THE SILVER CROSS 
 
 IWTV. OP CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS
 
 THE FULL SERIES OF 
 
 nf 
 
 History of a Proletarian Family 
 Across the Ages 
 
 EU 
 
 N 
 
 UE 
 
 Consisting of the Following Works: 
 
 THE GOLD SICKLE ; or, Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. 
 THE BRASS BELL; or, The Chariot of Death. 
 THE IRON COLLAR; or, Faustine and Syomara. 
 THE SILVER CROSS; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth. 
 THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps. 
 THE PONIARD'S HILT; or, Karadeucq and Ronan. 
 THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, The Monastery of CharoUes. 
 THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, Bonaik and Septimine. 
 THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, The Daughters of 
 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, The Buckler Maiden. 
 THE INFANTS SKULL; or, The End of the World. 
 THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, Fergan the Quarryman. 
 THE IRON PINCERS; or, Mylio and Karvel. 
 THE IRON TREVET; or Jocelyn the Champion. 
 THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, Joan of Arc. 
 THE POCKET BIBLE; or, Christian the Printer. 
 THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, The Peasant Code. 
 THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, The Foundation of the French 
 
 Republic 
 THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, The Family Lebrenn. 
 
 Published Uniform With This Volume By 
 
 THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. 
 
 28 CITY HALL PLACE 
 
 NEW YORK CITY
 
 THE SILVER CROSS 
 
 :: :: OR :: :: 
 
 THE CARPENTER OF NAZARETH 
 
 A Tale of Jerusalem 
 By EUGENE SUE 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH 
 
 By DANIEL DELEON 
 
 NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY. 1909
 
 Copyright. 1909. by the 
 NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.
 
 INDEX 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE vii 
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 I. A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S 3 
 
 II. JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE 32 
 
 III. THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS 42 
 
 IV. THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH 58 
 
 V. THE VALLEY OF CEDRON 80 
 
 VI. GENEVIEVE'S MARTYRDOM 102 
 
 VII. THE GARDEN OF OLIVES 113 
 
 VIII. BEFORE CAIAPHAS 124 
 
 IX. ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE ! 134 
 
 X. BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE 144 
 
 XI. IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM 161 
 
 XII. GOLGOTHA 171 
 
 EPILOGUE 187 
 
 2133415
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 
 
 Of the series of nineteen historic novels that comprise 
 Eugene Sue's work entitled The Mysteries of the People; 
 or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages, the 
 first four may be called the overture to the historic drama 
 that really starts with the fifth The Casque's Lark; or, 
 Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, when the two dis- 
 tinct streams of the typically oppressed and typical op- 
 pressor meet and closes with the nineteenth The Gal- 
 ley Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn, bringing 
 history down to the year 1848. The introductory period 
 closes with this, the fourth story, The Silver Cross; or, 
 The Carpenter of Nazareth. While the first of the intro- 
 ductory stories The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin 
 of the Isle of Sen portrays the Gallic people, pure, brave, 
 industrious but unorganized ; while the second The Brass 
 Bell; or, The Chariot of Death narrates the enslavement 
 of this people, as the inevitable consequence of their un- 
 organized condition, which not all their virtues could 
 parry; while the third The Iron Collar; or, Faustina and 
 Syomara describes Roman society with an eye especially 
 to the brutality that the slave was subjected to, and the 
 brutalizing effect thereof upon the slaveholder himself; 
 while these three stories unfold the gradual breakdown of 
 society under the Roman sway, this, the fourth, summar- 
 izes the preceding ones in the grand climax of the political 
 upheaval which the Tragedy of Calvary, though expected 
 to, was not able to burke. 
 
 Although Sue's Mysteries of the People; or, History 
 of a Proletarian Family is a "work of fiction," yet it is 
 the best universal history extant; better than any work,
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 avowedly on history, it graphically traces the special fea- 
 tures of the several systems of class-rule as they have suc- 
 ceeded 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 exist- 
 ence 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 repro- 
 duced in a majestic series of "historic novels," covering 
 leading and successive episodes in the history of the race. 
 
 The present story The Silver Cross; or, The Car- 
 penter of Nazareth is a marvellous presentation of one 
 of the world's leading events in a garb without which that 
 event is stripped of its beauty and significance. As the 
 narrative rushes onward thrillingly from start to catas- 
 trophe, it delineates one after another the leading features 
 of the oppressors' class their unity of action, despite 
 hostile politico-material interests and clashing creed ten- 
 ets; the hypocrisy that typifies them all; the oneness of 
 fundamental purpose that animates pulpit, professional 
 chair, or public office in possession of a plundering class. 
 Page after page holds the mirror up to the modern ruling 
 class its orators, pulpiteers, politicians, lawyers, together 
 with its long train of menials of high and low degree 
 and, by the reflection cast, enlightens and warns. 
 
 DANIEL DE LEON. 
 
 Milford, Conn., May, 1909.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I, Fergan, the grandson of Sylvest, unable to do bet- 
 ter, wish to add this introduction to the following story 
 written by my wife, Genevieve, for our family archives, 
 s a sequel to the narrative of my grandfather. 
 
 Genevieve was my foster sister, and later became my 
 wife. Shortly after our marriage she was hired from 
 my master as a washerwoman by a Roman residing in 
 Marseilles and named Gremion, a relative of my grand- 
 father 's first master, and agent of the Roman fisc. 
 
 The dominion of the Romans then extended from 
 one end of the world to the other. Judea had become 
 subject to them as a dependency of the province of 
 Syria, which was governed by a Roman Prefect. 
 
 From the port of Marseilles vessels often took sail 
 for the country of the Israelites. Gremion, a relative 
 of the Procurator of Judea, named Pontius Pilate, was 
 appointed the successor of the Tribune of the Treasury, 
 whose duty it was to oversee the collection of taxes in 
 that country. Wherever the Roman dominion planted 
 itself, the collection of taxes was at the same time 
 organized. 
 
 Aurelia, the wife of Gremion, who had hired my wife 
 Genevieve as a washerwoman, was so pleased with her
 
 a INTRODUCTION. 
 
 kind manners and her attention to work, that she 
 wished to keep her near her during her long voyage 
 to the country of the Israelites. She begged her hus- 
 band to purchase Genevieve, and he did so. 
 
 The gods were kind to us. Aurelia was of that small 
 number of Roman dames who were benign towards 
 their slaves. Young, handsome, of a lively and sport- 
 ive disposition, Aurelia was not likely to render servi- 
 tude too harsh to my wife. This consideration miti- 
 gated my sorrow at our separation. I had become quite 
 skilled at my weaver 's trade, and yielded large returns 
 to the fiscal agents, who hired me out to other masters. 
 
 It was, accordingly, towards the fifteenth year of 
 the reign of Tiberius that my wife departed from 
 Marseilles with Aurelia, her mistress, for Judea. 
 
 The events in the following narrative were written 
 by Genevieve a year ago, after her return from her 
 voyage. My own life has been until now so monoto- 
 nous and insignificant that an account of it would 
 make a poor showing in the archives of my family. 
 As to Genevieve 's experience, although she relates 
 some adventures that are of but little importance, and 
 which occurred in the land of the Hebrews during her 
 sojourn in Jerusalem, it will have at least the attrac- 
 tion that a very distant and little known country hap- 
 pens to be its theater.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 
 
 On that evening there was a great supper party at 
 the mansion of Pontius Pilate, the Procurator in the 
 country of the Israelites for the Emperor Tiberius. 
 
 Towards the decline of day the most brilliant com- 
 pany met at the mansion of the Roman seigneur. The 
 house, like those of all rich persons of that country, 
 was built of hewn stone, plastered over with chalk, and 
 covered with a wash of a reddish color. 1 
 
 The sumptuous residence was reached through a 
 square yard, surrounded with marble pillars that 
 formed a gallery. In the center of the yard a foun- 
 tain spouted jets of limpid water, imparting an agree- 
 able coolness under the burning sun of Arabia. A 
 tall palm tree, planted close to the fountain, shaded it 
 with its foliage by day. From the square yard one 
 stepped into a vestibule filled with servants, and from 
 there into the banquet hall, the walls of which were 
 panelled in sandalwood encrusted with ivory. 
 
 Around the table lay couches of cedar wood, covered 
 with rich draperies, on which the guests sat to eat. 
 According to the custom of the country, each of the 
 
 1 Jeremiah, 22.14.
 
 * THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 dames present at the supper had brought with her 
 one of her female slaves, who stood behind her during 
 the repast. It was in this way that Genevieve, the wife 
 of Fergan, witnessed the scenes which she is about to 
 describe, having accompanied her mistress Aurelia to 
 the residence of Seigneur Pontius Pilate. 
 
 The company was select. Prominent among the men 
 of greatest note were Seigneur Baruch, a Senator and 
 doctor of law; Seigneur Chuza, the intendant of the 
 residence of Herod, Tetrarch or Prince of Judea under 
 the protection of Rome; Seigneur Gremion, recently 
 arrived from Roman Gaul in the capacity of Tribune 
 of the Treasury in Judea; Seigneur Jonas, one of the 
 richest bankers of Jerusalem; and, finally, Seigneur 
 Caiaphas, one of the Princes of the Church of the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 Among the dames at the supper table were Lucretia, 
 the wife of Pontius Pilate; Aurelia, the wife of Gre- 
 mion; and Joanna, the wife of Chuza. 1 
 
 The two handsomest dames of the company that took 
 eupper on that evening at the mansion of Pontius Pilate 
 were Joanna and Aurelia. Joanna had the beauty that 
 is peculiar to Orientals large black eyes that were at 
 once gentle and warm, and teeth of a whiteness that 
 her brunette complexion rendered all the more daz- 
 zling. Her turban, made of a costly Tyrian material 
 of purple color, and held together by a thick chain of 
 gold, the ends of which fell one on each of her shoul- 
 
 1 Lukc. 8.3.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 5 
 
 ders, framed her forehead, which two heavy braids of 
 black hair partly concealed. She was clad in a long 
 white robe which left exposed her arms, richly circled 
 with gold bracelets. Over her robe, and held at the 
 waist by a purple scarf of like material with her tur- 
 ban, she wore a sort of sleeveless vest of orange-colored 
 silk. Joanna's beautiful features bore the stamp of 
 sweetness, and her smile was expressive of charming 
 kindness. 
 
 Aurelia, the wife of Gremion, born of Roman par- 
 ents in the south of France, was also beautiful. She 
 was dressed after the fashion of her own country two 
 tunics, one long and of rose color, the other short and 
 blue. A net of gold thread held her auburn hair. Her 
 skin was as white as Joanna's was brown. Her large 
 blue eyes danced with delight, and her cheerful smile 
 proclaimed unalterable good temper. 
 
 Senator Baruch, one of the most learned doctors in 
 the law, occupied the place of honor at the supper. 
 He seemed to be a great glutton. His green turban 
 leaned almost the whole time over his plate. He even 
 had to loosen two or three times the belt that held his 
 Jong velvet robe, ornamented with a long silver fringe. 
 The gluttony of the fat Senator drew several times 
 smiles and mutual whispers from Joanna and Aurelia, 
 new friends as they were, who sat beside each other, and 
 behind whom stood Genevieve, losing not a word that 
 passed between them, and no less attentive to all that 
 the other guests said.
 
 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Seigneur Jonas, one of the wealthiest bankers of 
 Jerusalem, with a little yellow turban on his head and 
 clad in a brown robe, wore a grey and pointed beard. 
 He resembled a bird of prey. Off and on he spoke in 
 ft low voice to the doctor of law, who rarely answered 
 him, never ceasing to eat, while the High Priest Caia- 
 l>has, Gremion, Pontius Pilate and the other person- 
 ages conversed among themselves. 
 
 Towards the end of the supper, the doctor of law, 
 having at last had his fill, wiped his greasy beard with 
 the back of his hand, and addressed the recently ar- 
 rived Tribune of the Treasury, saying: 
 
 "Seigneur Gremion, are you beginning to accustom 
 yourself to the ways of our poor country? Oh! It 
 must be a great change to you who come from Roman 
 Gaul what a long voyage you have made!" 
 
 "I like to see new countries," answered Gremion; 
 "and I shall have frequent occasion to travel over your 
 country overseeing the tax collectors." 
 
 "Unfortunately for Seigneur Gremion," put in the 
 banker Jonas, "he arrives in Judea in sad and evil 
 days." 
 
 "Why so, seigneur?" asked Gremion. 
 
 "Are not times of civil disturbances always evil 
 times?" answered the banker. 
 
 "No doubt, Seigneur Jonas; but what disturbances 
 do you mean?" 
 
 "My friend Jonas," replied Baruch, the doctor of 
 law, "refers to the deplorable disorders that a vasra-
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S- 1 
 
 bond of Nazareth leaves behind him in his wake wher- 
 ever he goes, and which grow worse every day." 
 
 "Oh, yes!" said Gremion, "that former carpenter of 
 Galilee, who was born in a stable, and is the son of a 
 plowmaker. I heard it said that he goes all over the 
 country how did you call him?" 
 
 "If he were given the name he deserves," cried the 
 doctor of law angrily, "he would be called the Scamp 
 the Impious the Seditious but he carries the name of 
 Jesus." 
 
 "An idle ranter," interjected Pontius Pilate, with a 
 shrug of his shoulders after emptying his cup. "A 
 fool prating to geese." 
 
 ' ' Seigneur Pontius Pilate ! ' ' cried the doctor of law 
 in a reproachful tone. "How! You who represent in 
 this country the august Emperor Tiberius, the pro- 
 tector of us peaceful and honest folks, seeing that, but 
 for your troops, the populace would long ago have 
 risen in revolt against Herod our Prince you remain 
 indifferent to the acts and doings of that Nazarene! 
 You dismiss him as a fool! Oh, Seigneur Pontius 
 Pilate, this is not the first time I have warned you that 
 fools like that one are political pests!" 
 
 "And I repeat it, my seigneurs," replied Pontius 
 Pilate, holding out his empty cup to the slave behind 
 him. "I repeat it, you alarm yourselves unnecessarily. 
 Let the Nazarene preach at his ease, his words will 
 blow over like the wind." 
 
 "Seigneur Baruch," asked Joanna, in her sweet
 
 8 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 voice, "why do you entertain such a bitter hatred for 
 that young man of Nazareth? You never hear his 
 name mentioned without becoming enraged." 
 
 "Yes, I hate that Nazarene," answered the doctor 
 of law. "My hatred is justified by his conduct. The 
 wretch, who respects nothing, has not only insulted 
 me, me, personally, but he has gone farther; he has 
 insulted all my fellow Senators in my person. Do you 
 know what he dared to say on the square of the Tem- 
 ple, as he saw me walk by?" 
 
 "Well, what did he say, Seigneur Baruch?" Joanna 
 persisted, smiling. "It must have been something 
 frightful!" 
 
 "It was abominable, monstrous! That is what it 
 was," replied the doctor of law. "Well, as I said, I 
 was crossing the square of the Temple; I was coming 
 from dinner at my friend Samuel's. On my way I en- 
 countered a group of beggars all in rags workmen, 
 camel-drivers, fellows who let out asses, women of ill 
 repute, children in tatters, and other people of the 
 most dangerous sort. They stood listening to a young 
 man who had mounted upon a stone and was perorating 
 at the top of his voice. Suddenly he pointed his finger 
 at me. All the other vagabonds turned around to see 
 me, and I heard the Nazarene, it was he, you must 
 know, say to his audience of rag-tag and bob-tail: 
 'Beware of the doctors of the law which love to go in 
 long clothing, and love salutations in the market places,
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 
 
 and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the upper- 
 most rooms at feasts.' m 
 
 "You must admit, Seigneur Pontius Pilate," ob- 
 served the banker Jonas, ' ' that it is impossible to carry 
 the audacity of personality any further than that " 
 
 "To me it seems," whispered Aurelia to Joanna, 
 laughing and calling her attention to the circumstance 
 that the doctor of law actually occupied the place of 
 honor at the feast, "to me it seems that Seigneur Ba- 
 ruch has, indeed, a fondness for the best places." 
 
 "That is why he is angry at the young man of Naz- 
 areth, who holds hypocrisy in horror," answered Jo- 
 anna, while Seigneur Baruch proceeded, more and more 
 incensed : 
 
 "But, my dear seigneurs, there are still worse abom- 
 inations to follow. 'Beware,' the inciter to sedition 
 proceeded to yell, 'beware of the doctors of the law 
 tor they devour widows' houses, and for a pretence 
 make long prayers; these shall receive greater damna- 
 tion.' 2 Yes, those are the very words that I heard the 
 Nazarene utter. And, now, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, 
 I solemnly declare to you that, if you do not suppress 
 as speedily as possible the unbridled license which 
 dares to assail the authority of the doctors of the law, 
 that is to say, Law and Authority themselves if Sen- 
 ators can thus with impunity be pointed out to the 
 hatred and contempt of the public if that can be, 
 then it is done for society ! ' ' 
 
 1 Mark, 12.38. 39. 
 'Mark, 12.40.
 
 10 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Let him taik," observed Pontius Pilate with phil- 
 osophic composure, and again emptying his cup. "Let 
 him talk, and you enjoy your lives unmolested." 
 
 "Enjoy one's life unmolested, Seigneur Pontius 
 Pilate, when one foresees grave disasters?" exclaimed 
 the banker Jonas. "I must confess that the fears of 
 ray worthy friend Baruch are but too well founded. 
 Yes, I say with him, it is done for society. The audac- 
 ity of this carpenter of Nazareth transcends every- 
 thing. There is nothing that he respects. Yesterday 
 it was Law and Authority that he assailed in their 
 representatives. To-day it is the rich against whom he 
 arouses the dregs of the populace. Did he not venture 
 to utter this execrable sentiment: 'It is easier for a 
 camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
 rich man to enter into the kingdom of God'?" 1 
 
 At this citation by Seigneur Jonas all the guests ex- 
 claimed in chorus : 
 
 "Abominable!" 
 
