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INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY.

THE SILVER CROSS

OR

The Carpenter of Nazareth

A Translation from the French

OF

EUGENE SUE

[image of the logo of the publisher]

NEW YORK:
Published by the INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING Co.,
23 Duane Street.

1899.




PREFACE.


Eugene Sue wrote in French a monumental work: "The Mysteries of the
People," or "History of a Proletarian Family." It is a "work of
fiction;" yet it is the best universal history extant: better than any
work, avowedly on history, it graphically traces the special features of
the several systems of class-rule as they have succeeded each other from
epoch to epoch, together with the nature of the struggle between the
contending classes. The "Law," "Order," "Patriotism," "Religion," etc.,
etc., that each successive tyrant class, despite its change of form,
hysterically sought refuge in to justify its criminal existence whenever
threatened; the varying economic causes of the oppression of the
toilers; the mistakes incurred by these in their struggles for redress;
the varying fortunes of the conflict;--all these social dramas are
therein reproduced in a majestic series of "historic novels," covering
leading and successive episodes in the history of the race.

The work here published in English garb is one of these historic novels.
It is chosen because of its singular fitness to modern times in one
important respect:--the unity of action of the oppressors, despite
hostile politico-material interests and clashing religious views; the
hypocrisy that typifies them all; the oneness of fundamental purpose
that animates pulpit, professorial chair or public office in possession
of a plundering class; and, last not least, the identity of the methods
pursued and the pretences seized by the plundering and ruling class, at
that long ago critical period in the history of the human race, when the
pre-feudal colossus of the Roman Empire was, by force of its own power,
beginning to strangle itself, and, at the present or third critical
period, when the grand-child of that ROMAN SYSTEM and child of
FEUDALISM,--CAPITALISM--, is now in turn, likewise by virtue of its own
ripened colossal power, throttling itself to death, and, with its death
throes, heralding the advent of a new civilization--the SOCIALIST SOCIAL
SYSTEM.

"The Silver Cross," or "The Carpenter of Nazareth," is a pathetic page
from history that holds the mirror up to the Capitalist Class--its
orators, pulpiteers, politicians, lawyers, together with all its other
menials of high and low degree--, and, by the reflexion cast, enlightens
and warns.

D. D. L.

NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1898.




THE SILVER CROSS

--OR:--

THE CARPENTER OF NAZARETH.




CHAPTER I.


It was about the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius
that I, Genevieve, a slave of Aurelia, the wife of a Roman named Gremion
and located in Marseilles, departed from Marseilles with my mistress and
her husband for Judea.

The dominion of the Romans, at that period, extended from one end of the
world to the other. Judea had submitted to them, as a dependence of the
province of Syria, governed by a magistrate from Rome. Several vessels
departed from Marseilles for the country of the Israelites. My master,
Gremion, a relative of the Roman Procurator in Judea named Pontius
Pilate, was chosen to replace in that country the treasury-tribune,
appointed to collect the taxes; for wherever the Roman dominion
established itself, the exaction of taxes was established at the same
time.

One evening there was, at Jerusalem, a grand supper at Pontius Pilate's,
Procurator in the country of the Israelites, for the Emperor Tiberius.

Towards the decline of the day, the most brilliant society of the city
repaired to the house of the Roman seigneur. His mansion, like that of
all the rich persons of the country, was built of hewn stone, plastered
over with chalk, and painted a red color.

This sumptuous residence was entered by a square court, surrounded by
marble columns, forming a gallery. In the middle of this court there was
a fountain, which spread a delicious freshness beneath the scorching sun
of Arabia. An immense palm tree, planted near the fountain, covered it
with its shade during the heat of day. Next came a vestibule filled with
servants, and thence followed the dining hall, wainscotted with sandal
wood, inlaid with ivory.

Around the table were ranged beds of cedar-wood, hung with rich
draperies, on which the guests seated themselves during the repast. In
accordance with the custom of the country, the women who partook of the
dinner had each brought one of their slaves, who stood behind them
during the feast. It was thus that I, Genevieve, witnessed the scenes I
am about to narrate, having accompanied my mistress, Aurelia, to the
house of Pontius Pilate.

The society was select. Amongst the most distinguished guests were
remarked the Seigneur Baruch, a senator and doctor of law; the Seigneur
Chusa, steward of the household of Herod, tetrarch or prince of Judea,
under the protection of Rome; the Seigneur Gremion, newly arrived from
Roman Gaul, as clerk of the treasury in Judea; the Seigneur Jonas, one
of the richest bankers in Jerusalem; and lastly, the Seigneur Caiphus,
one of the princes of the Hebrew church.

Amongst the number of women who were present at the feast were Lucretia,
the wife of Pontius Pilate; Aurelia, the wife of Gremion; and Jane, the
wife of Chusa. The two prettiest women of the assembly, who on this
night supped with Pontius Pilate, were Jane and Aurelia. Jane had that
beauty peculiar to the orientals; large black eyes, soft and piercing,
and teeth of a snowy whiteness, which her dark complexion rendered still
more dazzling. Her turban, of rich Tyrian cloth, and of a purple color,
encircled by a heavy gold chain, the two ends fell one on each shoulder,
encased her countenance half concealed by large tresses of black hair.
She was dressed in a long white robe, leaving bare her arms loaded with
gold bracelets. Over this robe, confined round her waist by a scarf of
purple cloth, similar to the turban, she wore a sort of spencer of
orange silk, without sleeves. The handsome features of Jane had an
expression full of gentleness, and her smile expressed an engaging
sweetness.

Aurelia, Gremion's wife, born of Roman parents, in southern Gaul, was
also beautiful, and wore, according to the fashion of her country, two
tunics, one a long one and red, the other short and clear blue; a gold
band confined her chestnut hair; her complexion was as fair as that of
Jane was dark; her large blue eyes beamed with delight, and her cheerful
smile announced an unalterable good humor.

The senator Baruch, one of the most learned doctors of the law, occupied
at this supper the place of honor. He appeared to be a perfect gourmand,
for his green turban was almost constantly close to his plate; two or
three times even he was obliged to loosen the belt that confined his
flowing violet robe, adorned with long silver fringe. The gluttony of
this fat seigneur made Jane and Aurelia often smile and whisper, new
friends as they were, and seated next each other, and behind whom stood
I, Genevieve, not losing one of their words, and equally attentive to
all that was said by the guests.

The Seigneur Jonas, one of the richest bankers of Jerusalem, wearing a
little yellow turban, and brown robe, and having a pointed grey beard,
resembled a bird of prey; he conversed from time to time, in a
suppressed tone, with doctor Baruch, who replied to him but rarely, and
without interrupting himself in his eating, whilst the high priest
Caiphus, Gremion, Pontius Pilate, and the other guests, also pursued
their conversation.

Towards the conclusion of the supper, the doctor of law, beginning to be
satisfied, wiped his greasy beard with the back of his hand, and said to
the treasury-receiver, newly arrived in Judea:

'Seigneur Gremion, are you getting accustomed to our poor country? Ah!
'tis a great change for you, who arrive from Roman Gaul. What a long
voyage you had!'

'I like to visit new countries,' replied Gremion, 'and I shall
frequently have occasion to travel through this in order to overlook the
bill-collectors.'

'Unfortunately for the Seigneur Gremion,' said the banker Jonas, 'he
arrives in Judea at a most unhappy time.'

'Why so, seigneur?' inquired Gremion.

'Are not civil troubles always bad times?' replied the banker.

'No doubt, seigneur Jonas; but what troubles do you refer to?'

'My friend Jonas,' observed Baruch, the learned doctor, 'alludes to the
deplorable disorders which that vagabond of Nazareth everywhere draws
after him, and which increase every day.'

'Ah! yes,' said Gremion, 'that ancient journeyman carpenter of Galilee,
born in a stable, and son of a plough maker? He is running about the
country, they say, and you call him....'

'If we give him the name he deserves,' exclaimed the learned doctor in
an angry tone, 'he would be called the vagabond, the impious, the
seditious; but he bears the name of Jesus.'

'Right. A boaster,' said Pontius Pilate, shrugging his shoulders after
emptying his cup, 'a fool, who talks to geese: nothing more.'

'Seigneur Pontius Pilate!' exclaimed the doctor of law in a tone of
reproach: 'I do not comprehend you! What! You who represent here the
august Emperor Tiberius, our protector, among us honest and peaceable
people, for without your troops, the populace would long ago have risen
against Herod; but prince, you pretend to be indifferent to the words
and acts of this Nazarene; you treat him as a madman. Ah! Seigneur
Pontius Pilate, to-day is not the first time I have told you this;
madmen like this one are public pests!'

'And I repeat to you, seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, extending his
empty cup to his slave standing behind him, 'I repeat that you are
wrong to alarm yourselves; let the Nazarene speak, and his words will
pass like the wind.'

'Seigneur Baruch, you wish much harm to this young man of Nazareth,
then!' said Jane in her gentle voice; 'you cannot hear his name
pronounced without getting in a rage.'

'Certainly, I wish him harm,' replied the learned doctor; 'and it is but
justice, for this Nazarene, who respects nothing, has not only insulted
me, personally, but he has also insulted all my brethren of the senate
in my person. For do you know what he dared to say in the Temple on
seeing me pass?'

'Let us hear the terrible words, Seigneur Baruch,' said Jane, smiling;
'for they must indeed be frightful!'

'Frightful is not enough; 'tis abominable, monstrous, you must say!'
replied the doctor of law; 'I was passing the Temple, then, the other
day; I had just been dining with my neighbor, Samuel; at a distance I
saw a group of beggars in rags, workmen, camel-drivers, men who let out
asses, disreputable women, tattered children, and other individuals of
the most dangerous sort; they were listening to a young man mounted on a
stone. He was holding forth with all his power. Suddenly he pointed at
me; all the vagabonds turn round towards me, and I hear the Nazarene,
for it was he, I could have divined him simply from the circle round
him, I heard the Nazarene say to these good-for-nothings, 'Beware of
these doctors of the law, who love to parade in their long robes, to be
saluted on the public place, to have the highest seats in the
synagogues, and the best places at the feasts.'

'You will admit, Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' said Jonas the banker, 'that
it is impossible for audacity and personality to go further.'

'But it seems to me,' said Aurelia to Jane quietly, in remarking to her
that the learned doctor had precisely the seat of honor at the feast,
'it seems to me that the Seigneur Baruch has a great affection for these
places.'

'That is the very reason why he is so furious against the young man of
Nazareth, who has a horror of all hypocrisy,' replied Jane.

Baruch continued, more and more furious: "But here, dear seigneur, is
something more abominable still: 'beware,' added the seditious vagabond,
'beware of those doctors of the law who devour the houses of the widows
under pretence of making long prayers. These persons,' and the audacious
fellow again pointed me out, 'these persons will be punished more
rigorously than the others.' Yes, this is what I heard the Nazarene say
in direct words. And now, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, I declare to you, if
you do not repress at once this unbridled license, which dares attack
the authority of the doctors of the law, that is, law and authority
themselves, if they are thus allowed to signalize the senators with
impunity to public scorn and contempt we are treading on a precipice!"

'Let him talk,' said Pontius Pilate, again emptying his cup; 'let him
talk, and let us live and enjoy!'

"To live and enjoy is not possible, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, when we
foresee great disasters,' replied the banker Jonas; 'I declare that the
fears of my worthy friend Baruch are well-founded.--Yes, and like him I
repeat, 'we are treading on a precipice;' this carpenter of Nazareth
has an audacity that passes all bounds; he respects nothing, nothing;
yesterday 'twas the law, authority, he attacked in their
representatives; to-day 'tis the rich against whom he excites the dregs
of the populace. Has he not dared to pronounce these execrable words:
'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"

At this citation of the Seigneur Jonas, all the guests exclaimed, at one
moment, ''Tis abominable!'

'What shall we come to?'

'To an abyss; as the Seigneur Baruch has so well demonstrated!'

'And so, all of us, who possess gold in our coffers, are thus doomed to
eternal fire!'

'Compared to camels, that cannot pass through the eye of a needle!'

'And these monstrosities are said and repeated by the Nazarene to the
dregs of the populace; to excite them to the pillage of the rich. Is it
not basely flattering the detestable passions of these tattered
vagabonds, whom Jesus of Nazareth takes such delight in, and with whom,
they say, he gets drunk?'

'I cannot find fault with the fellow for being fond of wine,' said
Pontius Pilate, laughing, and extending his cup to his slave. 'Drinkers
are not dangerous men.'

"But this is not all," said Caiphus, the high priest: "not only does
this Nazarene outrage law, authority, and the possession of riches; he
attacks no less audaciously the religion of our fathers. Thus
Deuteronomy explicitly says, 'You shall not lend in usury to your
brother, but only to strangers'--remark well this, 'but only to
strangers.' Well, despising the precepts of our holy religion, the
Nazarene arrogates to himself the right of saying: 'Do good to all, and
lend without expecting anything;' and he took care to add: 'You cannot
serve God and Mammon.' So that religion declares formally that it is
lawful to obtain a profit for one's money from strangers; whilst the
Nazarene, blaspheming the holy scriptures in one of its most pre-eminent
dogmas, denies what it affirms, and defends what it permits."

'My condition as a heathen,' replied Pontius Pilate, more and more
good-humored, 'does not permit me to take part in such a discussion; I
will inwardly invoke our god Bacchus. Some wine, slave! some wine!'

'Nevertheless, Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' said the banker, Jonas, who
seemed with difficulty to restrain the rage which the indifference of
the Roman caused him, 'even putting aside whatever sacrilege there may
be in the proposition of the Nazarene, you will admit that it is one of
the most outrageous; for, my seigneurs, I ask you, what would then
become of our commerce?'

''Tis the ruin of public wealth!'

"What would they have me do with the gold in my coffers if I made no
profit from it; if I lend 'without expecting anything,' as this
audacious reformer says? It would make one laugh if it was not so
odious."

'And it does not even concern an isolated attack, directed against our
holy religion,' said Caiphus, the priest. 'With the Nazarene 'tis a
settled plan to outrage and undermine at its base the faith of our
fathers; here is a fresh proof: lately the sick were plunged into the
pool of Bethesda.'

'Near the Gate of the Lambs?'

'Precisely; and the day was the Sabbath. Now you know, seigneurs, how
sacred and solemn is the prohibition against doing anything whatsoever
on the Sabbath day.'

'For a religious man, 'tis doing a terrible impiety.'

'Now judge of the Nazarene's conduct,' continued Caiphus: 'he goes to
the pool, and observe, too, that by a cunning villany, and in order to
ruin the physicians, he never receives a penny for cures, for he is
deeply skilled in the healing art.'

'How could you imagine, Seigneur Caiphus, that a man who respects
nothing would respect even the physicians?'

'The Nazarene arrives at the pool, then; he finds there, amongst others,
a man whose foot was dislocated; he replaces it for him.'

'What! on the Sabbath day?'

'He dared!'

'Abomination of desolation!'

'Heal the sick on the Sabbath day!'

'What sacrilege!'

'Yes, seigneurs,' replied the high priest, in a mournful voice; 'he has
committed this sacrilege.'

'Now, if the young man had not healed the sufferer,' said Aurelia to
Jane, smiling, 'I could understand their rage.'

'Such an impiety deserves the worst punishment; for it is impossible to
outrage religion more abominably!'

'And do not imagine,' continued Caiphus, 'that the Nazarene dissembles
the sacrileges or blushes at them; far from it; he blasphemes to that
degree as to say that he laughs at the Sabbath, and that those who
observe it are hypocrites.'

A general murmur of indignation acknowledged the words of the high
priest, so abominable did the impiety of the Nazarene appear to the
guests of Pontius Pilate; but the latter, emptying cup after cup,
appeared to trouble himself no further as to what was being said around
him.

'No, Seigneur Caiphus,' said the banker Jonas, with an air of amazement;
'if it were not you who affirmed such enormities, I should hesitate to
believe them.'

'I speak to the purpose, for I had the happy idea, I think, of bribing
some very artful fellows who feign to be the partizans of this Nazarene;
they therefore make him speak; he yields without suspicion, converses
frankly with our men, and then these come immediately and report all to
us.'

''Twas a most excellent idea of yours, Seigneur Caiphus,' said Jonas the
banker: 'honor to you!'

'It is, therefore, owing to these emissaries,' continued the high
priest, 'that I was informed that the day before yesterday this Nazarene
pronounced inflammatory words capable of inducing the slaves to cut the
throats of their masters.'

'What a wretch!'

'But what does he want?'

"Seigneur, here are his words,' said Caiphus, 'listen well: 'The
disciple is no more than the master, nor the slave more than his lord;
'tis enough for the disciple to be equal with his master, and for the
slave with his lord.'"

A fresh murmur of furious indignation was heard. 'Only see the fine
concession this Nazarene deigns to make to you,' exclaimed the banker
Jonas.--'Really, 'tis enough for the slave to be equal to his lord! You
concede us this, Jesus of Nazareth! You permit the slave not to be
greater than his lord: many thanks!'

'And mark,' added the doctor of law, 'mark the consequences of these
frightful doctrines, if they were ever published; and we may speak thus
between ourselves, now that our servants have quitted the festive hall;
for, in fact, the day on which the slave shall think himself the equal
of his master, he will say to himself: if I am the equal of my master,
he has no longer the right to keep me in servitude, and I have the right
to rebel. Now, my lords, you know what such a revolt would be! It would
be the end of society!'

'The end of the world!'

'Chaos!' exclaimed Doctor Baruch; 'for chaos must succeed to the
unchaining of the most detestable popular passions, and the Nazarene
only flatters them in order to unloosen them; he promises mountains and
marvels to these miserables, to make proselytes of them; he flatters
their hateful envy by telling them that at the day of judgment, the
first shall be last, and the last shall be first.'

'Yes, in the kingdom of heaven,' said Jane, in a mild but firm voice:
''tis thus I understand the young master.'

"Ah! really?' said the Seigneur Chusa, her husband, in a sardonic tone,
'it simply alludes to the kingdom of heaven? You think so? Why then,
some time ago, did one named Peter, one of his disciples, I believe, say
to him in plain terms, 'Master, if we abandon all and follow thee, what
shall we have in return for it?'"

'This Peter was a cautious man,' said Jonas the banker, in a tone of
raillery; 'this worthy didn't like working for nothing.'

'To this question of Peter's,' said Chusa, 'what did the Nazarene reply,
in order to excite the cupidity of the brigands, whom sooner or later he
will make his instruments?'

"He replied in these very words: 'He who abandons house, brothers,
sisters, father, mother, children and fields for me and for the gospel,
shall receive for the present a hundred fold more than he abandons, and
in future ages, life eternal.'"

'For the present, that's quite clear,' said Doctor Baruch, 'he promises
for the present to the men of his band a hundred houses in lieu of one
they quit to follow him; a field a hundred times larger than that they
abandon; and, in addition, for the future, in after ages, he assures
these miscreants a life eternal! Now where will he obtain these hundred
houses for one?' continued Jonas the banker: 'yes, where will he get
them; these fields promised to the vagabonds? He will take them from us,
the possessors of wealth, us, the camels, for whom the entrance to
Paradise is as narrow as the eye of a needle, because we are rich.'

'I think, seigneurs,' said Jane, 'that you do not rightly interpret the
words of the young master: they have a figurative sense.'

'Really!' exclaimed Jane's husband in a tone of irony: 'well, let us try
this wonderful figure.'

'When Jesus of Nazareth says, that those who will follow him shall have
for the present a hundred times more than what they abandon, he means by
that, I think, that the consciousness of preaching good news, the love
of our neighbor, the compassion for the suffering and the feeble, will
compensate fourfold for the renunciation we have imposed on ourselves.'

These wise and gentle words of Jane were but ill received by the guests
of Pontius Pilate; and the high priest exclaimed:

'I pity your wife, Seigneur Chusa, for being like so many others,
blinded by the Nazarene. He simply requires good materials; for here is
something a little stronger. He has the audacity to send the vagabonds,
whom he calls his disciples, to establish themselves, to eat and drink
as they like in houses, without paying anything, under pretence of
preaching in them his abominable doctrines.'

'How, seigneurs,' said Gremion, 'in your country such violences are
possible, and remain unpunished? People come to your house and establish
themselves by force, and eat and drink there under the pretence of
holding forth?'

'Those who receive the disciples of the young man of Nazareth,' replied
Jane, 'receive them voluntarily.'

'Yes,' said Jonas, 'some of them; but the majority of those who harbor
these vagabonds yield to fear, to threats; or, according to the orders
of the Nazarene, those who refuse to lodge these idle vagabonds are
doomed by him to eternal fire.'

Fresh clamors arose at the narration of the further misdeeds of the
Nazarene.

''Tis an intolerable tyranny!'

'There must be an end put to such indignities, however.'

''Tis an organized pillage!'

'Consequently,' said the banker Jonas, 'the Seigneur Baruch was
perfectly right in saying, it is straight to chaos that this Nazarene is
leading us, to whom nothing is sacred; for I repeat, not content with
endeavoring to destroy the law, authority, property, and religion, he
would, to crown his infernal work, destroy all family ties!'

'Why, he is your Beelzebub in person!' exclaimed Gremion.

'What! my lords, this Nazarene would annihilate all family ties!'

'Yes, annihilate them by dividing them,' said Caiphus: 'annihilate them
by sowing discord and hatred in the domestic hearth! by arming the son
against the father! and servants against their masters!'

'Seigneurs,' continued Gremion, with an air of doubt, 'can a project so
abominable enter the head of a man?'

"Of a man, no," replied the high priest; "but of a Beelzebub like this
Nazarene; here's the proof from the undoubted report of the emissaries,
whom I spoke of; this cursed fellow pronounced the other day, the
horrible words following, speaking to the bands of beggars who never
quit him: 'Believe not that I have come to bring peace on earth, I have
brought the sword: I am come to bring fire on the earth, and all my
desire is that it may rise to a flame: it is disunion, I repeat, and not
peace, that I bring you; I am come to sow division between the father
and the son, the daughter and the mother, the daughter-in-law and the
mother-in-law: a man's own servants shall declare themselves his
enemies; in every house of five persons, two of them shall be against
the other three.'"

'Why, 'tis frightful!' exclaimed at once the banker Jonas, and the
intendant Chusa.

''Tis preaching the dissolution of family by hatred.'

''Tis preaching civil war!' exclaimed Gremion, the Roman: 'social war,
like that stirred up by Spartacus, the rebellious slave.'

"What! he has the hardihood to say, 'I am come to bring fire on the
earth, and all I desire is that it may rise to a flame; a man's own
servants shall declare themselves his enemies: in every house of five
persons, there shall be two against the others!' it is, as he had the
infernal audacity to say, 'bringing fire on the earth.'"

Jane had listened with painful impatience to all the accusations made
against the Nazarene; she therefore cried with a firm and animated
voice:

'Ah! my seigneurs, I am tired of listening to your calumnies; you do not
comprehend the sense of the words of the young man of Nazareth to his
disciples. When he speaks of the divisions that will spring up in
families, it signifies that in one house, some sharing his doctrine of
love and tenderness to one's neighbor, which he preaches from his heart
and lips, and the others persisting in their hardness of heart, they
shall be divided; he means that servants shall declare themselves the
enemies of their masters, if the master has been wicked and unjust; he
means, lastly, that in every family some shall be for and some against
him.

'Can it be otherwise? He recommends the renunciation of riches; he
proclaims the slave the equal of his master; he consoles, he pardons
those who have sinned more in consequence of their misery and their
ignorance than from a wicked nature. All men therefore cannot at once
share his generous doctrines. What new truth did not at first cause
division amongst them?

'Thus the young man of Nazareth says, in his figurative language, that
he is come to bring fire on earth, and that his desire is that it may
kindle! Oh, yes, I believe so; for the fire of which he speaks is the
ardent love of humanity with which his heart is fired.'

