The Heartstone

Once, long ago in a land far away; a cruel king ordered a master mason to design and build him a magnificent royal palace and, to begin with, the master mason took up the commission happily.

But as years passed by, the master mason saw how cruel the king was; he saw how he starved and overworked and mistreated the peasants who were forced, like slaves, to build the palace, lifting its heavy stones; some of them even dying from exhaustion, heat or hunger and also he saw how the king brutally taxed the poorest of his people to fund its construction, executing all who refused to or could not pay.

And so the builder altered his plans for the building so that he could include, within its design, a stone shaped like a heart with the words, "Without love; a king cannot rule nor a kingdom stand" engraved upon it.

When the palace was finished however, the king saw the stone and the words engraved on it and was furious.

"Remove that stone, at once", he ordered the master mason, "How dare you put it there? I do not want it in my palace".

But the master mason refused.

"If you wish to, sire, then remove it yourself", he said.

When the mason said this, the king was so angry that he ordered the mason be put to death and, at that moment, the mason was run through with a sword by one of the kings loyal soldiers.

Then the king ordered his soldiers to remove the heart shaped stone and they struck at it with hammers until the heart shaped stone cracked completely in two.

Unfortunately for the king and his soldiers, however, what they did not know is that the Master Mason had designed the building so that its entire weight rested upon that stone and so when the stone was removed, the palace came crashing down upon their heads.

When the poor people of the land heard of the cruel kings death, however, they rejoiced and celebrated with singing and dancing and when they heard what the master mason had done, from the rubble of the destroyed palace, they built a tomb for him and at its centre they placed the heartstone so that all could see it and remember the words engraved upon it.