Thereupon the King summoned his messengers and gave the order:
“Ride! into every town, village and hamlet of my kingdom, ride! And seek this child until you find him; but know that if he is not brought to me within ten days, your lives shall be forfeited, and not yours alone, but also the lives of my Wise Men for giving me useless knowledge, and the lives of my workmen for doing useless work! Ride!”
Then out from old London Town, north and south and east and west, up hill and down dale, over mountains and across rivers, rode the King’s messengers on their strange quest. One day, two days, three, four, five and six days, seven days, eight days; and when the ninth day came two of them found themselves far from home, riding through the street of a tiny hamlet.
“What is the use of seeking further?” said one. “For my part I do not believe, for all the Wise Men say, that there ever was or ever could be such a child.”
“I fear you are right,” replied his companion, “we may as well give up the search and flee for our lives.”
As he spoke the last words, however, the men were obliged to draw rein lest their horses should trample upon a crowd of children who were quarreling in the narrow street. One urchin had just given another a sharp blow across the face, whereupon his victim was proceeding to vent his rage in words that immediately arrested the attention of the messengers.
“Wizard turned to astrologer”
“How dare you strike me?” he was screaming at the top of his shrill little voice. “You who came nobody knows from where, and who never had a father or a mother!”
In an instant one of the men had slipped from his horse. Then, having seized both boys, he drew them aside that he might question them. Very soon boys and men found themselves the centre of an interested group of villagers each one of whom seemed more anxious than his neighbor to give all the information that he happened to possess on the subject.