Jane, in thus expressing herself, in a calm and vibrating voice, looked
still more handsome; Aurelia, her new friend, contemplated her with as
much surprise as admiration. The guests of the Seigneur Pontius Pilate,
on the contrary, raised murmurs of astonishment and indignation, and
Chusa, Jane's husband, said to her harshly:

'You are mad, and I am ashamed of your words. It is incredible that a
woman who respects herself can dare, without dying of confusion, defend
such abominable doctrines, preached in the market-place, or in ignoble
taverns, in the midst of vagabonds, thieves and prostitutes, the usual
body-guard of the Nazarene.'

"The young man, replying to those who reproached him with this wicked
congregation, did he not say," continued Jane in a voice still firm and
sonorous: "It is not those who are well but those who are sick, who have
need of the physician?' meaning by this parable that it is the people
whose life is wicked who have especial need of being enlightened,
supported, guided, loved; yes, I repeat, loved and consoled, to return
to good; for mercy and gentleness do more than violence and punishment;
and this tender and pious task, Jesus imposes on himself every day!"

'And for my part, I repeat to you,' exclaimed Chusa in a rage: 'that the
Nazarene only thus flatters the detestable passions of the vile populace
amidst which he passes his life, in order to make rebels of them, at a
fitting opportunity, to declare himself their chief, and to deliver up
all in Jerusalem and Judea to fire, sword, and pillage! since he has the
audacity to say that he does not bring peace on earth, but the sword,
but fire....'

These words of Herod's steward were greatly approved of by the guests of
Pontius Pilate, who seemed more and more astonished at the silence of
the Roman Procurator; for the latter, frequently emptying his large cup,
smiled more and more good-humoredly at each enormity with which the
young Nazarene was reproached. Aurelia had attentively listened to the
wife of Herod's intendant so courageously defending the young preacher,
so that she said to her quietly: 'Dear Jane, you cannot tell how
desirous I am of seeing this young Nazarene of whom they speak so much
evil, and of whom you speak so much good; he must be an extraordinary
man!'

'Oh, yes; extraordinary for his beauty,' replied Jane softly: 'if you
knew how gentle his voice is when speaking to the feeble, to the
suffering, and to children, oh, especially to little children! He loves
them to adoration; when he sees them his features assume a celestial
expression.'

'Jane,' resumed Aurelia, smiling; 'he is very handsome, then?'

'Oh, yes, yes; handsome, handsome as an archangel!'

'How anxious I am to see him, to hear him!' continued Aurelia, in a
manner more and more interested. 'But alas! how is it to be done, if he
has always such an assemblage round him? A woman cannot risk herself in
the taverns in which he preaches, as they say?'

Jane remained thoughtful for a moment, she then resumed: 'Who knows,
dear Aurelia, perhaps we may find means to see and hear the young man of
Nazareth.'

'Oh! speak,' exclaimed Aurelia, eagerly: 'speak at once, dear Jane; what
means?'

'Silence, we are observed,' replied Jane, 'by and bye we will talk over
it.'

In fact the Seigneur Chusa, very indignant at the obstinacy of his wife
in defending the young Nazarene, occasionally threw upon her angry looks
while conversing with Caiphus.

Pontius Pilate had once more emptied his large goblet, and with his
cheeks inflamed, his eyes fixed and sparkling, and a complete stranger
to all that was passing around him, he seemed to be enjoying an extreme
inward beatitude. The Seigneur Baruch, after consulting in a low tone
with Caiphus and the banker, said to the Roman: 'Seigneur Pontius
Pilate!' But the Seigneur Pontius Pilate, smiling more and more to
himself, made no reply; the doctor of law was obliged to touch him on
the arm. The Procurator, now appearing to awake suddenly, said: 'Excuse
me, my seigneurs, I was thinking, I was thinking of ..., but what is it
all?'

'It is, Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' replied Doctor Baruch, 'that if, after
all that my friends and myself have narrated to you of the abominable
projects of this Nazarene, you do not proceed against him with the
greatest rigour, you, the representative of the august Emperor Tiberius,
the natural protector of Herod, our prince, it will happen that....'

'Well! what will happen, my seigneurs?'

'It will happen that before next Easter, Jerusalem, the whole of Judea,
will be given up to pillage by the act of this Nazarene, whom the
populace already calls the King of the Jews.'

Pontius Pilate replied, maintaining that tranquil and careless manner
that characterized him: 'Come, my seigneurs, don't take bushes for
forests, or molehills for mountains! Is it for me to remind you of your
history? Is this boy of Nazareth the first who has bethought him of
playing the part of a Messiah? Have you not had Judas the Galilean, who
pretended that the Israelites were to acknowledge no master but God, and
who endeavored to stir up the population against the power of us Romans?
What happened? This Judas was put to death; and it shall be the same
with this young Nazarene if he thinks of exciting rebellion.'

'No doubt, seigneur,' replied Caiphus, the high priest.

'The Nazarene is not the first impostor who has proclaimed himself the
Messiah which our holy scriptures have announced for so many ages. For
fifty years past, not to speak of recent facts, Jonathan, and after him,
Simon, the magician, surnamed the Great Virtue of God; then Barkokebah,
the Son of the Star, and many other pretended Messiahs or Saviors, and
regenerators of the country of Israel! But none of these cheats had the
influence of this Nazarene, and especially his infernal audacity; they
did not, like him, furiously attack the rich, the doctors of law, the
priests, family, and religion; in fact, all that should be respected,
under pain of seeing Israel fall into chaos.

'Those other impostors did not address themselves specially and
constantly, like the Nazarene, to the dregs of the populace, of which he
disposes in a fearful manner; for indeed, only lately the Seigneur
Baruch, weary of the public outrages with which the Nazarene pursued the
Pharisees, that is, the most respectable persons of Jerusalem, who
profess the pharisaical opinions, so honest, so moderate in all things,
the Seigneur Baruch, I say, wished to imprison the Nazarene; but the
attitude of the populace became so menacing that my noble friend Baruch
dared not give the order to arrest this wicked man.

'Thus, then, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, you have at your disposal a
considerable armed force: if you do not come to our aid, who have at our
disposition only a feeble militia, a portion of which is no less
infected than the populace with the detestable doctrines of the
Nazarene, we will not answer for the public peace; and a popular rising
against your own troops is possible.'

'Oh! as to that, my seigneur,' replied Pontius Pilate, smiling, 'you
will find me the first prepared, helmet on head, cuirass on back, and
sword in hand, if the Nazarene dare revolt the populace against my
troops; as for the rest, by Jupiter, unravel your skein yourselves if
'tis in a mess, my seigneurs: these interior affairs concern you alone,
you senators of the city. Arrest the young man, imprison him, crucify
him if he deserves it, 'tis your right, make use of it; as for me, I
represent here the emperor, my master; as long as his power is not
attacked, I shall not budge.'

"And besides, Seigneur Procurator," said Jane, "has not the young man of
Nazareth said: 'Render unto God that which is God's, and unto Caesar that
which is Caesar's?'"

''Tis true, noble Jane,' replied Pontius Pilate; 'and there is a wide
difference between that and a wish to stir up the people against the
Roman.'

'But do you not see, then, seigneur,' exclaimed Doctor Baruch, 'that
this cheat acts in this way from hypocrisy, that he might not arouse
your suspicions, and that, the hour arrived, he will call the populace
to arms?'

'In that event, my seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, again emptying
his cup, 'the Nazarene will find me prepared to receive him at the head
of my cohorts; but until then I have nothing to do with your broils.'

At this moment a Roman officer entered in a state of bewilderment, and
said to Pontius Pilate: 'Seigneur Procurator, strange news has just
arrived here.'

'What is it?'

'A great popular emotion is caused by Jesus of Nazareth.'

'Poor young man!' said Aurelia, addressing Jane: 'he is the sport of
misfortune; every one is against him!'

'Let us listen,' said Jane anxiously: 'let us listen!'

'You see, Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' exclaimed at the same time the high
priest, the doctor, and the banker, 'not a day passes on which this
Nazarene does not disturb the public peace.'

'Answer me,' said the governor to the officer:--'what does it concern?'

"Some people arrived from Bethany pretend that three days ago, Jesus of
Nazareth brought the dead to life: all the people in the town are in
extraordinary commotion; bands of ragged fellows are at the present
moment running about the streets of Jerusalem, with torches crying:
'Glory to Jesus of Nazareth, who brings the dead to life!'"

'The audacious knave!' exclaimed Caiphus: 'to try to imitate our holy
prophets! to imitate Elias, who resuscitated the son of the widow: of
Elisha, who resuscitated Joreb! Profanation, profanation!'

'He is an impostor!' exclaimed Jonas: ''tis impious, sacrilegious
deception! Our holy scriptures announce that the Messiah shall bring the
dead to life. The Nazarene would play his character to the end.'

'They go so far as to give the name of the dead man resuscitated,'
observed the officer: 'he is named Lazarus!'

'I demand from the Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' exclaimed Caiphus, 'that
they discover and arrest this Lazarus on the instant!'

'There must be an example,' exclaimed the doctor of law: 'this Lazarus
must be hung! this will teach him to come to life!'

'Do you hear them? they will put this poor man to death,' said Aurelia,
addressing Jane, and shrugging her shoulders: 'to lose one's life,
because we have regained it despite ourself! for they will not accuse
him, I suppose, of soliciting to be resuscitated: decidedly they are
mad.'

'Alas! dear Aurelia,' said Chusa's wife mournfully, 'there are wicked
madmen.'

'I repeat,' exclaimed Doctor Baruch, 'that this Lazarus must be hung.'

'Stuff! my seigneurs: why, look you, here is an honest corpse sleeping
tranquilly in its sepulchre, not thinking of any harm; he is brought to
life; he cannot help it, and you would have me hang him for this?'

'Yes, seigneur,' exclaimed Caiphus; 'we must extirpate the disease at
the root; for if this Nazarene now takes to resuscitating the dead....'

'It is impossible to foresee where it will end,' cried Doctor Baruch: 'I
therefore formally demand of the Seigneur Pontius Pilate, that this
audacious Lazarus be put to death!'

'But, seigneur,' said Aurelia, 'suppose you hang him, and the young
Nazarene resuscitates him again?'

'We will hang him again! Dame Aurelia!' exclaimed Jonas, the banker: 'We
will hang him again! By Joshua! it would be a joke to yield to these
vagabonds!'

'My seigneurs!' said Pontius Pilate: 'you have your militia, arrest and
hang this Lazarus, if you like; but you will be more unmerciful than we
heathens, whether Greeks or Romans, who, like you, have had our
resuscitated. But, by Jupiter! we do not hang them; for I have heard it
said that quite recently Apollonius of Tyana resuscitated a young girl,
whose funeral he met, followed by her betrothed in great trouble.
Apollonius spoke a few magic words, the young girl issued from her
coffin, more fresh, more charming than ever. The marriage took place,
and the pair lived very happy.'

'Would you then have the poor girl die a second time, my seigneurs?'
inquired Aurelia.

'Yes, certainly,' replied Caiphus, 'if she was the accomplice of an
impostor; and since the seigneur Procurator leaves us abandoned to our
own forces, I and my worthy friend Baruch will quit you, that we may
give instant orders relative to the arrest of this Lazarus.'

'Do so, my seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, rising, 'you are senators
of your city.'

'Seigneur Gremion,' said Chusa, the steward of Herod's household, 'I
must depart the day after to-morrow for Bethlehem: if you would like
that we should travel in company, I will anticipate my departure by a
day, and will start to-morrow morning, we shall return in two or three
days; I shall take advantage of your escort, for in these troubled times
it is right to be well accompanied.'

'I accept your offer, Seigneur Chusa,' replied the treasury-receiver; 'I
shall be delighted to journey with some one who, like yourself, knows
the country.'

'Dear Aurelia,' said Jane to her friend softly, 'you wish to see the
young man of Nazareth?'

'Oh! more than ever, dear Jane; all that I hear redoubles my curiosity.'

'Come to my house to-morrow, after the departure of my husband,' resumed
Jane in a low tone, 'and perhaps we may find means of satisfying you.'

'But how?'

'I will tell you, dear Aurelia.'

'To-morrow then, dear Jane.'

And the two young women quitted, in company with their husbands and me,
the slave Genevieve, the house of Pontius Pilate.




CHAPTER II.


The tavern of the Wild Ass was the usual resort of the conductors of
camels, of the men who let out donkeys, of porters, pedlars, vendors of
water melons, pomegranates, of fresh dates, when in season, and later of
preserved olives and dry dates. In this tavern were also to be found men
of no profession, prostitutes of the lowest class, beggars, vagabonds,
and those worthy fellows whose armed protection was purchased by
travellers when they repaired from one town to another, in order to be
defended against the highwayman by this escort often very much
suspected. There might also be seen those Roman slaves brought by their
masters into the country of the Hebrews.

This tavern had a bad reputation; disputes and quarrels were frequent
there, and at the approach of night none were seen to venture in the
neighborhood of the _Lamb's_-gate, not far from which this den was
situated, but men of suspicious figure or women of a low class; then,
night having completely set in, from this dreaded place issued cries,
bursts of laughter, bacchanalian songs; frequently painful groans
succeeded to the disputes; from time to time some men of the Jerusalem
militia entered the tavern under pretence of establishing peace and
quietness, and left it, either more drunk and disorderly than the
drinkers, or driven out with sticks and stones.

On the day following that on which the supper at Pontius Pilate's had
taken place, towards the evening about dusk, two young men, plainly
dressed in white tunics and turbans of blue cloth, were walking through
a narrow winding street, at the end of which was perceived the door of
the dreaded tavern; they conversed as they advanced, and frequently
turned their heads towards one of the extremities of the street, as if
they expected the appearance of some one.

'Genevieve,' said one to his companion stopping (these two pretended
young men were Aurelia and her slave, disguised under masculine
garments), 'Genevieve, my new friend Jane is late in coming, this alarms
me; and besides, if I must confess it, I am afraid of committing some
folly.'

'In that case, my dear mistress, let us return home.'

'I have a great mind to; but then shall I ever meet with such an
opportunity again?'

'It is true that the absence of the Seigneur Gremion, your husband, who
departed this morning with the Seigneur Chusa, steward of Herod the
prince, leaves you completely free, and that perhaps for some time you
may not enjoy quite so much liberty.'

'Confess, Genevieve, that you are still more curious than I am to see
this extraordinary man, this young Nazarene?'

'Were it so, my dear mistress, there would be nothing astonishing in my
desire; I am a slave, and the Nazarene says that there ought to be no
longer slaves.'

'I render your slavery very hard, then, Genevieve?'

'No, oh! no! But sincerely, do you know many mistresses who resemble
you?'

'It is not for me to reply to that, flatterer'--

'It is for me to say so. If by chance we meet with one good mistress
like you, there are a hundred who, for a word, or the slightest
negligence, mutilate their slaves with the lash, or torture them with a
cruel joy. Is this true?'

'I do not deny it.'

'You render my servitude as mild as possible, my dear mistress; but
still I do not belong to myself. I have been obliged to separate from my
poor Fergan, my husband, who wept so on quitting me. What assures me
that on your return I shall find him at Marseilles, that he has not been
sold and carried I know not where? What assures me that the Seigneur
Gremion will not sell me, or separate me from you?'

'I have promised you that you shall not quit me.'

'But if your husband wishes to sell me, you could not prevent him.'

'Alas! no.'

'And a hundred years ago, the fathers and mothers of us Gauls were free;
however Fergan's ancestors were the most valiant chiefs of their tribe!'

'Oh!' said Aurelia, smiling, 'the daughters of a Caesar would not be more
proud of having an emperor as a father than you are, of what you call
the father of your husband.'

'Pride is not permitted to slaves,' replied Genevieve mournfully; 'all
that I regret, is our liberty. What have we done, then, to lose it? Ah!
if the prayers of this young man of Nazareth are answered! if there are
to be no more slaves!'

'No more slaves? Why, Genevieve, you are mad; is it possible! No more
slaves? That their life be rendered as sweet as possible, be it so; but
no more slaves would be the end of the world.--Look you, Genevieve, it
is these exaggerations that do so much harm to this young Nazarene.'

'He is not believed by the rich and powerful.--Yesterday, at the supper
with Pontius Pilate, standing behind you, I did not lose a word. What
bitterness against this young man!'

'What would you, Genevieve?' replied Aurelia smiling; ''tis a little his
own fault.'

'You, too, accuse him?'

'No, but still he attacks the bankers, the doctors of law, the
physicians, the priests, all those hypocrites in fact, who, Jane tells
me, belong to pharisaical opinions. It requires no more to ruin him
forever.'

'It is courageous at least, to speak these truths to wicked men, and
this young man of Nazareth is as good as he is courageous, according to
Jane, your friend. She is rich, and held in consideration; she is not a
slave like me; he does not preach in her favor therefore, and yet see
how she admires him!'

'This admiration of a sweet and charming woman testifies, it is true, in
favor of this young man; for Jane, with her noble heart, would be
incapable of admiring the wicked. What an amiable friend chance has
given me in her! I know nothing more tender than her look, or more
penetrating than her voice. She says that when this Nazarene speaks to
those who are suffering, to the poor and to the little children, his
face becomes divine. I don't know, but what is certain is, that the face
of Jane becomes celestial when she speaks of him.'

'Is it not she who is approaching on this side, my dear mistress?'

'I hear a gentle step in the shade.'

'It must be her.'

In fact, Jane, also dressed as a young man, had soon joined Aurelia and
her slave. 'You have been waiting for me some time, perhaps, Aurelia?'
said the young woman; 'but I could not secretly leave my house before
this hour.'

'Jane, I do not feel myself quite easy; I am perhaps still more timid
than curious. Only think, women of our condition in this horrible
tavern, where, as they say, the dregs of the populace assemble.'

'Be not afraid; these people are more turbulent and frightful to look at
than really wicked. I have already been among them twice under this
disguise with one of my relations to hear the young master. The tavern
is but feebly lighted; round the court runs a dark gallery where we
shall not be seen.--We will order a jug of beer, and they will not
trouble themselves about us; they are only occupied with the young man
of Nazareth, or in his absence, with his disciples, who come to preach
good news. Come, Aurelia, it is late, come.'

'Listen! listen!' said the young woman to Jane, turning her ear toward
the tavern with some uneasiness; 'hear you those cries? They are
disputing in that horrible place!'

'That proves that the young master is not yet arrived,' replied Jane;
'for in his presence every voice is silent, and the most violent become
as gentle as lambs.'

'And besides, Jane, just look at that group of men and women of evil
mien, collected before the door by the light of that lantern. Pray, let
us wait till they have passed on or entered the tavern.'

'Come, there is nothing to fear, I tell you.'

'No, I entreat you, Jane: another moment.--Really, I admire your
bravery!'

'Oh! 'tis because Jesus of Nazareth inspires courage as he inspires
gentleness towards the guilty, tenderness for him who suffers. And then,
if you knew how natural his language is! what touching and ingenuous
parables he finds to bring his ideas within reach of simple men, of the
poor in mind as he calls them, and whom he loves so! Thus, all, even the
little children, for whom he has so great a liking, understand his words
and lose not a syllable. Undoubtedly, before him, other Messiahs have
prophesied the deliverance of our country oppressed by the stranger,
have explained our holy scriptures, and have by the magical means of
medicine treated diseases thought incurable; but none of these Messiahs
have hitherto shown that patient sweetness with which the young master
teaches the humble and the young, all in fact; for with him there are no
infidels, no heathens; every good and simple heart for the very reason
that it is good is worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Don't you know his
parable of the heathen? Nothing is more simple and more touching.'

'No, Jane, I do not know it.'

''Tis the last I heard him preach. It is called the Good Samaritan.'

'What is a Samaritan?'

'The Samaritans are an idolatrous people, beyond the farthest mountains
of Judea; the high priests regard these people as excluded from the
kingdom of God. Here is the parable:

'A man who was going to Jerusalem fell into the hands of robbers; they
pillaged him, covered him with wounds, and went on their way leaving him
half dead.

'It so happened afterwards that a Priest went the same road, who having
perceived the wounded man, passed on.

'A Levite, who approached the same place, having noticed the wounded
man, also passed on.

'But a Samaritan, who was travelling, came to the spot where the man
was, and seeing him, he was moved with compassion, approached him,
poured oil and wine upon his wounds, bandaged them, and having placed
him on his horse, he led him to an hostelry and took care of him.

'The next morning the Samaritan drew two penny pieces from his pocket,
gave them to the host, and said to him: 'Pay attention to this man; all
that you expend beyond this, I will repay you.'

'Now,' inquired Jesus of his disciples, 'which of these three men, think
you, was the neighbor of him who had fallen into the hands of the
robbers?'

'It is he,' they replied to Jesus, 'who was merciful to the wounded
man.'

'Go in peace, then, and do likewise,' replied Jesus, with a heavenly
smile.

Genevieve the slave, on hearing this recital, could not restrain her
tears, for Jane had accented with ineffable sweetness the last words of
Jesus: 'Go, then, in peace, and do likewise.'

'You are right, Jane,' said Aurelia, musing; 'a child would comprehend
the meaning of these words, and I feel myself moved.'

'And yet, this parable,' continued Jane, 'is one of those which have the
most irritated the high priests and the doctors of law against the young
man of Nazareth.'

'And why?'

'Because in this narrative he shows a Samaritan, a heathen, more humane
than the Levite, than the Priest, since this idolator, seeing a brother
in the wounded man, succored him, and thus renders himself more worthy
of heaven than the two holy men of hard hearts. This, you see, is just
what the enemies of Jesus call blasphemies, sacrileges!'

'Jane, let us go to the tavern. I have no longer any fear of entering
this place. People for whom such narratives are invented, and who listen
to them with avidity, cannot be wicked.'

'You see, my dear Aurelia, the words of the Nazarene already act upon
you; they give you confidence and courage. Come, come.'

The young woman took the arm of her friend; both, followed by the slave
Genevieve, turned their steps towards the tavern of the 'Wild Ass,'
where they soon arrived.

This tavern, a square built house, like most in the East, was composed
of an interior court surrounded with stout pillars, supporting a terrace
and forming four galleries, beneath which the drinkers could retire in
case of rain; but the night being mild and serene, the majority of the
customers were at tables in the court, lighted by a large iron lamp in
the middle of the court. This unique luminary, but feebly lighting the
galleries, in which were also some drinkers, they remained completely
obscured.

It was to one of these gloomy retreats that Jane, Aurelia and the slave
Genevieve, directed their steps; they saw in passing through the crowd,
then somewhat noisy, many persons in rags or poorly clad, women of
immoral life, miserably attired, had as a turban, a scrap of white
sackcloth; some others, on the contrary, wore robes and turbans of
precious stuff, but faded; bracelets, ear-rings and necklaces in copper,
ornamented with false stones; their cheeks were covered with a brilliant
paint; their haggard and sorrowful countenance, and a stamp of
bitterness, which revealed itself even in their noisy and intemperate
joy, told quite enough of the miseries, the anguish, and the shame of
their sad life as courtezans.

Amongst the men, some appeared dispirited by poverty, others had a bold
and audacious air; several wore rusty weapons at their girdle, or leant
upon their long sticks terminated by a ball of iron; elsewhere might be
recognized by their iron collar and shaven head, the domestic slaves
belonging to Roman officers; further on, the infirm, in rags, were
seated on the ground in crutches.

Mothers held in their arms their infant children, pale and thin, whom
they hugged with a regard tenderly anxious, no doubt also awaiting the
arrival of the young Nazarene, so skilled in the healing art.

Genevieve, from some words exchanged between two men well dressed, but
of harsh and disagreeable features, guessed that they were the secret
emissaries whom the high priests and doctors of the law made use of to
note the words of the Nazarene, and draw him into a snare of an
imprudent confidence.

Jane, more bold than her friend, had made a passage for her through the
crowd; seeing a table unoccupied, placed in the shade and behind one of
the pillars of the galleries, the wife of the Seigneur Chusa seated
herself at it with Aurelia, and demanded a jug of beer from one of the
girls of the tavern, whilst Genevieve, standing by the side of her
mistress, did not lose sight of the two emissaries of the pharisees, and
greedily listened to all that was said round about her.