 "We are marching towards an abyss!" 
 
 "According to that, all of us, as we sit here, who 
 have gold in our coffers, are condemned to eternal 
 fire!" 
 
 "The idea of comparing us to cables that can not 
 pass through the eye of a needle !" 
 
 "And these monstrosities are said and repeated by 
 the Nazarene to the dregs of the populace!" 
 
 "With intent to incite them to loot the rich " 
 
 1 MatUiewT 19.24.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 11 
 
 "Is not that a despicable way of flattering the de- 
 testable passions of the mob of tattered beggars in 
 whom Jesus of Nazareth takes so much delight, and 
 with whom, it is said, he gets regularly drunk?" 1 
 
 "I find it hard to blame the young fellow for loving 
 wine," remarked Pontius Pilate, laughing heartily, 
 and again holding out his cup to his slave. "Guzzlers 
 are not dangerous people." 
 
 "But not yet is that all," put in Caiaphas, the High 
 Priest. "The Nazarene does not only outrage Law, 
 and Authority, and Property he attacks with no less 
 brazenness the religion of our fathers. For instance, 
 it is expressly ordered in Deuteronomy: 'Unto the 
 stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy 
 brother thou shalt not lend upon usury.' 2 Note well 
 the first words: Unto the stranger thou mayest lend 
 upon usury. Well, now, in utter contempt for the pre- 
 scriptions of our holy religion, the Nazarene arrogates 
 to himself the right to say: 'Do good, and lend, hop- 
 ing for nothing again,' 3 and he takes particular care 
 to add: 'Ye can not serve God and mammon.'* So 
 that religion expressly declares it is permissible to 
 draw profit on your money from strangers, and the 
 Nazarene, blaspheming Holy "Writ in one of its most 
 important dogmas, denies what it affirms, forbids what 
 it allows." 
 
 "My condition of a pagan," replied Pontius Pilate, 
 thrown into a rollicking mood by his copious potations, 
 
 Luke. 7.34. Luke, 6.35. 
 
 Deuteronomy, 23.20. Luke 16.18.
 
 12 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "does not allow me to take part in such a discussion. 
 While you are at it, I shall silently to myself invoke 
 our God Bacchus wine, slave! Wine!" 
 
 "Nevertheless, Seigneur Pontius Pilate," objected 
 the banker Jonas, who seemed hardly able to restrain 
 his irritation at the Roman's indifference, "even if 
 we pass by what there is of sacrilegious in this propo- 
 sition of the Nazarene, you will have to admit that it 
 is downright insanity. With such notions, good-bye to 
 all commerce!" 
 
 "It means the ruin of public fortune!" 
 "What am I to do with the gold in my coffers if I 
 were not to draw profit on it, if I were to lend, hoping 
 for nothing again? It is to make one laugh were it 
 not so odious " 
 
 "Nor is it the case of an isolated attack aimed at 
 our holy religion," proceeded Caiaphas to explain. 
 "With the Nazarene, it is a settled policy to outrage 
 and undermine the faith of our fathers. Let me give 
 you another instance. The other day the sick were 
 bathing in the pool of Bethesda. That day was the 
 Sabbath. Now, you know, my seigneurs, how solemn 
 and sacred is the prohibition against doing any man- 
 ner of work on the Sabbath." 
 
 "To all religious people it is impiousness. " 
 "Now, watch the conduct of the Nazarene," Caia- 
 phas proceeded. "He goes to the pool, and note in 
 passing that, with cunning villainy, he never accepts a
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S- 1* 
 
 denier for his cures. Among others, he finds there a 
 nian with a dislocated foot he sets it " 
 
 ' ' What ! On the Sabbath ! ' ' 
 
 "Abomination and desolation!" 
 
 "To heal a patient on the Sabbath sacrilege!" 
 
 "Yes, my seigneurs," answered the priest with a 
 mournful voice; "he committed the sacrilege!" 1 
 
 "If the young man had failed to restore the patient 
 to the use of his foot," whispered Aurelia to Jo- 
 anna, smiling, "I could understand their rage." 
 
 "Such ungodliness," added Doctor Baruch, "such 
 ungodliness deserves the severest punishment it is im- 
 possible to outrage religion in a more abominable man- 
 ner!" 
 
 "And you must not think that the Nazarene keeps 
 his sacrileges dark, or blushes over them far from it! 
 He carries blasphemy to the point of deriding the Sab- 
 bath, and of denouncing those who observe it as hypo- 
 crites!" 2 
 
 A general murmur of indignation received these 
 words of the Prince of the Church, so abominable was 
 the Nazarene 's impiousness considered by the guests 
 of Pontius Pilate. The latter, however, unconcernedly 
 emptying cup upon cup, seemed no longer to be inter- 
 ested in the conversation that went on all around him. 
 
 "No, Seigneur Caiaphas," remarked the banker 
 Jonas, with a look of consternation, "if it were some 
 
 ' *Luke, 6.7-11. 
 "Luke, 13.15.
 
 1* THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 one else than yourself who informed me of such enor- 
 mities, I would hesitate to believe them." 
 
 "What I am telling you are accurate facts. The 
 idea occurred to me of placing near the Nazarene cer- 
 tain wily fellows who assume the appearance of being 
 partisans of his. They draw him out. He then speaks 
 without mistrust, opens his heart to my men, and then 
 they return immediately to me and repeat everything 
 that took place." 1 
 
 "That is an excellent plan that you hit upon, Seig- 
 neur Caiaphas," observed the banker Jonas approv- 
 ingly. "All honor to you!" 
 
 "Well, thanks to these emissaries," the High Priest 
 proceeded, "I am informed that as late as day before 
 yesterday the Nazarene uttered incendiary language, 
 enough to egg on the slaves who listened to him to cut 
 the throats of their masters. He said: 'The disciple 
 is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord ; 
 it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, 
 and the servant as his lord'!" 2 
 
 A fresh murmur of indignation ran over the assem- 
 blage. 
 
 "You notice the kind concession that the Nazarene 
 deigns to make to us!" cried the banker Jonas. "In- 
 deed? It is enough that the slave be as his master! 
 
 l Luke, 20.20. 
 
 Dupln makes the following re- I have not used the proper term 
 
 flection : "Who would not be sur- to qualify the emissaries sent out 
 
 prised to find here the odious about Jesus". Dupln. Sr., Jesux 
 
 trade of the agent prorocateurT before Caiaphas. p. 30. 
 
 One may see for himself whether J Matthew, 10.24-25.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 15 
 
 You grant us that much, Jesus of Nazareth ! You per- 
 mit that the slave shall not be above his seigneur! 
 Many thanks to you!" 
 
 "And consider," added the doctor of law, ''consider 
 the consequences of these amazing doctrines if they 
 were to be generally spread among the masses. We 
 may now speak freely, here among us, now that our 
 servants have left the banquet hall. The day when 
 the slave will consider himself the equal of his master 
 he will say to himself: 'If I am my master's equal, he 
 can not have the right to keep me in bondage, and I 
 have the right to rebel.' Now, my seigneurs, you can 
 easily imagine what such a revolt would mean!" 
 
 "It would be the end of society!" 
 
 "The end of the world!" 
 
 "Chaos!" cried Seigneur Baruch. "Only chaos can 
 follow upon the unchaining of the most detestable pas- 
 sions of the populace, and the Nazarene flatters them 
 only in order to let them loose upon us. He promises 
 mountains and marvels to the wretches in order to 
 make proselytes of them. He flatters their envious ha- 
 tred by saying to them that on the day of justice 'the 
 last shall be first, and the first last'!" 1 
 
 "Yes, in the kingdom of heaven," interjected Jo- 
 anna, in a sweet yet firm voice. "That is the sense in 
 which the young man understands it." 
 
 "Oh, indeed?" said Seigneur Chuza, her husband, 
 satirically. "He means only the kingdom of heaven t 
 
 'Matthew, 20.10.
 
 19 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Do you really believe that? If so, why then did a fel- 
 low named Peter, one of his disciples, shortly ago pro- 
 pound to him this categoric question: 'Behold, we 
 have forsaken all, and followed thee: what shall we 
 have therefore?' " l 
 
 "That Peter is a man of foresight," remarked the 
 banker jeeringly. ' ' That fellow does not allow himself 
 to be paid with hollow words." 
 
 "To that question from Peter," replied Chuza, 
 "what waa the Nazarene's answer, couched in such 
 terms as to incite the cupidity of the bandits whom, 
 sooner or later, he means to turn into his instruments? 
 He answered in these unmistakable words: 
 
 " 'Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, 
 or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
 lands for my sake shall receive an hundredfold now 
 in this time, and shall inherit everlasting life.' " 2 
 
 " 'Now in this time,' that is clear enough," put in 
 Doctor Baruch. "He promises now and in this time 
 to the men of his bands a hundred houses for the one 
 which they give up in order to follow him ; a hundred- 
 fold larger field for the one they abandon ; and, over 
 and above all that, for the future, in the centuries to 
 come, he assures eternal life to the reprobates!" 
 
 "Now, then, where is he to seize those hundred 
 houses for one," inquired the banker Jonas, "or the 
 fields that he promises to the vagabonds ? He will have 
 
 Matthew 19.27 
 
 Matthew. 19.29, Mark, 10.29,30.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 17 
 
 to take them from us, from us, the property holders, 
 irom us, the cables for whom the entrance into Para- 
 dise is as narrow as the eye of a needle, simply because 
 of our wealth." 
 
 "It seems to me, my seigneurs," insisted Joanna, 
 "that you put a wrong interpretation upon the words 
 of the young master. They are used in a figurative 
 sense. ' ' 
 
 "Indeed!" again exclaimed Joanna's husband in 
 ironical accents. "And what may the beautiful figure 
 of speech be, what is the allegory?" 
 
 ' ' When Jesus of Nazareth says that those who follow 
 him will enjoy now a hundredfold what they give up, 
 he means, it seems to me, that the consciousness of 
 preaching the glad tidings, the love of our fellowmen, 
 kindness towards the weak and suffering, will compen- 
 sate a hundredfold for the earthly goods that they may 
 have renounced." 
 
 Joanna's clever and kind words were ill received by 
 the guests of Pontius Pilate, and the High Priest cried 
 out: 
 
 "I pity your wife, Seigneur Chuza, for being, like 
 30 many other women, blinded by the Nazarene. So 
 completely are his eyes fastened upon material wealth, 
 that he has the audacity of sending the vagabonds, 
 whom he calls his disciples, to establish themselves in 
 other people's houses and to eat their fill there under 
 the pretence of preaching his delectable doctrines to the 
 inmates. ' '
 
 18 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "How is that, my seigneurs!" exclaimed Gremion. 
 "Are such highhanded deeds possible in your country, 
 and can they be perpetrated with impunity! People 
 establish themselves by main force in your house, and 
 eat and drink under pretence of perorating ? ' ' 
 
 "Those who admit the disciples of the young master 
 of Nazareth," rejoined Joanna, "receive them volun- 
 tarily. " 
 
 "Yes, some of them," said Jonas. "But the larger 
 number of those who harbor the vagabonds yield to 
 fear and to threats. According to the orders of the 
 Nazarene whoever refuses to shelter and feed his idle 
 tramps are consigned by them to the fires of heaven. ' n 
 
 Fresh clamors of indignation received the report of 
 these new misdeeds of the Nazarene. 
 
 "That's an intolerable tyranny!" 
 
 "A stop must be put to such indignities!" 
 
 "It is simply organized pillage!" 
 
 "So, you see," said the banker Jonas, "Seigneur 
 Baruch is perfectly right when he says that it is 
 straight toward chaos that we are led by the Nazarene, 
 to whom nothing is sacred. I repeat it not satisfied 
 with seeking to overthrow Law, Authority, Property 
 and Religion, his infernal purpose is to destroy the 
 family also " 
 
 "The fellow must be the very incarnation of your 
 own Beelzebub!" cried Gremion. "What is that you 
 say, my seigneurs! The Nazarene miscreant contem- 
 
 Luke, 10.3-12.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 19 
 
 plates annihilating the family? The sacrosanct insti- 
 tution of the family ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes, to annihilate by dividing it," explained Caia- 
 phas. "To annihilate it by sowing discord and hatred 
 at the domestic hearth! By arousing the son against 
 the father! Servants against their masters!" 
 
 "Seigneur," said Gremion, shaking his head doubt- 
 fully, "can so abominable a project find lodgment in a 
 sane man's head?" 
 
 "In the head of a man, no," answered the High 
 Priest; "in the head of a Beelzebub like the Nazarene, 
 certainly. Here is the proof of it: According to the 
 irrefutable report of my emissaries, whom I told you 
 about, the accursed man uttered, only a week ago, the 
 following horrible words in an address to the band of 
 beggars that never leaves him: 
 
 " 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. 
 I came not to send peace but a sword. I am come to 
 send fire on the earth ; and what will I if it be already 
 kindled! Suppose you that I am come to give peace 
 on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division. I am 
 come to set a man at variance with his father, and the 
 daughter against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes 
 shall be they of his own household. For henceforth 
 there shall be five in one house divided, three against 
 two, and two against three.' m 
 
 "But that is shocking!" cried the banker Jonas and 
 the intendant Chuza in chorus. 
 
 1 Matthew, 10.84-36, Luke, 12.49-53.
 
 20 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "It is to preach the dissolution of the family through 
 hatred!" 
 
 "It is preaching civil war!" cried the Roman Gre- 
 mion. "Social war, like that raised by the revolted 
 slave Spartacus!" 
 
 * ' "What, to dare say : ' I am come to send fire on the 
 earth, and what will I if it be already kindled'!" 
 
 "And also: 'A man's foes shall be they of his own 
 household'!" 
 
 "And besides: 'Henceforth there shall be five in 
 one house divided, three against two, and tvv r o against 
 three'!" 
 
 "Why, he himself has the infernal audacity to sum 
 up his purpose saying: 'I am come to send fire on the 
 earth.'" 
 
 Joanna listened with distressed impatience to the 
 numerous charges preferred against the Nazarene. 
 Finally she cried in a firm and indignant tone: 
 
 "Oh, my seigneurs; I am weary of listening to your 
 calumnies ! You misapprehend the words of the young 
 master of Nazareth to his disciples. When he speaks 
 Df the division that will arise in a family, he means 
 that, while in the same house some may share his 
 doctrine of love and good will for their fellows that 
 he preaches with his lips and his heart, others will per- 
 sist in the hardness of their hearts, and they will needs 
 be divided. He means that the servitors will declare 
 themselves the enemies of their master if he has been 
 unjust and wicked. In short, he means to say that
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 21 
 
 everywhere some will be with and some against him. 
 And could it be otherwise? He urges people to re- 
 nounce wealth; he proclaims the slave the equal of his 
 master ; he consoles and forgives those who have sinned 
 in consequence of their misery or in consequence of 
 ignorance, rather than with evil intent. Everybody 
 could not possibly share such generous doctrines. What 
 new truth was ever proclaimed that did not at first 
 divide mankind ? The young master of Nazareth mere- 
 ly announces in his figurative language that he has 
 kindled a fire on earth in the hope that the earth may 
 be illumined! Oh! I believe him! The fire of which 
 he speaks is the ardent love for humanity with which 
 his heart is aflame." 
 
 While Joanna was uttering these sentiments in a 
 moved and vibrating voice she seemed even more beau- 
 tiful than in repose. Aurelia, her new friend, contem- 
 plated her with as much astonishment as admiration. 
 
 The other guests of Seigneur Pontius Pilate, on the 
 contrary, uttered numerous expressions of amazement 
 and indignation. Chuza, the husband of Joanna, ad- 
 dressed her with severity : 
 
 "You must be losing your senses! I am ashamed of 
 your words. It is incredible that a self-respecting 
 woman could dare, without dying of confusion, defend 
 such abominable doctrines, that are preached on the 
 public streets and in disreputable taverns among vaga-
 
 22 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 bonds, thieves and fallen women the habitual compan- 
 ionship of the Nazarene." 
 
 "Did not the young master, in answer to those who 
 reproached him with his evil associations, say the 
 whole need not a physician, but they that are sick?" 1 
 was Joanna 's prompt reply in her habitually sweet and 
 sonorous voice. "By means of this parable he denoted 
 that it was those that led evil lives who needed above 
 all being enlightened, sustained, guided and loved. I 
 repeat it, yes, loved and comforted in order to be re- 
 gained to better ways, because kindness and mercy ac- 
 complish more than violence and punishment. This 
 is the pious and gentle task that Jesus daily imposes 
 upon himself." 
 
 "And I repeat to you," cried out Chuza in a tower- 
 ing rage, "that the only object of the Nazarene in thus 
 flattering the detestable passions of the dregs of the 
 populace, among whom he spends his time, is to cause 
 them to revolt at a favorable hour and season, to place 
 himself at their head, set Jerusalem and all Judea on 
 fire, sack the land and drench it in blood. He expresses 
 himself clearly enough. Has he not the audacity to 
 say that he brings not peace on earth but a sword 
 and fire" 
 
 These words from Herod's intendant met with 
 marked approval from the guests of Pontius Pilate, all 
 of whom seemed more and more amazed at the silence 
 and indifference of the Roman Procurator. The latter, 
 all the time frequently emptying his cup, smiled with 
 
 Matthew, 0.12.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 23 
 
 ever increasing good nature at the mention of each 
 fresh enormity that the young man of Nazareth was 
 being charged with. 
 
 Aurelia, who had listened to the generous defence 
 of the young master by the wife of Herod's steward, 
 said to her in an undertone: 
 
 "Dear Joanna, I can not tell you how much I desire 
 to see that Nazarene. He must be an extraordinary 
 man " 
 
 "Oh, indeed! Extraordinary in his kindness of 
 heart," answered Joanna, also in a low voice. "If you 
 only knew how tender is his voice when he addresses 
 the weak, the afflicted, and little children. Oh! espe- 
 cially the little children! He loves them to the point 
 of adoration. When he sees any of them his face as- 
 sumes a celestial aspect." 
 
