unforgetable, clear-cut like a cameo. All that I had to do was to follow Artaban, step by step, as the tale went on, from the beginning to the end of his pilgrimage.
Perhaps this may explain some things in the story. I have been asked many times why I made the Fourth Wise Man tell a lie, in the cottage at Bethlehem, to save the little child’s life.
I did not make him tell a lie.
What Artaban said to the soldiers he said for himself, because he could not help it. Is a lie ever justifiable? Perhaps not. But may it not sometimes seem inevitable?
And if it were a sin, might not a man confess it, and be pardoned for it more easily than for the greater sin of spiritual selfishness, or indifference, or the betrayal of innocent blood? That is what I saw Artaban do. That is what I heard him say. All through his life he was trying to do the best that he could. It was not perfect. But there are some kinds of failure that are better than success.
Though the story of the Fourth Wise Man came to me suddenly and without labor, there
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