'The night advances,' said a young and handsome woman mournfully to one
of her companions seated at a table before her, and whose cheeks were
like her own, covered with paint, as was customary with courtezans.'

'Jesus of Nazareth will not come here to-night.'

''Twas scarcely worth while to come here; we could have taken a walk in
the neighborhood of the Pool: and there some Roman officer, half drunk,
or some doctor of law, hugging the walls, his nose in his cloak, would
have given us a supper. You must not complain, Oliba, if we go to our
couch supperless: 'twas your wish.'

'That sort of bread seems to me now so bitter, that I do not regret it.'

'Bitter or not, it was bread, and when we are hungry, we must eat.'

'In listening to the words of Jesus,' replied the other courtezan,
mildly, 'I should have forgotten hunger.'

'Oliba, you will become mad. To feed upon words!'

'The words of Jesus always say: pardon, mercy, love; and hitherto for us
there was nothing but words of scorn and contempt!' And the courtezan
remained pensive, her forehead resting upon her hand.

'You are a strange girl, Oliba,' continued the other, 'but however,
empty as it is, we shall not have even this supper of words; for the
Nazarene will not come now: it is too late.'

'On the contrary, I trust the all powerful God may direct him here!'
said a poor woman seated on the ground near the two courtezans, and
holding in her arms a sickly child:--

'I am come from Bethlehem on foot to pray our good Jesus to cure my poor
little babe; he is unparalleled for the cure of diseases of children,
and far from being paid for his advices, he often gives you something
wherewith to purchase the balsams he prescribes.'

'By the body of Solomon! I, too, hope that our friend Jesus will come
here to-night,' observed a tall man, with a ferocious face, and a long
stiff beard, dressed in a red rag of a turban, and a short robe of
camel's hair, almost in rags, confined at the waist by a cord supporting
a large rusty cutlass without a sheath. This man also held in his hand
a long stick with an iron knob at the point.

'If our worthy friend of Nazareth does not come to-night, I shall have
lost my time for nothing, for I had engaged to escort a traveller who
feared going alone from Jerusalem to Bethlehem lest he should meet with
unpleasant encounters.'

'Just look at that bandit, with his hang-dog face and his grand cutlass!
Does he not look like a very safe escort?' quietly said to his companion
one of the two emissaries, seated not very far from Genevieve.

'What a daring villain!'

'He would have murdered and robbed the too confident traveller in the
first bye way!' said the other emissary.

'As true as my name is Banaias!' continued the man with the cutlass, 'I
should have lost without regret this little godsend of escorting a
traveller if our friend of Nazareth had come, I like the man. I must
say! he consoles you not a little for wearing rags, by showing that
since they can no more enter into paradise than a camel can pass through
the eye of a needle, all the wicked rich will one day be roasted like
capons in Beelzebub's kitchen. This neither fills our belly or our
purse, it's true, but it is a consolation; so I shall pass whole days
and nights listening to his overhauling the priests, the doctors of law
and the other pharisees! And our friend does well, for we must hear
these pharisees. If you are brought before their tribunal for some
trifle, they can only say, 'Quick to gaol or to the lash! thief!
villain! firebrand of hell! son of Satan!' and other paternal
remonstrances. By the nose of Ezekiel! do they think thus to ruin men?
The cursed fools don't know, then, that many a horse, restive to the
whip, will obey the voice. But our friend of Nazareth knows it well,
when he said to us the other day, 'If your brother has sinned against
you, take him back; if he repents, pardon him.' That's talking; for, by
the ear of Melchisedeck! I am not as tender and benign as the pascal
lamb. No, no: I have had time to harden my heart, my head and my
skin.--Twenty years ago, my father drove me from his house for a
youthful folly. Since then I have lived at loggerheads with the devil. I
am just as difficult to bridle as a wild ass. And yet, on the faith of
Banaias! by a single word of his gentle voice, our friend of Nazareth
could make me go to the end of the world.'

'If Jesus cannot come,' said another drinker, 'he will send one of his
disciples to inform us, and to preach to us good news in the name of his
master.'

'For want of a cake of fine wheaten flour kneaded with honey, we eat
barley bread,' said an old mendicant bent with age.

'The words of the disciples are good: that of the master is better.'

'Oh, yes!' observed another old mendicant; 'to us who have despaired
since our birth, he gives eternal hope.'

'Jesus teaches us that we are not below our masters,' said a slave of
gloomy appearance.

'Now, since we are as good as our masters, by what right do they keep us
in slavery?'

'Is it because if there are a hundred masters on one side, we are ten
thousand slaves on the other?' observed a second.

'Patience, patience! a day will come when we shall reckon our masters,
and reckon ourselves afterwards; after which will be accomplished the
words of Jesus, 'The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.'
He has said to us artizans, who, by the burden of taxes and the avarice
of sellers, are often in want of bread and garments, as also our wives
and children, 'Be not disquieted; God, our father, provides apparel for
the lilies of the valley, and food for the young sparrows: a day will
come in which you shall want nothing.' Yes, for Jesus has also said
this, 'Put neither gold, nor silver, nor money in your purse, nor sack
for your journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, for he who works deserves to
be maintained.'

'Here's the master! here's the master!' said several persons, placed
near the door of the tavern; 'there's our friend!'

At these words there was a great movement in the tavern. Aurelia, not
less curious than her slave Genevieve, mounted on a stool, the better to
see the young man. Their expectation was disappointed; it was not yet
him; it was Peter, one of his disciples.'

'And Jesus!' they all demanded of him in one voice: 'where is he?'

'Will not the Nazarene come then?'

'Shall we not see our friend, the friend of the afflicted!'

'I, Judas and Simon, were accompanying him,' replied Peter, 'when at the
door of the town, a poor woman seeing us pass, entreated the master to
enter to see her sick daughter. He did so. He has kept Judas and Simon
with him, and has sent me to you. Those who have need of him have only
to wait here; he will soon come.'

The words of the disciple calmed the impatience of the crowd, and
Banaias, the man with the long cutlass, said to Peter, 'Whilst talking
of the master, talk to us of him: tell us the good news. Does the time
approach when the gluttons, whose bellies grow fat in proportion as ours
grow lean, will have nothing but the coals and brimstone of hell to
fatten upon.'

'Yes, the time approaches!' said Peter mounting on a bench, 'yes, the
time is coming, as comes the night of storm charged with the thunder and
the lightning! Has not the Lord said, by the voice of his prophets, 'I
will send my angel, who shall prepare the way before me?'

'Yes, yes,' cried several voices: 'yes, the prophets have announced it!'

'Who is this angel?' said Peter: 'who is this angel, unless Jesus our
master, the Messiah, the only true Messiah.'

'Yes, 'tis he!'

'He is the promised angel! he is the true Messiah!'

'And this angel having prepared the way, what says the Lord through his
prophets?' continued Peter; 'And I will come near to you to judgment,
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against false
swearers, and against those who oppress the workman in his wages,
against those who oppress the widow, the orphan, and the stranger,
without having fear of me.' Has not the Lord again said, 'There is a
race whose teeth are thorns, and who use them as knives to devour those
who have nothing on the earth, and who are poor amongst men?'

'If this race has knives for teeth,' said Banaias, placing his hand on
his cutlass, 'we will bite with ours!'

'Oh, may the day come when those shall be judged who oppress the workman
in his wages, and I will denounce to the vengeance of the Lord the
banker Jonas!' said a workman.

'He made me work secretly on the panels of the Chamber of Festivals on
the Sabbath days, and he withheld my wages on those days. I determined
to complain. He threatened to denounce me to the high priest as a
profaner of the holy days, and to have me thrown into prison!'

'And why did the banker Jonas unjustly withhold your salary?' continued
Peter; 'because, as the prophet again says, 'Avarice is like the
horse-leech; it hath two daughters, crying, 'give! give!'

'And these great bloodsuckers,' exclaimed Banaias, 'shall they not one
day disgorge all the blood they have sucked from the poor workmen,
widows and orphans?'

'Yes, yes,' replied the disciple, 'our prophets and Jesus have
announced, 'For them shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; but when
once the tares, which stifle the grain, is separated, the wicked kings,
the avaricious, and the usurers extirpated from the earth, all the
juices of which they suck out, then shall come the day of happiness for
all, justice for all; and this day arrived,' say the prophets, 'people
shall no longer arm themselves against each other; their swords shall
be turned into reaping hooks, their lances into spades; one nation shall
no longer declare war against another nation; they shall no longer make
war, but each shall sit beneath his own fig-tree or his vine, without
fear of any one; the work of justice shall be the security, the peace
and the happiness of every one. At that time, lastly, the wolf shall
dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the
lion and the sheep shall rest together, and a little child shall lead
them all.'

This charming picture of universal peace and happiness appeared to make
a deep impression on Peter's auditory. Many voices exclaimed:

'Oh! may these times come! for where is the use of people murdering
people?'

'What bloodshed!'

'And who profits by it? The conquering Pharaohs! Men of blood, of
battle, and of rapine.'

'Oh! may the time of happiness, justice and gentleness come; and, as the
prophets say, 'a little child shall lead us all.'

'Yes, a little child will suffice; for we shall be gentle because we
shall be happy,' said Banaias; 'whereas now we are so unhappy, so
enraged, that a hundred giants would not be sufficient to restrain us.'

'And these times come,' continued Peter; 'all having a share in the good
of the earth, fertilized by the labor of each, all being sure of living
in peace and contentment, we shall no longer see the idle living on the
fruits of another's labor. Has not the Lord said through the son of
David, one of his elected:

"I hated all my labor which I have taken under the sun, because I should
leave it to the man that should come after me.

"For there is a man who labors with wisdom, with science, and with
industry, and he shall leave all he has acquired to a man who has given
to it no labor: and who knows not if he will be prudent or foolish?

"Now, this is vanity and great affliction."

'You know,' added the apostle, 'the voice of the son of David is as
sacred as justice. No, he who has not labored ought not to profit by the
labor of another!'

'But suppose I have a child,' said a voice; 'suppose, by depriving
myself of sleep, and a portion of my daily bread, I continue to spare
something for him, that he might not know the miseries I have suffered,
is it unjust, then?'

'Eh! who speaks to you of the present?' exclaimed Peter; 'who speaks to
you of these times, in which the strong oppress the weak, the rich the
poor, the unjust the just, the master the slave? In times of storm and
tempest, each builds up as he can a shelter for him and his: this is but
right.--But when the time promised by our prophets shall come, a divine
time, when a benificent sun shall always blaze, when there shall be no
more storms, when the birth of every child shall be welcomed by joyous
songs, as a blessing from the Lord, instead of being lamented as an
affliction, as at present; because, conceived in tears, man, in our
time, lives and dies in tears; when, on the contrary, the child
conceived in joy, shall live in joy; when labor, now crushing, shall be
itself a joy, so shall the fruits of the promised land be abundant;
each tranquil as to the prosperity of his children, shall no longer have
to think for them, to lay up treasures for them, by depriving himself,
and wasting away by over-fatigue. No, no: when Israel shall at length
enjoy the kingdom of God, each shall labor for all, and all shall enjoy
the labor of each.'

'Whereas now,' said the artizan, who had complained of the injustice of
the banker Jonas, 'all labor for a few, these few labor for no one, and
benefit from the labor of all.'

'But for those,' replied Peter, 'our master of Nazareth hath said: 'The
son of man shall send his angels, who shall gather together and carry
out of his kingdom all who are scandalous, and who commit iniquity;
these shall be thrown into a fiery furnace, where there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.'

'And it will be justice,' said Oliba the courtezan; 'is it not they who
force us to sell our bodies to escape the gnashing of teeth caused by
hunger?'

'Is it not they who force mothers to make a traffic of their daughters
rather than see them die of misery?' said another courtezan.

'Oh! when will the day of justice come?'

'It comes, it approaches,' replied Peter in a loud voice; 'for evil, and
iniquity and violence are everywhere; not only here in Juda, but
throughout the whole world, which is the Roman world. Oh! the woes of
Israel are nothing; no, nothing in comparison to the woes that afflict
the nations, her sisters! The whole universe groans and bleeds beneath
the triple yoke of Roman ferocity, debauchery, and cupidity! From one
end of the earth to the other, from Syria to oppressed Gaul, we hear
nothing but the clank of chains and the groans of the slaves crushed
with labor; unhappy amongst the unhappy! they sweat blood from every
pore! More to be pitied than the wild beast dying in his den, or the
beast of burthen dying on his litter; these slaves are tortured, are
killed, or given at pleasure to the teeth of wild beasts! Do valiant
peoples like the Gauls seek to break their chains, they are drowned in
their own blood; and I, I speak the truth to you, in the name of Jesus,
our master; yes, I tell you the truth, this cannot last.'

'No, no!' exclaimed several voices; 'no, this cannot endure!'

'Our master is grieved,' continued the disciple; 'oh! grieved to the
death in thinking of the horrible miseries, the vengeances, and fearful
reprisals which so many ages of oppression and iniquity will let loose
upon the earth. The day before yesterday, at Bethlehem, our master said
to us:

"When you hear of sedition and wars, be not alarmed; these things must
arrive first, but their end will not come so soon."

'Listen,' said several voices, 'listen.'

"We shall see," added Jesus, "people rise against people, kingdom
against kingdom; so shall men pine away with fear in the expectation of
all that is to happen in the universe, for the virtues of heaven shall
be shaken."

A sullen murmur of fear circulated through the crowd at these prophecies
of Jesus of Nazareth recounted by Peter, and several voices exclaimed:--

'Mighty storms, then, will burst forth in heaven.'

'So much the better; these clouds of iniquity must burst, that the
heavens may be cleared and the eternal sun be resplendent.'

'And if they gnash their teeth on earth before grinding them in eternal
fire, these rich, these high priests, these crowned king Pharaoh's, they
have brought it on themselves,' exclaimed Banaias; 'they have brought it
on themselves.'

'Yes, yes, it's true.'

'Oh!' continued Banaias, 'this is not the first time the prophets have
shouted in their ears!

'Amend your lives! be good! be just! be merciful! Look down at your feet
instead of admiring yourselves in your pride! What! reptiles that you
are, you reject from your plates the most delicate meats!

'You fall down gorged with wine; next your cups filled to the very
brims; you ask yourselves, shall I put on to-day my furred robe with the
gold embroidery, or my robe of plush, embroidered with silver? And your
neighbor, shivering with cold beneath his rags, cannot simply taste from
your cup, or lick up the crumbs of your feasts? By the entrails of
Jeremiah, can it endure for any length of time?'

'Yes, yes,' cried several voices, 'this has lasted long enough--the most
patient weary toward the end!'

'The quietest bullock finishes by turning against the spur!'

'And what spur is there like hunger?'

'Yes,' continued Peter, 'yes, this has endured long enough; yes, it has
endured too long; therefore, Jesus, our master, hath said:

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor--he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
when he shall avenge himself on his enemies."

These words of the Nazarene, quoted by Peter, excited a fresh
enthusiasm, and Genevieve heard one of the two secret emissaries of the
law and the high-priests say to his companion:

'This time the Nazarene shall not escape us, such words are really too
seditious and outrageous!'

But a new and loud rumor was soon heard outside the tavern of the 'Wild
Ass,' and there was but one cry repeated by all:

''Tis he,'tis he!'

''Tis our friend!'

'Here is Jesus, here he is!'




CHAPTER III.


The crowd that filled the tavern, now learning the arrival of Jesus of
Nazareth, urged and pressed each other to go and meet the young master;
mothers, who held their little infants in their arms, endeavored to
arrive the first near Jesus, the infirm, resuming their crutches, begged
their neighbors to open a passage for them. Such was already the
penetrating and charitable influence of the words of the son of Mary,
that the strong moved aside to allow the mothers and the suffering to
approach him.

Jane, Aurelia and her slave shared the general emotion; Genevieve
especially, daughter, wife, and, perhaps, one day a mother of slaves,
experienced an unusual beating of the heart at the sight of him who
came, he said, to announce to the captives their deliverance, and set at
liberty those who were crushed beneath their chains. At length Genevieve
perceived him.

The son of Mary, the friend of little children, of poor mothers, of the
suffering and of slaves, was habited like the other Israelites, his
countrymen; he wore a robe of white cloth, secured round his waist by a
leathern belt from which hung his purse or money-bag; a square mantle of
blue depended from his shoulders.

His long chestnut hair, bright as new-coined gold, fell on each side of
his pale face of an angelic sweetness; his lips and chin were half
shaded by a slight beard, with golden reflections like his hair. His
manner was cordial and familiar; he affectionately shook the hands of
all that were tendered him.

He frequently stooped down to kiss some ragged little children who held
the lappets of his robe, and, smiling ineffably, he said to those who
surrounded him:

'Let the little children approach me.'

Judas, a man with a sinister and deceptive countenance, and Simon, other
disciples of Jesus, accompanied him and carried each of them a box, in
which the son of Mary, after questioning each patient and attentively
listening to his reply, took several medicaments which he gave to the
infirm and to the women who came to consult his science, either for
themselves or for their children.

Frequently, to the balsams and advice he distributed, Jesus added a gift
of money, which he drew from the bag at his girdle; he so often dipped
into this purse, that having a last time plunged in his hand, he smiled
mournfully on finding the little pocket empty. So, after turning all
manner of ways, he made a sign of touching regret, as if to show that he
had nothing to give. Then, those whom he had assisted with his counsels,
his balms, and his money, thanked him warmly; he said to them in his
gentle voice:

''Tis Almighty God, the Father of us all, who is in Heaven, that you
must thank, and not me--peace be with you.'

'If your treasury of money is empty, friend, you have still an
inexhaustible treasure, that of good words,' said Banaias; for he had
contrived to approach quite close to Jesus of Nazareth, and he
contemplated him with a mixture of respect and emotion that made his
ferocious traits forgotten.

'Yes,' replied another; 'tell us, Jesus, of things which we poor and
humble can comprehend, the language of our holy and divine prophet, but
often obscure to us poor people.'

'Oh, yes; our good Jesus,' added a pretty child, who had glided into the
front rank, and held one flap of the robe of the young man of Nazareth,
'recount to us one of those parables that delight us so much, and which
we repeat to our mothers and brothers.'

'No, no,' said other voices; 'before the parable, make one of your noble
discourses against the wicked rich, the powerful and the proud.'

But Mary's son pointed with a smile to the little child who had first
demanded a parable, and took him on his knees, after seating himself
near a table; thus showing his love for infancy. Mary's son seemed to
say that this dear little one should be first satisfied in his desire.
All, then, grouped round Jesus; the children who loved him so sat down
at his feet; Oliba and other courtezans also seated themselves on the
ground in the Eastern fashion, embracing their knees with their hands,
and their eyes fixed on the young man of Nazareth, in anxious
expectation. Banaias, and several of his like, crowding behind the young
man, recommended silence to the eager multitude. Others, lastly, more
distant, such as Jane, Aurelia, and her slave Genevieve, formed a second
rank by mounting on the benches. Jesus, still holding on his knee the
little child, who with one of his tiny arms resting on the shoulder of
the son of Mary, seemed suspended from his lips, commenced the following
parable: 'A man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his
father: 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.' And
the father divided his goods. A short time after, the youngest of the
sons gathered together all he had and went into a distant country and
dissipated his portion. And after he had spent all, a great famine arose
in the land, and he began to be in want. He therefore went into service
with an inhabitant of the country, who sent him into the fields to feed
swine. There he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the
swine did eat, but no man gave unto him.'

At these words of the parable the child which Mary's son held upon his
knees uttered a deep sigh, joining his little hands in a pitying manner.
Jesus continued:

'At length returning to himself, the prodigal son said, "How many
servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish of
hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him: father,
I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to
be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." And he arose
and went to his father; but when he was yet a great way off, his father
perceived him, and moved with compassion, he ran to him and fell on his
neck and kissed him.

'And his son said to him: "My father, I have sinned against heaven and
in thy sight, I am no more worthy to be called thy son."

'But the father said to his servants:

"Bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his
finger and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf and kill
it; and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive
again; he was lost, and is found."

'Oh! the kind father!' said the child on the knees of Jesus. Oh! the
good and tender father, who pardons and embraces instead of scolding!'

Jesus smiled, kissed the child's forehead, and continued:

'And they began to be merry. But the elder brother, who was in the field
returned, and when he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
He therefore called one of the servants, and asked what all this meant.
The servant replied to him:

"Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf,
because he hath found him safe and sound;" which made the elder brother
angry, and he would not go in; therefore his father came out and
entreated him. But his son replied to him: "These many years have I
served thee, neither have I at any time transgressed thy command; and
yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.
But as soon as this, thy son, who has squandered his living with
harlots, is returned, thou hast had the fatted calf killed for him."'

'Oh! how wicked is the eldest son!' said the child; 'he is jealous of
his poor brother, who returns, however, very unhappy to the house. God
will not love this jealous son; will he, my good Jesus?'

Mary's son shook his head, as if to reply to the child that the Lord did
not indeed love the jealous: he then continued,--

'But the father said to the son: "My son, thou art always with me, and
all that I have is thine; it was fit that we should make merry and be
glad; for this, thy brother, was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and
is found."'

All who were present seemed moved to tears at this recital. Mary's son
having stopped to drink a glass of wine, which Judas, his disciple,
poured out for him, Banaias, who had listened to him with profound
attention, exclaimed: 'Friend, do you know that this is very much my own
history, and that of many others. For if, after my own first folly of
youth, my father had imitated the father in your parable, and had
tendered me his hand as a sign of pardon, instead of driving me from the
house with his stick, I should be at this hour, perhaps, seated at my
honest fireside, in the midst of my family; whereas, now my home is in
the highway, misery my wife, and my children evil projects, sons of
misery, that mother with the ferocious eye. Ah! why had I not for a
father the man in the parable?'

'This indulgent father pardoned,' replied Oliba the courtezan, 'because
he knew that God, having given youth to his creatures, sometimes abuse
it; but those who, reviled, miserable and repentant, return humbly to
demand the smallest place in the paternal mansion, these, far from being
repulsed, ought they not to be received with pity?'

'I,' said another, 'would not give a grapestone for this elder brother,
this man of wealth, so harsh, so coarse, and so jealous, to whom virtue
costs nothing.'

Genevieve heard one of the two emissaries of the Pharisees say to his
companion, 'The Nazarene pretty well flatters the bad passions of these
vagabonds. Henceforth, every debauched idler who may quit the paternal
mansion will think himself entitled to send his father to Beelzebub, if
the father, wrongly advised, instead of killing the fatted calf, drives
from him, as he ought, this villainous son, whom hunger alone brings
back to the fold.'

'Yes; and all the honest and prudent will pass for men of hard heart and
jealous.'

And the man resumed aloud, thinking that no one would know who it was
that thus spoke: 'Glory to thee, Jesus of Nazareth, glory to thee, the
protector, the defender of us dissipaters and prostitutes! It is folly
to be wise and virtuous, since the fatted calf is to be killed for the
most debauched.'

Loud murmurs acknowledged these words of the emissary of the Pharisees;
all turned round whence they had been pronounced; threats were heard:

'Hence! away with these men of inexorable heart!'

'Oh! these men are without pity, without mercy, repentance does not
touch them,' said the courtezan Oliba; 'these frozen bodies who cannot
comprehend that with others the blood boils!'

'Let him who has thus spoken show himself,' exclaimed Banaias, striking
the table with his heavy, knotted stick in a threatening manner, 'yes,
let him show his virtuous face, the scrupulous! more severe than our
friend of Nazareth, the brother of the poor, the afflicted, and the
suffering, whom he supports, heals and consoles! By the eye of
Jerobabel! I should like to look him in the face, this white lamb
without spot, who comes here to bleat his virtues. Where is he, then,
this immaculate lily of the valley of men? He must smell of good, like a
real balm,' added Banaias, opening his wide nostrils; 'and by the nose
of Malachi! I don't smell at all this aroma of wisdom, this perfume of
honesty, which ought to betray the choice odoriferous vase hidden
amongst us poor sinners.'

