d he sat on the stone where the cross had been reared, and
he read the gospel through again; and there he prayed his God that he
might always bear his cross bravely, and that, like the Lord Jesus, he
might never be afraid to die.

III.

And when they had all come home to Hungary, their time hung very heavy
on their hands. And the young men said to the King, "Lead us to war
against the Finns, or lead us to war against the Russ."

But the King said, "No! if they spare our people, we spare their people.
Let us have peace." And he called the young men who had fought with him,
and he said, "The time hangs heavy with us; let us build a temple here
to the living God, and to the honor of his Son. We will carve on its
walls the story we have seen, and while we build we will remember Zion
and the Way of Tears."

And the young men said, "We are not used to building."

"Nor am I," said the King; "but let us build, and build as best we can,
and give to God the best we have and the best we know."

So they dug the deep trenches for the foundations, and they sent north
and south, and east and west for the wisest builders who loved the Lord
Christ; and the builders came, and the carvers came, and the young men
learned to use the chisel and the hammer; and the great Cathedral grew
year by year, as a pine-tree in the forest grows above the birches and
the yew-trees on the ground.

And once King Bela came to visit his kinsman, and they rode out to see
the builders. And King Ladislaus dismounted from his horse, and asked
Bela to dismount, and gave to him a chisel and a hammer.

"No," said the King Bela, "it will hurt my hands. In my land we have
workmen whom we pay to do these things. But I like to see you work."

So he sat upon his horse till dinner-time, and he went home.

And year by year the Cathedral grew. And a thousand pinnacles were built
upon the towers and on the roof and along the walls; and on each
pinnacle there fluttered a golden sky-lark. And on the altar in the
Cathedral was a scroll of crimson, and on the crimson scroll were
letters of gold, and the letters were in the Latin language, and said
"Propior Deo," and on a blue scroll underneath, in the language of the
people they were translated, and it said, "Nearer to Thee."

IV.

And another Hermit came, and he told the King that the Black Death was
ravaging the cities of the East; that half the people of Constantinople
were dead; that the great fair at Adri