"How can I partake of costly food," she replied, "when my only child is
a wanderer on the face of the earth, and, perchance, lacketh bread?"
Bladud, unable longer to restrain the emotions under which he labored,
now softly stole from behind the pillar, and, unperceived, dropped the
agate ring into his mother's goblet.
"Nay," replied the king, "but this is useless sorrow, my lady queen.
Thinkest thou that I have borne the loss of our only son without grief
and sorrow? Deeply have I also suffered; but we must not forget that
it is our duty to bow with humility to the wise decrees of the great
Disposer of all human events?"
"But canst thou feel our loss in like degree with me?" she exclaimed,
bursting into tears; "what shall equal a mother's love, or the grief of
her who sorroweth for her only one?"
"Fill high the goblet, Hetha," said the king, turning to the favorite
of his royal consort; "and implore the queen, thy mistress, to taste of
the sweet mead, and, for the happiness of those around her, to subdue
her sorrow.
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