This pleasantry of Banaias made the auditory laugh excessively; and the
one of the two emissaries who had thus attacked the words of Jesus,
seemed in no hurry to gratify the desire of the redoubtable friend of
the Nazarene; he feigned, on the contrary, as well as his companion, to
search, like the rest of the audience, from whence the words had
proceeded. The tumult was increasing, when the young Nazarene made a
sign that he wished to speak; the tempest was appeased as if by
enchantment; and replying to the reproach of being too indulgent to
sinners, Jesus said with an accent of severe mildness: 'Who amongst you
possessing a hundred sheep, and losing one, would not leave in the plain
the ninety-and-nine others, to go and seek that which is lost, until he
had found it? When he has found it he brings it back with joy on his
shoulders; and having returned to his house, he assembles his friends
and neighbors, and says to them, "Rejoice with me, because I have found
my sheep that was lost."'

'And I say unto you,' added Mary's son in a voice filled with grave and
tender authority, 'and I say unto you there shall be more joy in heaven
for one sinner that repenteth, than for the ninety-and-nine just men,
who need no repentance.'--These touching words of Jesus made a lively
impression on the crowd; it applauded in words and gestures.--'Reply to
that, my white lamb! my lilly without a stain!' said Banaias, addressing
the invisible interpreter of the Nazarene.

'If you are not of the same opinion as my friend, approach and maintain
your words.'

'A grand merit, as Jesus says,' observed another; 'a grand merit for him
who has neither hunger nor thirst, to be neither a glutton nor a
drunkard!'

'Virtue is easy to her who has every thing,' said the courtezan Oliba,
'hunger and privation ruin more women than dissipation.'

Suddenly there was a tumult amongst the crowd that filled the tavern,
and the name of Magdalen was heard pronounced.

'She is one of the creatures who make a traffic of their bodies,' said
Jane to Aurelia; 'it is not misery that has thrown her, like so many
others, into this degradation; but a first fault, followed by the
desertion of him who seduced her, and whom she adored. Since then,
despite the disorders of her life and the venality of her amours,
Magdalen has proved that her heart is not entirely corrupted. The poor
never beseech her in vain, and she has passionately loved some men with
a love as devoted as it was disinterested, sacrificing to them high
priests, doctors of the law and rich seigneurs, who rivalled each other
in their gifts; my husband, with others, was amongst the number of these
magnificent lovers.'

'He has expended upon Magdalen a great deal of money; she is so
handsome,' continued the young woman, with an indulgent smile. 'He is
one of those who have enriched her. They tell wonders about her house,
or rather the palace she inhabits; her coffers are filled with the
rarest stuffs and the most dazzling jewels. Vases of gold and silver,
brought at great expense from Rome, Asia, and Greece, encumber her
sideboards; the purple and silk from Tyre adorn the walls of her
dwelling, and her attendants are as numerous as those of a princess.'

'We, too, have in Italy and Roman Gaul, some of these creatures, whose
insolent luxury insults the moderate fortune of many honest women,'
replied Aurelia. 'But what can this Magdalen want with the young
Nazarene?'

'No doubt she comes, like many of the same sort whom you see here, less
rich than her, but not less degraded, to hear the words of Jesus; those
gentle and tender words that penetrate the heart by the mercy they
breathe, softens it, and makes it bring forth repentance.'

'Here!' said several voices: 'room for Magdalen, the handsomest amongst
the handsomest!'

'The queen of us all!' said Oliba's companion to her with a lofty air:
'for indeed Magdalen is the queen of us all!'

'A sad royalty!' replied Oliba, sighing: 'her shame is seen from the
highest to the most distant!'

'But she is so rich! so rich!'

'To sell oneself for a penny, or a mountain of gold,' replied the poor
courtezan, 'where is the difference? the ignominy is the same!'

'Oliba, you are getting completely mad!'

The young woman made no reply, but sighed. Genevieve, mounted, like her
mistress, on a stool, raised herself on the points of her toes, and soon
saw the celebrated courtezan enter the tavern.

Magdalen was possessed of a rare beauty; the chin-piece of her turban of
white silk edged with gold, encased her pale and swarthy face of an
admirable perfection; her long eye-brows, as black as ebony, like the
bands of her hair, appeared as a dark line along the brow hitherto
superb and brazen; but now, mournful and depressed, for she seemed
completely heart-broken. The ends of her eye-lashes, stained with a blue
color according to the oriental fashion, gave to her eyes, drowned in
tears, something strange, and seemed to double the grandeur of her orbs,
sparkling through her tears like two diamonds.

A long robe of Tyrian silk of shaded blue, edged with gold and
embroidered with pearls, fell in a long train behind her, and round her
waist she had a flowing scarf of cloth of gold covered with stones of
many colors, like those of the double necklaces, ear-rings and
bracelets, with which her bare and well-shaped arms were covered; and
thus attired, holding in her hands an urn of pink alabaster from
Chaldea, more precious than gold, she advanced quite slowly towards the
young man of Nazareth.

'What a change in Magdalen's traits,' said Jane to Aurelia. 'I have seen
her pass a hundred times in her litter, carried by her attendants,
dressed in rich liveries; the triumph of beauty, and the intoxication
and joy of youth could be read in her countenance. And she is timidly
approaching Jesus, humble, oppressed, weeping, and more sorrowful than
the saddest of the poor women who hold in their arms their ill-clad
infants.

'But what is she about?' inquired Aurelia, more and more attentive; 'she
stands before the young man of Nazareth; in one hand she holds her
alabaster urn pressed against her agitated bosom, whilst with the other
she detaches her rich turban. She throws it far from her. Her thick and
glossy tresses fall over her breast and shoulders, unroll themselves
like a velvet mantle and even trail on the ground.'

'Oh! look! look! her tears redouble,' said Jane; 'her face is drowned in
them.'

'She kneels at the feet of Jesus,' continued Aurelia, 'and covers them
with tears and kisses.'

'What heart-rending sobs!'

'And the tears she sheds on the feet of Mary's son she wipes away with
her long hair.'

'And now, still melting in tears, she takes her alabaster urn and
empties over the feet of Jesus a delicious perfume, the scent of which
reaches here.'

'The young master endeavors to raise her; she resists; she cannot speak;
her sobs break her voice; she bends down her lovely head to the very
ground.'

Then Jesus, who could scarcely restrain his emotion, turned towards
Simon, one of his disciples, and addressing him: 'Simon, I have
something to say to you.'

'Speak, master.'

'A creditor had two debtors; the one owned him five hundred pence, the
other fifty. As they had not wherewith to pay him, he remitted to both
their debt; tell me, then, which of these two should love him most?'
Simon replied: 'Master, I think it should be he to whom he forgave the
most.'

'Thou hast judged rightly, Simon.' And, turning to the rich courtezan
still kneeling, Jesus said to those present: 'Do you see this woman? I
declare to you that her many sins are forgiven her, because she loved
much!' He then said to Magdalen, in a voice full of tenderness and
pardon: 'Thy sins are forgiven thee--thy faith hath saved thee; go in
peace.'

'Abomination of desolation!' said the emissary of the pharisees half
aloud to his companion: 'can audacity and demoralization go further?
Why, the Nazarene pardons all that is blameable, relieves all that is
vile; after reinstating dissipation and prodigality, behold him now
reinstating the most notorious courtezans.'

'And why?' said the other emissary, 'that he may still flatter the vices
and detestable passions of the wretches he draws round him, whom he will
one day make his instruments.'

'But patience,' observed the first, 'patience, Nazarene, thy hour
approaches; thy still increasing audacity will soon draw down upon thee
a terrible punishment!'

Whilst Genevieve listened to the two wicked men thus conversing, she saw
Magdalen, after the affectionate words of Jesus, rise up radiant; the
tears chased each other down her handsome face, but these tears no
longer seemed bitter. She distributed to all the poor women who
surrounded her, her precious stones and jewels, unfastened even to the
magnificent robe she wore over her tunic of fine cloth from Sidonia, and
put on the mantel of coarse brown wool of a young woman to whom she gave
in exchange a rich robe embroidered with pearls of great value. She then
said to Simon, that she would not again quit these humble garments, and
that on the morrow all her wealth should be distributed to poor
families, and to the courtezans whom misery alone prevented returning to
a better life.

At these words Oliba, joining her hands in a burst of gratitude, threw
herself at the feet of Magdalen, took her hands, kissed them whilst
sobbing and said to her--

'Blessed be thou, Magdalen! oh, blessed be thou! Thy bounty hath saved
me, me and so many of my poor companions of shame; but we repented at
the voice of the son of Mary; that voice penetrated our hearts; we hoped
for pardon. But, alas! the necessity of living retained us in wickedness
and contempt. Blessed be thou, Magdalen, thou who renderest possible our
return to good.'

'Sister, it is not I you must bless,' replied Magdalen; ''tis Jesus of
Nazareth; his words inspired me.'

And Magdalen mingled amongst the crowd to listen to the words of the
young master.

Some of his disciples having said in speaking to him of Magdalen, that
she had been seduced and then abandoned by a young doctor of the law,
the figure of Jesus became grave, severe, and almost menacing, and he
exclaimed---

'Woe to you, doctors of the law! Woe to you, hypocrites! You are like
unto whitened sepulchres; the outside appears gay, but within all is
bones and putridity. Thus, outwardly you appear just in the eyes of men,
but inwardly you are full of iniquity and hypocrisy. Woe to you blind
leaders who take great care as to what you drink, lest you should
swallow a camel.'

This familiar satire made several of the auditory smile, and Banaias
exclaimed---

'Oh, but you are right, my friend. How many of these swallowers of
camels we know. But such is the sharpness of their conscience that they
digest these camels as the ostrich digests a stone, and nothing appears
of it.'

Fresh bursts of applause replied to the pleasantry of Banaias, and Jesus
resumed:

'Woe to you, Pharisees! woe to you who cleanse the outside of the cup
while within it is all rapine and impurity.'

'It is true,' replied several voices; 'these hypocrites clean the
outside because the outside alone is seen.'

The son of Mary continued:

'Woe to you, Pharisees! who preach what you ought to do, but do it not!
Woe to you who make heavy and insupportable burthens, place them on the
shoulders of men, but will not touch them with your finger.'

This new comparison struck the mind of the auditors of the young master,
and several voices again exclaimed:

'Yes, yes, these idle hypocrites say to the humble, "Work is holy; work,
work, but we will not work. Yes, bear alone the burthen of the labor,
but we rich will not touch it with the end of our finger."'

Jesus continued:--

'Woe to you who do all your actions that you might be seen of men. It is
for this that you carry long bands of parchment, on which are written
the words of the law, which you do not practice. Woe to you who say, "If
a man swears by the temple it is nothing, but if he swears by the gold
of the Temple, he is bound by his oath."'

'Because for these rich wicked ones,' said a voice, 'nothing is sound
but gold. They swear by their gold as others swear by their soul or by
their honor.'

'So that if a man swears by the altar it is nothing,' pursued Jesus;
'but whoever swears by the offering that is on the altar, he is bound by
his oath. Woe to you, hypocrites! who pay scrupulously the tenth, but
who deny that which is more important in the law, justice, mercy, and
good faith. These were the things you should practice, without omitting
the others.'

'By the two thumbs of Methusalem!' exclaimed Banaias, laughing, 'you
appear at ease, friend. As these hypocrites have in their coffers enough
to pay the tithe without inconveniencing themselves, and they pay it;
but where would you have them find this money of justice, of good faith,
and of mercy, which you demand from these whitened sepulchres, from
these swallowers of camels of iniquity, as you will so call them?'

'Alas! the young master says true,' observed another; 'for him who has
no money justice is deaf. The doctors of the law do not say to you at
their court, "What good grounds have you? but, how much money will you
promise me?"'

'I had confided a few savings to Jonas, a high priest,' said a poor old
woman; 'he told me he had expended the money in offerings for my
salvation. What could I do, a poor woman against so powerful a seigneur?
resign myself and beg for bread, which I do not find every day.'

At this complaint, Jesus exclaimed with increased indignation, 'Oh! woe
to you hypocrites: because, under pretence of your long prayers you rob
the widow of her mite. Woe to you, serpents, race of vipers! how will
you escape being condemned to the fire of hell? It is for this I will
send to you prophets and sages to save you.'

'But, alas!' added the son of Mary with an accent of much sorrow, 'you
will kill the former; you would crucify the latter; you would persecute
them from town to town, that all the innocent blood that has been shed
upon the earth may return upon you--from the blood of Abel the just to
the blood of Zachariah, whom you killed between the Temple and the
altar!'

'Oh! fear nothing, friend! if these swallowers of camels wish to shed
your blood,' exclaimed Banaias, striking the hilt of his large rusty
cutlass, 'they must first shed ours, and we await them.'

'Yes, yes,' replied the crowd, in one voice, 'fear nothing, Jesus of
Nazareth, we will defend thee!'

'We will die for thee if necessary!'

'You shall be our chief!'

'Our king!'

But the son of Mary, as if he mistrusted these transports, shook his
head with a sadness more and more profound; tears streamed down his
cheek, and he exclaimed, in a disconsolate voice:

'Oh! Jerusalem! Jerusalem! thou who killed the prophets! thou who stone
the wise men that are sent to thee! how often have I striven to assemble
thy children, as a hen gathers together her little ones beneath her
wings, and thou would'st not; no, thou would'st not!'

And the accent of Jesus, at first cutting, severe, or indignant, in
speaking of the hypocritical pharisees, was impressed with a regret so
bitter, in pronouncing these last words, that nearly all shed tears like
the young man of Nazareth; presently there was a complete silence, for
he was seen to lean upon the table and bury his face in his hands.
Genevieve could no longer restrain her tears; she heard one of the two
emissaries say to his companion, in a tone of cruel triumph: 'The
Nazarene called the doctors of law and the high-priest serpents and a
race of vipers! During the whole night he has blasphemed all that is
most sacred amongst men; we have him.'

'Oh, you speak of the crucified, Jesus of Nazareth,' said the other; 'we
will take care that you shall not be far wrong, prophet of woe!'

Simon, seeing him still leaning on the table, weeping in silence,
stooped towards him and said: 'Master, the sun will soon rise; the
people of the fields, who bring their fruits to the market of Jerusalem,
pass by the valley of Cedron; like us, they are eager to hear your
words: they await you on the road: shall we not go and meet them?'

Jesus rose; his sad and pensive features cleared up on kissing the
children, who seeing him preparing to leave, extended their little hands
to him.--He then fraternally shook hands with all who offered them, and
leaving the tavern of the 'Wild Ass' situated near one of the gates of
the town leading into the country, he directed his steps towards the
valley of Cedron, which the countrymen and women traversed to repair to
Jerusalem, where they brought their provisions. Such was the attraction
of the words of the young man of Nazareth, that most of the persons who
came to pass the night in listening to him, still followed him.
Magdalen, Oliba and Banaias were amongst these individuals.

'Jane, will you also go out of the town?' said Aurelia to Chusa's wife:
'it is now daylight; let us return home; it will be imprudent to prolong
our absence.'

'I shall not return yet; I will follow Jesus to the end of the world,'
replied Jane with exultation, and descending from her bench, she drew
from her pocket a heavy purse filled with gold, which she placed in
Simon's hand, at the moment he was about to quit the tavern after
Mary's son.

'The young man has emptied his purse to-night,' said Jane to Simon,
'here is something to re-fill it.'

'You, lady, again!' replied Simon with thankfulness, at the sight of
Jane: 'your charity does not flag.'

''Tis the tenderness of your master that does not flag in succoring
people, consoling the poor, the repentant, and the oppressed,' replied
the wife of Chusa.

Genevieve, who had anxiously listened to every word that had fallen from
the emissaries of the pharisees, heard one of the two men say to the
other:

'Follow and watch the Nazarene; I will run to the Seigneurs Caiphus and
Baruch to render them an account of the abominable blasphemies and
impieties he has uttered to-night in company with these vagabonds. The
Nazarene must not this time escape the fate that awaits him;' and the
two men separated. Aurelia, who seemed to have been reflecting, said to
her companion: 'Jane, I cannot express to you what I experience from the
words of this young man. At one time so simple, tender and elevated, at
another satirical and threatening, they penetrate my heart. They are, to
my mind, like a new world that is opening; for to us, poor heathens, the
word charity is new. Far from being appeased, my curiosity, my interest,
increase, and whatever may happen, I will follow you; what matter, after
all, if we do return to our dwellings after daybreak?'

Hearing her mistress thus speak, Genevieve was very happy, for thinking
of her brother slaves of Gaul, she, too, felt a great desire to hear
more of the words of the young Nazarene, the friend and liberator of
captives. At the moment of quitting the tavern with her mistress and
the charitable wife of the seigneur Chusa, Genevieve was the witness of
a scene that proved to her how speedily the word of Jesus had borne its
fruit. Magdalen, the handsome, repentant courtezan, habited in the old
woollen mantle of a poor woman, exchanged for such rich attire,
Magdalen, following the anxious crowd behind Jesus, struck her foot
against a stone in the street, tottered, and would have fallen to the
ground but for the assistance of Jane and Aurelia, who, fortunately,
being close to her, hastened to support her.

'What! you, Jane, the wife of the Seigneur Chusa?' said the courtezan,
reddening with confusion, thinking, no doubt, of the rich presents she
had received from Chusa: 'you, Jane, you have no fear in tendering me a
helping hand; I, a poor creature justly despised by all honest women?'

'Magdalen,' replied Jane with charming kindness: 'did not our young
master tell you to go in peace, and that all your sins would be remitted
you, because you have loved much? By what right should I be more severe
than Jesus of Nazareth? Your hand, Magdalen, your hand; 'tis a sister
who asks it of you as a sign of pardon and oblivion of the past!'

Magdalen took the hand that Jane offered her, but it was to kiss it with
respect, and cover it with tears of repentance.

'Ah! Jane,' said quietly to her friend Genevieve's mistress; 'the young
man of Nazareth would be gratified to see you practice his precepts so
generously.'

Jane, Aurelia and Magdalen, following the crowd, were soon outside of
the gates of Jerusalem.

The sun, now rising in its splendor, illumined to a great distance the
country of the valley of Cedron, whose oriental aspect, so new to
Genevieve, always struck her with surprise and admiration. It being the
season of spring, early this year, the plains which extended to the
gates of Jerusalem were as verdant and as florid as those of Saron,
which Genevieve had traversed when coming from Jaffa (the place where
she had landed) to reach Jerusalem with her mistress. The white and red
roses, the narcissus, the anemony, the yellow gilly-flowers, and the
odiferous immortelles (or everlasting flowers) embalmed the air and
enamelled the fields with their beautiful colors, still moist with the
dew.

On the road-side, a cluster of palm trees shaded the dome of a fountain,
where already came to drink the large fat buffaloes, coupled to their
yoke, and conducted by laborers habited in a robe of camel skin.

Shepherds also brought to the fountain their flocks of goats with long
ears, and sheep with immense tails, whilst young women of swarthy
complexion, dressed in white, arrived no doubt from a village seen at a
short distance, half hidden by a wood of olive trees, drew water from
the fountain and returned to the village, carrying on their head, half
enveloped in their white veils, large flasks of spring water. Farther
on, along the dusky road which serpentined in a descent from the highest
peaks of the mountains, whose summits were slowly disengaging themselves
from the gray blue vapors of the morning, was seen advancing, at a
snail's pace, a long caravan, which rose above the elongated necks of
the camels loaded with bales.

All along the road, followed by Genevieve, blue pigeons, larks and
wagtails, nesting in the groves of nopal and fir, made a chorus of sweet
songs, whilst a white stork, with red legs, rose in the air holding a
snake in his beak.

Several herdsmen and laborers, learning from the persons who followed
the Nazarene, that he was repairing to the little hill of Cedron to
preach good news, changed their route, and driving their flocks on one
side, augmented the crowd attached to the steps of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jane, Aurelia and Genevieve thus approached the village, half hidden in
the wood of olive trees through which they had to pass to arrive at the
hill. On a sudden from this wood, they saw issue in a tumult a great
number of men and women, uttering cries and horrid imprecations.

At the head of this troop marched the doctors of the law and the high
priests; two of the latter were leading a handsome young girl, with
naked arms and feet, barely attired in a tunic. Shame and terror were
painted on her countenance bathed in tears; her scattered hair covered
her naked shoulders.

From time to time, demanding grace through her sobs, she threw herself,
in her despair, on her knees upon the stones in the road, despite the
efforts of the two priests, who, each holding her by an arm and thus
dragging her through the dust, soon forced her to rise and walk with
them. The crowd overwhelmed with hootings, imprecations and insults this
unfortunate girl, as terrified as a woman being led to execution.

At sight of this tumult the son of Mary, surprised, stopped; those who
accompanied him also stopped, and ranged themselves in a circle behind
him.

The priests and the doctors of the law, no doubt recognizing the young
man of Nazareth, made a sign to the people of the village, from whom the
cries and fury redoubled every moment, to stop a few paces distant. Then
those wrathful people, men and women, picked up large stones, with which
they remained armed, from time to time insulting and threatening the
weeping prisoner.

The priests and doctors of the law, to whom the emissaries of the
pharisees had gone to speak in secret, dragged the unfortunate creature
to the feet of Jesus, whom she also began to implore in her terror,
raising towards him her face bathed in tears, and her maimed hands
covered with blood and dust. One of the priests then said to Jesus, to
prove him, and in the hope of destroying him if he did not pronounce
with them.

'This woman has just been taken in the act of adultery. Now, Moses has
ordered us in the law to stone the adulteress. What is your opinion
thereon?'

Jesus, instead of replying, stooped down and began to write on the sand
with the end of his finger. And as the pharisees, astonished, continued
to question him, he rose up and said to them as also to those of the
crowd, who had armed themselves with stones,

'Let him amongst you who is without sin, throw the first stone at this
woman.'

Then, again stooping, he once more commenced writing on the sand without
noticing those around him.

At the words of Mary's son, immense applause burst from the crowd that
followed him, and Banaias exclaimed with loud laughter:

'Well spoken, friend. I am no prophet; but if pure hands are alone to
stone this poor sinner, I swear by the head of Gideon that we shall see
all these paragons of virtue, all these pearls of chastity, all these
angels of modesty, beginning with the seigneurs priests, and the
seigneurs doctors in law, throw away their sandals and tuck up their
robes that they may run the quicker. Oh! what was I saying?' added
Banaias, laughing still more loudly, like many others, 'there they are,
dispersing like a herd of swine pursued by a wolf.'

'And swine they are!' said another.

'As to the wolf following them, 'tis their own conscience.'

And as Banaias said, at these words of Jesus, 'Let him amongst you who
is without sin throw the first stone at this woman,' the doctors of the
law and the priests, no doubt accused by their conscience, as well as
those who at first would have stoned the adulterous woman, all in fact
fearing, perhaps, the crowd that followed the young man of Nazareth,
made their escape so swiftly and so quickly, that when the son of Mary
rose (for he had continued to write on the sand), the crowd lately so
menacing were fleeing toward the village. Jesus now saw none but the
accused, still kneeling, still a supplicant, and weeping at his feet.
Smiling sweetly, showing to her the space left around her by the
dispersion of those who would have lately stoned her, Jesus said to
her:

'Woman, where, then, are thy accusers? Has no one accused thee?'

'No, lord,' she replied, weeping bitterly.

'Neither will I condemn thee,' said Jesus. 'Go, and sin no more.'

And leaving the adulterous woman on her knees, and still under the shock
of having been thus saved from death and pardoned, the son of Mary soon
arrived, followed by his disciples and the crowd, to the foot of a
mount, where already were assembled a good number of country people
impatiently awaiting his coming, some having their provisions on donkeys
or zebras, others in carts drawn by bullocks, others in wicker baskets,
which they carried on their heads.

The shepherds who, at the passage of the Nazarene, watered their flocks
at the fountain, also arrived; and when all this crowd, silent and
attentive, was thus assembled at the foot of the mount, Jesus of
Nazareth ascended the little hill, that he might be better heard by all.

