'"
"This is a dark saying," said Tigranes, "and it may be that we shall
never understand it. It is better to consider the things that are near
at hand, and to increase the influence of the Magi in their own
country, rather than to look for one who may be a stranger, and to whom
we must resign our power."
The others seemed to approve these words. There was a silent feeling of
agreement manifest among them; their looks responded with that
indefinable expression which always follows when a speaker has uttered
the thought that has been slumbering in the hearts of his listeners.
But Artaban turned to Abgarus with a glow on his face, and said:
"My father, I have kept this prophecy in the secret place of my soul.
Religion without a great hope would be like an altar without a living
fire. And now the flame has burned more brightly, and by the light of
it I have read other words which also have come from the fountain of
Truth, and speak yet more clearly of the rising of the Victorious One
in his brightness."
He drew from the breast of his tunic two small rolls of fine linen,
with writing upon them, and unfolded them carefully upon his knee.
"In the years that are lost in the past, long before our fathers came
into the land of Babylon, there were wise men in Chaldea, from whom the
first of the Magi learned the secret of the heavens.
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