Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-01-22
CHAPTER v.
THE VOICES OF TIE STARS

King Louis loved roses. All that was
royal in his nature went out to the
royal flower; whatever desire of beauty
lay hidden in his heart found it's graft
fication In Its splendid colors, in its
splendid odors. The Greeks believed
that the red rose came into being on
the fair day when Venus, seeing Asca-
MUS slumbering on bed of white
roses, pressed handsful of the blossoms
to her lips, and the pale petals blushed
beneath the kisses of the goddess. Louis
the Eleventh knew nothing of the le
gend, but the red rose was his fancy
and corner of the royal garden was
dedicated to it's service. In the oldest
part of the palace hard by the gray
and ancient tower where the king loved
TO out-watch the stars and brood over
strange wisdom, overlooked by a ter
race whose very steps We're Uttered
With petals, the caressed earth glowed
into very miracle of roses. Every
shade of red that rose can wear was
represented in that dazzling pleasaunce,
from the faint pink that surely the lips
of divinity had scarcely brushed to the
smiling scarlet that suggested Aphro-
dite's mouth, from the imperial purple
of Caesars pomp to the crimson so
deep that it was almost black, black as
the CONCEALED blood on the torn thigh
of Adonis. Here, where the stars eluded
or deceived him, king Louis would
come, creeping down the winding stairs
of his tower, with the names of saints
upon his thin lips, to breathe the sunlit
or moonlit fragrance of his roses, to
seek little rest for his restless mind,
a little quiet for his unquiet heart.
On the morning after his visit to the
Fircone tavern King Louis sat in his
rose garden and snuffed the scented air
with pleasure, while his keen eyes
shifted from scroll of parchment on
his knee to the face Of one who stood
beside him, and spoke in a low voice,
pointing as he spoke to marks and fig
ures on the outspread parchment. The
kings companion was an old man in
furred gown, whose countenance was
scanned with years and study, and whose
eyes seemed always to be gazing at OBJ
jects that others could not see. In his
right hand he held large sphere Of
crystal, and whenever the king lapsed
into silent study of his scroll the sage
would lift UP the shining globe and
gaze into its CLASSY depths with an air
of exaggerated wisdom.
From one of these moments Of alb
straction the king suddenly looked up,
and Immediately the astrologer's glance
swung from the sphere to the face Of
Louis.
You know the aspect of the planet
airy bodies" said the king, and you
know the strange dream that I have
dreamed three nights running"
The sage inclined his head gravely.
The king had told him of the dream in
all its particulars at least dozen times
that morning. 1t seemed to be mixed
up with the sunlight and the scent Of
the roses; to be a portion Of the chorus
of the birds. But he listened to the mar
rative with the same air of surprise
that he had offered to its first recital.
Il dreamed that was swine root
ing in the streets of Paris, and that
found a pearl of great price in the gut
ter. set it in my crown and 1t filled
all Paris with its light. But 1t seemed
to grow so heavy for my forehead that
1 cast it from me and would have trod-
den it into the earth, but that star
fell from heaven and stayed me. and
awOke trembling"
The kings nasal voice droned through
the familiar repetition; then he sud-
denly turned his head with a kind of
bird-like alacrity upon the astrologer