 "Joanna," replied Aurelia, smiling, "is he so very 
 beautiful?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, beautiful, beautiful as an archangel!" 
 
 "How curious I am to see and hear him!" repeated 
 Aurelia. "But, alas! How is that to be done if he is 
 always in such bad company? A woman could hardly 
 venture in any of the taverns where he preaches." 
 
 Joanna remained thoughtful for a moment ; she then 
 said: 
 
 "Who knows, dear Aurelia! We may, perhaps, find 
 some means of seeing and hearing the young man of 
 Nazareth. ' '
 
 24 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Aurelia, delighted. ' ' Dear Joanna, 
 in what way?" 
 
 "Hush! we are observed," answered Joanna. "We 
 shall talk about this later." 
 
 In fact, indignant at his wife's obstinacy in defend- 
 ing the Nazarene, Seigneur Chuza, no less so than Caia- 
 phas, was casting angry glances at her from time to 
 time. 
 
 Pontius Pilate had once more emptied his large cup. 
 With inflamed cheeks and sparkling eyes, he seemed 
 to be enjoying extreme internal beatitude. 
 
 After consulting in a low voice with Caiaphas and 
 the banker, Seigneur Baruch addressed the Roman, 
 saying : 
 
 "Seigneur Pontius Pilate, if, after all that my friends 
 and I have just informed you of concerning the abom- 
 inable projects of the Nazarene, you should fail to take 
 extreme measures against the man you, the repre- 
 sentative of the august Emperor Tiberius, the natural 
 protector of Herod our Prince then, before next pass- 
 over, Jerusalem, all Judea, will be a prey to sack and 
 pillage, instigated by the Nazarene, whom the popu- 
 lace already is acclaiming as the King of the Jews." 
 
 Preserving the tranquil and unconcerned manner so 
 characteristic of him, Pontius Pilate made answer: 
 
 "Come now, my friends, do not take bushes for 
 forests, or molehills for mountains! Is it for me to re- 
 mind you of your own history ? Is the lad of Nazareth, 
 perchance, the first who ever took it into his head to
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S- 26 
 
 play the role of Messiah? Did you not have, before 
 him, Judas the Galilean, who claimed the Israelites 
 should recognize no master but God and who even 
 sought to arouse the populace against our power. What 
 happened? Judas was put to death and the same 
 thing will happen to the young man of Nazareth if he 
 should actually fan a rebellion into flame." 
 
 "It is undeniable, seigneur," replied Caiaphas, the 
 High Priest, "that the Nazarene is not the first im- 
 postor who pretended to be the Messiah, announced by 
 our Holy Writ so many centuries ago. Since the last 
 fifty years, to mention only recent happenings, we have 
 had a number of false Messiahs : Jonathas ; after him, 
 Simon, the Magician, surnamed 'The Great Virtue of 
 God'.; and many other impostors, alleged Messiahs, or 
 saviors, or regenerators of the land of Israel ! But none 
 of those frauds ever enjoyed the influence that the 
 Nazarene does, or above all, had his infernal audacity. 
 Never did any of them assail, as this one does and 
 assail with inveterateness wealth, religion, in short, 
 all the things that must be respected unless Israel is to 
 be plunged into chaos. None of those other impostors 
 addressed themselves especially and constantly, as does 
 the Nazarene, to the dregs of the populace, over whom 
 be has attained a redoubtable ascendancy. Why, only 
 recently, when Seigneur Baruch, at tlie end of his pa- 
 tience at the public insults with which the Nazarene 
 hounded the Pharisees, attempted to have him arrested,
 
 26 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 he was prevented from so doing by the mob. 1 Accord- 
 ingly, if you do not come to our help, you, Seigneur 
 Pontius Pilate, who have a considerable armed force at 
 your command, it will be done for the public peace, 
 and even an insurrection against your troops becomes 
 possible." 
 
 "All that sounds very plausible, my seigneurs," re- 
 plied Pontius Pilate, laughing. "If the Nazarene should 
 dare to cause the populace to mutiny against my 
 troops, you will see me the first ready casque on head, 
 cuirass on back, sword in hand. As to all else by 
 Jupiter ! You will yourselves have to disentangle your 
 own skein if a kink has got into it. Such internal mat- 
 ters concern only you, you who are the Senators of the 
 city. Arrest the young fellow, imprison him, crucify 
 him if he deserves it it is your right, exercise it. As 
 to me, I represent here the Emperor, my master. So 
 long as his power is not assailed, there is nothing for 
 me to meddle with." 
 
 "Moreover, Seigneur Procurator," added Joanna, 
 "did not the young master say: 'Render unto Caesar 
 the things which are Caesar 's, and unto God the things 
 that are God's'?" 2 
 
 "True, noble Joanna," answered Pontius Pilate, 
 "that sounds very far from wanting to arouse the peo- 
 ple to rise against the Romans." 
 
 "But do you not see, seigneur," cried Doctor Ba- 
 ruch, impatiently, "that the fraud uses such language 
 
 1 Mark. 12.12. 
 Matthew, 22.21.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 27 
 
 only out of hypocrisy, in order not to awaken your 
 suspicion, but that, at the proper time, he will call the 
 populace to arms?" 
 
 "In that event, my seigneurs," rejoined Pontius 
 Pilate, again emptying his cup, "the Nazarene will 
 find me ready to receive him at the head of my cohorts. 
 Your troubles with the young fellow in nowise con- 
 cern me." 
 
 That instant a Roman officer burst into the banquet 
 hall in a state of great excitement, and said to Pontius 
 Pilate : 
 
 "Seigneur Procurator, information has just reached 
 us that a grave commotion is being caused by Jesus 
 of Nazareth." 
 
 "Poor young man!" said Aurelia to Joanna, in a 
 whisper. "He is the sport of misfortune. Everything 
 seems to go against him ! ' ' 
 
 "Let us listen," answered Joanna, uneasy. "Let 
 us listen." 
 
 "You see it now, Seigneur Pontius Pilate," cried at 
 once the High Priest, the doctor of the law, and the 
 banker. "Not a day goes by without the Nazarene 's 
 disturbing the public peace." 
 
 "Answer me," said the Procurator, addressing the 
 officer, "what is it all about?" 
 
 "Some people who have arrived from Bethany re- 
 port that three days ago Jesus of Nazareth brought a 
 dead body to life. The whole population of the town 
 is in indescribable commotion ; bands of ragged people
 
 28 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 are at this hour running through the streets of Jeru- 
 salem with torches, crying: "Glory to Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, who resuscitates the dead!' " 
 
 "The audacious rascal!" cried Caiaphas. "The idea 
 of pretending to be able to emulate our prophets ! To 
 emulate Elijah, who brought to life the son of the 
 widow of Zarephath, 1 or Elisha, who resuscitated the 
 son of the Shunammite ! 2 Profanation ! Profanation ! ' ' 
 
 "He is an impostor!" echoed the banker Jonas. "It 
 is an impious fraud ! Sacrilege ! Our Holy Writ says 
 that the Messiah will resuscitate the dead. The Naza- 
 rene is trying to play his role of Messiah." 
 
 "They even mention the name of the dead man who 
 was brought to life," said the officer. "They say his 
 name is Lazarus. ' ' 
 
 "An example must be made!" cried the doctor of 
 the law. "That Lazarus should be hanged to teach 
 him to come to life again !" 8 
 
 "Do you hear them? They wish to put the poor 
 man to death." remarked Aurelia to Joanna, shrug- 
 ging her shoulders. "To lose one's life because it was 
 regained without one's fault! At least I presume they 
 do not accuse him of having begged to be resurrected. 
 These men certainly are insane." 
 
 "Alas! dear Aurejia," answered Chuza's wife sadly, 
 "these are wicked mad men." 
 
 "I repeat," Doctor Baruch was heard to declare, 
 "that fellow Lazarus should be hanged!" 
 
 I Klnsrs, 17.9-24. 'John, 12.10. 
 
 II Kings, 4.32-35.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S- 8* 
 
 " Fudge, my seigneurs!" exclaimed Pontius Pilate. 
 "Here was an honest corpse sleeping tranquilly in his 
 grave, not harboring any evil thoughts; he is resus- 
 citated without his help, and you want me to have him 
 hanged for that!" 
 
 "Yes, seigneur!" cried Caiaphas. "The mischief 
 must be nipped in the bud. If this Nazarene now takes 
 to resuscitating dead bodies " 
 
 "It would be impossible to tell where that would 
 end!" cried Doctor Baruch. "I therefore address a 
 formal request to Seigneur Pontius Pilate that the au- 
 dacious Lazarus be put to death." 
 
 "But, seigneur," suggested Aurelia, "suppose you 
 hang him, and the young master of Nazareth resus- 
 citates him over again?" 
 
 "Then we will hang him over again, Dame Aurelia!" 
 answered the banker Jonas angrily. "We will hang 
 him aver again ! By Joshua ! Do you think we are in 
 the accommodating mood to please such vagabonds?" 
 
 "My seigneurs," answered Pontius Pilate, "you 
 have your militia, have that Lazarus arrested and 
 hanged, if it pleases you. If you do, however, you 
 would show yourselves more pitiless than we the 
 pagans, who, like yourselves, have had our resur- 
 rected ones. But by Jupiter! We do not hang them. 
 I heard it said quite recently that Apollonius of Tyana 
 resuscitated a young girl whose coffin he ran against, 
 with her betrothed walking behind and mourning.
 
 30 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Apollonius uttered some magical words, and the bride 
 stepped out of her coffin fresher and more charming 
 than ever before. 1 The marriage then took place, and 
 the couple lived happy ever afterwards." 
 
 "Would you have caused the poor bride who came 
 back to life to die over again, my dear seigneurs?" in- 
 quired Aurelia. 
 
 "Yes, by all means," answered Caiaphas, "if she 
 was the accomplice of an impostor. But seeing that 
 the seigneur Procurator leaves us in the lurch, myself 
 and my friend Baruch shall call out the militia and 
 issue orders for the arrest of that Lazarus." 
 
 "G-o ahead, my seigneurs," said Pontius Pilate, 
 rising. 
 
 "Seigneur Gremion," said Chuza, the intendant of 
 the house of Herod, "I was to leave day after to-mor- 
 xow on a journey of inspection that is to take me as 
 far as Bethlehem. If you wish us to travel together. 
 I shall hasten my departure by one day, and we may 
 start to-morrow morning. We shall be back in four 
 days. I shall avail myself of your escort. In these 
 disturbed days it is well to be protected." 
 
 "I accept your offer, Seigneur Chuza," answered the 
 Tribune of the Treasury. "I should be delighted to 
 travel in your company." 
 
 "Dear Aurelia," Joanna whispered to her friend, 
 "you wanted to see the young master of Nazareth T" 
 
 1 Baur Apollonius of Tyano Straus In his Ufe of Jesus, 
 and Ohritt, sec. 145; cited by II, p. 187.
 
 A SUPPER AT PONTIUS PILATE'S. 81 
 
 "Oh! Now more than ever, dear Joanna! Every- 
 thing 1 hear told of that extraordinary young man re- 
 doubles my curiosity." 
 
 "Come to my house to-morrow after my husband's 
 departure. ' ' 
 
 "To-morrow? Agreed, dear Joanna." 
 
 The two young women, together with their husbands 
 and the slave Genevieve, left the residence of Pontius 
 Pilate.
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 JOANNA, AUKELIA AND GENEVIEVE. 
 
 The tavern of the Wild Ass was a favorite gathering 
 place for camel drivers, hirers of asses, carriers, itin- 
 erant merchants, vendors of watermelons, pomegran- 
 ates, fresh dates in season, and, later, of olives and 
 dried dates. In the tavern were also found people 
 without any settled trade prostitutes of low degree, 
 beggars, vagabonds and bold fellows whose armed pro- 
 tection travelers purchased when they journeyed from 
 town to town in order to be defended against high- 
 waymen by this mercenary escort, often themselves 
 very much suspected. There were also seen in the place 
 Roman slaves whom their masters brought to the coun- 
 try of the Hebrews. 
 
 The tavern of the Wild Ass enjoyed a bad reputa- 
 tion. Quarrels and fights were of frequent occurrence. 
 Towards nightfall none were seen to venture in the 
 neighborhood of the Lambs' Gate, not far from which 
 the haunt was situated, but men of sinister aspect or 
 women of a disorderly life. Later, when night had 
 fully set in, cries, peals of laughter and bacchanalian 
 songs were heard to issue from the dreaded locality,
 
 JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE. M 
 
 not infrequently plaintive moans followed the disputes. 
 Occasionally, militiamen of the Jerusalem Guard en- 
 tered the tavern under pretence of restoring order, and 
 came out again either deeper in their cups and more 
 turbulent than the drinkers, or driven out with sticks 
 and stones. 
 
 On the day after the supper that took place at the 
 residence of Pontius Pilate, towards evening, after 
 dusk, two young men plainly dressed in white tunics 
 and turbans of blue wool were promenading in a little 
 winding street, at the extremity of which the door of 
 the dreaded tavern was to be seen. They were talking 
 together as they walked, and often turned their heads 
 to look at the opposite end of the street as if they 
 awaited the arrival of some one. 
 
 "Genevieve," said one of them to his companion, 
 stopping a moment the two pretended young men 
 were Aurelia and her female slave, disguised in men's 
 attire "Genevieve, my new friend Joanna is very 
 slow in joining us. I begin to feel alarmed. Besides, 
 if I must confess it to you, I fear I am committing an 
 indiscretion." 
 
 "Then, dear mistress, let us return home." 
 
 "I have a good mind to do so and yet would such 
 a good opportunity ever offer itself again?" 
 
 "It is true that the absence of your husband. Seig- 
 neur Gremion, who left this morning with Seigneur 
 Chuza, the intendant of the house of Herod, leaves 
 you entirely free, and that it may, perhaps, be long
 
 34 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 before you have such another opportunity." 
 
 "Confess it, Genevieve, you are even more curious 
 than I to see this extraordinary man, this young mas- 
 ter of Nazareth; are you not?" 
 
 "If it is so, iny dear mistress, there would be noth- 
 ing strange in my wish. I am a slave, and the Naza- 
 rene declares there should be no more slaves." 
 
 "Am I, then, such a harsh mistress, Genevieve t" 
 
 "No ! Oh, no ! But, frankly, do you know many mis- 
 tresses like you?" 
 
 "It is not for me to answer such a question, flat- 
 terer!" 
 
 ' ' Then it is for me to say so. If there is exceptionally 
 such a good mistress as you there are a hundred others 
 who for a word, at the slightest act of negligence, have 
 their slaves' flesh cut with the whip, or torture them 
 with cruel delight. Is that not true?" 
 
 "I can not deny that." 
 
 "You render servitude to me as bearable as possible, 
 my dear mistress. But, after all, I do not belong to 
 myself. I have been obliged to tear myself from my 
 dear Fergan, my husband, who wept so bitterly at my 
 departure. Who tells me that I shall see him again 
 upon my return to Marseilles? Who tells me that he 
 may not have been sold and carried away to some other 
 place? Who tells me that Seigneur Gremion may not 
 sell me, and separate me from you?" 
 
 "I promised you that you shall never part from 
 me."
 
 JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE. 35 
 
 "But if your husband should want to sell me, could 
 you prevent him?" 
 
 "Alas, no!" 
 
 "And yet, only a hundred years ago, the fathers and 
 mothers of us Gauls were free ! The ancestors of Fer- 
 gan were the bravest chiefs of their tribe!" 
 
 "Oh!" said Aurelia, smiling, "a Caesar's daughter 
 would not be any prouder for having an emperor for 
 her father than you are of what you call the ancestors 
 of your husband." 
 
 "Pride is not allowed to a slave," answered Gene- 
 vieve sadly. "All I regret is our freedom. What did 
 we do to lose it ? Oh, if only the prayers of this young 
 man of Nazareth were granted ! If there were no more 
 slavery!" 
 
 "No more slavery! Why, Genevieve, you are going 
 crazy. Is such a thing possible? No more slaves 1 
 That their lives be made less hard to bear, that I con- 
 cede is proper. But wholly to suppress slavery would 
 be the end of the world. Do you see, Genevieve, it is 
 just such extreme views that injure the young man of 
 Nazareth." 
 
 "He is not beloved by the powerful and happy. Yes- 
 terday, at the supper at Seigneur Pontius Pilate's, as 
 I stood behind you, I listened to all that was said. I 
 did not lose a single word. How inveterate their ha- 
 tred for the young man!" 
 
 "It can not be helped, Genevieve," answered Aure-
 
 3 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 lia smiling. "In a certain measure it is his own fault." 
 
 "And you, too, accuse him!" 
 
 "No, I do not. But you must remember that he 
 assails the bankers, the doctors of the law, the priests, 
 in short, all the hypocrites who belong to the party of 
 the Pharisees. That should be enough to ruin him 
 forever. ' ' 
 
 "At least it takes courage to tell the truth to wicked 
 people when they are powerful. Besides, the young 
 man of Nazareth is as good as he is courageous, ac- 
 cording to your friend Joanna. She is rich and in high 
 standing, and she is not a slave like myself. Accord- 
 ingly, he does not preach in her favor, and yet, sec 
 how much she admires him!" 
 
 "Joanna's admiration, the admiration of a sweet 
 and charming woman, does no doubt speak in the 
 young man's favor. It would be impossible for Jo- 
 anna, with her noble heart, to admire a wicked man. 
 What a lovable friend accident has given me in her! 
 I know nothing so tender as her looks, or so touching 
 as her voice. She says that when the Nazarene speaks 
 to the afflicted, the poor and to little children his as- 
 pect becomes divine. I do not know, but what is cer- 
 tain is that Joanna's face becomes celestial when she 
 speaks of him " 
 
 "Is it not she who is coming from the other side, my 
 dear mistress? I hear a light step approaching in the 
 shadow." 
 
