”
Then Victor went to a distant forest where he knew a healing spring was to be found. Very few remembered it was there; and those who had seen it did not know of its power to heal disease.
Victor filled a crystal goblet with the precious water, and carried it to the palace. The old king shook his head sadly, but consented to let the attendants moisten the parched lips of the princess with the water, as it could do no harm. Far from doing harm, it wrought a great good; and, in time, the royal maiden was restored to health.
Then, for gratitude, the king would have given his daughter to Victor for a wife; but Victor remembered Blanche, and knew that no other maiden must be bride of his.
Not long after this, the king was lost overboard at sea during a storm. Now the people must have a new ruler. They determined to choose a wise and brave man; and, young as he was, no man could be found braver and wiser than Victor: so the people elected him for their king. Thus Fontana’s gift of the eyes of Wisdom had made him truly “one of the great men of earth.”