Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/105

Rh Meanwhile he continued the strictest persecution of the followers of the faith.

Meanwhile the Prince grows up and begins to feel the loneliness of his position. He asks his teachers, and learns the secret of his imprisonment. Thereupon he begs his father to grant him greater freedom : but when he goes out he meets a blind man, and a leper, and an old man, and a corpse, and learns from these the common fate of man. Who shall give him consolation for the fate that awaits him? he asks, and is told that only the hermits of the true faith can allay the fear of death. These have been driven from the country.