Jews with great money-bags came to buy from him--the beautiful face. Sometimes he had to climb up into trees to look at it in the sunrise, the woods were so filled with the voices of his pursuers.
But neither hunger, nor poverty, nor small ferocious enemies were able to take from him the beautiful face. It never left his heart. All night long and all the watching day it was pressed close to his side.
Meanwhile the princess was in despair. More and more the fancy possessed her that with the lost mirror her beauty too was lost. In her unhappiness, like all sad people, she took strange ways of escape. She consulted the stars, and empirics from the four winds settled down upon her castle. Each, of course, had his own invaluable nostrum; and all went their way. For not one of these understood the heart of a poet.
However, at last there came to the aid of the princess a reverend old man of ninety years, a famous seer, deeply and gently and pitifully learned in the hearts of men. His was that wisdom which comes of great goodness. He understood the princess, and he understood the minstrel; for, having lived so long alone with the Infinite, he understood the Finite.
To him the princess was as a little child, and his old wise heart went out to her.
And, as I have said, his heart understood the minstrel too.
Therefore he said to the princess: "I know the hearts of poets. In seven days I will bring you back your mirror."
And the old man went, and at length found the poet eating wild berries in the middle of the wood.
"That is a beautiful mirror you have by your side," said the old man.
"This mirror," answered the poet, "holds in its deeps the most beautiful face in the world."
"It is true," said the wise old man. "I have seen the beautiful face ... but I too possess a mirror. Will you look into it?"
And the poet took the mirror from the old man and looked; and, as he looked, the mirror of the princess fell neglected in the grass....
"Why," said the wise old man, "do you let fall the princess's mirror?"
But the poet made no answer--for his eyes were lost in the strange mirror which the wise old man had brought him.
"What do you see in the mirror," said the old man, "that you gaze so earnestly in it?"