The rising sun, shedding its lustrous beams on the figure of the son of
Mary, attired in his white tunic and his blue mantle, made his celestial
visage to appear resplendent, and casting its rays on his long chestnut
hair, seemed to encircle it in a golden aureole. Then addressing these
simple in heart, whom he loved equally with the little children, Jesus
said to them, in his tender and sonorous voice:

'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs!

'Blessed are those who are gentle, because they possess the earth!

'Blessed are those who weep, for they are consoled!

'Blessed are those who show mercy, for they will obtain mercy for
themselves!

'Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God!

'Blessed are the peaceful, for they shall be called peaceful!

'Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for the
kingdom of heaven is theirs!

'But woe to you, rich, for you would take away your consolation!

'Woe to you who are satisfied, for you shall be hungry!

'Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall weep hereafter!

'Woe to you when men shall speak well of you, for their fathers spoke
well of the false prophets!

'Love your neighbor as yourself!

'Beware how you make your gifts before men, to attract their notice!

'When, therefore, thou dost give thy charity, sound not the trumpet
before you, as do the hypocrites in the temples and in the streets, to
be honored by men; for I tell you the truth, they have already had their
reward.

'Thus, I was seated the other day in the synagogue, opposite the poor
box, observing in what manner the people threw in their money; many rich
people dropped in a great deal; there came a poor woman, she placed
simply in the box two small pieces, which made the quarter of a penny.
Calling my disciples, I said to them: "Really this poor woman has given
more than all those who dropped into the box, for all the others have
given of their abundance; but this one has given of her indigence, all
that she had, and all that remained to her to live upon." When you
bestow charity, let not your left hand know what your right hand does.
The same when you pray, resemble not those hypocrites who affect to pray
in the synagogues, and in the corner of public places, that they might
be seen of men. For you, when you would pray, enter your own chamber,
close the door, and pray to your father in secret. When you fast, do it
not with a saddened air like the hypocrites, for they appear with a pale
and haggard face, that men may know that they fast. You, when you fast,
perfume your head that it may not appear to men that you fast, but
simply to your father, who is always present in all that is most secret.
Above all, do not act like the two men in the parable:

'Two men went into the temple to pray, the one was a publican, the other
a pharisee. The pharisee, standing up, thus prayed to himself: "My God,
I thank thee for that I am not as other men, who are thieves, unjust,
adulterers, who indeed are like the publican I see there. I fast twice a
week, and I give the tenth of all I possess."

'The publican, on the contrary, keeping himself afar off, dared not even
lift up his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying:

"My God, have pity on me, who am a sinner!"

'I declare to you this man returneth home justified, and not the other.
For he who exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he who humbleth
himself shall be exalted. Heap not up treasures on earth, for the worm
and the rust shall consume them, and thieves shall break in and steal
them; but make to yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your
treasure is there also will be your heart! Do unto men as you would they
should do unto you: this is the law and the prophets.

'Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you.

'If any one takes from you your mantle, let him also take your coat.

'Give to all who ask of you.

'Claim not your goods of him who takes them away.

'Let him who has two garments give one to him who has none.

'Let him who has enough to eat do the same.

'For when the day of judgment comes, God will say to those who are on
his left:

"Far from me, cursed! go into the fire eternal! for I was hungry and ye
gave me not to eat! I was thirsty, and ye gave me not to drink! I was in
want of lodging, and you did not lodge me! I was without garments, and
you did not clothe me! I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit
me!" And then the wicked will reply to the Almighty:

"Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? or without garments? or
without lodging? or in prison?"

But the Almighty will reply to them:

"I say unto you that as often as you have failed to render these
services to one of the poorest among men, you have failed to render them
to myself, your Lord God."

To the great chagrin of the crowd, much affected by the divine words of
the son of Mary, who could comprehend the poorest in mind, as the young
Nazarene said, his discourse was interrupted in consequence of a violent
tumult that arose. The cause was this; a troop of men on horseback,
coming from the mountains, travelling rapidly towards Jerusalem, was
obliged to stop before the vast assemblage grouped at the base of the
mount where Christ was preaching. These cavaliers, in their impatience,
brutally desired the crowd to disperse, and to make room for the
Seigneur Chusa, the steward of Prince Herod's household, and for the
Seigneur Gremion, an agent of the Roman treasury.

On hearing these words Aurelia, wife of Gremion, turned pale and said to
Jane:

'Our husbands! already returned! they have turned back; they will find
us absent from our homes; they will know that we have left them since
yesterday; we are lost.'

'Have we, then, anything to reproach ourselves with?' replied Jane:
'Have we not been listening to teachings, and assisting at examples
which renders good hearts still better?'

'Dear mistress,' said Genevieve to Aurelia, 'I think that the Seigneur
Gremion has recognized you from his horse, for he is speaking quietly to
the Seigneur Chusa, and is pointing his finger this way.'

'Ah! I tremble!' replied Aurelia, 'what's to be done? What will become
of me? Oh! cursed be my curiosity!'

'Blessed, on the contrary,' said Jane to her; 'for you carry away
treasures in your heart. Let us go boldly and meet our husbands; 'tis
the wicked who hide themselves and bow their heads. Come, Aurelia, come,
and let us walk home with a firm front.'

At this moment, Magdalen the repentant, approached the two young women,
and said to Jane, with tears in her eyes:

'Adieu, you who tendered me a hand when I had fallen into contempt; your
remembrance will be always present to Magdalen in her future solitude.'

'Of what solitude do you speak?' said Jane, surprised: 'where are you
going, then, Mary Magdalen?'

'To the desert!' replied the penitent, stretching her arms towards the
summit of the arid mountains beyond which extend the desolate solitudes
of the dead sea:

'I go to the desert to weep for my sins, bearing in my heart a treasure
of hope! Blessed be the son of Mary, to whom I am indebted for this
divine treasure!'

The crowd, opening respectfully before this great repentant, she slowly
retired towards the mountains. Scarcely had Magdalen disappeared, when
Jane, leading her friend almost in spite of herself, advanced towards
the cavaliers through the people, irritated at the coarse words of the
escort.

They abhorred Herod, the prince of Judea, who would have been driven
from the throne but for the protection of the Romans. He was cruel,
dissolute, and crushed the Jewish people with taxes; thus, when they
learnt that one of the cavaliers was the Seigneur Chusa, steward of this
execrated prince, the hatred they felt for the master was visited on the
steward as also on his companion, the Seigneur Gremion, who in the name
of the Roman tax-gatherer, gleaned where Herod had reaped. Thus, whilst
Jane, Aurelia, and the slave Genevieve painfully traversed the crowd to
reach the two cavaliers, hootings burst from all sides against Chusa and
Gremion, and they listened, trembling with rage, to words such as the
following, the faint echo of the anathemas of the young master against
the wicked:

'Woe to you, Herod's steward! who crush us with taxes, and eat up the
house of the widow and the orphan!

'Woe to you, too, Roman! who also come to take a part in robbing us!'

Banaias, with one hand waiving his cutlass in a threatening and
ferocious manner, approached the two seigneurs, and, showing his fist to
them, exclaimed:

'The fox is cowardly and cruel! but he has called to his aid the wolf,
whose teeth are longer, and whose strength is greater! The fox, cowardly
and cruel, is your master Herod, Seigneur Chusa! and the ferocious wolf,
is Tiberius, your own master, Roman! who helps the fox in hunting the
game!'

And as the Seigneur Chusa, pale with rage, was about to draw his sword
to strike Banaias, the latter raised his cutlass, and exclaimed:

'By the belly of Goliath! I will cut you in two like a water melon, if
you put a hand on your sword!'

The two seigneurs, having only five or six men as an escort, restrained
themselves, from a fear of being stoned by the enraged people, and
endeavored to sneak out of the crowd, which, more and more enraged,
exclaimed:

'Yes, woe to you! tax-gatherers of Herod and Tiberius! Woe to you! for
we are hungry; and the bread moistened with our sweat, which we carry to
our lips, you snatch it from our hands in the name of taxes!

'Woe to you! for instead of pardoning misery you overwhelm with miseries
people without defence! Woe to you, but happiness to us, for the day of
justice approaches, the young man of Nazareth has said so. Yes, yes,
for you wicked and oppressors, there will soon be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, and then the last shall be first, and the first shall be
last.'

Chusa and Gremion, more and more alarmed, consulted each other by a
look, not knowing how to escape this menacing crowd. The most
threatening already began to pick up large stones at the voice of
Banaias, who had exclaimed on replacing his cutlass at his belt, and
arming himself with a large stone:

'Our master said this morning, speaking of the poor girl whom these
hypocritical pharisees would have stoned, 'Let him who is without sin
throw the first stone.' And I, my friends, say this to you--

'Let him who has been flayed by the tax-gatherer throw the first stone
at these flayers! and may it be followed by many another!'

'Yes, yes!' cried the crowd, 'Let them disappear under a mountain of
stones.'

'Let us stone them!'

'To the stones! to the stones!'

'Our husbands are exposed to danger, 'tis another reason why we should
approach them,' said Jane to Aurelia, redoubling her efforts in order to
reach the cavaliers, more and more surrounded.

Suddenly was heard the gentle and penetrating voice of the Nazarene
dominating the tumult and pronouncing these words--

'In verity, I say unto you, if these men have sinned, can they not
repent between this and the day of judgment? Let them sin no more but go
in peace.'

At these words of Mary's son, the popular tempest was appeased as if by
enchantment. The crowd was calmed, became silent, and by a spontaneous
movement, turned aside to make room for the cavaliers and their escort.
Then Jane and Aurelia contrived to reach their husbands. At the sight of
his wife, Seigneur Gremion said to Chusa in an angry manner:

'I was sure of it! I had recognized my wife!'

'And mine also accompanies her!' said Chusa, not less enraged.

'And like her, under a disguise. 'Tis the abomination of desolation.'

'Nothing is wanting to the fete,' added Gremion, 'for here is my wife's
slave.'

Jane, always gentle and calm, said to her husband:

'Seigneur, give me a place; I will mount on behind on your horse to
reach my house.'

'Yes,' replied Chusa, grinding his teeth with rage: 'you shall reach
home with me. But, by the columns of the temple! you shall not again
quit it without me.'

Jane made no reply, but tendered her hand to her husband for him to
assist her to get up behind; with a light bound she seated herself on
the horse.

'Mount behind me also,' said Gremion to his wife, in an angry tone.

'Your slave Genevieve; and by Jupiter she shall pay dear for her
complicity in this indignity! your slave, Genevieve, shall mount behind
one of the cavaliers of the escort.'

It was thus arranged, and they then pursued their way to Jerusalem. The
horseman, who carried Genevieve behind, following close upon Gremion
and Chusa, the slave heard the latter harshly scolding their wives.

'No, by Hercules!' exclaimed the Roman; 'to find my wife disguised as a
man in the midst of this band of ragged beggars and seditious
wretches!--'Tis incredible; no, by Hercules! till I came to Judea I
never heard of such an enormity.'

'And I, who am of Judea, seigneur,' observed Chusa, 'I am no more than
yourself, accustomed to these enormities. I knew well that beggars,
thieves, and abandoned women followed this cursed Nazarene. But may the
wrath of God strike me on the instant, if I have ever heard of the
indignity to mix themselves with the vile populace that this man drags
after him in every country; a vile populace that would just now have
stoned us, but for the valor of our attitude,' added Chusa with a
victorious air.

'Yes, luckily, we imposed on these wretches by our courage,' replied
Gremion, 'otherwise there would have been an end of us. Ah! you said
true, this is another proof of the hatred and resentments produced by
the incendiary predictions of the Nazarene; he dreams of nothing but
exciting the poor against the rich.'

'Did not the young master, on the contrary, appease the fury of the
crowd?' said the gentle but firm voice of Jane. 'Did he not say: 'Let
these men go in peace, and let them sin no more.'

'What think you of such audacity?' exclaimed Chusa, addressing Gremion.
'You heard my wife? Will it not be now said that we cannot go along the
roads but with the permission of the Nazarene, of that son of
Beelzebub! and that if we escaped the fury of those wretches, 'twas
owing to the promise he made them that we should sin no more. By the
pillars of the temple! is this impudence enough?'

'The young man of Nazareth,' resumed Jane, 'cannot answer for what is
said and done in his name. The crowd was unjustly excited against you,
when by a word he appeased it. What more could he do?'

'There again!' exclaimed Chusa. 'And by what right does this Nazarene
calm or excite the popular will as he chooses? Do you know why we are
returning to Jerusalem? It is because we are assured that in consequence
of the abominable predictions of this man, the mountaineers of Judea and
the laborers of the plain of Saron, would stone us if we presented
ourselves to collect the taxes.'

'The young man has said: 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and
unto God that which is God's!'' continued Jane. 'Is it then his fault,
if the population, crushed by the taxes, are unable to pay more?'

'And, by Hercules! they must pay, and will, too!' exclaimed Gremion, 'we
are returning to Jerusalem to obtain an escort of troops sufficient to
put down rebellion; and woe to those who resist us!'

'And above all, woe to this Nazarene!' said Chusa; 'he alone is the
cause of all the evil. So I am going to inform Prince Herod, and the
Seigneurs Pontius Pilate and Caiphus, of the increasing audacity of this
vagabond, and to demand, if necessary, his death.'

'Kill him!' said Jane, 'he will pardon you, and pray to God for you.' It
was thus that Jane, Aurelia, and Genevieve were brought back to
Jerusalem.




CHAPTER IV.


When Genevieve, with her mistress, was brought back to the house of
Seigneur Chusa, the latter said to his wife, in an angry tone: 'Seek
your chamber.'

Aurelia bent down her head, sighing, obeyed, and threw on her slave a
sad look of adieu. Gremion then took Genevieve by the arm, and led her
to a low room, a kind of cellar, destined for holding the leather sacks
filled with oil, wine, and other provisions. This place was reached by
descending a few steps. Genevieve's master pushed her so rudely that she
slipped, and fell, from step to step, to the ground, whilst Gremion
closed the massive door of this low chamber. The young woman raised
herself in pain, seated herself on the stone, and at first wept
bitterly. Her tears then became almost sweet, when she thought that she
suffered for having gone to listen to the words of the young man of
Nazareth, so kind to the poor and the slaves, so merciful to the
repentant, so severe to the wicked and the hypocritical.

Brought up in the druidical faith, which her mother had transmitted to
her, as we may say, with her life, Genevieve had not the less confidence
in the precepts of Mary's son, though he professed another religion than
that of the druids, always prescribed, and venerated in Gaul, besides,
Jesus believed, it was said, with the druids, that on leaving this world
we should live again in the spirit and in the body; since, according to
his religion, he spoke of the resurrection of the dead. Lastly, despite
the sublimity of the druidical faith, which relieves man from the fear
of death, by teaching him that there is no death, Genevieve could not
find in the precepts of the Gallic religion that tender, paternal, and
merciful sentiment, with which the words of Jesus were so often
impressed. The slave was giving way to these reflections, when she saw
the door of the cellar open where she was confined. Gremion, her master,
returned, accompanied by two men; one held a bundle of cords, the other
a leather scourge. Genevieve had never seen these men; they wore foreign
garments.--Seigneur Gremion descended the first steps of the staircase,
and said to Genevieve: 'Undress yourself!' The slave looked at her
master with as much surprise as fear, scarcely believing what she had
heard. He continued: 'Undress yourself, otherwise these men, the
assistants of the town executioner, shall tear off your clothes, to flog
you as you deserve!'

This cruel punishment, so often suffered by female slaves, Genevieve,
thanks to the kindness of the gods and of her mistress, had not yet
undergone; thus, in her terror, she could only join her hands, stretch
them towards her master, and supplicating, fall upon her knees. But
Gremion, standing aside to make way for the two men who had remained on
the top step of the staircase, said to them, 'Undress her! flog her well
till the blood comes. She shall remember assisting at the predictions of
this cursed Nazarene.'

Genevieve was at that time scarcely twenty-three, and her husband,
Fergan, had told her sometimes that she was pretty. She was, despite her
tears, her prayers, and powerless resistance, stripped of her garments,
bound to one of the pillars of the room, and presently her body was
wealed with the lashes of the whip. She had at first hoped that shame
and horror would deprive her of all consciousness. It was not so; but
she forgot the pain of the lashes, on finding herself a prey to the
curiosity of her tormentors, and on hearing the infamous jests they
exchanged whilst flogging her. Gremion, standing up with his arms
crossed, said, laughing diabolically: 'Did the Nazarene, the famous
Messiah, who dabbles in prophesying, predict to you what would happen,
Genevieve? Think you he was right in proclaiming the slave to be equal
with his master? By Jupiter! I now regret I did not have you flogged in
the middle of the public place. 'Twould have been a good lesson given on
your back to these brigands who believe in the seditious insolences of
their chief and friend, Jesus.'

When the two executioners were weary of flogging, one of them unbound
Genevieve, and her master said to her:

'You shall not leave this place for a week; during that time my wife
shall do without you; she shall wait upon herself, this shall be her
punishment.'

And Gremion, retiring with the two men, left Genevieve alone. It was now
no longer the tender and merciful words of Jesus that came to the mind
of the slave, as they had come to her before her punishment. It was the
words of vengeance and of curses which he had also pronounced the same
morning against the wicked and the oppressors.

During the long hours she passed alone, with the remembrance of her
shame, she made to herself an oath, that if ever the gods willed that
she should be a mother, and that she could keep her child with her, she
would strive to inspire in him a horror of slavery, and a hatred to the
Romans, instead of allowing to degenerate in his young mind these proud
resentments, as they had degenerated in her husband, Fergan, whom she
loved so, despite the weakness of his character, he who had descended,
nevertheless, from the powerful and untameable race of Joel, the brenn
of the haughty tribe of Karnak.

Genevieve had been for three days confined in the underground room of
the house, where Gremion, her master, had brought her every morning a
little food, when one night very late, the door of the slave's prison
opened; she saw her mistress, Aurelia, enter, holding a lamp in one
hand, and with the other a packet, which she deposited on the steps of
the staircase.

'Poor woman! you have greatly suffered on my account,' said Aurelia,
whose eyes were moistened with tears, on approaching Genevieve. The
latter, despite the kindness of her mistress, could not help saying to
her with bitterness:

'If you had a daughter, and men had stripped her of her clothes to beat
her with a whip, by order of a master, what would you then say of
slavery?'

'Genevieve, you accuse me, and I am not the cause of these cruelties!'

'It is not you I accuse; it is slavery; you are kind to me. But still,
look how I have been treated.'

'In vain, for the last three days, have I sought your pardon from my
husband,' said Aurelia, her voice full of compassion.

'He has refused me: I have entreated him to allow me to see you; he was
deaf to my prayers; besides, he always carries the keys of the prison
about him.'

'And how have you obtained possession of it to-night?'

'He had placed it under his pillow; I profited by his sleep, and I am
come.'

'I have suffered much more of shame than of pain,' continued Genevieve,
overcome by the grief of her mistress; 'but your kind words console me!'

'Listen, Genevieve, I am not here simply to console you; you can fly
from this house and render a great service to the young man of Nazareth,
perhaps even save his life.'

'What say you, my dear mistress?' exclaimed Genevieve; thinking less of
her liberty than of the service she might render to the Nazarene.

'Oh! speak; my life, if necessary, for him who said that "one day the
chains of the slave shall be broken!"'

'Since the night we passed listening to the predictions of Jesus, Jane
and I have not met; the Seigneur Chusa had prevented her from leaving
her house to come here; to-night, however, yielding to her prayer, he
brought her here, and whilst he was conversing with my husband, do you
know what Jane told me?'

'About the young man of Nazareth?'

'Yes.'

'Alas! some new persecution!'

'He is betrayed! They will arrest him this very night, and kill him!'

'Betrayed! he! and by whom?'

'By one of his disciples.'

'Ah! the infamous wretch!'

'Then Chusa, already triumphing in the death of this poor Nazarene, has
revealed every thing this evening to Jane, to enjoy maliciously the
affliction this sad news will cause her; this then is what passed; the
pharisees, doctors of law, senators, and high priests, all exasperated
by the last (those we heard), assembled at the house of the high priest
Caiphus, and sought for means to surprise the Nazarene; but fearing a
popular rising if they arrested him yesterday, a holiday in Jerusalem,
they have deferred till to-night the execution of their wicked designs.'

'What! to-night? This very night?'

'Yes, a traitor, one of his disciples, named Judas, is to betray him
into their hands.'

'One of those who, the other night, accompanied him to the tavern of the
"Wild Ass."'

'The one whose gloomy and treacherous figure you remarked. Judas then
went to the high priests and the doctors of law, and said to them: "Give
me money, and I will deliver the Nazarene to you."'

'The wretch!'

'He has agreed for thirty pieces of silver from the pharisees; and at
the present moment perhaps the poor young man, who suspects nothing, is
a victim of the treason.'

'Alas! if such is the case, what service can I render him?'

'Listen again, this is what Jane said to me to-night: "It was whilst
repairing to your house, dear Aurelia, that my husband informed me, with
a cruel joy, of the evil with which Jesus is threatened. Knowing that,
watched as I am, I have no means of warning him, for our servants so
much fear the Seigneur Chusa, that despite my prayers and offers of
gold, none dared leave the house to find Jesus and apprise him of the
danger; besides, the night advances, an idea struck me; your slave
Genevieve appears to have as much courage as devotedness. Could she not
serve us on this occasion?"

'I immediately informed Jane of the cruel vengeance that my husband had
exercised towards you; but Jane, far from renouncing her project, asked
me where Gremion placed the key of the prison: "Under his pillow," I
answered her.'

'Endeavor to take it whilst he sleeps,' said Jane to me. 'If you succeed
in getting possession of it, go and release Genevieve; it will be easy
for you afterwards to get her out of the house; she will soon arrive at
the tavern of the 'Wild Ass,' and there, perhaps, they will tell her
where the young man may be found.'

'Oh! dear mistress!' exclaimed Genevieve, 'I shall never forget the
confidence you and your friend place in me; try at once to open the door
of the prison.'

'Wait a moment, for before deciding we must think of the rage of my
husband. It is not for myself I fear, but for you. When you return here,
poor Genevieve, judge from what you have suffered what you will still
have to suffer!'

'Think not of me!'

'We have thought of it, on the contrary. Listen again: the nurse of my
friend lives near the Judicial gate; she sells woolen cloths and her
name is Veronica, the wife of Samuel: shall you remember these names?'

'Yes, yes, Veronica, wife of Samuel, cloth vendor, near the Judicial
gate. But, dear mistress, let us haste, the hour advances; every hour
lost might be fatal to the young man. Oh! I entreat you, try to open
the street door.'

'No, not at least until I have told you where you may find refuge; it
will be impossible for you to return here, for I tremble at the
treatment to which my husband would subject you.'

'What! quit you forever?'

'Would you rather submit to an infamous punishment again, and perhaps
worse tortures?'

'I would much rather prefer death to such disgrace!'

'My husband will not kill you because you are worth money. This
separation is therefore indispensable; it costs me dear, because never,
perhaps, shall I find a slave in whom I have such confidence as you; but
what would you? Since I have listened to the words of this young man, I
share the enthusiasm he has inspired in Jane; and will try to save
him....'

'Can you doubt it, dear mistress?'

'No, I know your devotedness and your courage. This, then, is what you
must do; if you succeed in finding the young man of Nazareth, you will
apprise him that he is betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples, and that
he has only to fly from Jerusalem to escape the pharisees; they have
sworn his death! Jane thinks that by retiring to Galilee, his native
country, Mary's son will be saved, for his cowardly enemies would not
dare to follow him there.'

'But, dear mistress, even here, at Jerusalem, he has only to-night to
call the people to his defence, his disciples, by whom he is adored,
will put themselves at the head of the revolt, and all the pharisees in
the world would not be able to arrest him!'

'Jane had also thought of this plan; but that he might raise the people
in his favor, either Jesus or his disciples must be apprised of the
danger which menaces him.'

'Consequently, dear mistress, we have not a moment to lose.'