 "It must be she."
 
 JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE. 37 
 
 Indeed, Joanna, also disguised in man's garb, joined 
 Aurelia and her slave a second later. 
 
 "You have probably been waiting for me a long 
 time, Aurelia," said the young dame; "I could not 
 leave my house in secret before now." 
 
 "Joanna, I do not feel very much at ease. I think I 
 am just now more timid than curious. Only think, 
 women of our rank in that horrible tavern, where, it 
 is said, the dregs of the city gather!" 
 
 "Have no fear. Those people are more turbulent and 
 frightful in appearance than they are really wicked. 
 I have already been twice among them in this disguise 
 with one of my female relatives, to hear the young 
 master. The light is poor in the tavern. There is a 
 dark gallery that runs around the court. We shall not 
 be seen from there. We shall call for a pot of beer, 
 and no heed will be given to us. They are occupied 
 onty with the young man of Nazareth, or in his ab- 
 sence, with his disciples who come to preach the glad 
 tidings. Come, Aurelia, it is getting late come." 
 
 "Hark! Hark!" said the Roman dame to Joanna, 
 listening with alarm in the direction of the tavern. 
 "Do you hear those cries? They are quarreling in the 
 horrible place!" 
 
 "That is a sign that the young master has not yet 
 arrived," explained Joanna. "In his presence all voices 
 are hushed, and the most violent become like lambs." 
 
 "And besides, Joanna, look at that group of vile 
 looking men and women gathered at the door under
 
 88 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 the light of the lantern. Let us wait until they go in 
 or go away." 
 
 "Come, there is nothing to fear, I assure you " 
 
 "No, I beg of you, Joanna, wait a little longer. I 
 certainly do admire your bravery." 
 
 "Oh! It is that Jesus of Nazareth inspires cour- 
 age, as he inspires the turbulent with gentleness. More- 
 over, if you only knew how natural his language is! 
 What touching and ingenious parables he hits upon 
 to express his thoughts in a way that he can be under- 
 stood by these plain people, by these poor in spirit, as 
 he calls them, and whom he loves so dearly! Accord- 
 ingly, everybody, down to the little children, for whom 
 he entertains so much tenderness, understand his dis- 
 courses, and do not lose a word. No doubt, before 
 him, other Messiahs have prophesied the deliverance 
 of our country from the oppression of the stranger, 
 have explained our Holy Writ, have healed desperate 
 diseases by means of the magic of medicine. But none 
 of these Messiahs has until now displayed the fore- 
 bearing patience with which the young master teaches 
 the humble and the little ones all, in short, because, 
 to him there are no infidels or pagans. All simple 
 hearts are good, and worthy of the kingdom of heaven. 
 Did you ever hear his parable of the heathen? There 
 is nothing so simple and yet so touching." 
 
 "No, Joanna, I never heard it." 
 
 "It is called The Good Samaritan." 
 
 "What is a Samaritan?"
 
 JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE. 39 
 
 "The Samaritans are an idolatrous people who in- 
 habit the territory on the other side of the furthermost 
 mountains of Judea. The chief priests look upon those 
 people as barred from the kingdom of God. This is 
 the parable: 
 
 " 'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to 
 Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him 
 of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed leav- 
 ing him half dead. 
 
 " 'And by chance there came down a certain priest 
 that way; and when he saw him, he passed on the 
 other side. 
 
 " 'And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, 
 came and looked on him, and passed by on the other 
 side. 
 
 " 'But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came 
 where he was; and when he saw him he had compas- 
 sion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, 
 pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, 
 and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 
 
 " 'And on the morrow when he departed, he took 
 out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said 
 unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou 
 spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 
 
 " 'Which now,' Jesus asked his disciples, 'which 
 now of these three, think you, was neighbor unto him 
 that fell among the thieves?' 
 
 " 'He that showed mercy on him,' was the answer 
 given.
 
 40 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 " 'Go in peace and do you likewise,' replied Jesus 
 with a celestial smile." 1 
 
 The slave Genevieve could not restrain her tears on 
 hearing this story, especially seeing that Joanna laid 
 particular emphasis, with ineffable sweetness, upon 
 the last words of Jesus "Go in peace, and do you like- 
 wise." 
 
 "You are right, Joanna," said Aurelia pensively, 
 "even a child could understand the moral conveyed by 
 those words. I myself feel deeply moved by them." 
 
 "And yet this parable," Joanna proceeded to say, 
 "is one of those that have exasperated the chief priests 
 and the doctors of the law most bitterly against tho 
 master of Nazareth." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 "Because in that story he exhibits a Samaritan, a 
 pagan, as more humane than the Levite, than the priest, 
 since the idolater, seeing a brother in a poor wounded 
 man, succored him, and thus rendered himself worthier 
 of heaven than the two holy men of hard hearts. This 
 is one of the things which the enemies of Jesus call 
 his blasphemies and his sacrileges!" 
 
 "Joanna, let us proceed to the tavern. I no longer 
 fear to enter the place. People for whom such stories 
 are invented, and who listen to them with avidity, can 
 not be wicked." 
 
 "As you see, my dear Aurelia, the word of the Naza- 
 
 Luke, 80.80-87.
 
 JOANNA, AURELIA AND GENEVIEVE. 41 
 
 rene already has its effect upon you. It inspires you 
 with confidence and courage. Come! Come!" 
 
 And the young dame took her friend's arm. The 
 two, followed by the slave Genevieve, proceeded to the 
 tavern of the Wild Ass, where they soon arrived.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. 
 
 This tavern, constructed on a square plan like all 
 other houses in the Orient, consisted of an interior 
 court surrounded by heavy columns that supported a 
 terrace and formed four galleries under which the 
 drinkers could take shelter when it rained. This night, 
 however, being clear and mild, the larger number of 
 the patrons of the place sat around the tables in the 
 court, lighted by the flickering glimmer of a huge iron 
 lamp that stood in the center of the place. This soli- 
 tary luminary threw hardly any light into the galleries, 
 where also some drinkers were seated. The galleries 
 were thus thrown almost completely in the shade. 
 
 It was to one of these somber covers that Joanna, 
 Aurelia and GTenevieve proceeded. In crossing the then 
 noisy crowd they noticed many ragged people, or at 
 least poorly clad, a large number of whom were disor- 
 derly women. Most of these were miserably dressed, and 
 had for their turban only a shred of white veil around 
 their heads; some others, however, wore dresses and 
 head covers of rather costly but faded material, cop- 
 per bracelets, necklaces and earrings studded with false
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS- 43 
 
 stones. Their cheeks were brilliantly painted; their 
 haggard and sad countenances bespoke a certain bit- 
 terness of mind; their manifestations of pleasure were 
 boisterous and exaggerated; everything about them 
 told of the trials, agonies and shame of the sad life of 
 courtesans. 
 
 Of the men, some seemed depressed with poverty, 
 others looked savage and desperate. Several wore 
 rusty weapons at their belts, or were leaning upon long 
 sticks tipped with an iron ball. Farther away, distin- 
 guishable by their iron collars and shaven heads, stood 
 some household slaves belonging to Roman officers. 
 Still further off, a number of infirm, in rags, squatted 
 beside their crutches. Mothers held in their arms their 
 little pale and wan children whom they covered with 
 looks of tender anxiety, as they awaited the arrival of 
 the master of Nazareth, who was so skilled in the art 
 of healing. 
 
 Prom a few words exchanged by two rather well 
 dressed but cynical and hard-featured men, that fell 
 upon the ear of Genevieve she guessed that the men 
 were secret emissaries employed by the chief priests 
 and the doctors of the law to spy upon the Nazarene, 
 and lure him into the trap of some imprudent confi- 
 dence. 
 
 Bolder than her friend, Joanna had made a passage 
 for her through the crowd, and seeing an unoccupied 
 table standing in the shadow and behind one of the 
 columns of the galleries, the wife of Seigneur Chuza
 
 44 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 seated herself there with Aurelia, and called for a pot 
 of beer from one of the waiter-girls of the tavern, while 
 Genevieve, taking her stand beside her mistress, did 
 not lose sight of the two emissaries of the Pharisees, 
 and listened with avidity to everything that was being 
 said around her. 
 
 "The night advances," remarked sadly a young and 
 handsome woman to one of her friends seated opposite 
 to her, and the cheeks of whom, like her own, were 
 covered with paint, in the style common to courtesans, 
 "Jesus of Nazareth will not come to-night." 
 
 "It was scarcely worth the while to come," answered 
 the other reproachfully. "We should have taken our 
 walk in the neighborhood of the Pool. We would then 
 have come across some half drunk Roman centurion, 
 or some doctor of the law scraping the walls, his nose 
 in his cloak. From either we would have got a supper. 
 You must not complain, Oliba, if we go to bed supper- 
 less. It is your own doing." 
 
 "That bread has begun to taste so bitter to me that 
 I do not regret It. ' ' 
 
 "Bitter or not it is bread and when one is hun- 
 gry, one eats it." 
 
 "I would have forgotten all about my hunger, lis- 
 tening to the words of Jesus," replied the first cour- 
 tesan in a soft voice. 
 
 "Oliba, you will yet go crazy to feed upon words!" 
 
 "It is because the words of Jesus breathe forgive- 
 ness, mercy, love until now there were for us only
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. 46 
 
 words of aversion and contumely." 
 
 And the courtesan remained pensive, her forehead 
 resting upon her hand. 
 
 "You are a singular girl, Oliba!" remarked the 
 other. "At any rate, however hollow it may be, we 
 shall not partake of even that supper of words. The 
 Nazarene will not come now. It is too late." 
 
 "On the contrary, may the all-powerful God send 
 him here!" exclaimed a poor woman who was seated 
 on the ground near the two courtesans, and held a 
 sick child in her arms. "I have come on foot all the 
 way from Bethlehem to beg our good Jesus to heal my 
 daughter. He has no equal as a healer of children's 
 ailments, and, so far from demanding payment for his 
 advice, he often gives us wherewithal to purchase the 
 balms that he prescribes." 
 
 "By the bowels of Solomon! I also hope that our 
 friend Jesus may not fail us this evening ! ' ' came from 
 a. large sized man of ferocious aspect with a long, stiff 
 beard, a rag of a red turban on his head, and clad in a 
 camel's hair skirt that hung almost in shreds from a 
 cord that was wound around his waist and from which 
 dangled a long sheathless and rusty cutlass. This man 
 also held in his hand a long stick tipped with an iron 
 ball. "If our good friend of Nazareth does not come 
 this evening I shall have spent my night for nothing. 
 I had bargained to escort a traveler who did not dare 
 to entrust himself alone on the road from Jerusalem to 
 Bethany out of fear of footpads."
 
 46 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Just look at that bandit with his gallows-bird face 
 and long cutlass! A comforting escort for a traveler, 
 he is!" observed to his companion in a low voice one 
 of the two secret emissaries seated not far from where 
 Genevieve stood. 
 
 "He would cut his too confiding traveler's throat 
 and rob him at the first dark spot on the road," an- 
 swered the other emissary. 
 
 "As true as my name is Banaias," the man of the 
 long cutlass proceeded to say, "I would have gladly 
 lost the neat godsend of escorting a traveler, if our 
 friend of Nazareth had come ! I love that man ! I do ! 
 He consoles one for having to drag his rags about, by 
 proving to us that, since they can no more enter into 
 Paradise than a hawse could pass through the eye of a 
 needle, all the wicked rich will some day roast like 
 capons in the kitchen of Beelzebub. True enough, that 
 fills neither our bellies nor our purses ! But it comforts. 
 I could spend whole days and nights listening to him 
 belaboring the priests, the doctors of the law and the 
 rest of the Pharisees! And right he is, my friends! 
 You should just hear those Pharisees ! If you are taken 
 before their tribunal for some trifle, all they do is to 
 shout: 'Quick, to jail with him and to the whipping 
 post!' 'Thief!' ' Criminal !' ' Firebrand of hell !' ' Son 
 of Satan!' and other such paternal remonstrances. By 
 the nose of Ezekiel ! Is that the way to correct a man ? 
 Do not the accursed fellows know that many a horse, 
 that is restive to the whip, will obey the voice? Oh,
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. 47 
 
 who only the other day said to us, If your brother tres- 
 pass against you, rebuke him ; and if he repent, forgive 
 him. 1 That is talking ! By the ear of Melchisedech ! I 
 am not tender and benign like the pascal lamb ; no, no, 
 I have had ample time to get my heart, head and skin 
 hardened. Twenty years ago my father drove me from 
 his home on account of a youthful indiscretion. Ever 
 since I have lived at the devil's expense. I am as hard 
 to curb as a savage. And yet, by the faith of Banaias, 
 with a single word in his sweet voice our friend of 
 Nazareth could make me go to the end of the world." 
 
 "If Jesus can not come himself," put in another 
 drinker, "he will send word to us with one of his dis- 
 ciples, who will preach the glad tidings to us in the 
 master's stead." 
 
 "For want of cakes made of fine wheaten flour 
 kneaded with honey, one eats barley bread, ' ' remarked 
 an old beggar bent down under the weight of years. 
 "The word of the disciples is good better is the word 
 of the master." 
 
 "Oh, yes!" replied another beggar. "To us who 
 have been in despair since our birth he gives eternal 
 hope." 
 
 "Jesus teaches us that we are not lower than our 
 masters; by what right do they keep us in bondage?" 
 
 "Is the reason that, if there are a hundred masters 
 on one side, we are ten thousand slaves on the other?" 
 came from a second slave, "Patience! Patience! The 
 
 1 Luke, 17.3.
 
 * THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 day will come when we shall count our masters, and 
 we shall count ourselves. After which the words of 
 Jesus will be accomplished Many that are first shall 
 be last; and the last shall be the first." 1 
 
 "He said to us, workingmen, who, due to the weight 
 of the taxes and the greed of the dealers in merchan- 
 dise, often are in want for bread and raiment, our- 
 selves and our wives and children with us: 'Take no 
 thought ; God, our heavenly father, clothes the lilies of 
 the field ; he feeds the fowls of the air ; a day will come 
 when you shall lack for nothing. ' ' ' 2 
 
 "Yes, and Jesus also added: 'The workman is 
 worthy of his meat.' " 3 
 
 "Here comes the master! Here comes the master!" 
 cried several persons standing near the entrance of the 
 tavern. Aurelia, no less curious than her slave Gene- 
 vieve, stepped upon a bench in order to obtain a better 
 view of the young master. 
 
 The expectation of the crowd was disappointed. It 
 was not yet he. It was Peter, one of his disciples. 
 
 "And Jesus?" 
 
 "Will not the Nazarene come to-night?" 
 
 "Shall we not see our friend, the friend of the 
 afflicted?" 
 
 "Myself, Judas and Simon," answered Peter, "were 
 accompanying him and came as far as the city gate 
 when a poor woman who saw us pass begged the mas- 
 
 1 Matthew. 19.30. 'Matthew. 10.10. 
 
 5 Matthew, C.28-34.
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. * 
 
 ter to go to her house and visit her sick daughter, and 
 he did so. He kept Judas and Simon near him and 
 sent me to you. Those who wish his ministration only 
 need to wait for him here. He will come." 
 
 The words of the disciple calmed the impatience of 
 the crowd, and Banaias, the man with the long cutlass, 
 said to Peter: 
 
 ' ' While we wait for the master, tell us of the good 
 tidings. Is the time drawing near when the gluttons, 
 whose belly expands in the measure that ours caves in, 
 will have only the sulphur and pitch of hell to grow 
 fat upon?" 
 
 "Yes, that day draws near!" cried Peter, climbing 
 upon a bench. "Yes, that day is coming as comes the 
 stormy night charged with thunder and lightning ! Did 
 not the Lord say through the mouth of his prophet: 
 'Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall pre- 
 pare the way before me?' "* 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" answered several voices. 
 
 "Who is that angel?" replied Peter. "Who is that 
 angel, if not Jesus, our master, the Messiah the only 
 true Messiah!" 
 
 "He is the promised angel!" 
 
 "He is the true Messiah!" 
 
 "And that angel having prepared the way, what does 
 the Lord say further through the mouth of the 
 prophet?" continued Peter. "He says: 
 
 " 'And I will come near to you to judgment; and I 
 
 iMalachl, 3.1.
 
 SO THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and 
 against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and 
 against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, 
 the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the 
 stranger from his right, and fear not me.' 1 And did 
 not the Lord also add: 'There is a generation whose 
 teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives to 
 devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from 
 among men'!" 8 
 
 "If that generation has knives for teeth," exclaimed 
 Banaias, grasping his cutlass, "we shall bite with 
 ours!" 
 
 "Oh, may the day come when those who oppress the 
 hireling in his wages shall be judged! I shall deliver 
 up the banker Jonas to the vengeance of the Lord!" 
 solemnly declared a workingman. "He made me work 
 secretly upon the wainscoting of his banquet hall on 
 the Sabbath and then withheld from me the wages of 
 those days. I wanted to lodge a complaint against 
 him, and he threatened to denounce me to the chief 
 priests as a profaner of holy days, and cast me into 
 prison!" 
 
 "And do you know why the banker Jonas oppressed 
 you in your wages?" replied Peter. "Because as say- 
 eth the prophet : 
 
 " 'The horseleach has two daughters, crying, Give, 
 give.' " 
 
 MalachI. 3.5 * Proverbs, 30.15. 
 
 Proverbs. 30.14.
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS- 
 
 "And will not the fat horseleaches some day have 
 to disgorge all the blood that they sucked from poor 
 workingmen, widows and orphans?" loudly asked Ba- 
 naias. 
 
