He bent over him. “Could I but snatch him back into life; could I but have one hour’s intercourse with him. If I had been with him I might have borne some of the pain of his complaint before he was overpowered with it.” He touched the lifeless hands, they were cold and damp. He gazed into the expressionless face. He seemed to feel the pain of the inner struggle his friend had waged against the disease. The quiet of that still chamber was gone for him; in his own person he felt the pangs of the struggle for life. A mist came over his eyes, and he sank down holding his friend’s hands. Suddenly he heard a voice. He rose and looked about him. The sound came faintly from the lips of his friend. “I have been very ill,” were the words he caught. “I am so glad you have come; I was thinking of you in my worst moments. You have come just as I am getting better.” Indeed the features were regaining expression, the hands were warm. It was his living friend again. After a few hours he was sufficiently recovered to hear about all that had happened. They talked together long and earnestly. His friend was convinced. “Let us go to your companion,” he said. They went into the town together. They found that the clerk had gone to the magistrates’ hall where a trial was being held. They did not see the clerk at first, so they listened to the proceedings. A woman was brought in who had been kept in prison for some days, accused of concealing her child. The case was clearly proved. The woman received her sentence with an appearance of apathy. “She will not come out of prison alive,” said the student’s friend, noting her expression. But he called out to her from where they stood in the body of the court, “Do not fear, your child is safe.” The woman’s face brightened, and she went with her jailers buoyantly. The magistrate had remarked who it was that had spoken, and was about to give orders for the disturber of order to be brought up for punishment. But the clerk, who was sitting near to the magistrate with whom he was acquainted, said: “This is the one I have told you about; pray do not punish him.” The magistrate accordingly contented himself with warning the audience in general terms. But he said to the clerk, “Something about him is very repulsive to me, do not tell me anything more about him.” The three returned together, and together they deliberated as to how the new idea about the king could be made known. It seemed best to go to the metropolis and talk with the wisest and most learned there. The student asked about the child. His friend’s sister came and told him that its breathing was not any better, but that the child itself was strong and playful. “It belongs to the woman who was tried to day,” said the student, “and must be kept safely till she is out of prison.”