They took one more look at the child in the manger and they rode away straight over the stony desert.

They directed their course towards the east, towards all the starry constellations, and dreamed of a new revelation which might enable them henceforth to live rich in love and ever glad.
Meanwhile King Herod, sleeping or waking, was not at peace.

It was not on account of his wife or his brothers whom he had had murdered from a suspicion that they might kill him to secure the throne.

It was something else that caused his anxiety.

The new-born king! No one mentioned the news at court, but he heard it from the walls of his palace, from the flowers of his garden, from the pillows of his couch.
Who had first spoken the word?
Whence did it come?
A new-born king! Where?
He must forthwith hasten to do him homage, to present him with a gift tied with a silken string.