'Listen once more, poor Genevieve: you forget the perils that surround
you! When, therefore, you have warned the young man, or one of his
disciples, you will repair to Veronica's, Samuel's wife; you will tell
her that you came from Jane, and as a proof of the truth you will give
her this ring, which my friend drew from her finger; you will beg
Veronica to conceal you in her house, and go immediately to Jane's, who
will instruct her as to what she and I intend doing for you.

'Veronica,' said my friend to me, 'is kind and obliging; to the young
Nazarene she and her husband owe a debt of gratitude, because he cured
one of their children; you will therefore be safely concealed in their
house until Jane and I have decided upon something respecting you. This
is not all, in this packet I have brought your disguise as a young man,
which I have just taken from the room in which you sleep; it will be
more prudent to put on these garments of a man. It will be safer whilst
running about the streets of Jerusalem at night and entering the tavern
of the Wild Ass.'

'Dear, dear mistress, always kind, you think of all.'

'Hasten to dress yourself. In the mean time, I will go and see if it is
possible to open the street door.'




CHAPTER V.


Aurelia, having quitted the low room, returned in a few minutes and
found Genevieve dressed as a young man and buckling the leather belt of
her tunic.

'It is impossible to open the door!' said Aurelia in despair to her
slave; 'the key is not within the lock where it is usually left.'

'Dear mistress, come,' said Genevieve, 'let us try again. Come, quick.'

And the two, after crossing the court, arrived at the street door. The
efforts of Genevieve were as vain as those of her mistress had been to
open it. She had surmounted one of the half arches, but without a ladder
it was impossible to reach the opening. Suddenly Genevieve remarked to
Aurelia:

'I have read in the family narratives left by Fergan, that one of his
ancestresses, named Meroe, the wife of a sailor, had, by the help of her
husband, been enabled to mount a high tree.'

'By what means?'

'Just lean your back against this door, dear mistress; now, enlace your
two hands in such a way that I can place my foot in their hollow; I will
next place the other on your shoulder, and perhaps thus I shall be
enabled to reach the arch, and from thence I will endeavor to descend
into the street.'

Suddenly the slave heard at a distance the voice of Seigneur Gremion
from the upper story, call out in an angry tone:

'Aurelia! Aurelia!'

'My husband,' exclaimed the young wife trembling.

'Oh! Genevieve, you are lost!'

'Your hands! your hands! dear mistress; if I can only reach to this
opening, I am saved.'

Aurelia obeyed almost mechanically, for the menacing voice of the
Seigneur Gremion drew nearer and nearer.

The slave, after having placed one of her feet in the hollow of the two
hands of her mistress, rested her other foot lightly on her shoulder,
thus reached the opening, contrived to place herself on the thickness of
the wall, and rested for a few moments kneeling under the half arch.

'But in jumping into the street,' suddenly exclaimed Aurelia in fear,
'you will hurt yourself, poor Genevieve.'

At this moment arrived the Seigneur Gremion, pale, enraged, and holding
a lamp in his hand.

'What are you doing there?' he cried, addressing his wife; 'reply!
reply!'

Then perceiving the slave kneeling above the door, he added:

'Ah! wretch! you would escape, and 'tis my wife who favors your flight?'

'Yes,' replied Aurelia courageously, 'yes; and should you kill me on the
spot, she shall escape your ill treatment.'

Genevieve, after looking down into the street from the elevation where
she had crept, saw that she would have to jump twice her own length; she
hesitated a moment, but hearing the Seigneur Gremion say to his wife,
whom he had brutally shook by the arm to make her abandon the chain of
the door to which she had clung:

'By Hercules! will you let me pass? oh! I will get outside and wait for
your miserable slave, and if she does not break her limbs in jumping
into the street, I will break her bones!'

'Try to get down and save yourself, Genevieve,' cried Aurelia; 'fear
nothing, they shall trample me under foot before I open the door--'

Genevieve raised her eyes to heaven to invoke the gods, jumped from the
arch above the door and was lucky enough to reach the ground without
hurting herself. She remained however for a moment, stunned by the fall;
she then rose up hastily and took to flight, her heart beating at the
cries she heard proceeding from her mistress, who was being ill treated
by her husband.

The slave, after running some way to get beyond her master's house,
stopped, breathless, to consider in what direction was situated the
tavern of the Wild Ass, where she hoped to hear of the young man of
Nazareth, whom she wished to warn of the danger that menaced him. At
this tavern she learnt that some hours before he had gone, with several
of his disciples, towards the river Cedron, to a garden planted with
olive trees, where he often repaired at night to meditate and pray.

Genevieve ran hastily to this place. The moment she had passed the gate
of the city, she saw in the distance the light of several torches
reflected on the helmets and armor of a great number of soldiers; they
marched in disorder and uttered confused clamors.

The slave, fearing that they were sent by the pharisees to seize the
Nazarene, commenced running in the hope of getting before them, perhaps,
and in time to give the alarm to Jesus, or to his disciples. She was
but a short distance from these armed men, whom she recognized as the
Jerusalem militia, but little renowned for their courage, when by the
glare of the torches they carried she noticed, away from the road but
following the same direction, a narrow path bordered with firs. She took
this road that she might not be seen by the soldiers, at the head of
whom she observed Judas, the disciple of the young man whom she had seen
at the tavern of the Wild Ass one of the preceding nights. He was then
saying to the officer of the men, who commanded the escort:

'Seigneur, he whom you see me embrace will be the Nazarene.'

'Oh! this time,' replied the officer, 'he shall not escape us; and
to-morrow, before sunset, the rebel will have suffered the punishment
due to his crimes. Let us hasten, let us hasten; some of his disciples
might have given him notice of our arrival. Let us also be very prudent,
for fear of falling into an ambush, and let us also be very prudent when
we are on the point of seizing the Nazarene: he might employ against us
magical and diabolical ways. If I recommend prudence to you,' added the
officer to his men, in a valorous tone, ''tis not that I fear danger,
but 'tis to secure the success of our enterprise.'

The soldiers did not appear greatly reassured by these words of their
officer and slackened their march, from a fear, no doubt, of some
ambush.--Genevieve profited by this circumstance and, still running, she
arrived at the borders of the river of Cedron. Not far from thence she
perceived a small hill, planted with olives; this wood, buried in the
shade, was scarcely distinguishable from the darkness of the night. She
listened, all was silent; nothing was heard but the measured tread of
the soldiers as they slowly approached. Genevieve had a momentary hope,
thinking that, perhaps, the young man of Nazareth, warned in time, had
quitted this place. She advanced cautiously in the obscurity, when she
stumbled against the body of a man stretched beneath an olive tree. She
could not restrain a cry of fear, whilst the man against whom she had
stumbled suddenly awoke and said: 'Master, pardon me but this time
again; I could not overcome the sleep that invaded me.'

'A disciple of Jesus!' exclaimed the slave, once more alarmed. 'He is
here, then?'

Then addressing the man: 'Since you are a disciple of Jesus, save him:
there is still time. See those torches in the distance; listen to the
confused murmurs! They approach; they will take him, they will kill him.
Save him, save him, oh, save him!'

'Who,' inquired the disciple, still half unconscious with sleep; 'who is
it they would kill? Who are you?'

'No matter to you who I am; but save your master, I tell you: they are
coming to seize him. The soldiers advance. See you those torches
yonder?'

'Yes,' replied the disciple in a surprised and alarmed tone and now
completely waking up: 'I see in the distance some helmets, sparkling
from the light of the torches. But,' he added, looking round, 'where are
my companions, then?'

'Asleep, like yourself, perhaps,' replied Genevieve. 'And you have not
strength enough to resist sleep?'

'No, I and my companions struggled in vain; our master came twice to
awake us, mildly reproaching us for thus sleeping. He then went once
more to meditate and pray under the trees.'

'The militia men!' exclaimed Genevieve on seeing the light of the
torches approaching nearer and nearer. 'They are here! He is lost,
unless he remains concealed in the wood, or that you all die to defend
him. Are you armed?'

'We have no arms!' replied the disciple, beginning to tremble; 'and
besides, to try to resist soldiers, 'tis madness!'

'No arms!' exclaimed Genevieve, very indignant. 'Is there any need of
arms? Are not the stones in the road? Is not courage sufficient to crush
these men?'

'We are not men of the sword,' said the disciple, looking round him with
uneasiness, for the soldiers were already near enough for their torches
to throw a light on Genevieve, the disciple and several of his
companions, whom she then perceived, here and there, still asleep under
the trees. They suddenly awoke at the voice of their comrade, who called
them, going from one to the other.

The soldiers hastened in a tumult, seeing, from the light of the
torches, several men; some still reclining, others rising, others again
on their feet, rushed upon them, menacing them with their swords and
sticks, for some were only armed with sticks, and all cried out:

'Where is the Nazarene? Tell us, Judas, where is he?'

The traitor, and infamous disciple, after having examined by the light
of the torches his ancient companions, detained prisoners, said to the
officer:

'The young master is not amongst these.'

'Will he escape us this time?' exclaimed the officer.

'By the pillars of the temple! you promised to deliver him to us, Judas:
you have received the price of his blood; you must deliver him to us,
Judas!'

Genevieve had kept aloof; suddenly she saw a few paces off, towards the
olive wood, a white form, which issuing from the darkness, approached
slowly towards the soldiers. The heart of Genevieve almost broke; it was
no doubt the young Nazarene, attracted by the noise of the tumult.--She
was not deceived. Presently she recognized Jesus; on his sad and gentle
features she read neither fear nor surprise.

Judas made a sign of intelligence to the officer, ran to meet the young
man of Nazareth, and said, whilst embracing him,

'Master, I kiss you.'

At these words one of the soldiers who were not occupied in detaining as
prisoners the disciples, who in vain endeavored to fly, remembering the
recommendations of their officer respecting the infernal sorceries that
Jesus might employ against them, regarded him with fear, hesitating to
approach in order to seize him; the officer himself kept behind the
soldiers in order to excite them to seize Jesus, but did not approach
him himself. Jesus, calm and thoughtful, made a few steps towards the
armed men and said to them in his gentle voice:

'Whom seek you?'

'We seek Jesus,' replied the officer, still keeping behind his soldiers:

'We seek Jesus of Nazareth.'

'I am he!' said the Nazarene, making a step towards the soldiers. But
the latter drew back frightened.

Jesus resumed: 'Once more, whom is it you seek?'

'Jesus of Nazareth!' they all cried with one voice; 'we wish to take
Jesus of Nazareth!' and they again drew back.

'I have already told you that I am he,' replied the young man, going to
them; 'and since you seek me, take me, but allow these to go,' he added,
pointing to his disciples still retained as prisoners.

The officer made a sign to the soldiers who did not seem as yet
completely reassured; they approached Jesus, however, to bind him,
whilst he said to them mildly: 'You came here armed with swords and
sticks to take me, as if I were a malefactor, and yet, I sat amidst you
every day in the temple, praying, and you did not arrest me.'

Then, of himself, he tendered his hands to the cords with which they
bound him. The cowardly disciples of the young man had not had the
courage to defend him; they dared not even accompany him to his prison;
and the moment they were released by the soldiers, they fled on all
sides. A mournful smile crossed the lips of Jesus, when he found himself
thus betrayed and abandoned by those he had so loved, and whom he
believed his friends.

Genevieve, hidden by the shade of an olive tree, could not restrain
tears of grief and indignation on seeing these men so miserably abandon
Jesus; she comprehended why the doctors of the law and the high priests,
instead of arresting him in open day, had arrested him during the night;
they feared the rage of the people and of the resolute men like Banaias;
these would not have allowed him to be carried off without resistance,
the friend of the poor and the afflicted.

The soldiers quitted the olive wood, having their prisoner in the midst
of them; they directed their steps towards the town.

After some time Genevieve perceived that a man, whose features she could
not distinguish in the darkness, was walking behind her, and she
frequently heard the man sigh and sob.

After entering Jerusalem through the deserted and silent streets, as
they are at that hour of the night, the soldiers repaired to the house
of Caiphus, the high priest, where they conducted Jesus. The slave,
remarking at the door of this house a great many servants, glided among
them as the soldiers entered, and remained at first beneath the
vestibule lighted by torches. By this light she recognized the man who,
like herself, had followed the friend of the oppressed since he left the
wood; it was Peter, one of his disciples. He appeared as much grieved as
alarmed, the tears streaming down his face; Genevieve thought at first
that one at least of his disciples would be faithful to him and he would
show his devotedness by accompanying Jesus before the tribunal of
Caiphus. Alas! the slave was deceived. Scarcely had Peter crossed the
threshold of the door, when, instead of joining Mary's son, he sat down
on one of the benches of the vestibule, amongst the servants of
Caiphus, burying his face in his hands.

Genevieve then seeing, at the extremity of the court, a strong light
escaping from a door beyond which pressed the soldiers of the escort,
approached them. The door was that of a hall in the middle of which was
erected a tribunal lighted by a number of flambeaux. Seated behind this
tribunal, she recognized several of the persons she had seen at the
supper given by Pontius Pilate; the Seigneurs Caiphus, the high priest;
Baruch, doctor of law; Jonas, the banker, were among the judges of the
young man of Nazareth. He was conducted before them; his hands bound,
his features still calm, gentle and sad; a short distance from him were
the officers of the court, and behind these, mixed with the soldiers and
the servants of Caiphus, the two mysterious emissaries whom Genevieve
had remarked at the tavern of the Wild Ass. Inasmuch as the countenance
of the friend of the afflicted was serene and dignified, so did those of
his judges appear violently irritated; they expressed the joy of a
disgraceful triumph; they spoke in a low tone and from time to time they
pointed with a menacing gesture to Mary's son, who patiently awaited his
interrogatory.

Genevieve, confounded among those who filled the hall, heard them say to
one another:

'He is at last taken, then, this Nazarene, who preached revolt!'

'Oh! he is less haughty now than when he was at the head of his troop of
vagabonds and abandoned women!'

'He preaches against the rich,' said a servant of the high priest; 'he
commands the renunciation of riches; but if our masters were to keep
poor cheer, we servants should be reduced to the lot of hungry beggars,
instead of fattening on the many feasts given by our masters.'

'And this is not all,' said another; 'if we listened to this cursed
Nazarene, our masters, voluntarily impoverished, would denounce all
pleasures; they would not throw away every day superb robes or tunics
because the embroidery or color of these garments did not please them.
Now, who profits by these caprices of our ostentatious masters, unless
ourselves, since tunics and robes all fall to our share?'

'And if our masters renounced pleasures, to live on fasting and prayer,
they would have no more gay mistresses, they would no longer charge us
with those amorous commissions, recompensed magnificently in case of
success!'

'Yes, yes,' they all cried together; 'death to the Nazarene who would
make of us, who live in idleness, abundance and gaiety, beggars or
beasts of burthen!'

Genevieve heard many other remarks, spoken half aloud and menacing for
the life of Jesus; one of the two mysterious emissaries, behind whom she
stood, said to his companion: 'Our evidence will now suffice to condemn
this cursed fellow; I have come to an understanding with Caiphus.'

At this moment one of the officers of the high priest, placed by the
side of the Nazarene and charged to watch him, struck with his mace on
the floor of the hall; immediately there was a dead silence. Then
Caiphus, after a few words exchanged in a low voice with the other
pharisees composing the tribunal, said to those assembled: 'Who are they
who can depose here against the man called Jesus of Nazareth?'

One of the two emissaries advanced to the foot of the tribunal and said
in a solemn voice:

'I swear having heard this man affirm that the high priests and doctors
of the law were all hypocrites, and that he treated them as a race of
serpents and vipers!'

A murmur of indignation rose from the soldiers and servants of the
priests, the judges looked at one another, appearing to ask each other
if it were possible that such words could have been pronounced. The
other emissary approached near his companion and added in a voice not
less solemn:

'I swear having heard this man affirm that they must revolt against
Prince Herod and against the Emperor Tiberius, the august protector of
Israel, in order to proclaim Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.'

While a smile of pity crossed the lips of Mary's son at these false
accusations, since he had said: 'Render unto Caesar that which is
Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's!' the pharisees of the
tribunal lifted up their hands to heaven as if to invoke it as a witness
of such enormities. One of the high priest's servants, advancing in his
turn, said to the judges:

'I swear having heard this man say, that they must massacre all the
pharisees, pillage their houses and violate their wives and daughters!'

A fresh movement of horror manifested itself amongst the judges and
those of the auditory who were devoted to them.

'Pillage! massacre! and violation!' exclaimed some.

'Such is the object of the Nazarene! 'Tis for this he drags after him
this band of wretches.'

'He would some day, at their head, give up Jerusalem to fire, pillage
and blood!'

The high priest Caiphus, president of the tribunal, signed to one of the
officers to demand silence; the officer again struck the floor with his
mace, all were silent. Caiphus, addressing the young Nazarene in a
menacing voice, said to him:

'Why do you not reply to what these persons depose against you?'

Jesus said to him in an accent full of gentleness and dignity:

'I have spoken publicly to every one; I have always taught in the temple
and in the synagogue in which all the Jews were assembled; I have said
nothing in secret, why, then, do you question me? Question those who
have heard me, to ascertain what I have said to them: these know what I
have taught.'

Scarce had he spoken these words when Genevieve saw one of the officers,
furious at this reply, so just and so calm, raise his hand against Jesus
and strike him in the face, exclaiming:

'Is it thus you reply to the high priest?'

At this infamous outrage, to strike a man bound, Genevieve felt her
heart leap, her tears stream, whilst on the contrary, loud bursts of
laughter rose from amidst the soldiers and servants of the high priest.

Jesus still remained placid, but he turned to the officer and said to
him mildly:

'If I have spoken evil show me the evil I have done; but if I have
spoken well, why strikest thou me?'

These words and his angelic sweetness did not disarm the persecutors of
the young man; coarse laughter again burst from the hall and the insults
recommenced on all sides.

'Oh! the Nazarene, the man of peace, the enemy of war, does not belie
himself; he is a coward and allows himself to be struck in the face.'

'Call your disciples, then; let them come and avenge you if you have not
the courage.'

'His disciples,' said one of the soldiers who had arrested Jesus. 'His
disciples! ah! if you had but seen them! At sight of our lances and our
torches the vagabonds fled like a flight of owls!'

'They were glad enough to escape the tyranny of the Nazarene, who kept
them near him by magic!'

'As a proof that they hate and despise him, not one dared accompany him
hither.'

'Oh!' thought Genevieve, 'how Jesus must suffer from this base
ingratitude of his friends! It must be more cruel than the outrages of
which he is the object.' And turning her head towards the street door,
she saw at a distance Peter, still seated on a bench, his face hidden in
his hands and not having even the courage to assist and defend his kind
master before this tribunal of blood. The tumult produced by the
violence of the officer being somewhat appeased, one of the emissaries
continued in a loud voice:

'I swear, lastly, that this man has horribly blasphemed by saying that
he is Christ, the son of God!'

Then Caiphus, addressing Jesus, said to him in a tone still more
menacing: 'You reply nothing to what these persons say of you?'

But the young man only shrugged his shoulders and still continued
silent. This irritated Caiphus, he rose from his seat and exclaimed,
pointing with his finger to the son of Mary: 'On the part of the living
God, I order you to tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God.'

'You have said it, I am,' replied the young man smiling.

Genevieve had heard Jesus say, that like all men, his brothers, he was a
son of God; just as the Druids teach that all men are sons of the same
God. What then was the surprise of the slave, when she saw the high
priest, when Jesus had replied that he was the son of God, rise up and
tear his robe with all the appearance of horror and alarm, exclaiming,
addressing the members of the tribunal:

'He has blasphemed; what need have we of more witnesses? You,
yourselves, have heard him blaspheme, how do you judge him?'

'He deserves death!'

Such was the reply of all the judges of this court of inquiry. But the
voices of Doctor Baruch and of the banker Jonas rose above every other;
they cried out, striking with their fist the marble table of the
tribunal:

'Death for the Nazarene! He has deserved death!'

'Yes! yes!' cried all the soldiers and the servants of the high priest,
'he has deserved death!'

'To death with the cursed blasphemer!'

'Conduct this criminal instantly before the Seigneur Pontius Pilate,
Governor of Judea, for the Emperor Tiberius,' said Caiphus to the
soldiers; 'he alone can give orders to put the condemned to death.'

At these words of the high priest they dragged Jesus from the house of
Caiphus to take him before Pontius Pilate. Genevieve, confounded with
the servants, followed the soldiers. On passing the door she saw Peter,
the cowardly disciple of Jesus (the least cowardly of all, however, she
thought, since alone, he had at least followed him there), she saw Peter
turn away his eyes, when Jesus seeking for a look from his disciple,
passed before him, conducted by the soldiers. One of the female servants
recognising Peter said to him:

'You, too, were with Jesus the Galilean?'

But Peter, reddening and casting down his eyes, replied:

'I know not what you say.'

Another servant, hearing Peter's reply, said, pointing him out to the
bystanders:

'I tell you that this one was also with Jesus of Nazareth!'

'I swear,' exclaimed Peter, 'I swear that I know not Jesus of Nazareth!'

Genevieve's heart heaved with indignation and disgust. This Peter, by a
base weakness, or for fear of sharing the fate of his master, denying
him twice and perjuring himself, for this indignity was in her eyes the
worst of men: more than ever she pitied Mary's son for having been
betrayed, given up, abandoned, and denied by those whom he so much
loved.

She thus explained to herself the painful sadness she had remarked on
his features. A great mind like this could not fear death, but despair
at the ingratitude of those whom he thought his dearest friends.

The slave quitted the house of the high priest, where Peter the renegade
remained, and soon rejoined the soldiers who were leading away Jesus.
The day began to break, several mendicants and vagabonds who had slept
on the benches placed on each side of the door of the houses, awoke at
the noise of the soldiers who were leading away Jesus. Genevieve hoped
for a moment that these poor people who followed him everywhere, would
call him their friend, whose misfortunes he so kindly pitied, would
apprise their companions and assemble them to release Jesus;
consequently she said to one of these men:

'Know you not that these soldiers are leading away the young man of
Nazareth, the friend of the poor and afflicted? They would kill him;
hasten to defend him; release him; raise the people. These soldiers of
Jerusalem will fly perhaps, but the soldiers of Pontius Pilate are
tougher; they have good lances, thick cuirasses, and well tempered
swords.'

'What could we attempt?'

'Why you can rise in a mass; you can arm yourselves with stones, with
sticks!' exclaimed Genevieve, 'and at least you can die to avenge him
who has consecrated his life to your cause!'

The beggar shook his head and replied whilst one of his companions
approached him:

'Wretched as life may be, we cling to it, and 'tis running to meet death
if we stake our rags against the cuirasses of the Roman soldiers.'

'And then,' said another vagabond, 'if Jesus of Nazareth is a Messiah,
as so many others have been before him, and so many others will be after
him, 'tis a misfortune if they kill him; but Messiahs are never wanting
in Israel.'

'And if they put him to death!' said Genevieve, 'it is because he has
loved you; it is because he pitied your wretchedness; it is because he
has shamed the rich for their hypocrisy and their hardness of heart
towards those who suffer!'

'It is true; he constantly predicted for us the kingdom of God on
earth,' replied the vagabond again, reclining on his bench, as also his
companion, to warm themselves by the rays of the morning sun; 'yet these
fine days he promised us do not arrive, and we are just as poor to-day
as we were yesterday.'

'Eh! and what tells you that these fine days, promised by him, will not
arrive to-morrow?' continued Genevieve; 'does not the harvest require
time to take root, to grow, and to ripen? Poor, blind and impatient that
you are, recollect that to leave him to die, whom you call your friend,
before he has fertilized the good seeds he has sown in so many hearts,
is to trample under foot, is to destroy whilst yet only grass, a harvest
perhaps magnificent.'

The two vagabonds remained silent, shaking their heads, and Genevieve
left them, saying to herself with profound grief:

'Shall I encounter, then, everywhere nothing but ingratitude,
forgetfulness, treason and cowardice? Oh! it is not the body of Jesus
that will be crucified, it will be his heart.'

