“He looked at each jewel, admiring them all, yet thinking in his heart all the while that his [[248]]own daughter excelled each and every one. He then made answer:
“ ‘In the Walloon language, my daughter “l’union fait la force” (unity makes strength). Suppose you ask the fairies to join the three gems in one, making a single stone. Then, see what will come of it.’
“The princess at once called to her aid the king of kabouters, and bade him make of the three jewels one.
“Down into the earth among his forges and fires, the master-fairy disappeared. He spent days and nights over the task. In a crucible, over a roaring fire, he fused the three gems into one. Then with a lapidist’s skill, and a jeweler’s craft, he set the jewel in an exceedingly beautiful coronet.
“Within one week, the kabouter king came back, holding in his hand a velvet-lined box which the three fairies had made with their delicate fingers. On the outside, were the three colors, black, yellow and red, in vertical bands.
“The chief kabouter proffered the casket to the Princess. On her opening it, there flashed and sparkled a gem, such as she had never seen before. Within its fiery heart, were, not one color, but, three of them, black, yellow, and red.
“This shining stone was not cut in facets, or little faces, as were most crown jewels, for it did [[249]]not need to be so treated to show its glories; nor did it require a foil or glittering metal leaf beneath it, as do some stones, to make sure of its maintaining its permanent hue; but it was set with a smooth round surface, like a hemisphere, or half a globe. This shape helped to reveal the precious stone’s full splendor.
“Right well was it worthy of its general name ‘gem,’ which means a ‘bud’; for it had colors, as varied as are the three in a moss rose,—sepal, petal and fringe, while yet in a unity of splendor.
“No words could do justice to the beauty of the gem. Some thought of a rainbow; some of the harlequin, who joins many colors in his costume; some of volcano fires. The Princess named it ‘opal,’ after the precious stone in the Sanskrit fairy tale. At the wedding, she wore it in the centre of her golden coronet.
“With even more enthusiasm, the people gathered from all parts of their land, every province sending its delegates to Brussels, the central city of the central province, in which Brabo was the hero, and whose story was known to all boys and girls. From him was named Brabant, whose inhabitants had already adopted as their motto ‘La Union fait Force,’ that is, ‘In union there is strength,’ which is struck on all coins.