 "Yes, yes," answered the disciple; "our prophets 
 and Jesus have announced that for them shall be weep- 
 ing and gnashing of teeth. 1 But when the thorns which 
 choke the grain are pulled up, the wicked kings, the 
 avaricious and the usurers uprooted from the earth 
 whose sap they suck up, then will arrive the day of 
 happiness for all and justice for all. And when that 
 day shall have arrived, say our prophets: 
 
 " 'Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, 
 and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not 
 lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more. But they shall sit every man under 
 his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make 
 them afraid. ' The work of justice shall be the security, 
 the peace and the happiness of every one. And finally, 
 'the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leop- 
 ard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the 
 young lion, and the f atling together ; and a little child 
 shall lead them/ " 2 
 
 The charming picture of peace and universal happi- 
 ness seemed to make a profound impression upon the 
 audience of Peter. Several voices cried: 
 
 1 Matthew, 13.42. 
 
 Micah, 4.3,4 ; Isaiah, 11.6.
 
 52 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Oh, may that day come soon! Why should one 
 race cut the throat of another race?" 
 
 "How much blood wasted!" 
 
 "And who profits by it? Only the conquering 
 Pharaohs the men of blood, of battle and of rapine." 
 
 "Oh, may those days of happiness, of justice and 
 of good will come, when, as the prophets say, 'a little 
 child shall lead them.' " 
 
 "Yes, a little child will be sufficient. "We shall all be 
 gentle because we shall all be happy; we shall then be 
 peaceful and docile, while now we are so unhappy, so 
 angry, so exasperated that a hundred giants could not 
 hold us in." 
 
 "And when that day shall have come," Peter pro- 
 ceeded to say, "every one having his share in the full- 
 ness of the earth that will be rendered fruitful by the 
 labor of all, all being certain of a life of peace and 
 happiness, then no longer will the idle be seen to enjoy 
 the fruits of others ' toil. Did not the Lord say through 
 the mouth of the son of David, one of his elect : 
 
 " 'Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken un- 
 der the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that 
 shall be after me. For there is a man whose labor is in 
 wisdom, and in knowledge and in equity ; yet to a man 
 that hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his 
 portion. And who knows whether he shall be a wise 
 man or a fool ? This also is vanity and a great evil. ' ' n 
 
 "You know," added the apostle, "the voice of the 
 son of David is holy as justice itself. No, he who doeg 
 
 1 EccloBlaatee, 2.18,21.
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. * 
 
 not work, should nol profit by the work of others!" 
 
 "But suppose I have children," called out a voice; 
 "if, by depriving myself of rest and of the half of my 
 daily bread, I succeed in saving up something for them 
 in order to save them the necessity of experiencing the 
 hardships that I underwent, would it be wrong for me 
 to bequeath my property to them?" 
 
 ' ' Eh ! Who speaks to you of the present ? ' ' answered 
 Peter. "Who speaks to you of these days when the 
 strong oppress the weak, the rich the poor, the unjust 
 the just, the master the slave? In seasons of storms 
 and tempests each raises a shelter for himself and his 
 family, that is but right ! But when the times promised 
 by the prophets shall have come, benign times, when a 
 beneficent sun will always shine; when there will be 
 no more storms; when the birth of every child will be 
 greett d with joyful chants as a blessing from the Lord, 
 instead of being wept over, as happens to-day, as an 
 affiiction, because, conceived in tears, the human being 
 of to-day lives and dies in tears, while, on the 
 contrary, the child conceived in joy is bound to live in 
 joy; when labor, to-day excessive, will itself be a joy, 
 so abundant will be the fruits of the land promised by 
 the Lord then every one, feeling at ease about his 
 children's future, will no longer be compelled to lay 
 up stores, and gather treasures for them by depriving 
 and working himself to death. No ! No ! When Israel 
 will finally enjoy the kingdom of God, each will work 
 for all, and all for each!"
 
 54 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Instead of, as happens to-day," said the working- 
 man who complained of the iniquity of the banker 
 Jonas, ' ' all work for some few, who work for none and 
 enjoy the work of all." 
 
 "As to such people," Peter proceeded, "our master 
 of Nazareth has said: 
 
 " 'The son of man shall send forth his angels, and 
 they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that 
 offend, and them who do iniquity ; and shall cast them 
 into a furnace of fire ; there shall be wailing and gnash- 
 ing of teeth.' m 
 
 "And it would be no more than just," observed 
 Oliba, the courtesan, "because they it is who force us 
 to sell our bodies in order to escape the gnashings of 
 the teeth that hunger causes." 
 
 "It is they who compel mothers to traffic with their 
 children sooner than to see them die of want!" ex- 
 claimed another courtesan. "We are meat for prostitu- 
 tion!" 
 
 "Oh! When will that day of justice come?" 
 
 "It is coming! It approaches!" answered Peter in 
 a resounding voice. "Evil, iniquity, violence reigns 
 everywhere, not here, in Judea, only, but throughout 
 the world, which is the Roman world. Oh! The ills 
 that afflict Israel are as nothing beside the frightful 
 ills that overwhelm her sister nations ! The whole uni- 
 verse is weeping and bleeding under the triple yoke 
 of Roman ferocity, debauchery and greed! From one 
 end of the world to the other, from Syria to down- 
 
 i Matthew, 13.41-42.
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS- 56 
 
 trodden Gaul, one hears the clanking of chains and 
 the moanings of slaves, borne down with toil ; wretched 
 beings among the wretched of the earth, they sweat 
 blood at every pore ! More to be pitied than the beast 
 of the forests that dies in his den, or than the beast 
 of burden that dies on his litter, the slaves are tor- 
 tured and thrown to the teeth of ferocious animals! 
 If they try to break their chains they are smothered in 
 their own blood ! Verily, I say unto you, in the name 
 of Jesus, our master, verily I say unto you that can 
 not endure!" 
 
 "No ! No !" cried several voices. "No ! that can not 
 endure!" 
 
 "Our master is sorrowful," continued the disciple. 
 "Oh! .He is sorrowful unto death thinking of the hor- 
 rible deeds, the vengeances, the shocking reprisals that 
 so many centuries of oppression and iniquity are about 
 to unchain upon earth. Day before yesterday the 
 master said to us: 
 
 " 'When you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, 
 be you not troubled; for such things must needs be; 
 but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise 
 against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and 
 there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there 
 shall be famines and troubles, and fearful sights and 
 great signs shall there be from heaven, men's hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for looking after those things 
 which are coming on the earth; for the powers of 
 heaven shall be shaken.' m 
 
 ~ Mark, 13.7-8 ; Luke, 21.11 26,
 
 5 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 A rumbling murmur of dread ran through the crowd 
 at these prophecies of Jesus reported by Peter, and 
 several voices cried: 
 
 "Terrific storms must be about to burst forth from 
 heaven!" 
 
 "So much the better! The clouds of iniquity must 
 needs burst that the heavens may be cleared, and*the 
 eternal sun shine in all its splendor!" 
 
 "And if they grind their teeth on earth before grind- 
 ing them in the eternal flames, the self-seeking rich, 
 the chief priests, the crowned Pharaohs will have 
 brought it upon themselves!" cried Banaias. 
 
 "Yes! Yes! It is so! Vengeance!" 
 
 "Oh!" proceeded Banaias, "it is not to-day that the 
 prophets have been shouting the warning in their ears : 
 Repent ! Be good ! Be just ! Be merciful ! Look down 
 to your feet instead of admiring yourselves in your 
 pride! Begone, surfeited gluttons that you are! You 
 reject the most delicate meats ! You fall down gorged 
 with wine beside your cups full to the brim ! You ask 
 yourselves: 'Shall I don to-day my robe lined with 
 gold embroidery, or my plush mantle embroidered in 
 silver'? And all the while your neighbor, shivering 
 with cold beneath his rags, is not allowed even a sip 
 from your cup, or to lick up the crumbs of your feasts ' 
 By the entrails of Jeremiah ! That sort of thing has 
 endured quite long enough!" 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" cried several voices. "That sort of 
 thing has endured too long! The most patient finally 
 grow tired ! Death to the plunderers of the people ! ' '
 
 THE TAVERN OF THE WILD ASS. 67 
 
 "The most peaceful ox some day turns upon the 
 goad!" 
 
 "And what a goad hunger is!" 
 
 "Yes!" resumed Peter. "Yes, this sort of thing has 
 endured too long ! This sort of thing has lasted but too 
 long. Accordingly, Jesus our master has said: 
 
 ' ' ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has 
 anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has 
 sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliver- 
 ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the 
 blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach 
 the acceptable year of the Lord. For these be the days 
 of vengeance, that all things which are written may be 
 fulfilled.'" 1 
 
 These words of the Nazarene, reported to the crowd 
 by Peter, aroused fresh enthusiasm. Genevieve over- 
 heard one of the two emissaries of the law and of the 
 chief priests say to the other: 
 
 "This time the Nazarene shall not escape us. Such 
 prophecies render him amenable to the laws and pun- 
 ishments provided against the seditious." 
 
 But a new and loud murmur was at this moment 
 heard on the outside of the tavern of the Wild Ass, and 
 this only cry was repeated by all: 
 
 "It is he! It is he!" 
 
 "It is our friend!" 
 
 "Here he is!" 
 
 "It is he!" 
 
 "Here he is!" 
 
 1 Lnke. 4.18.18 ; 21.22.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 
 
 Upon now learning of the arrival of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, the guests that filled the tavern struggled and 
 crowded to meet the young master. The mothers, who 
 held little children in their arms, strove to be the first 
 to approach Jesus. The infirm, taking up their crutches, 
 begged their neighbors to open a way for them. Al- 
 ready the moving and charitable influence of the word 
 of Mary's son was such that the able-bodied stepped 
 aside in order to clear a passage to him for the mothers 
 and the cripples. 
 
 Joanna, Aurelia and her slave shared the general 
 emotion. Above all did Genevieve, the daughter, wife, 
 and perhaps some day mother of slaves, feel her heart 
 beat strongly at the sight of him, who, as he said, 
 came to announce deliverance to the captives, and set 
 free those who were weighed down under their chains. 
 
 At last Genevieve saw him. 
 
 The son of Mary, the friend of little children, of 
 poor mothers, of the afflicted and of the slaves, was 
 dressed like the rest of his countrymen, the Israelites. 
 He wore a robe of white linen held around his waist
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 
 
 with a leather girdle from which hung an alms bag. A 
 square blue mantle covered his shoulders. His long, 
 gold-blonde hair fell on either side of his pale visage 
 of an angelic sweetness. His lips and chin were slight- 
 ly shaded by a light growth of beard with a golden glint 
 like his hair. His bearing was cordial and familiar. 
 He clasped fraternally all the hands held out to him. 
 Several times he stooped down to embrace some ragged 
 child who held the lappets of his robe, and smiling 
 with benignity he said to the men and women who 
 crowded around him: 
 
 ' ' Suffer them suffer the little children to come unto 
 me!" 
 
 Judas, a man of somber and sullen countenance, to- 
 gether with Simon and other disciples of Jesus, ac- 
 companied him, each carrying a little casket from 
 which, after questioning each patient and attentively 
 listening to his answers, the son of Mary would take 
 some medicament which he would give tp the sick and 
 the women who came to consult his science, either in 
 their own behalf or that of their children. More than 
 once did Jesus accompany the advice and balms which 
 he distributed with a little money gift that he took 
 from the alms bag hanging from his belt. So heavily 
 and frequently did he draw upon his alms bag that, 
 having once more thrust in his hand, he smiled sadly 
 at finding the pouch empty. After turning the same 
 inside out, he made a touching sign of regret, as if to 
 announce that he had nothing more to give. As those
 
 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 whom he succored with his advice, his balms and his 
 money thanked him effusively, he answered them in 
 his sweet voice: 
 
 "It is the Lord God, our heavenly father, whom you 
 must thank, not me. Peace be with you!" 
 
 "If your money treasure is exhausted, my friend, 
 there remains to you another, an inexhaustible treas- 
 ure the treasure of your good words," said Banaias, 
 who had elbowed his way near Jesus of Nazareth, and 
 contemplated him with a mixture of respect and ten- 
 derness that caused one to forget his savage ugliness. 
 
 "Yes," replied another; "tell us, Jesus, the things 
 that we humble and lowly people understand." 
 
 "The language of our holy prophets is divine but 
 it is frequently not to be understood of us poor 
 people." 
 
 "Oh, yes, our good Jesus," added a handsome boy 
 who had glided into the front ranks and held a lappet 
 of the robe of the young master of Nazareth. "Tell us 
 one of those parables that are so pleasant to hear, and 
 which we retain in our memory to repeat to our moth- 
 ers and brothers." 
 
 "No, No!" put in other voices. "Before the para- 
 ble deliver to us one of your beautiful discourses 
 against the wicked rich, the powerful, and the proud!" 
 
 "And, above all, our friend," interjected Banaias, 
 "tell us when those Pharaohs will be gathered unto 
 Beelzebub, their lord and master." 
 
 But the son of Mary pointed with a smile to the little
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 61 
 
 child who had first asked for a parable, and took him 
 upon his knees after seating himself near a table. 
 Thus exhibiting his tenderness for infancy, the son of 
 Mary seemed to say that the dear little boy should be 
 first satisfied in his desire. 
 
 All then grouped themselves around Jesus. The 
 children, who loved him so much, sat down at his feet. 
 Oliba and other courtesans also sat down on the floor 
 in Oriental fashion, with their arms around their 
 knees, and their eyes fixed upon the young master of 
 Nazareth in eager expectation. Banaias, together with 
 several others of his stamp, gathered behind the young 
 master and ordered silence to the expectant multitude. 
 Finally, others, further away, among whom were Jo- 
 anna, Aurelia and her slave Genevieve, formed a sec- 
 ond tier by rising on the benches. 
 
 The son of Mary, keeping upon his knees the boy, 
 who, with one arm resting on the shoulder of his good 
 Jesus, seemed to hang upon his lips, the son of Mary 
 commenced the following parable: 
 
 "A certain man had two sons: 
 
 "And the younger of them said to his father: Father, 
 give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And he 
 divided unto them his living. 
 
 "And not many days after, the younger son gath- 
 ered all together, and took his journey into a far coun- 
 try, and there wasted his substance with riotous liv- 
 ing. 
 
 "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty
 
 62 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 
 
 ''And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that 
 country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 
 
 "And he would fain have filled his belly with the 
 husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto 
 him." 
 
 At this passage in the story, the boy, whom the son 
 "i Mary held upon his knees, heaved a sigh and clasped 
 his hands pityingly. 
 
 Jesus continued: 
 
 "And when he came to himself, he said: How many 
 hired servants of my father's have bread enough and 
 to spare and I perish with hunger ! I will rise and go 
 unto my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have 
 sinned against heaven, and before you. and am no more 
 worthy to be called your son ; make me as one of your 
 hired servants. 
 
 "And he arose and came to his father. But when he 
 was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had 
 compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed 
 him. 
 
 "And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned 
 against heaven, and in your sight, and am no more 
 worthy to be called your son. 
 
 "But the father said to his servants. Bring forth the 
 best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his 
 hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted 
 calf, and kill it ; and let us eat and be merry, for this
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. M 
 
 my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
 found. And they began to be merry." 
 
 "Oh! The good father!" exclaimed the child whom 
 the young master of Nazareth held on his knees. "Oh! 
 The good, kind father, who forgives, and embraces in- 
 stead of scolding!" 
 
 Jesus smiled, kissed the boy on his forehead, and 
 proceeded : 
 
 "And they began to be merry. 
 
 "Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came 
 and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and danc- 
 ing. 
 
 "And he called one of the servants and asked what 
 these things meant. 
 
 "And he said unto him, Your brother is come; and 
 your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has 
 received him safe and sound. 
 
 "And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore 
 came his father out, and threatened him. 
 
 "And he, answering, said to his father: Lo, these 
 many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at 
 any time your commandment ; and yet you never gave 
 me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. 
 But as soon as this your son was come, which has de- 
 voured your living with harlots, you have killed for 
 him the fatted calf." 
 
 "Oh! How wicked is that elder brother!" said the 
 child whom the young master held upon his knees. 
 "He is envious of his younger brother, notwithstanding
 
 64 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 he returns home so wretched. God will not love the 
 envious brother. Not so, good Jesus!" 
 
 The son of Mary shook his head as if to answer the 
 child that, indeed, God did not love the envious, and 
 proceeded : 
 
 "And the father said unto his first born: Son, you 
 are ever with me, and all that I have is yours. It was 
 meet that we should make merry, and be glad; for 
 this your brother was dead, and is alive again; and 
 was lost, and is found." 1 
 
 All the people present seemed touched to tears by 
 this narrative. The son of Mary having stopped speak- 
 ing to drink a glass of wine that Judas, his disciple, 
 poured out to him, Banaias, who had listened to him 
 with profound attention, cried out: 
 
 "Our friend, do you know that that somewhat re- 
 sembles my own history, and is very much like that 
 of many other people? If, after my first youthful 
 slip, my father had acted like the father in your para- 
 ble, and had stretched out his arms to me in token of 
 forgiveness, instead of driving me out of the house 
 with a merciless caning, I might at this hour be seated 
 at my own honest hearth, in the midst of my family, 
 whereas to-day the highroad is my hearth, misery my 
 wife, and for children I have my evil thoughts, the 
 spawn of wild-eyed Mother Misery. Oh ! Why did I 
 not have the man of that parable for my father!" 
 
 "The indulgent father forgave," observed Oliba the 
 
 I,uke 15.11-32.
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. . ,* 
 
 courtesan, " because he knew that God having given 
 youth to his creatures, these sometimes abuse the boon. 
 But those who, disgraced, wretched and repentful, re- 
 turn humbly beseeching a little corner under the pa- 
 ternal roof, should not they, so far from being spurned, 
 be received with mercy?" 
 
 "As to me," exclaimed another voice, "I would not 
 give a grape-stone for that elder brother, for that 
 sanctimonious man, so harsh, so sour and so jealous, 
 to whom virtue cost nothing!" 
 