The slave hastened to join the soldiers who were approaching the house
of Pontius Pilate.--At the moment she doubled her pace, she remarked a
sort of tumult amongst the Jerusalem militia, which suddenly stopped.
She mounted on a bench and saw Banaias alone at the entrance of a narrow
arcade which the soldiers had to cross to reach the governor's house,
audaciously barring the passage, brandishing his long stick terminated
by a knob of iron.

'Ah! this one at least does not abandon him he calls his friend!'
thought Genevieve.

'By the shoulders of Samson!' cried Banaias in his loud voice, 'if you
do not instantly set our friend at liberty, militia of Beelzebub! I'll
beat you as dry as the flail beats the wheat on the barn floor! Ah! if I
had but time to collect a band of companions as resolute as myself to
defend our friend of Nazareth, 'tis an order I would give you instead of
a simple prayer, and this simple prayer I repeat: set our friend at
liberty, or else by the jawbone used by Samson, I will destroy you all
like he destroyed the Philistines!'

'Do you hear the wretch! he calls this audacious menace a prayer!'
exclaimed the officer commanding the militia, who prudently kept himself
in the middle of his troop; 'run your lances through the miserable;
strike him with your swords if he does not make way for you!'

The Jerusalem militia was not a very valiant troop, for they had
hesitated before arresting Jesus, who advanced towards them, alone and
disarmed: so that, despite the orders of their chief, they remained a
moment undecided before the menacing attitude of Banaias.

In vain did Jesus, whose firm and gentle voice was heard by Genevieve,
endeavor to appease his defender, and entreat him to retire. Banaias
resumed in a threatening tone, thus replying to the supplications of the
young Nazarene:

'Do not trouble yourself about me, friend; you are a man of peace and
quietness. I am a man of violence and battle, when the feeble are to be
protected. Let me alone. I will stop these wicked soldiers here, until
the noise of the tumult has apprised and brought my companions; and
then, by the five hundred concubines of Solomon, who danced before him,
you shall see these devils of the militia dance to the tune of our
knobbed sticks, keeping time on their helmets and cuirasses.'

'How much longer will you suffer yourselves to be insulted by a single
man, you cowardly dogs?' exclaimed the officer to his men.

'Oh! if I had not orders not to quit the Nazarene more than his shadow,
I would set you an example, and my long sword should already have cut
the throat of this brigand!'

'By Abraham's nose! 'tis I who will rip open your belly, you who talk so
big, and release my friend!' exclaimed Banaias. 'I am only one; but a
falcon is worth much more than a hundred blackbirds.'

And Banaias fell on the soldiers of the militia, swaying about his
redoubtable stick, despite the prayers of Jesus.

At first, surprised and shaken by so much audacity, some soldiers of the
front rank of the escort gave way; but presently, ashamed at not
resisting one man, they rallied, attacked Banaias in their turn, who,
overcome by numbers, despite his heroic courage, fell dead, covered with
wounds. Genevieve then saw the soldiers, in their rage, throw to the
bottom of a well, near the arcade, the bleeding body of the only
defender of Jesus. After this exploit, the officer, brandishing his long
sword, placed himself at the head of his troop, and they arrived at the
house of Pontius Pilate, where Genevieve had accompanied her mistress,
Aurelia, a few days previous.

The sun was already high. Attracted by the noise of the struggle of
Banaias with the soldiers, several inhabitants of Jerusalem, issuing
from their houses, had followed the militia. The house of the Roman
governor was in the richest quarters of the town. The persons who, from
curiosity, accompanied Jesus, far from pitying him, loaded him with
insults and hootings.

'At last, then,' cried some, 'the Nazarene, who brought so much trouble
and confusion on our town, is taken!'

'The demagogue who set the beggars against princes! The impious! who
blasphemed our holy religion! The audacious! who brought trouble into
our families, praising the prodigal and debauched sons,' said one of the
emissaries, who had followed the troop.

'The infamous! who would pervert our wives,' said the other emissary,
'by encouraging adultery, since he snatched one of these sinners from
the punishment she deserved!'

'Thanks be to God!' added a money-changer, 'if this Nazarene is put to
death, which will only be justice, we can then re-open our counters
under the colonnade of the temple, whence this profaner and his band had
driven us, and where we dared not return.'

'What fools we were to fear his assemblage of beggars!' added a dealer
in merchandise.

'See if one of them has simply dared rebel to defend this Nazarene, by
whose name they were always swearing, he whom they called their friend!'

'Let them finish with the brawler! Let him be crucified, and we shall
hear no more of him!'

'Yes, yes, death to the Nazarene!' cried the people, amongst whom was
Genevieve. And this assemblage still increasing, repeated, with greater
fury, those fatal cries:

'Death to the Nazarene!'

'Alas!' said the slave to herself, 'is there a more horrible fate than
that of this young man; abandoned by the poor, whom he befriended; hated
by the rich, to whom he preached humility and charity! How deep must be
the bitterness of his heart!'

The soldiers, followed by the crowd, had arrived opposite the house of
Pilate.

Several high priests, doctors of law, senators, and other pharisees,
among whom were Caiphus, Doctor Baruch, and the banker Jonas, had joined
the troop and walked at its head. One of these pharisees having cried:

'Seigneurs, let us enter Pontius Pilate's that he may instantly condemn
the cursed Nazarene to death!'

Caiphus replied with a pious air:

'My seigneurs, we cannot enter the house of a heathen: this stain would
prevent our eating the passover to-day.'

'No!' added Doctor Baruch, 'we cannot commit this abominable impiety.'

'Only hear them!' said to the crowd one of the emissaries, with an
accent of admiration.

'Do you hear the holy men? What respect they profess for the commandment
of our holy religion! Ah! these are not like that impious Nazarene, who
rails and blasphemes at the most sacred things, when he dares to declare
that we need not observe the Sabbath!'

'Oh! the infamous hypocrites!' said Genevieve to herself: 'how well
Jesus knew them; how much reason he had to unmask them. They now
hesitate to enter the house of a heathen, for fear of soiling their
sandals; but they do not fear to soil their soul by demanding from this
heathen to shed the blood of the righteous, one of their compatriots.
Ah! poor youth of Nazareth! they will make you pay with your life for
the courage you have shown in attacking these rich swindlers.'

The officer of the militia having entered the palace of Pontius Pilate,
whilst the escort remained outside guarding the prisoner, Genevieve
mounted behind a cart stopped by the crowd, and endeavored to keep in
sight the young man of Nazareth. She saw him standing in the midst of
the soldiers, his long chestnut hair falling over his shoulders, his
looks still calm and gentle, and a smile of resignation on his lips. He
contemplated the tumultuous and threatening crowd with a sort of
painful commiseration, as if he had pitied these men for their blindness
and iniquity.

Insults were offered him on all sides. The soldiers themselves treated
him with so much brutality that the blue mantle he wore over his white
tunic was already almost torn from his back. Jesus, to so many outrages
and ill treatment, opposed an unalterable placidity, and on his pale and
handsome features Genevieve did not see the least impatience or the
least anger betray itself. Suddenly these words were heard circulating
through the crowd:

'Ah! here he comes, the Seigneur Pontius Pilate!'

'He will at length pronounce sentence of death against this cursed
Nazarene.'

'Luckily 'tis not far from hence to Golgotha, where they execute
criminals; we can go and see him crucified!'

In fact, Genevieve soon saw the Governor, Pontius Pilate, appear at the
door of his house; no doubt he had been just aroused from sleep, for he
was enveloped in a long morning robe; his hair and beard were in
disorder; his eyes, red and swollen, appeared dazzled at the rays of the
rising sun; he could scarcely conceal several yawns, and seemed greatly
annoyed at having been awakened so early, having, perhaps, as usual
prolonged his supper until daybreak. So, addressing Doctor Baruch in a
tone of harshness and ill-humor, like a person anxious to abridge an
interview that was unpleasant, said to him:

'What is the crime of which you accuse this young man?'

'If he were not a malefactor, we should not have brought him to you.'

Pontius Pilate, annoyed at the short reply of Doctor Baruch, continued
impatiently, and stifling another yawn:

'Well, since you say he has sinned against the law, take him; judge him
according to your law.'

And the governor turned his back upon the Doctor, shrugging his
shoulders, and re-entered his house.

For a moment Genevieve thought the young man saved, but the reply of
Pontius Pilate produced much indignation amongst the crowd.

'Such are the Romans, then,' said some; 'they only seek to keep up
agitation in our poor country, that they might rule it more easily.'

'This Pontius Pilate evidently appears to protect this cursed Nazarene!'

'As for me, I am certain the Nazarene is a secret agent of the Romans,'
added one of the emissaries: 'they make use of this seditious vagabond
for their dark projects.'

'There is no doubt of it,' added the other emissary; 'the Nazarene has
sold himself to the Romans.'

At this last outrage, which seemed painful to Jesus, Genevieve saw him
again lift up his eyes to heaven in a heart-rending manner, whilst the
crowd repeated:

'Yes, yes, he is a traitor.'

'He is an agent of the Romans!'

'To death with the traitor! to death!'

Doctor Baruch was unwilling to lose his prey; he and several of the high
priests, seeing Pontius Pilate entering his house, ran after him, and
having supplicated him to return, they brought him outside, to the
great applause of the crowd. Pontius Pilate appeared to continue, almost
in spite of himself, the interrogatory; he said with impatience to
Doctor Baruch, pointing to Jesus:

'Of what do you accuse this man?'

The doctor of law replied, in a loud voice:

'This man excites the people to revolt by the doctrines he teaches
throughout Judea, from Galilee, where he commenced, unto here.'

At this accusation Genevieve heard one of the emissaries say quietly to
his companion:

'Doctor Baruch is a cunning fox; by this accusation of sedition, he will
force the governor to condemn the Nazarene.'

Pontius Pilate, having signed to Jesus to draw near him, they exchanged
a few words between themselves; at each reply of the young man of
Nazareth, still calm and dignified, Pontius Pilate seemed more and more
convinced of his innocence; he resumed in a loud voice, addressing the
high priests and doctors of the law:

'You have presented this man to me as exciting the people to revolt;
nevertheless, having questioned him in your presence, I do not find him
guilty of any of the crimes of which you accuse him. I do not judge him
deserving of death: I shall therefore discharge him after he has been
chastised.'

And Pontius Pilate, stifling a yawn, made a sign to one of his servants,
who hastily departed. The crowd, not satisfied with the sentence of
Pontius Pilate, at first murmured, then complained aloud:

'It was not to have the Nazarene chastised that we brought him here,'
said some; 'but that he should be condemned to death!'

'Yes, yes!' exclaimed several voices; 'death! death!'

Pontius Pilate replied not to these murmurs and cries but by shrugging
his shoulders and re-entering his house.

'If the governor is convinced of the innocence of the young man,' said
Genevieve to herself, 'why does he have him chastised? 'Tis both
cowardly and cruel. He hopes, perhaps, to calm, by this concession, the
rage of the enemies of Jesus. Alas! he deceives himself; he will only
appease them by the death of this just man!'

Scarcely had Pontius Pilate given orders for Jesus to be chastised, than
the soldiers seized him, tore off the last remnants of his mantle,
stripped him of his tunic of linen, and his tunic of wool, which they
turned down over his leather belt, and thus laid bare the upper portion
of his body; they then bound him to one of the pillars that adorned the
entrance door of the house of the Roman Governor. Jesus opposed no
resistance, offered no complaint, turned his celestial face towards the
crowd, and regarded it sorrowfully, but without appearing to hear the
hootings and insults showered upon him. They had sent for the
executioner of the city to flog him with rods, so, whilst awaiting the
coming of the executioner of the law, the vociferations continued, still
excited by the emissaries of the pharisees.

'Pontius Pilate hopes to satisfy us by the chastisement of this
vagabond; but he is deceived,' said some.

'The culpable indulgence of the Roman governor,' added one of the
emissaries, 'only proves too well that there is a secret understanding
between him and the Nazarene.'

'Eh! my friends, of what do you complain?' inquired another: 'Pontius
Pilate gives us more than we ask of him; we only wanted the death of the
Nazarene, and he will be chastised before he is put to death. Glory to
the generous Pontius Pilate.'

'Yes, yes! for he must certainly condemn him; we will force him to do
it.'

'Ah! here's the executioner!' cried several voices: 'here's the
executioner and his assistant.'

Genevieve recognized the same two men, who, three days before, had
flogged her with a whip at the house of her master; she could not
restrain her tears at the thought that this youth, who was all love and
tenderness, was about to suffer an ignominous punishment reserved for
slaves. The two executioners carried under their arm a package of hazel
twigs, long, flexible, and as thick as a thumb. Each of the executioners
took one, and on a sign from Caiphus, the blows began to fall violently
and rapidly on the shoulders of the young man of Nazareth. When one twig
broke, the executioners took another. At first Genevieve turned away her
eyes from this cruel spectacle; but she was forced to hear the savage
jests of the crowd, which, to the son of Mary, must have been a more
horrible torture than the punishment itself. 'You who said, "Love one
another," you cursed Nazarene!' cried one; 'see now how you are loved!'

'You who said, "Share your bread and your cloak with him who has neither
bread nor cloak," the worthy executioners follow their precepts; they
share paternally their rods to break them across your back.'

'You who said, "That it was more easy for a camel to pass through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven,"
don't you think it will be easier for you to pass through the eye of a
needle than to escape the rod with which they warm your back?'

'You who glorified vagabonds, thieves, prostitutes, and such like game;
no doubt you loved the wretches, because you knew you should one day be
flogged like them, great prophet!'

Genevieve, despite her repugnance to see the punishment of Jesus, not
hearing him utter a cry of complaint, feared that he had swooned from
the pain, and looked at him with eyes full of anguish! Alas! to her it
was a horrible spectacle.

The back of the young man was one large bleeding wound, interrupted
simply by some blue and swollen furrows; at these places only the skin
had not been broken. Jesus turned his face to heaven, and closed his
eyes, to escape, no doubt, the sight of this implacable crowd. His face,
livid and bathed in sweat, betrayed a horrible suffering at each fresh
stroke cutting into his living flesh. And yet, at times, he still
attempted to smile with angelic resignation. The high priest, the
doctors of the law, the senators, and all the wicked pharisees, followed
with a triumphant and greedy regard the execution of the punishment.

Amongst the most rancorous in feasting on this torture, Genevieve
remarked Doctor Baruch, Caiphus, and Jonas, the banker.

The executioners began to tire of flogging; they had broken on the back
of Jesus, nearly all their rods; they questioned, by a look, Doctor
Baruch, as if to ask him if it were not time to put an end to the
torture; but the doctor of law exclaimed: 'No, no; use up, even to the
very last of your rods.'

The order of the pharisee was obeyed; the last rods were broken on the
shoulders of the young Nazarene, and splashed with blood the faces of
the executioners; it was no longer the skin they flagellated, but a
bloody wound. The martyrdom now became so atrocious that Jesus, despite
his courage, gave way, and dropped his head on his left shoulder; his
knees trembled, and he would have fallen to the ground, but for the
cords that bound him to the pillar by the middle of his body. Pontius
Pilate, after having ordered this punishment, had re-entered his own
house; he now again came out, and signed to the executioners to release
the condemned.

They unbound and supported him; one of them threw over his shoulders his
woollen tunic. The contact of this rough cloth on the quivering flesh
caused a new and so cruel an agony, that Jesus trembled in every limb.
The very excess of pain brought him to himself; he raised his head,
endeavored to stand so firm on his legs as to do without the assistance
of his executioners, opened his eyes, and threw on the multitude a look
of tenderness.

Pontius Pilate, thinking he had satisfied the hatred of the pharisees,
said to the Crowd, after having had Jesus unbound:

'There is the man;' and he signed to his officers to enter his house; he
was preparing to follow them, when Caiphus, the high priest, after
consulting in a low voice with Doctor Baruch, and Jonas the banker,
exclaimed, stopping the governor by taking hold of his robe:

'Seigneur Pilate, if you deliver up Jesus you are not a friend of the
Emperor; for the Nazarene calls himself king, declares himself against
the Emperor.'

'Pontius Pilate will fear passing for a traitor with his master, the
Emperor Tiberius,' said to his companions one of the emissaries placed
behind Genevieve.

'He will be compelled to give up the Nazarene.'

Then the wicked man cried out, in a very loud voice:

'Death to the Nazarene! the enemy of the Emperor Tiberius, the protector
of Judea!'

'Yes, yes!' exclaimed several, 'the Nazarene called himself King of the
Jews!'

'He would overthrow the dominion of the Emperor Tiberius!'

'He would declare himself king, by exciting the populace against the
Romans, our friends and allies.'

'Reply to that, Pontius Pilate!' cried, from the middle of the crowd,
one of the two emissaries.

'How is it that we, Jews, are more devoted than you to the power of the
Emperor Tiberius, your master? How is it that 'tis we, Jews, who demand
the death of the seditious who would destroy the Roman authority; and
that 'tis you, governor for Tiberius, who would pardon this rebel?'

This apostrophe appeared the more to trouble Pontius Pilate, as from all
sides they cried:

'Yes, yes, it would be to betray the Emperor to deliver up the
Nazarene!'

'Or prove, perhaps, that they have been accomplices!'

Pontius Pilate, despite the desire he had, perhaps, to save the young
man, appeared more and more annoyed at these reproaches coming from the
crowd, reproaches which placed in doubt his fidelity to the Emperor
Tiberius. He went towards the pharisees, and conversed with them in an
undertone, whilst the soldiers guarded Jesus, bound, in the midst of
them. Then Caiphus, the high priest, said aloud, addressing Pilate, that
he might be heard by the crowd, and pointing to Jesus:

'We have found that this man perverts our nation; that he prevents
tribute being paid to Caesar, and that he calls himself King of the Jews,
as being the son of God.'

Then Pontius Pilate, turning towards the young man of Nazareth, said to
him,

'Are you King of the Jews?'

'Do you say this of yourself?' inquired Jesus, in a voice weakened by
suffering; 'or do you ask it of me because others have said it to you
before me?'

'The high priests and senators have delivered you up to me,' said
Pilate. 'What have you done? Do you pretend to be King of the Jews?'

Jesus gently shook his head, and said:

'My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom had been of this world,
my friends would have combated to prevent my being delivered to you; but
I repeat, my kingdom is not of this world.'

Pontius Pilate again turned to the pharisees, as if to take them as
witnesses of Jesus' reply, which would absolve him, since he proclaimed
that his kingdom was not of this world.

'His kingdom,' thought Genevieve, 'is no doubt, in unknown worlds,
where, according to our druidical faith, we shall rejoin those we have
loved here. How will they dare condemn Jesus as a rebel against the
Emperor? He who has so often repeated:

"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is
God's!"

But, alas! Genevieve forgot that the hatred of the pharisees was
implacable.

The Seigneurs Baruch, Jonas, and Caiphus, having again spoken in an
under tone with Pilate, the latter said to Jesus:

'Are you, yes or no, the son of God?'

'Yes,' replied Jesus, in his mild but firm voice; 'yes, I am.'

At these words, the priests, doctors and senators uttered exclamations
which were repeated by the crowd.

'He has blasphemed! he has said he is the son of God!'

'And he who says he is the son of God also calls himself King of the
Jews!'

'He is an enemy of the Emperor!'

'To death; to death with the Nazarene; crucify him!'

Pontius Pilate, a strange compound of cowardly weakness and equity,
wishing no doubt to make a last effort to save Jesus, whom he did not
think guilty, said to the crowd that it was customary on this feast day
to set at liberty a criminal, and that the people had to choose for this
act of clemency between a prisoner named Barabbas and Jesus, who had
already been beaten with rods, he then added:

'Which of the two would you that I should release to you, Jesus or
Barabbas?'

Genevieve saw the emissaries of the pharisees run from group to group,
saying:

'Demand the release of Barabbas, let them give up Barabbas.'

And presently the crowd cried from all parts:

'Deliver Barabbas! and guard Jesus!'

'But,' said Pontius Pilate, 'what shall I do with Jesus?'

'Crucify him!' replied a thousand voices.

'Crucify him!'

'But,' again inquired Pilate, 'what harm has he done?'

'Crucify him!' replied the crowd, more furious than ever.

'Crucify him!'

'Death to the Nazarene!'

Pontius Pilate, not having the courage to defend Jesus, whom he found
innocent, made a sign to one of his servants, the latter entered the
governor's house, whilst the crowd shouted with increased fury:

'Crucify the Nazarene! crucify him!'

Jesus, still calm, mournful and pensive, seemed a perfect stranger to
what was passing around him.

'No doubt,' said Genevieve to herself, 'his thoughts are already in that
mysterious world where we are born and live again after quitting this
one.'

The servant of Pontius Pilate returned, carrying a silver jug in one
hand, and a basin in the other; a second servant took the basin whilst
the first poured the water into it. Pontius Pilate dipped his hands in
the water, saying in a loud voice: 'I am innocent of the death of this
righteous man; 'tis for you to look to it. As for me, I wash my hands of
it.'

'Let the blood of the Nazarene be upon us and our children.'

'Take Jesus then, and crucify him yourselves,' replied Pontius.

'As you demand it, Barabbas shall be released to you.'

And Pilate re-entered his house to the acclamation of the crowd, whilst
Caiphus, Doctor Baruch, Jonas the banker, and the other pharisees,
triumphantly raised their fists in Jesus' face.

The officer who had commanded the escort of militia charged to arrest
Mary's son in the garden of Olives, approaching Caiphus, said to him:
'Seigneur, to conduct the Nazarene to Golgotha, the place of execution
for criminals, we shall have to traverse the populous quarter of the
Judicial gate; the calmness of the partizans of this rebel may be only
apparent, and once arrived in the quarter of this vile populace, they
may rise to release Jesus. I can answer for the courage of my brave
soldiers; they have, already, this morning, after a deadly combat, put
to flight an immense troop of determined vagabonds, commanded by a
bandit named Banaias, who would have forced us to deliver up Jesus. Not
one of those wretches escaped, despite their furious resistance.'

'The base liar!' said Genevieve to herself on hearing this bragging
officer of militia, who continued:

'Still, Seigneur Caiphus, despite the proved courage of our militia, it
would be prudent, perhaps, to confide the escort of the Nazarene to the
place of execution, to the Roman guard.'

'I am of your opinion,' replied the high priest: 'I will go and ask one
of the officers of Pilate to keep the Nazarene a prisoner in the guard
room of the Roman cohorts until the hour of execution.'

Genevieve then saw, whilst the high priest went to converse with
Pilate's officer, the chief of the militia approach Jesus; presently she
heard this officer, replying probably to some words of the young man,
say to him in a cruel and jesting tone: 'You are in a great hurry to
stretch yourself on the cross. They must first make it, and it is not
made in the twinkling of an eye. You ought to know this better than any
one, in your quality of a former journeyman carpenter.'

One of the officers of Pontius Pilate, to whom the high priest had
spoken, then came to Jesus and said to him: 'I am come to conduct you to
the guard-room of our soldiers: when the cross is ready, they will bring
it, and under our escort you shall start for Calvary! follow us!'

And Jesus, still bound, was conducted to a short distance off, by the
militia, to the court where the Roman soldiers lodged; the door, before
which paced a sentinel, being open, several persons who had, like
Genevieve, followed the Nazarene remained outside to see what was about
to happen.

When the young man was brought to the court of the guard-house (or
praetorium), the Roman soldiers were scattered in different groups: some
were cleaning their arms; others were playing at different games; some
were practising with the lance under the inspection of an officer;
others, extended on benches in the sun, were singing or conversing
amongst themselves. She recognized, from their faces bronzed by the sun,
from their martial and ferocious air, and the military order of their
arms and clothes, those courageous, warlike, and merciless soldiers who
had conquered the world, leaving behind them, as in Gaul, massacre,
spoliation and slavery. The moment the soldiers heard the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, and saw him brought in by one of their officers, they all
left their occupations and hastened round him. Genevieve anticipated, on
remarking the coarse and brutal manner of these soldiers, that Mary's
son was about to suffer fresh outrages.

