The boy fixed his eyes on the little prince. An excited murmur ran
through the company and Heiligenstern again advanced to the Duke. "Will
your Highness," he asked, "permit the prince to look into the sacred
sphere?"

Odo saw the Duchess extend her hand impulsively toward the child; but at
a signal from the Duke the little prince's chair was carried to the
table on which the crystal stood. Instantly the former phenomenon was
repeated, the globe clouding and then clearing itself like a pool after
rain.

"Speak, my son," said the Duke. "Tell us what the heavenly powers reveal
to you."

The little prince continued to pore over the globe without speaking.
Suddenly his thin face reddened and he clung more closely to his
companion's arm.

"I see a beautiful place," he began, his small fluting voice rising like
a bird's pipe in the stillness, "a place a thousand times more beautiful
than this...like a garden...full of golden-haired children...with
beautiful strange toys in their hands...they have wings like
birds...they ARE birds...ah! they are flying away from me...I see them
no more...they vanish through the trees..." He broke off sadly.

Heiligenstern smiled. "That, your Highness, is a vision of the prince's
own future, when, restored to health, he is able to disport himself with
his playmates in the gardens of the palace."