 Genevieve overheard one of the emissaries of the 
 Pharisees say to his companion: 
 
 "Does not the Nazarene flatter in a dangerous man- 
 ner the evil instincts of these vagabonds ! Henceforth, 
 every idle debauchee, who will have left the paternal 
 home, will believe himself justified to consign his father 
 to Beelzebub if the ill-advised father, instead of kill- 
 ing the fatted calf, chases out of doors, as he ought to, 
 the villainous son whom only hunger drives back to 
 the fold." 
 
 "Yes, and all wise and honest people will be con- 
 sidered hard-hearted and jealous." 
 
 And this same man, believing that no one would 
 know who spoke, said aloud: 
 
 ' ' Glory to you, Jesus of Nazareth ! Glory to you, the 
 protector and defender of us dissipators and prosti- 
 tutes! It is folly to be virtuous and provident. The 
 fatted calf must be killed for the debauched!" 
 
 Loud murmurs of disapprobation received the words
 
 W THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 of the emissary of the Pharisees. All eyes turned in 
 the direction whence the words had come. Threats 
 were uttered. 
 
 "Away with these men, these inexorable beasts!" 
 
 "Oh ! They are pitiless. They have no entrails, these 
 people whom repentance never moves," remarked the 
 courtesan Oliba. "These cold bodies that do not real- 
 ize that the blood boils with others." 
 
 "Let the one who thus spoke show himself!" shouted 
 Banaias, striking the table with his heavy iron-tipped 
 stick in a threatening manner. "Yes, let him show us 
 his virtuous face, the scrupulous worthy, who is se- 
 verer than our friend of Nazareth, the brother of the 
 poor, of the sorrowful and of the sick, whom he sup- 
 ports, heals and consoles ! By the ear of Zerubbabel ! I 
 would like to meet him face to face, the spotless white 
 lamb, who bleats his virtues to us. Where is he, that 
 immaculate lily of the valley of men 1 He surely smells 
 virtue like a veritable balm," added Banaias, dilating 
 his large nostrils. "By the nose of Malachi! I do not 
 smell at all the aroma of wisdom, that perfume of hon- 
 esty that surely the sweet-scented choice vase hidden 
 among us should emit." 
 
 The witticism of Banaias caused great mirth to the 
 audience, and the one of the two emissaries who had 
 uttered the satire against the words of the son of Mary 
 did not seem to be in a hurry to meet the wishes of 
 the redoubtable friend of the Nazarene. On the con- 
 trary, he, as well as his companion, affected to look
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 7 
 
 around, as the other guests did, for the man from whom 
 the words had proceeded. 
 
 The tumult was on the increase when the young 
 master of Nazareth made a sign that he wished to 
 speak. The tempest subsided as if by magic, and, an- 
 swering to the reproach of being too indulgent towards 
 the sinners, Jesus said in an accent of kind severity : 
 
 "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he 
 lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine 
 in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until 
 he find it? And when he has found it, he lays it on 
 his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, 
 he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto 
 them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep 
 which was lost. I say unto you," added the son of 
 Mary in a tone of grave and tender authority, "I say 
 unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one 
 sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-nine per- 
 sons which need no repentance." 1 
 
 These touching words of the son of Mary made a 
 strong impression upon the crowd. It applauded with 
 hands and words. 
 
 "Answer that, my white lambkin, my spotless lily!" 
 again shouted Banaias, addressing the invisible inter- 
 rupter of the Nazarene. "If you do not share the 
 opinion of our friend, step forward and repeat and 
 make good your words." 
 
 "The wonderful merit, as Jesus says," observed an- 
 
 Luk 15.4-7.
 
 68 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 other, "the wonderful merit for him who is neither 
 hungry nor thirsty, to be neither gluttonous nor a 
 drunkard!" 
 
 "Easy is virtue to him who lacks for nothing," said 
 the courtesan Oliba. "Hunger and neglect ruin more 
 women than dissipation." 
 
 Suddenly there was a peculiar stir among the crowd 
 that filled the tavern, and the name of Magdalen trav- 
 eled from lip to lip. 
 
 "She is one of those creatures who make a traffic 
 of their bodies," Joanna informed Aurelia. "It is not 
 want that plunged her, as it does so many others, into 
 this degradation, but a first slip, followed by the de- 
 sertion of the man who seduced her, and whom she 
 truly loved. Since then, despite the disorders of her 
 life and the venality of her amours, Magdalen has 
 proved that her heart was not wholly corrupted. The 
 poor never apply to her in vain, and she has passion- 
 ately loved several men with a love as devoted as it was 
 disinterested, sacrificing to them the chief priests, thn 
 doctors of the law and many a rich seigneur who vied 
 with his fellows in the gifts that he lavished upon her. 
 My husband, among others, was of the number of 
 those magnificent admirers " 
 
 "Tour husband, dear Joanna?" 
 
 "He spent a good deal of money upon Magdalen 
 he is so beautiful," answered the young dame with an 
 indulgent smile. "He is one of those who have en- 
 riched her. Marvels are told of her house, or rather
 
 , THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 69 
 
 of the palace that she inhabits. Her coffers are filled 
 with the rarest cloths and the most dazzling stones. 
 Gold and silver vases, imported at a great expense 
 from Rome, Asia and Greece, are heaped upon her 
 sideboards. The purple and silk of Tyre ornament her 
 residence; and her domestic servants are as numerous 
 as those of a Princess." 
 
 ' ' We also have in Italy and in Roman Gaul creatures 
 like her, the insolent luxury of whom abashes the medi- 
 ocre fortunes of many honest women," answered Au- 
 relia. "But what can this Magdalen want with the 
 young master of Nazareth?" 
 
 ' ' No doubt she comes, like several others of her class 
 whom you see yonder, less rich but no less degraded 
 than herself, to listen to the words of Jesus. His sweet 
 and tender word, which penetrates the heart with its 
 mercifulness, affects them and causes repentance to 
 germinate." 
 
 As she heard these words spoken by Joanna. Gene- 
 vieve was reminded of the narrative of Sylvest, her 
 husband's grandfather, a narrative that described the 
 horrible life of Syomara the courtesan, and her fright- 
 ful death. 1 
 
 "Perhaps," thought Genevieve to herself, "perhaps 
 Syomara also might have been touched with repent- 
 ance and her end might have been peaceable if. like 
 this Magdalen that they speak about, she could have 
 
 1 The third story of tb? <">rfi, Faustina and Syomara." 
 and entitled "The Iron Collar ; Of,
 
 TO THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 heard the healing instructions of this young man." 
 
 "There she is!" cried several voices. "Room for 
 Magdalen, the beauty among the most beautiful!" 
 
 "Our Princess!" remarked her companion to Oliba, 
 with a certain touch of pride. "After all, our Queen 
 is Magdalen!" 
 
 "A sad royalty ! ' ' answered Oliba with a sigh. ' ' Her 
 shame is seen from higher up and further away ! ' ' 
 
 "But she is so rich so very rich!" 
 
 "To Bell one's self for a denier or for a heap of 
 gold," replied the courtesan, "where is the difference? 
 The ignominy is the same." 
 
 "Oliba, you are completely losing your senses!" 
 
 The young woman made no answer, and sighed. 
 
 Standing, like her mistress, upon a bench, Genevieve 
 raised herself on tip-toes, and presently saw the cele- 
 brated courtesan enter the court of the tavern. 
 
 Magdalen was of exceptional beauty. The chin- 
 piece of her gold-fringed white silk turban framed a 
 face of an admirable perfection. Her long-arched eye- 
 brows, black as ebony, like the strands of her hair, 
 traced their dainty lines upon that hitherto brazen and 
 proud, but now sad and humble forehead. The woman 
 seemed heart-broken. The edges of her eyelids, stained 
 bluish after the fashion of the Orient, imparted an 
 uncommon appearance to her tear-drowned eyes, and 
 seemed to double their size as they shone through their 
 tears like two black diamonds. A long robe of light 
 blue Tyrian silk fringed with gold and embroidered
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. Tl 
 
 with pearls fell in a long train behind her, and around 
 her waist she had a flowing scarf of cloth of gold stud- 
 ded with many-colored stones matching those of her 
 double necklace, her ear-rings, and the bracelets which 
 covered her bare and handsome arms in which she held 
 a rose-colored alabaster urn from Chalcedon, more pre- 
 cious than gold. 
 
 "What a change has come over Magdalen!" ex- 
 claimed Joanna, addressing Aurelia. "I have seen her 
 pass & score of times in her litter, borne by her servi- 
 tors dressed in rich liveries, the triumph of beauty, the 
 intoxication and delight of youth legible on her face. 
 Yet now, behold her timidly approaching Jesus, hum- 
 ble, depressed, tearful, and sadder than the most deso- 
 late of those poor women who hold their ragged chil- 
 dren in their arms." 
 
 "But what is she about?" inquired Aurelia, watch- 
 ing more and more attentively. "She is standing be- 
 fore the young master of Nazareth. With one hand she 
 holds the alabaster urn close to her heaving bosom, 
 while with the other hand she is unloosing her rich 
 turban. She casts it far away from her. Her black, 
 luxurious hair, tumbling down upon her breast and 
 shoulders, unrolls like a jetty mantle, down to the 
 ground. ' ' 
 
 "Oh! Look! Look! her tears flow more copious!" 
 exclaimed Joanna. "They inundate her face." 
 
 "She has knelt down at the feet of the son of Mary,"
 
 72 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 said Aurelia, "and bathes them with tears and covers 
 them with kisses." 
 
 "What heart-rending sobs!" 
 
 ' ' And the tears that she sheds upon the feet of Jesus 
 she is wiping them with her long hair." 1 
 
 "Watch her! Without ceasing to weep, she takes up 
 her elaborate urn and pours upon the feet of Jesus a 
 delicious perfume, the odor of which reaches even as 
 far as here." 
 
 "The young master tries to raise her she resists. 
 She can not speak. Her sobs break her voice. She 
 bows her head down to the floor." 
 
 Then Jesus, who could scarcely restrain his emo- 
 tion, turned to Simon, one of his disciples, and ad- 
 dressing him, said: 
 
 ' ' There was a certain creditor who had two debtors : 
 the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty: 
 And when they had nothing to pay, ho, frankly forgave 
 them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love 
 him more?" 
 
 Simon answered and said: 
 
 "Master, I suppose that he whom he forgave most." 
 
 "You have rightly judged, Simon." 
 
 And pointing to the rich courtesan on her knees at 
 his feet, Jesus said to those around him : 
 
 "See ye this woman? I say unto ye. Her sins, which 
 are many, are forgiven, for she loved much." 
 
 Luke 15.38.
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. T3 
 
 Then addressing Magdalen in a voice instinct with 
 kindness : 
 
 ''Your sins are forgiven your faith has saved you; 
 go in peace." 1 
 
 "Abomination of desolation!" exclaimed one of the 
 emissaries of the Pharisees in a low voice to his com- 
 panion. "Can brazenness and demoralization be car- 
 ried to greater length! The Nazarene forgives every- 
 thing that is reprehensible, absolves everything that 
 is punishable, extols all that is low! After rehabili- 
 tating the profligate and prodigal, we now have him 
 rehabilitating infamous harlots!" 
 
 "And what for?" replied the other emissary. "Sim- 
 ply in order to flatter the vices and detestable passions 
 of the villains that he gathers around him, to the end 
 that he may some day use them. ' ' 
 
 "But, patience!" said the other. "Patience! Naza- 
 rene, your hour draws nigh! Your ever-increasing 
 audacity will soon draw a terrible punishment upon 
 your head!" 
 
 While Genevieve heard the two wicked men express 
 these sentiments, she saw Magdalen, after the merciful 
 words of Jesus, rise radiant. Tears still rolled down 
 her beautiful face, but those tears no longer seemed 
 bitter. She distributed among the poor women who 
 surrounded her the precious stones and jewels that she 
 was ornamented with. She even unclasped the mag- 
 nificent robe that she wore over her tunic of fine Sidon 
 
 7.40-60.
 
 74 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 material, and donned the coarse brown woolen mantle 
 of a young woman, to whom she gave in exchange her 
 own richly pearl-embroidered robe of great value. She 
 then said to Simon, the disciple of the young master, 
 that she would never quit her humble vestments, 
 and that the very next day she would distribute all her 
 property among the needy, and among the courtesans 
 whom only their misery kept from returning to a bet- 
 ter life. 
 
 At these acts, which were accompanied with words of 
 kindness, Oliba clasped her hands, and moved by an 
 impulse of gratitude, threw herself at the feet of Mag- 
 dalen, took her hands, kissed them amid sobs and said : 
 
 "Blessed be you, Magdalen! Oh! blessed be you! 
 Tour bounty will be the salvation of me and of my 
 other companions in shame. We repented at the voice 
 of the son of Mary. His words thrilled our hearts, and 
 we expected forgiveness. But, alas! the necessity of 
 living held us back in evil. Blessed be you, Magdalen, 
 you who render possible our return to righteousness ! ' ' 
 
 "Listen, it is not me you must bless," answered 
 Magdalen, "but Jesus of Nazareth." 
 
 And Magdalen mingled with the crowd to listen to 
 the word of the young master. 
 
 Some of his disciples having informed him concern- 
 ing Magdalen that she had been seduced and then de- 
 serted by a doctor of the law, the countenance of Jesus 
 assumed a serious, severe and even menacing aspect. 
 He said:
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 76 
 
 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed 
 appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead 
 men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also 
 outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you 
 are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, you 
 blind guides! which strain at a gnat and swallow a 
 camel!" 1 
 
 The familiar satire caused much mirth among the 
 audience, and Banaias cried: 
 
 ' ' Oh, how right you are, our friend ! How many of 
 those gluttons do we know who swallow camels! But 
 such is the rigid strictness of their conscience that they 
 digest camels like ostriches digest pebbles, and they do 
 not seem to mind it. All is grist that comes to their 
 mill." 
 
 Fresh outbursts of laughter answered the sally of 
 Banaias, and Jesus proceeded : 
 
 "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
 platter, but within they are full of extortion and ex- 
 cess. Woe unto you which bind heavy burdens, and 
 grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, 
 but yourselves will not move them with one of your 
 fingers!" 2 
 
 This fresh familiar comparison struck the minds of 
 the hearers of the young master, and several voices re- 
 sponded : 
 
 1 Matthew 23.24,27,28. 
 'Matthew 23.4,26.
 
 7 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 "Yes! Yes! The hypocritical do-nothings say t th 
 lowly: 'Labor is holy work! But we, we shall not 
 work!'" 
 
 "Yes; 'you alone shall carry the burden of labor 
 but we will not move it with one of our fingers 1* " 
 
 Jesus proceeded : 
 
 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 you do all your works for to be seen of men! You 
 make broad your phylacteries and enlarge the borders 
 of your garments ! Woe unto you which say, Whoso- 
 ever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a 
 debtor!" 1 
 
 "Because," interjected a voice, "to those wicked 
 rich nothing is holy but gold! They swear by their 
 gold as others swear by their soul or by their honor !" 
 
 Jesus resumed : 
 
 "And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is noth- 
 ing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon 
 it, he is guilty. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
 hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint, and anise and 
 cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of 
 the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought you 
 to have done, and not leave the other undone!" 2 
 
 "By the two thumbs of Methuselah!" cried Banaias, 
 laughing. "You say so as if it could be easily done! 
 All those hypocrites have in their coffers wherewith to 
 pay the tithe, and they pay it. But where do you ex- 
 
 1 Matthew 23.5,16. 
 Matthew 23.18,23.
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 11 
 
 pect them to find the coin of justice, of good faith and 
 of mercy which you demand of those whitened sepul- 
 chres, of those swallowers of camels, or those people 
 reeking with iniquity?" 
 
 "Alas! The young master speaks truly!" said an- 
 other. "To him who is moneyless, justice is deaf. The 
 doctors of the law do not say to you in their tribunals : 
 'What good reason can you allege in your behalf?' 
 but: 'How much money do you promise me?'!" 
 
 "I entrusted some savings to Joas, one of the chief 
 priests," put in a poor old woman. "He told me he 
 spent it in good works for my salvation. What was I 
 to do, lone poor woman that I am, against so powerful 
 a seigneur? I had to submit, and beg for my bread, 
 which I do not find every day. ' ' 
 
 At this complaint Jesus cried with redoubled indig- 
 nation : 
 
 "0, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretence 
 make long prayer. You serpents, you generation of 
 vipers! how can you escape the damnation of hell? 
 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise 
 men, and scribes for your salvation but, alas ! ' ' added 
 the son of Mary in a tone of deep sadness, "some of 
 them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall 
 you persecute from city to city, that upon you may 
 come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from 
 the blood of the righteous Abel, unto the blood of
 
 78 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Zacharias, whom you slew between the Temple and the 
 altar!" 1 
 
 "Oh! Fear not, our friend! If those swallowers of 
 camels should want to shed your blood," cried Ba- 
 naias, striking the hilt of his long and rusty cutlass, 
 1 ' they will first have to shed ours ! And we will not run 
 before them, either!" 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" answered the crowd almost in chorus. 
 "Fear nothing, Jesus of Nazareth. We will defend 
 you against your enemies!" 
 
 "We shall die for you, if necessary!" 
 
 "You shall be our leader!" 
 
 "Our King!" 
 
 But the son of Mary, as if mistrustful of these trans- 
 ports, shook his head with more and more profound 
 sadness, tears welled at his eyes; and he cried in a 
 disconsolate voice: 
 
 "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You that kill the proph- 
 ets, and stone them which are sent unto you! How 
 often would I have gathered your children together, 
 even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing 
 and you would not ! You would not ! ' '* 
 
 And the accents of the son of Mary, at first cutting, 
 severe or indignant when he referred to the Phari- 
 sees, were stamped with such heartrending grief as he 
 pronounced those last words that almost all those 
 present wept like the young master of Nazareth. Pres- 
 
 1 Matthew 23.1433.34. 
 Matthew 23.37.
 
 THE YOUNG MAN OF NAZARETH. 79 
 
 ently profound silence ensued ; Jesus was seen with his 
 elbows leaning on the table and weeping with his face 
 hidden in his hands. 
 