The slave remembered having read in the narratives left by the ancestors
of her husband, Fergan, of the horrors committed by Caesar's soldiers,
the scourge of the Gauls, she did not doubt that these by whom the young
man was surrounded, were equally as cruel as those of the past times.
There was, in the middle of the court of the praetorium, a stone bench,
on which the soldiers made Jesus sit down, still bound; then approaching
him, they commenced insulting and railing at him.

'This, then, is the famous prophet!' said one.

'This, then, is he who announced that the time will come when the sword
will be exchanged for a reaping hook, and when there will be no more
war! no more battles!'

'No more wars! By the valiant gold god Mars! no more war!' exclaimed
other soldiers with indignation.

'Ah! these are your prophecies, thou prophet of evil!'

'No more war! That is, no more clarions, no more floating standards, no
more brilliant cuirasses, no more plumed helmets, which attract the eyes
of the women!'

'No more war! that is, no more conquests.'

'What! no more try our iron boots on the heads of the conquered people!'

'No longer drink their wine while courting their daughters, as here, as
in Gaul, as in the whole world, in fact!'

'No more war! By Hercules! And what then will become of the strong and
the valiant, cursed Nazarene? According to you, they will, from daybreak
till night, labor in the field or weave cloths like base slaves, instead
of dividing their time between battle, idleness, the tavern, and the
passion of love!'

'You, who call yourself the son of God,' said one of these Romans,
raising his fist against the young man; 'you are, then, the son of the
God Fear, coward that you are!'

'You, who call yourself the King of the Jews, would be acknowledged,
then, as king of all the poltroons of the universe!'

'Comrades!' exclaimed one of the soldiers, bursting into a laugh, 'since
he is king of the poltroons, let us crown him!'

This proposition was received with insulting joy; several voices
immediately cried out:

'Yes, since he is king, we must invest him with the imperial purple.'

'We must put a sceptre in his hand; we will then proclaim him, and honor
him like our august Emperor Tiberius.'

And whilst their companions continued to surround and insult the young
Nazarene, indifferent to these outrages, several of the soldiers went
out.--One took the red cloak of a horse soldier; another the cane of a
centurion; a third remembering a heap of fagots intended to be burnt,
lying in a corner, chose a few sprigs of a thorny plant, and began
weaving a crown. Several voices then exclaimed:

'We must now proceed to crown the King of the Jews.'

'Yes, let us crown the king of the cowards!'

'The son of God!'

'The son of the god Fear!'

'Companions, this coronation must be performed with pomp, as if it
concerned a real Caesar.'

'As for me, I am crown bearer.'

'And I, sceptre-bearer.'

'And I, bearer of the imperial mantle.'

And amidst shouts and obscene jests, these Romans formed a sort of mock
procession. The crown-bearer advanced the first, holding the crown of
thorns with a solemn air; and followed by a certain number of soldiers;
next came the sceptre-bearer, then other soldiers; lastly, the one who
carried the mantle; and all sang in chorus:

'Hail to the King of the Jews!

'Hail to the Messiah!

'Hail to the Son of God!

'Hail to the Caesar of poltroons, hail!'

Jesus, seated on his bench, regarded the preparations for this insulting
ceremony with unalterable placidity. The crown-bearer having approached
first, raised the thorny emblem above the head of the young man, and
said to him: 'I crown thee, O king!'

And the Roman placed the crown so brutally on the head of Jesus, that
the thorns pierced the flesh; large drops of blood ran, like tears of
blood, down the pale face of the victim; but, except the first
involuntary shudder caused by the agony, the features of the meek and
lowly sufferer maintained their usual placidity, and betrayed neither
resentment nor rage.

'And I invest you with the imperial mantle, O king!' added another
Roman, whilst one of his companions drew off the tunic that had been
thrown over the shoulders of Jesus. No doubt the wool of this garment
had already adhered to the living flesh, for at the moment it was
violently snatched from the shoulders of Jesus, he uttered a loud
exclamation of pain, but this was all: he allowed himself to be
patiently invested with the red cloak.

'Now, take thy sceptre, O great king!' added another soldier, kneeling
before the young man, and placing in his hand the centurion's
walking-stick; then all, with loud bursts of laughter, repeated, 'Hail
to the King of the Jews, hail!'

A great many of them kneeled before him out of mockery, repeating:

'Hail, O great King!'

Jesus retained in his hand this mock sceptre, but pronounced not a word;
this unalterable resignation, this angelic sweetness, so struck his
tormentors, that, at first they were stupified; then, their rage
increasing in proportion to the patience of the young Nazarene, they
emulated each other in irritation, exclaiming: 'This is not a man, it is
a statue!'

'All the blood he had in his veins has left him with the rods of the
executioner. The coward, he does not even complain!'

'Coward!' said a veteran in a thoughtful air, after having long
contemplated Jesus, although at first he had been one of his most cruel
tormentors: 'No, he is no coward! no, to endure patiently all that we
have made him suffer, requires more courage than to throw oneself sword
in hand on the enemy. No!' he repeated, drawing aside, 'no, this man is
no coward!'

And Genevieve fancied she saw a tear drop on the grey moustache of the
old soldier.

The other soldiers laughed at the compassion of their companion, and
exclaimed:

'He does not see that the Nazarene feigns resignation that we may pity
him.'

'It's true! within he is all rage and hatred, tho' outside he is so
serene and compassionating.'

'He is a bashful tiger invested with a lamb's skin.'

At these insulting words Jesus contented himself with smiling mournfully
and shaking his head; this movement made the blood fall in a spray
around him, for the wounds made on his forehead by the thorns still
bled.

At sight of this blood, Genevieve could not help murmuring to herself
the chorus of the children of the mistletoe, mentioned in the recitals
of her husband's ancestors:

'Flow, flow, blood of the captive! Fall, fall, incarnate dew! Germinate
and grow, avenging harvest!'

'Oh,' said Genevieve to herself, 'the blood of this innocent, of this
martyr, so basely abandoned by his friends, by this people, poor and
oppressed, whom he cherished, this blood will return on them and their
children. But may it also fertilize the bloody harvest of vengeance.'

The Romans, exasperated by the heavenly patience of Jesus, knew not what
to think of to conquer him. Neither insults nor threats could move him,
so one of the soldiers snatched from his hand the stick he continued to
hold mechanically and broke it on his head, exclaiming,

'You will, perhaps, give some signs of life, statue of flesh and bones!'
but Jesus, having at first bowed his head beneath the blow, raised it,
casting a look of pardon on the one who had struck him. No doubt this
ineffable sweetness intimidated or embarrassed the barbarians, for one
of them, detaching his scarf, bandaged the eyes of the young man of
Nazareth, saying to him:

'O great king! thy respectful subjects are not worthy to support thy
glance!'

When Jesus had his eyes thus bandaged, the idea of a ferocious baseness
struck the mind of the Romans; one of them approached the victim, gave
him a slap in the face and said to him, bursting into a laugh:

'O great prophet! guess the name of him who has struck you.'

Then a horrible sport commenced. These robust and armed men, each struck
in turn the fettered victim, broken by so many tortures, saying to him
every time they struck him on the face:

'Can you guess this time who struck you?'

Jesus (and these were the only words that Genevieve heard him pronounce
during the whole martyrdom), Jesus said in a voice of compassion,
lifting to heaven his eyes still covered with the bandage:

'May God forgive them, they know not what they do.'

Such was the only plaint uttered, by the sufferer, and it was not even a
plaint; it was a prayer he addressed to God, imploring pardon for his
tormentors. The Romans, far from being appeased by this divine
forbearance, redoubled their violences and outrages. Some wretches were
base enough to spit in Jesus' face. Genevieve could no longer have
supported the spectacle of these enormities, even if the gods had not
put an end to it; she heard in the street a great tumult, and saw arrive
Doctor Baruch, Jonas the banker, and Caiphus the high priest. Two men in
their suite carried a heavy wooden cross, a little longer than the
height of a man. At sight of this instrument of torture, the persons
waiting outside the gate of the guard-house, and amongst whom was
Genevieve, cried in a triumphant voice:

'Here's the cross at last! here's the cross!'

'A cross quite new and worthy of a king!'

'And as a king, the Nazarene will not say he is treated as a beggar!'

When the Romans heard it announced that the cross was brought, they
seemed very vexed that their victim was about to escape them. Jesus,
however, at the words 'Here's the cross! here's the cross!' rose up with
a sort of relief, hoping, no doubt, soon to bid adieu to this world. The
soldiers uncovered his eyes, drew off the red cloak, only leaving the
crown of thorns upon his head, so that he remained half naked; he was
thus conducted to the door of the guard-room, where he was met by the
men who were carrying the cross. Doctor Baruch, Jonas the banker, and
Caiphus, in their still unsatisfied hatred, exchanged triumphant
looks--pointing to the young man of Nazareth, pale, bleeding, and whose
strength seemed exhausted.--These merciless pharisees could not resist
the cruel pleasure of once more outraging the victim. The banker Jonas
said to him:

'You see, audacious insolent! the consequences of insulting the rich;
you do not now rail at them? You no longer compare them to camels
incapable of passing through the eye of a needle! It is a great pity
that your inclination for jesting is now passed.'

'Are you satisfied now,' added Doctor Baruch, 'with having treated the
doctors of law as swindlers and hypocrites, seeking to obtain the best
places at feasts? At any rate they will not dispute with you your place
on the cross.'

'And the priests,' added Caiphus, 'they were also swindlers and leeches
who devoured the widow's mite, under the pretence of long prayers,
hard-hearted men, less merciful than heathen Samaritans; dolts with
minds just narrow enough to observe the Sabbath piously, but so proud
that they had the trumpets sounded to announce their charities! You
thought yourself strong, you played the audacious, at the head of your
band of beggars, vagabonds, and prostitutes, which you picked up in
taverns, where you passed your days and nights! Where are your partizans
now? Call them, then, let them come and deliver you!'

The hatred of the crowd was not so patient as that of the pharisees, who
delighted in slowly torturing their victim; and furious cries were soon
heard of:

'Death to the Nazarene, death!'

'Let us make haste!'

'Do they mean to pardon him by thus retarding his execution?'

'He will not expire in a moment; they will have plenty of time to
converse with him when he is nailed to the cross.'

'Yes, let us hasten; his hand of wretches, frightened for a moment,
might attempt to carry him off!'

'And besides, where is the use of speaking to him? You can see plainly
he will not reply.'

'To death! to death!'

'And he must himself carry his cross to his place of punishment.'

The proposition of this fresh barbarity was received with applause by
all. They led Jesus out of the guard-room, and placed the cross on one
of his bleeding shoulders. The pain was so dreadful, the weight of the
cross so heavy, that the wretched son of Mary felt his knees tremble,
and he nearly fell to the ground; but finding fresh strength in his
courage and resignation, he seemed to bear up against suffering; and,
bending beneath his burthen, he slowly commenced his march. The crowd
and escort of soldiers cried, in following him:

'Room, room, for the triumph of the King of the Jews!'

The mournful cortege put itself in motion for the place of execution,
situated beyond the Judicial Gate; quitted the rich quarter of the
temple, and pursued its way through a part of the town much less rich
and very populous; thus, as by degrees the escort penetrated the quarter
of the poor, Jesus received at least some marks of interest on their
part. Genevieve saw a great many women, standing at their doors
lamenting the fate of the young man of Nazareth; they remembered that he
was the friend of poor mothers and their children; many of those
innocents therefore sent, with their tears, kisses to the good Jesus,
whose simple and touching parables they knew by heart. But, alas! almost
at every step, vanquished by pain, crushed under the weight he carried,
Mary's son stumbled; at length his strength entirely failed him; he fell
on his knees, then on his hands, and his forehead struck the ground.

Genevieve thought him dead or expiring; she could not restrain a cry of
grief and alarm; but he was not dead. His martyrdom and agony was still
to endure. The Roman soldiers who followed him, as well as the
pharisees, cried out:

'Up, up, lazy one! you pretend to fall that you may not carry your cross
to the end?'

'You, who reproached the high priests for binding on the backs of men
burthens insupportable, but which the priests would not touch with a
finger,' said Doctor Baruch, 'you are now doing precisely as they do in
refusing to bear your cross!'

Jesus, still on his knees, and his face bent toward the ground, helped
himself to rise with his two hands, which he did with great difficulty;
then, still scarcely able to stand, he waited for them to place the
cross on his shoulders; but scarcely was he again loaded with his
burthen, when, despite his courage and goodwill, he tottered and fell a
second time, crushed beneath the weight.

'Come,' said one of the emissaries, who, like the pharisees, had not
quitted his victim, 'see you that man in the brown mantle, who passes
so quickly, turning away his head as if he desired not to be recognized?
I have often seen him at the sermons of the Nazarene; suppose we force
him to carry the cross?'

'Yes,' said Baruch, 'call him.'

'Here! Simon!' cried the emissary; 'here! Simon the Cyrenean! you who
took part in the predictions of the Nazarene, come now, and take part in
the burthen he carries.'

Scarcely had the man Simon been recognized, than several amongst the
crowd cried like him, 'Here, Simon! Simon!'

The latter, at the first appeal of the emissary, had quickened his
march, as if he had heard nothing; but when a great number of voices
cried out his name, he turned back, advanced to where Jesus was, and
approached him with a troubled air.

'They are about to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, whose words you were so
delighted to hear,' said the banker Jonas to him in a jesting manner;
'he is your friend, will you not help him to carry his cross?'

'I will carry it myself,' replied Simon, having the courage to look with
an eye of pity on his young master, who, still kneeling, seemed ready to
fall.

Simon, having taken up the cross, walked before Jesus, and the cortege
pursued its route.

About a hundred paces further on, at the commencement of the street that
leads to the Judicial Gate, in passing before the shop of a vendor of
woolen cloths, Genevieve saw a woman of a venerable figure leave the
shop. This woman, at the sight of Jesus, pale, exhausted and bleeding,
could not restrain her tears; then, for the first time, the slave, who
until now, had forgotten that she might be sought after by order of her
master the Seigneur Gremion, remembered the address which her mistress
Aurelia had given her on the part of Jane, telling her that Veronica,
her nurse, keeping a shop near the Judicial Gate, could give her an
asylum. But Genevieve at this moment did not think of profiting by this
chance of safety. An unconquerable force attached her to the steps of
the young man of Nazareth, whom she resolved to follow to the end. She
then saw Veronica in tears approach Jesus, whose face was bathed in a
bloody sweat, and wipe with a linen towel the face of the poor martyr,
who thanked Veronica by a smile of celestial sweetness. A little farther
on, and whilst in the street which led to the Judicial Gate, Jesus
passed before several women who were weeping; he stopped a moment, and
said to these women, with an accent of profound melancholy:

'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me! but weep for yourselves, weep
for your children; for there will come a time when it shall be said,
"Blessed are the barren! Blessed are they who have no children! Blessed
are they who have not given suck!"'

Then Jesus, though broken with suffering, drawing himself up with an air
of inspiration, his features impressed with a heart-rending grief, as if
he had a consciousness of the frightful miseries he foresaw, exclaimed,
in a prophetic tone which made the pharisees themselves tremble:

'Yes, the time approaches in which men, in their fear, will say to the
mountains, "fall upon us!" and to the hills, "cover us!"'

And Jesus, bowing his head on his bosom, painfully pursued his march
amidst the silence of stupor and alarm which had succeeded his prophetic
words. The cortege continued to climb the steep street that leads to the
Judicial Gate, under which you pass to ascend to Golgotha, a little hill
situated outside the city, and at the summit of which are erected the
crosses of the condemned.

Genevieve remarked that the crowd, at first so basely hostile to Jesus,
began, as the hour of execution approached, to be moved, and to lament
the fate of the victim. These unfortunate people comprehended, no doubt,
but, alas, too late, that in allowing the friend of the poor and
afflicted to be put to death, they not only deprived themselves of a
defender, but that by their shameful ingratitude they froze up, for the
future, the generous hearts that would have devoted themselves to their
cause. When the Judicial Gate was passed, they commenced ascending Mount
Calvary. This ascent was so steep, that frequently Simon the Cyrenean,
still carrying Jesus' cross, was obliged to stop, as well as the young
man himself. The latter seemed to have preserved scarcely sufficient
strength to enable him to reach the summit of this barren hill, covered
with rolling stones, and where a few blades of sickly verdure alone
grew. The sky was covered with thick clouds; the day being gloomy and
funereal, threw a veil of sadness over all things. Genevieve, to her
great surprise, observed, towards the summit of Calvary, two other
crosses erected besides the one intended to be erected for Jesus. In
her astonishment, she inquired of a person in the crowd, who replied to
her:

'These crosses are intended for two thieves, who are to be crucified at
the same time as the Nazarene.'

'And why do they execute these thieves at the same moment as the
Nazarene?' inquired the slave.

'Because the pharisees, men of justice, wisdom, and piety, have resolved
that the Nazarene shall be accompanied even in death, by the miserable
wretches whose company he frequented during his life.'

Genevieve turned round to ascertain who had made her this reply; she
recognized one of the two emissaries. 'Oh! the merciless wretches!'
thought she; 'they find means of outraging Jesus even in his death.'

When the Roman soldiers who had escorted the young man arrived, followed
by the crowd, more and more silent and mournful, at the summit of
Calvary, as also Doctor Baruch, Jonas the banker, and Caiphus the high
priest, all three, anxious to assist at the agony and death of their
victim, Genevieve perceived the two thieves destined to be crucified,
bound and surrounded with guards; they were livid, and awaited their
fate with a terror mingled with an impotent rage. At a sign from the
Roman officer, chief of the escort, the executioners drew the two
crosses from the holes in which they had been erected, and threw them on
the ground; then seized the condemned, despite their cries, their
blasphemies and desperate resistance, they stripped them of their
garments and extended them on the crosses; then, whilst the soldiers
held them there, the executioners, armed with long nails and heavy
hammers, nailed to the crosses, by the feet and hands, these poor
wretches who howled with pain. By this refinement of cruelty they made
the young man of Nazareth a witness of the torture he was himself about
to suffer; consequently, at sight of the sufferings of these two
companions of punishment, Jesus could not restrain his tears; he then
buried his face in his hands to shut out the painful vision.

The two thieves crucified, the executioners again erected their crosses,
on which they writhed and groaned, thrust them some way into the ground,
and strengthened them by means of stones and piles.

'Come, Nazarene,' said one of the executioners to Jesus, approaching
him, holding in one hand his heavy hammer, and in the other several long
nails. 'Come, are you ready? Must we use violence to you, as to your two
companions?'

'What can they complain of?' replied the other executioner; 'we are so
much at our ease on a cross, with our arms extended, for all the world
like a man stretching himself after a long nap!'

Jesus made no reply; he stripped off his garments, placed himself on the
instrument of death, extended his arms on the cross, and turned toward
heaven his eyes drowned in tears.

Genevieve then saw the two executioners kneel on each side of the young
man of Nazareth, and seize their long nails and heavy hammers. The slave
closed her eyes, but she heard the dull sounds of the hammers, as they
drove the nails into the living flesh, whilst the two crucified thieves
continued their cries. The blows of the hammer ceased--Genevieve opened
her eyes: the cross to which they had attached the Nazarene had just
been erected between those of the two crucified thieves. Jesus, his
head crowned with thorns, his long chestnut hair glued to his temples by
a mixture of blood and sweat, his face livid and impressed with fearful
agony, his lips blue; seemed about to expire; the whole weight of his
body resting on his two hands nailed to the cross, as also his feet,
from whence the blood trickled; his arms stiffened by violent convulsive
movements, whilst his knees, half bent, occasionally knocked against
each other. Genevieve then heard the almost dying voice of the two
thieves who, addressing Jesus, said to him: 'Cursed be thou, Nazarene!
cursed be thou, who told us that the first should be last, and the last
first? Behold us crucified, what can'st thou do for us?'

'Cursed be thou, who told us that they alone who were sick had need of
the physician: behold us ill; where is the physician?'

'Cursed be thou who told us that the good shepherd abandons his flock to
find a single sheep that has strayed! we have strayed, and thou, the
good shepherd, leave us in the hands of butchers.'

And these wretched men were not the only ones to insult the agony of
Jesus; for, horrible as it is, and which Genevieve whilst writing this
can hardly believe, Doctor Baruch, Jonas the banker, and Caiphus the
high priest, joined the two thieves in assailing and outraging Jesus, at
the moment he was about to render up his soul.

'Oh! Jesus of Nazareth! Jesus the Messiah! Jesus the prophet? Jesus, the
Savior of the world!' said Caiphus: 'how was it you did not prophesy
your own fate? Why did you not commence by saving yourself, you who were
to save the world?'

'You call yourself the son of God, O Nazarene the divine!' added the
banker Jonas: 'we will believe in your celestial power if you descend
from your cross. We only ask of you this little prodigy! Come, son of
God, descend! descend then! Ah! you prefer resting nailed on that beam,
like a bird of night at a barn-door? Free thyself: you might be called
Jesus the crucified, but never Jesus the son of God!'

'You appear to have much confidence in the Almighty!' added Doctor
Baruch: 'call on him then to assist you! If he protects you, if you are
really his son, why does he not thunder against us, your murderers? Why
does he not change this cross into a bed of roses, from whence you could
fly in a glory to heaven?'

The shouts and jests of the soldiers accompanied these disgraceful
outrages of the pharisees; suddenly Genevieve saw Jesus stiffen in all
his limbs, make a last effort to lift up his bleeding and wearied head
to heaven: a last ray seemed to illumine his celestial expression; a
heart-rending smile contracted his lips, and he murmured in a faint
voice: 'My God! my God! take pity on me!'

His head then fell on his bosom, the friend of the poor and afflicted
had ceased to live!

Genevieve knelt down and burst into tears. At this moment she heard a
voice exclaim behind her:

'Ah! here is the fugitive slave! Ah! I was certain of finding her in the
traces of this cursed Nazarene, on whom they have at length done
justice. Seize her! bind her hands behind her back. Oh! this time my
vengeance shall be terrible!'

Genevieve turned round and saw her master, the Seigneur Gremion.

'Now,' said Genevieve, 'I can die; since he, alas, who promised slaves
to break their chains is dead.'

       *       *       *       *       *

Although I had to endure the most cruel torments on the part of my
master, I did not die, since I wrote this narrative for my husband
Fergan.

After having thus recounted what I knew and what I had seen of the life
and death of the young man of Nazareth, I would think it impious to
speak of what has happened to myself from the sad day when I saw the
friend of the poor and the afflicted expire on the cross. I will only
say, taking as an example the resignation of Jesus on the cross, I will
endure patiently the cruelties of Seigneur Gremion, from attachment to
my mistress Aurelia; suffering all in order not to quit her; so that I
remained the slave of Gremion's wife during the two years she was in
Judea. Thanks to human ingratitude, six months after the death of the
young man of Nazareth, his remembrance was effaced from the memory of
man. A few of his disciples only preserved a pious recollection of him.

When after two years passed in Judea with my mistress Aurelia, I
returned amongst the Gauls, I found them still in slavery, as frightful,
perhaps more so, than in times past.

I have added to this narrative, which I have written for my husband
Fergan, a small silver cross, which was given me by Jane, wife of the
Seigneur Chusa, a short time after the death of the young man of
Nazareth. Some persons (and Jane amongst them), who preserved a pious
respect for the memory of the friend of the afflicted, had some small
crosses made in remembrance of the instrument of Jesus's death, and wore
them or distributed them, after having deposited them on Mount Calvary,
on the ground whereon the blood of Jesus had streamed.

I know not if I am to be one day a mother; if I have this happiness (is
it a happiness for a slave to bring into the world other slaves?) I will
add this little silver cross to the family relics which ought to
transmit from generation to generation the history of the family of
Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. May this little cross be the
symbol of the enfranchising of the old and heroic Gallic race! May those
words of Jesus be one day realized for the children of our children:
'The chains of the slave shall be broken!'


[The End.]





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Silver Cross or The Carpenter of
Nazareth, by Eugene Sue

*** 