Now the King only had the white pearl left to
offer the Son of God. For a long time he
continued to look for the child for whom he
had left his castle by the sea, his country
covered in flowering heather, at the other
end of the world. In fact he continued his
search for thirty years in the country where
the Star had led him.
One day as he was approaching the City of
Peace ; he saw a young girl running towards
him and she flung herself into his arms. She
was running away from men who were
stoning her because they accused her of
having betrayed her father while her parents,
very pious people, had promised her in
marriage to a rich old man of their family line.
The young girl did not want to die and so she
begged the King of Pelloc'hoaz to save her life.
The King tried in vain to persuade those in
her pursuit not to stone the young girl before
making sure that their information was
correct and not just false accusations brought
against her by jealous men ; it was of no avail.
The accusers were all the more fierce as they
had the law on their side and some of them
were lawyers. So the King of Pelloc'hoaz
decided to hand over the last pearl...
When he showed it to the outraged men they
drew back, dumbstruck. Their eyes burned
with desire before the luminous pearl that the
King held in his fingers. " Come on ! ", he said
to them, holding out the treasure, while the
young girl, panting, fainted in his arms.
At that very moment the King heard a noise
coming from a little lane down in the town. It
was the sound of cries, clamouring, and
whistling accompanying a condemned man
being dragged up outside the walls of the city
to be crucified. The revolting cortège was
approaching. The King of Pelloc'hoaz saw the
man being led to his death. And the Man
turned his face towards him, and he looked at
him. And the King knew that it was Him. It
was the Child he had been looking for such a
long time !... That was what men had done to
him !...
The King of Pelloc'hoaz opened his hands : he
had nothing left, nothing to offer in exchange
for the life of the Son of Man. He had given
everything on the way. Then, on the
indescribable face of Jesus, the King saw his
three pearls. They were shining, intact, richer
and more luminous than in the box in the
cassette ; and it was as if they were vibrant,
all three of them, with what he had wanted to
bring to the Child. He heard a voice saying to
him : " Go in peace, as for your gift, I truly did
receive it ! "
The King of Pelloc'hoaz realised that
everything he had done for the people along
the way, he had in fact done for God.
Dominique de Lafforest