 Genevieve could no longer restrain her own tears. 
 She overheard one of the two emissaries say to his com- 
 panion in a tone of triumph: 
 
 "The Nazarene has called the doctors of the law and 
 the chief priests 'serpents' and 'generation of vipers'! 
 This whole evening he has done nothing but blaspheme. 
 All that men hold most sacred he has denounced. A 
 curse upon him!" 
 
 "Oh! You talk of crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth!" 
 replied the other. "We would not have you proved a 
 liar, prophet of Beelzebub!" 
 
 Simon, one of the disciples of the young master, see- 
 ing him remain with his head leaning upon his hands, 
 weeping in silence, stooped over him and said: 
 
 "Master, the sun will soon be rising. The peasants 
 who bring the vegetables to the market of Jerusalem 
 go through the Valley of Cedron. They thirst for your 
 word. They expect to meet you on their way. Shall 
 we not go out to them ? ' ' 
 
 Jesus rose. His sad and pensive countenance bright- 
 ened as he embraced the little children, and they, see- 
 ing he was about to depart, put their arms around his 
 neck. Jesus then clasped fraternally all the hands that 
 were offered to him and left the Wild Ass tavern, which 
 was situated near that gate of the city that led to the 
 fields.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 
 
 Jesus wended his way towards the Valley of Cedron 
 which male and female peasants crossed on their way 
 to Jerusalem, whither they took provisions as well as 
 vegetables to market. 
 
 Such was the attraction of the word of the young 
 master of Nazareth that the greater part of the people 
 who had spent the night listening to him decided to 
 accompany him now. 
 
 Magdalen, Oliba and Banaias were among these. 
 
 "Joanna, will you also go outside the city?" in- 
 quired Aurelia of Chuza's wife. "Day is dawning. 
 Let us return home. It might be imprudent to prolong 
 our absence." 
 
 "I shall not yet return home. I shall follow Jesus 
 to the end of the world," answered Joanna with exal- 
 tation. 
 
 And stepping down from her bench she drew from 
 her pocket a heavy purse of gold which she placed in 
 the hands of Simon just as he was leaving the tavern 
 close upon the steps of the son of Mary. 
 
 "The young master emptied his alms bag this even-
 
 THE VALLEY OF CBDRON. M 
 
 ing, ' ' Joanna said to Simon ' here is wherewith to re- 
 plenish it and enable him to alleviate the sufferings 
 of the poor." 
 
 "You, again!" said Simon with gratitude at seeing 
 Joanna. "Your charity never tires." 
 
 "It is your master's tenderness that is inexhaustible. 
 He never tires of helping and consoling the poor, 
 the repentant and the oppressed," answered Chuza's 
 wife. 
 
 Genevieve, who watched uneasily the emissaries of 
 the Pharisees, once more overheard the one say to the 
 other : 
 
 "Follow and keep an eye upon the Nazarene. I shall 
 hasten to Seigneurs Caiaphas and Baruch, and report 
 to them the abominable blasphemies and impieties that 
 he uttered to-night in the company of these vagabonds 
 of these women of ill fame of a rabble. The Naza- 
 rene must not this time escape the fate that awaits 
 him." 
 
 The two men parted. 
 
 Aurelia, seeming to have reflected for a moment, said 
 to her friend: 
 
 "Joanna, I can not express to you the effect that 
 that young man's word has upon me. His word, at 
 times so simple, tender and lofty, other times so caus- 
 tic and threatening, penetrates my heart. It is as if 
 a new world opened to my soul, because to us 'pagans' 
 the word Charity is something new. So far from 
 being appeased, my curiosity and interest have been
 
 88 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 whetted. Whatever may happen, Joanna, I am deter- 
 mined to go with you. Our husbands will be away four 
 days. What will it matter, after all, whether we re- 
 turn home before or after sunrise?" 
 
 Gtenevieve was very happy at hearing her mistress 
 thus express herself. As she thought of her fellow 
 slaves in Gaul she also was highly desirous to hear 
 more of the words of Jesus, the friend and liberator 
 of bondmen. 
 
 Immediately after leaving the tavern with her mis- 
 tress and the charitable wife of Seigneur Chuza, Gene- 
 vieve witnessed an incident that proved to her how 
 quickly the word of Jesus bore fruit. 
 
 Magdalen, the beautiful and repentant courtesan, 
 now covered by a coarse woolen mantle like a pauper, 
 followed the anxious crowd behind Jesus. Her foot 
 struck against a stone in the street, she stumbled and 
 would have fallen to the ground but for the timely as- 
 sistance of Joanna and Aurelia, who, being accidental- 
 ly near, hastened to her assistance. 
 
 "What, you, Joanna, the wife of Seigneur Chuza!" 
 exclaimed the courtesan, who saw through Joanna's 
 disguise and blushed with shame as, no doubt, the im- 
 pure gifts she had received from Chuza came to her 
 mind. "You, Joanna, are not afraid to lend me a help- 
 ing hand, to me, wretched creature and justly despised 
 of honest women!" 
 
 "Magdalen," Joanna answered with charming be- 
 nevolence, "did not our young master say to you: 'Go
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 88 
 
 in peace,' and that 'all your sins are forgiven, for you 
 loved much?' By what right should I be severer than 
 Jesus of Nazareth? Give me your hand, Magdalen 
 your hand. It is a sister who asks you for it in token* 
 of pardon and oblivion of the past." 
 
 Magdalen took the hand that Joanna offered her, but 
 it was to kiss it with respect, and to cover it with tean 
 of gratitude. 
 
 "Oh! Joanna," the mistress of Gene vie ve said to her 
 friend in a low voice. "The young man of Nazareth 
 would be pleased to see you practice his precepts so 
 generously." 
 
 Joanna, Aurelia and Magdalen soon passed through 
 the gate of Jerusalem in the wake of the crowd. 
 
 The sun, rising at that moment in all its splendor, 
 illuminated the distant fields of the Valley of Cedron, 
 the Oriental aspect of which, so novel to Genevieve, 
 struck her with surprise and admiration. 
 
 Thanks to the spring season, which, moreover, was 
 early this year, the plains that lay at the gates of Jeru- 
 salem were as verdant and florid as those of Sharon 
 which Genevieve had crossed with her mistress on her 
 journey from Jaffa (her place of disembarkation) to 
 Jerusalem. White and red roses, narcissuses, ane- 
 mones, yellow gilly-flowers and odoriferous immortelles 
 perfumed the air and enlivened the fields with their 
 bright colors moist with the dew. 
 
 At the roadside a clump of palm trees shaded the 
 dome of a well, whither already large black oxen, cou-
 
 ** THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 pled by their yokes, and led by drivers clad in skirts 
 of camel skins, came to drink. Shepherds also were 
 seen leading to the well their flocks of pendant-eared 
 goats and long-tailed sheep; while dusky-complexioned 
 young women, dressed in white and proceeding, no 
 doubt, from a hamlet that could be seen at a little dis- 
 tance half hidden in a wood of olive trees, drew water 
 from the well and returned to their homes carrying 
 upon their heads, half enveloped with their white veils, 
 large jars of the fresh water. 
 
 Further away, along the dusty road that descended 
 in zig-zag along the near slope of a ridge of mountains, 
 the crest of which was barely disengaging itself from 
 the azure mists of the morning, a long caravan was 
 seen, slowly wending its way, with the long necks of 
 the camels towering above the baskets and bales with 
 which the animals were laden. 
 
 All along the road followed by Genevieve blue 
 pigeons, larks and wagtails, nestled in the copse of 
 nopal and turpentine-shrubs, sang their songs, while 
 here and there a white stork with red legs rose in the 
 air with a captured snake in its beak. 
 
 Several herdsmen and laborers, learning from the 
 people who followed the Nazarene that he was going 
 to the hill of Cedron to preach the glad tidings, turned 
 their herds in that direction, and increased the crowd 
 attached to the steps of the son of Mary. 
 
 Joanna, Aurelia and Genevieve thus drew near the
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 86 
 
 hamlet that lay half hidden in the wood of olive trees, 
 which had to be crossed in order to reach the hill. 
 
 Suddenly a large number of men and women were 
 seen rushing out of the wood and uttering cries and 
 imprecations. 
 
 At the head of the crowd were several doctors of 
 the law and priests. Two of the latter dragged along 
 a handsome young woman in bare feet and arms, and 
 barely clad in a tunic. Shame and terror were de- 
 picted on her tear-stained face. Her disheveled hair 
 fell down upon her shoulders. From time to time, and 
 praying for mercy between her sobs, she threw her- 
 self in her despair upon her knees on the stones that 
 strewed the road, despite the efforts of the two priests, 
 who, each holding her by an arm, trailed her through 
 the dust, and forced her to rise again to her feet and 
 proceed with them. 
 
 The crowd at their heels showered hisses, impreca- 
 tions and insults upon the unfortunate woman, who 
 was as livid and terrified as a woman would be who 
 was being led to death. 
 
 The priests and doctors of the law, who, no doubt, 
 recognized the young master of Nazareth, made a sign 
 to the villagers, whose imprecations and ire were at 
 every step redoubling in fury, to halt for a moment. 
 The angry mob whom they addressed and which con- 
 sisted of men and women, immediately picked up 
 heavy stones and, armed with them, broke out every
 
 W THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 little while in coarse insults and threats of death 
 against the weeping prisoner. 
 
 The priests and the doctors of the law dragged the 
 unfortunate woman to the very feet of Jesus, whom, in 
 her terror, she immediately began to implore for 
 mercy, raising up to him her face bathed in tears and 
 her bruised hands clotted with blood and dust. 
 
 Then, one of the priests, intending to tempt Jesus 
 and hoping to destroy him should his verdict be dif- 
 ferent from theirs, said to him: 
 
 "This woman was taken in adultery in the very act. 
 Now, Moses in the law commanded that such should be 
 stoned; but what say you?" 
 
 But instead of answering, Jesus stooped down and 
 wrote on the ground in the dust : 
 
 "He that is without sin among you, let him cast a 
 first stone at her. ' ' 
 
 And as the astonished Pharisees continued asking 
 him, he raised himself, and read unto them in a loud 
 voice what he had written. 
 
 Loud applause broke from the crowd behind the son 
 of Mary at these words from his mouth. 
 
 Banaias laughed uproariously and cried: 
 
 ' ' Well answered, our friend ! I am no prophet, but 
 if only unsullied hands may stone this poor sinner to 
 death, then, by the heels of Gideon! I swear we shall 
 presently see all these furiously virtuous people, all 
 these frenetically chaste, all these diabolically modest 
 folks, beginning with the seigneurs priests and the
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 87 
 
 seigneurs doctors of the law, turn their sandals around 
 and tuck up their robes in order that they may run 
 all the faster. Look at them! What did I tell you! 
 Behold them dispersing like a herd of swine pursued 
 by a wolf!" 
 
 "And swine they are!" said another. "As to the 
 wolf at their heels, it is their own conscience." 
 
 In fact, after having heard those words of Jesus 
 He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first 
 stone at this woman the doctors of the law, the high 
 priests, as well as those who had first intended to stone 
 the adulteress, fearing a rough handling by the crowd 
 that followed the young master of Nazareth, left so 
 precipitately that when the son of Mary, who had 
 stooped down again and continued to write, again 
 looked up, the mob, only shortly before so threaten- 
 ingly clamorous, was far away, fleeing towards the 
 hamlet. There was none left behind but the accused 
 woman, still upon her knees, suppliant and weeping at 
 his feet. 
 
 Smiling shrewdly and with kindness, and pointing to 
 the empty space left around her through the dispersion 
 of those who wanted to stone her, Jesus said to the 
 woman : 
 
 "Woman, where are those your accusers? Has no 
 man condemned you?" 
 
 ' ' No man, Lord, ' ' she said breaking into tears.
 
 88 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Neither do I condemn you," Jesus said; "go, and 
 sin no more." 1 
 
 And leaving the adulteress on her knees in the trans- 
 port of having been saved from death and forgiven, 
 the son of Mary arrived, followed by his disciples and 
 the crowd behind him, at the foot of a hill where 
 already a large number of country people were congre- 
 gated, impatiently awaiting his arrival, some with their 
 provisions upon donkeys or zebras, others in wagons 
 drawn by oxen, and still others in baskets that they 
 carried upon their heads. The herdsmen who, when 
 the Nazarene went by, were watering their flocks at 
 the fountain, also arrived in turn. When this large 
 assemblage stood silent and expectant at the foot of the 
 hill, Jesus of Nazareth climbed up its slope with the 
 view of being better heard by all. 
 
 As the rising snn bathed with its radiant beams the 
 son of Mary clad in his white tunic and blue mantle, 
 caused his celestial visage to shine resplendent, and 
 sported in his long blonde hair, his head seemod 
 crowned with an aureola of gold. Then, addressing 
 himself to the simple in heart whom he loved with a 
 love equal to his love for the little children, Jesus said 
 to them in his sonorous and gentle voice: 
 
 "Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven ! 
 
 "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit th 
 earth. 
 
 'John 8.4-12.
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 89 
 
 "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com- 
 forted. 
 
 "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain 
 mercy. 
 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see 
 God. 
 
 "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be 
 called the children of God. 
 
 "Blessed are they which are persecuted for right- 
 eousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 1 
 
 "But woe unto you that are rich! for you have re- 
 ceived your consolation. 
 
 ' ' Woe unto you that are full ! for ye shall hunger. 
 
 "Woe unto you that laugh! for ye shall mourn and 
 weep. 
 
 "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of 
 you ! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. 2 
 
 "Love your neighbor as yourself. 
 
 "Take heed that you do not your alms before men, 
 to be seen of them ! 
 
 "Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a 
 trumpet before as the hypocrites do in the synagogues 
 and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. 
 Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. 3 
 
 "The other day I sat in the synagogue over against 
 the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money 
 into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in 
 
 Matthew 5.2-10. Matthew 19.10 ; C.l-2. 
 
 Luke 6.24-26.
 
 90 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she 
 threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And I 
 called unto me my disciples, and I said unto them: 
 
 " 'Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath 
 cast more in, than all they which have cast into the 
 treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; 
 but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even 
 all her living. n 
 
 "When you do your alms, let not your left hand 
 know what your right hand does. 
 
 "And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypo- 
 crites are : for they love to pray standing in the syna- 
 gogues and in the corners of the streets that they may 
 be seen of men. But you, when you pray, enter into 
 your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray 
 to your Father which is, in secret. 
 
 "Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, 
 of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces 
 that they may appear unto men to fast. 
 
 "But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and 
 wash your face, that you appear not unto men to fast, 
 but unto your Father which is, in secret. 2 
 
 "Above all do not you do like the two men of this 
 parable : 
 
 "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one 
 a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood 
 and prayed thus with himself: 
 
 " 'God, I thank you that I am not as other men are, 
 
 >Mark 12.41-44. 
 
 Matthew 6.3,5,6,16,18.
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 81 
 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publi- 
 can, whom I see yonder. I fast twice in the week, I 
 give tithes of all that I possess.' 
 
 "The publican, on the contrary, standing afar off, 
 would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but 
 smote upon his breast saying : 
 
 " 'God be merciful unto me a sinner!' 
 
 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justi- 
 fied, rather than the other: for everyone that exalts 
 himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself 
 shall be exalted. l 
 
 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
 where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves 
 break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves 
 treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust do 
 corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 
 steal : for where your treasure is, there will your heart 
 be also ! a 
 
 "Do unto others as you wish to be done by; that is 
 the law and the prophets. 
 
 "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. 
 
 "And if any man will sue you at the law, and take 
 away your coat, let him have your cloak also. 
 
 ' ' Give unto him that asks. 8 
 
 "He that has two coats, let him impart to him that 
 has none, and he that has meat let him do likewise.* 
 
 "When the day of judgment shall have come, the 
 Lord shall say unto them on the left hand : 
 
 Luke 18.10-14. ' Matthew 5.40,42,44. 
 
 Matthew 6.19-21. Luke 3.11.
 
 W THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 " 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels. 
 
 " 'For I was an hungered and you gave me no 
 meat! 
 
 " 'I was thirsty and you gave me no drink! 
 
 " ' I was a stranger, and you took me not in ! 
 
 " 'I was naked, and you clothed me not! 
 
 " 'I was sick and in prison, and you visited me 
 not!' 
 
 ' ' Then shall the wicked make answer to the Lord : 
 
 " 'Lord, when saw we you an hungered, or athirst, 
 or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did 
 not minister unto you?' 
 
 * ' Then shall the Lord answer them, saying : 
 
 " 'Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it 
 not to one of the least of these, you did it not unto 
 me.'" 1 
 
 To the great regret of the assembled multitude that 
 listened moved and deeply affected by the divine pre- 
 cepts of the son of Mary, precepts that the poorest 
 in spirit could understand, the discourse was suddenly 
 interrupted in consequence of a violent tumult. 
 
 It happened in this way : A troop of mounted men, 
 coming down from the mountain and riding in haste to 
 Jerusalem, found its way blocked by the large gather- 
 ing of people standing at the foot of the hill where the 
 young master of Nazareth was preaching. 
 
 In their impatience, the riders brutally ordered the 
 
 1 Mattbw 25.41-46.
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. W 
 
 crowd to disperse and open a passage to Seigneur 
 Chuza, the intendant of the house of Prince Herod, and 
 Seigneur Gremion, the Roman Tribune of the Treasury. 
 
 At sight of the soldiers of the escort, Aurelia, the 
 wife of Seigneur Gremion, grew pale and said to 
 Joanna : 
 
 ' ' Our husbands ! Returned so soon ! They must have 
 turned back. They will find us absent from home 
 they will learn that we are away since last evening 
 we are lost!" 
 
 "Have we anything to reproach ourselves with? 
 Why should we feel alarmed?" asked Joanna. "Have 
 we not been listening to teachings that render good 
 hearts still better?" 
 
 "Dear mistress," said Genevieve to Aurelia, "I be- 
 lieve that Seigneur Gremion has recognized us from his 
 horse. I see him whispering to Seigneur Chuza, and 
 pointing in this direction." 
 
 "Oh, I tremble!" exclaimed Aurelia. ""What are 
 we to do ? What will come of this ? Oh, a curse upon 
 my curiosity ! ' ' 
 
 "On the contrary, blessings upon it!" answered 
 Joanna. "You will carry home treasures in your heart. 
 Come, let us boldly go to our husbands. Only the 
 wicked hide and drop their heads. Come, Aurelia, 
 come and let us walk with heads erect!" 
 
 At that moment, Magdalen the penitent approached 
 the two women, and said to Joanna with tears in her 
 eyes:
 
 94 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Adieu; you who gave me your hand when I was 
 despised, your memory will ever be present to Mag- 
 dalen in her seclusion " 
 
 "What seclusion do you mean?" asked Joanna, sur- 
 prised. "Where do you intend going, beautiful 
 Magdalen?" 
 
 "Into the desert!" answered the penitent, extend- 
 ing both her arms towards the crags of the arid moun- 
 tains, on the other side of which spread the desolate 
 solitudes of the Dead Sea. "I am going to the desert 
 to weep over my sins, but carrying in my heart a treas- 
 ure of hope! Blessed be the son of Mary, to whom 
 I owe that treasure ! ' ' 
 
 And the crowd parting respectfully before the dis- 
 tinguished penitent, she departed in the direction of 
 the arid mountains that she had pointed to. 
 
 Hardly had Magdalen disappeared when Joanna, 
 leading her friend almost against her will, moved to- 
 wards the riders through the crowd that already began 
 to give signs of irritation at the uncivil language of 
 the men of the escort. 
 
 Herod, the Prince of Judea, who would have been 
 driven from the throne but for the protection of the 
 Roman arms, was generally abhorred He was cruel 
 and dissolute, and crushed the Israelitish people with 
 the weight of his taxes. Consequently, as soon as it 
 was known that one of the horsemen was Seigneur 
 Chuza, the intendant of the execrated Prince, the 
 hatred entertained for the master was visited upon his
 
 THE VALLEY OF C ED RON. 05 
 
 intendant as well as upon the latter 's companion, 
 Seigneur Gremion, who, in the name of the Roman fisc, 
 gleaned where Herod had reaped. 
 
 While Joanna, Aurelia and Genevieve the slave were 
 with difficulty crossing the dense crowd to reach the 
 riders, hooting broke out from all parts against Seig- 
 neurs Chuza and Gremion, and these were forced to 
 hear, while they shook with rage, such invectives as 
 these weak echoes of the young master's anathemas 
 against the wicked: 
 
 "Woe unto you, intendant of Herod! who crush us 
 with taxes and devour the houses of widows and 
 orphans. ' ' 
 
 "Woe unto you, Roman! who come to share our 
 spoils." 
 
 Banaias, brandishing in one hand his cutlass with a 
 threatening and enraged mien, drew near the two 
 seigneurs and shaking his other fist at them bellowed: 
 
 ' ' The fox is cowardly and cruel, and he called to his 
 aid his friend the wolf, whose teeth are longer and 
 have more strength. The cruel and cowardly fox is 
 your master Herod, Seigneur Chuza! The ferocious 
 wolf is Tiberius, the master of you, Roman, who have 
 come to help the fox with his prey ! ' ' 
 
 And as Seigneur Chuza, pale with rage, seemed to 
 be about to draw his sword in order to strike Banaias, 
 the latter raised his cutlass and cried : 
 
 "By the bowels of Goliath! I'll slice you in two
 
 W THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 like a watermelon if you dare set hand to your 
 sword!" 
 
 Having for their only escort five or six outriders, 
 the two seigneurs restrained their anger and sought to 
 disengage themselves from the crowd which was wax- 
 ing more and more threatening. 
 
 "Yea, woe unto you, ye men of the fisc of Herod and 
 Tiberius! Woe unto you! We are hungry and you 
 tear away from our lips with your taxes the bread 
 moistened in our sweat." 
 
 "Woe unto you! you overwhelm defenceless people 
 with privations." 
 
 "Woe unto you! the day of judgment is at hand." 
 
 "Yes, yes! soon there will be for you, the wicked 
 and oppressors, weeping and gnashing of teeth. ' ' 
 
 "Then the first will be the last and the last the 
 first" 
 
 More and more frightened, Chuza and Gremion con- 
 sulted each other with their eyes, unable to see a way 
 of escaping from the threatening mob. The more 
 angered among the crowd already began to pick up 
 stones, and armed with an enormous rock, Banaias 
 cried out: 
 
 "This morning our master, speaking of that poor 
 woman whom the Pharisaic hypocrites meant to stone, 
 said: He that is without sin among you, let him cast 
 the first stone at her. And I, my friends say to you : 
 Let him who has been flayed by the fisc throw the first
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. ft 
 
 stone at the flayers ! and let that stone be followed by 
 a good many others " 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" came from a hundred throats in the 
 crowd. "Let them be buried under a heap of 
 stones! " 
 
 "Stone them!" 
 
 "To the stones! To the stones!" 
 
 "Our husbands are in great danger; that is an addi- 
 tional reason to draw near them," said Joanna to 
 Aurelia, redoubling her efforts to reach the men on 
 horseback. 
 
 Suddenly the sweet and vibrating voice of the Naza- 
 rene was heard above the tumult, uttering these 
 words: 
 
 "Verily, I say unto you, If these men have sinned, 
 may they not repent before the day o judgment? Let 
 them sin no more and go in peace!" 
 
 At these words of the son of Mary the popular tem- 
 pest subsided as if by enchantment. The clamor was 
 stilled. The crowd became silent, and, by a spontane- 
 ous movement parted to open a passage to the steward 
 of Herod, Seigneur Gremion, and their escort. Joanna 
 and Aurelia then succeeded in joining their husbands. 
 
 At the sight of his wife, Seigneur Gremion said to 
 Chuza angrily: "Indeed, it is my wife and in man's 
 clothes" 
 
 "And mine accompanies her!" cried Chuza, no less 
 irritated. "And, like yours, in man's disguise. It is 
 the abomination of desolation!"
 
 98 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "And the feast is complete," added Gremion; "there 
 is ray wife's slave " 
 
 Perfectly composed and sweet, Joanna said to her 
 husband : 
 
 "Seigneur, make room for me; I shall mount on the 
 crupper of your horse and ride home with you." 
 
 "Yes," answered Chuza, grinding his teeth with 
 rage; "you shall ride home with me but, by the 
 pillars of the Temple ! you never again shall leave the 
 house without me." 
 
 Joanna made no answer, but reached up her hand 
 to her husband in order that he help her to mount on 
 the crupper. With a light bound she sat herself upon 
 the horse. 
 
 "You may also jump on the crupper of my horse," 
 said Gremion angrily to his wife. "Your slave Gene- 
 vieve and, by Jupiter! she will pay dearly for her 
 complicity in this indignity your slave Genevieve can 
 mount on the crupper behind one of the men of my 
 escort." 
 
 It was done so, and the troupe pursued its route to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The rider who carried Genevieve on the crupper 
 of his horse rode close behind the Seigneurs Gremion 
 and Chuza. She could hear the two scolding their 
 wives angrily. 
 
 "No, by Hercules!" cried the Roman. "To find my 
 wife in man's disguise in the midst of that pack of tat- 
 tered beggars, vagabonds and seditious villains! It
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 99 
 
 is hard to believe. No, by Hercules ! I must come all 
 the way to Judea to see such an enormity!" 
 
 "And I, who am of Judea, seigneur," echoed Chuza, 
 "I am no more accustomed to such enormities than 
 yourself. I was well aware that mendicants, thieves, 
 and courtesans of the lowest stamp followed the ac- 
 cursed Nazarene. But may the wrath of the Lord 
 strike me down this instant, if I ever heard it said 
 that self-respecting women stooped to the indignity 
 of mingling among the dregs of the populace that the 
 fellow leads at his heels all over the country a vile 
 populace that would have stoned us to death a minute 
 ago but for our resolute bearing!" added Seigneur 
 Chuza haughtily. 
 
 "Yes, fortunately, we were able to cow the miscre- 
 ants with our courage," grunted Seigneur Gremion. 
 ' ' Otherwise, it would have been done for us. Ah ! You 
 were right this is a fresh proof of the hatred and re- 
 sentment kindled by the incendiary sermons of that 
 Nazarene. All he does is to excite the poor against 
 the rich!" 
 
 ' ' Did not the young master, on the contrary, appease 
 the fury of the crowd?" suggested Joanna in a sweet 
 and firm voice. "Did he not say: 'Let these men go, 
 and let them sin no more'?" 
 
 "If that is not audacity!" cried Chuza, addressing 
 Gremion. "Did you hear what my wife said? Would 
 one not think that a seigneur can no longer travel the 
 roads in peace without the consent of the Nazarene-
 
 100 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 of that son of Beelzebub! And that if we escaped the 
 fury of the villains, it was thanks to the promise he 
 made for us that we would sin no more! By the 
 pillars of the holy Temple! That is impudence for 
 you!" 
 
 "The young master of Nazareth," replied Joanna, 
 ' ' cannot answer for what is said or done in his name. 
 The crowd was unjustly enraged at you he appeased 
 it with a word what more could he do ? " 
 
 "Worse still!" again cried Seigneur Chuza. "And 
 by what right does that Nazarene calm or arouse the 
 populace at his pleasure? Do you know why we are 
 returning to Jerusalem so soon ? It is because we have 
 been assured that, in consequence of the abominable 
 sermons of that fellow, the mountain people of Judea 
 and the peasants of Sharon would stone us to death 
 if we presented ourselves to collect the taxes " 
 
 "The young master said: 'Render unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things 
 that are God's,' '* replied Joanna. "Can he be 
 blamed if the people, crushed down by the fisc, are not 
 in a condition to pay excessive imposts?" 
 
 "By Hercules! They will have to pay, all the same!" 
 cried Seigneur Gremion. "We return to Jerusalem to 
 fetch an escort of sufficient soldiers to crush the re- 
 bellion. Woe to them who resist us we shall exter- 
 minate every one of them!" 
 
 "And, above all, woe to the Nazarene!" put in Seig- 
 
 * Matthew 23.91.
 
 THE VALLEY OF CEDRON. 101 
 
 neur Chuza. "He alone is the cause of all the trouble. 
 1 mean to notify King Herod, and the Seigneurs Pon- 
 tius Pilate and Caiaphas of the increasing audacity of 
 the vagabond, and demand his execution." 
 
 "Do him to death," replied Joanna, "he will pardon 
 you, and pray to God to pardon you!" 
 
 In this way Joanna, Aurelia and Genevieve were 
 carried back to Jerusalem on the crupper of their hus- 
 bands' steeds and escorted by the soldiers.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 GENEVIEVE 'S MARTYRDOM. 
 
 The instant Genevieve and her mistress arrived at 
 the residence of Seigneur Gremion, he ordered his wife 
 to her room. 
 
 Aurelia lowered her head with a sigh, and obeyed, 
 casting a sad look of adieu to her slave. 
 
 Gremion then seized Genevieve by the arm and 
 dragged her into a lower apartment, a sort of cellar, 
 in which leather bottles filled with oil and wine, besides 
 other provisions, were stored. The darksome place 
 was reached by a short and steep staircase. Gene- 
 vieve 's master pushed her down so rudely that she fell 
 over and tumbled down from step to step to the bot- 
 tom, while Gremion bolted the door from the out- 
 side. 
 
 The young woman rose bruised at every joint, sat 
 down upon the ground, and wept bitterly. Presently 
 her tears became almost comforting, as she thought 
 that she suffered for having gone to hear the word of 
 the young master of Nazareth, who was so kind to 
 the poor and the slaves, so merciful towards the peni- 
 tent, so severe with the rich and wicked.
 
 GENEVIEVE'S MARTYRDOM. 103 
 
 Brought up in the druid faith which her mother had 
 transmitted to her, so to say, with life, Genevieve re- 
 posed no less trust in the words of the son of Mary. 
 Although he professed another religion than that of 
 the druids, Jesus believed with the druids, it was said, 
 that in departing from the world, life continued be- 
 yond in body and soul, seeing that, according to his 
 faith, he spoke of the resurrection of the dead. Finally, 
 despite the loftiness of the druid faith, which freed 
 man of the fear of death by teaching him that he never 
 died, Genevieve missed in the precepts of the Gallic 
 religion that feeling of brotherhood and mercifulness 
 that stamped the words of the young man of Nazareth. 
 
 The slave was indulging in these reflections when 
 she saw the door of the cellar in which she was locked 
 up swing open. Gremion, her master, was coming 
 back, followed by two other men. One of these held a 
 bundle of cords in his hand, the other a couple of 
 scourges of many thongs. 
 
 Genevieve had never seen these men before. They 
 were oddly clad. 
 
 Seigneur Gremion descended the first few stairs and 
 said to Genevieve: 
 
 "Undress yourself! " 
 
 The slave looked up at her master with as much sur- 
 prise as terror, hardly trusting her ears. He re- 
 peated : 
 
 "Undress yourself if you do not, these men, they 
 are the assistants of the executioner of the city, will
 
 104 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 themselves strip off your clothes in order to give you 
 a whipping." 
 
 That degrading punishment, so often inflicted upon 
 female slaves, Genevieve had never before under- 
 gone, thanks to the goodness of the gods and of her 
 mistresses. Overcome with terror, Genevieve could 
 now only join her hands, stretch them out to her mas- 
 ter, and fall upon her knees imploring mercy. 
 
 But Seigneur Gremion, standing aside to make room 
 for the two men to pass who had remained at the head 
 of the staircase, said to them : 
 
 "Strip her naked and whip her to the quick that 
 the blood may run. She shall not forget that she 
 assisted at the preaching of the accursed Nazarene." 
 
 Genevieve was then hardly twenty-three years old, 
 and often had Fergan, her husband, told her that she 
 was beautiful. Despite her tears, her prayers and her 
 impotent resistance, her clothing was removed from 
 her, she was tied fast to a post in the cellar, and imme- 
 diately her body was cut with the strokes of the whip. 
 
 Genevieve had at first hoped that shame and horror 
 would deprive her of consciousness. It happened 
 otherwise. But she forget the pain of the strokes in 
 the shame that overpowered her at finding herself a 
 prey to the lascivious looks of the executioner's men, 
 and at the jokes that they exchanged as they struck. 
 
 Standing by with his arms crossed, Seigneur Gre- 
 mion remarked, laughing and jeering : : 
 
 "Did the Nazarene, the famous Messiah who dabbles
 
 GENEVIEVE'S MARTYRDOM. 105 
 
 in soothsaying, foretell you what is now happening to 
 you, Genevieve? Do you still think he was right to 
 proclaim that the slave is the equal of his master? 
 By Jupiter ! I begin to feel sorry I did not have you 
 whipped in the center of the public square it would 
 have been a good lesson taught over your shoulders to 
 the bandits who place reliance upon the insolences of 
 their friend Jesus!" 
 
 When the executioner's assistants were tired of 
 striking one of them was ordered by Gremion to untie 
 Genevieve, and her master then said to her : 
 
 ' ' You shall not leave this cellar for eight days. Dur- 
 ing this time my wife shall have to help herself with- 
 out you. That shall be her punishment. ' ' 
 
 And Gremion, together with the executioner's 
 assistants, went out of the cellar, leaving Genevieve 
 alone. Not, then, was it a remembrance of the tender 
 and merciful utterances of the son of Mary that re- 
 curred to the mind of the lacerated slave, as hap- 
 pened before her punishment. It was the remem- 
 brance of the words of anathema, which likewise he 
 had uttered that very morning against the wicked and 
 the oppressors. During the long hours that she spent 
 alone with the recollection of her shame, she swore to 
 herself that, if ever it should be the pleasure of the 
 gods that she should be a mother, and that she could 
 keep her child near her, it would be her endeavor to 
 inspire him at once with love for the weak and the 
 oppressed, and horror for slavery, and hatred for the
 
 106 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 rich and the oppressors, instead of allowing such proud 
 sentiments to degenerate in his soul as they had cooled 
 down in the soul of her husband Fergan, whom she 
 so dearly loved, despite the weakness of his nature. 
 
 Genevieve had been locked up three days in the 
 cellar of the house, whither, every morning, her mas- 
 ter brought her some food, when one evening, at a 
 rather advanced hour, the door of the slave's prison 
 was opened. She saw Aurelia, her mistress, appear at 
 the opening, holding a lamp in one hand and a bundle 
 in the other. 
 
 Aurelia descended the stairs and placed the bundle 
 on the floor. 
 
 "Poor woman! You have suffered a good deal on 
 my account," said Aurelia, whose eyes grew dim with 
 tears as she approached Genevieve. "My poor, dear 
 Genevieve ! ' ' 
 
 Despite her mistress's kindness, Genevieve could not 
 help answering her with bitterness: 
 
 "If you had a daughter, and if men stripped her 
 naked to whip her at her master's command, what 
 would you think of slavery?" 
 
 "Genevieve, you blame me! " 
 
 "I am not blaming you. I am blaming slavery. You 
 are kind to me. And yet, see how I have been 
 treated!" 
 
 "Verily have I these three days begged pardon for 
 you with my husband," replied Aurelia in a voice re- 
 plete with compassion. "He denied my prayers. I
 
 GEN EV I EVE'S MARTYRDOM. 107 
 
 implored him to allow me to visit you; he remained 
 obdurate. He carries with him the key of your prison, 
 and places it under his pillow at night. This is the 
 first night that I succeeded in capturing it when he fell 
 asleep. And here I have come." 
 
 "I have suffered greatly more with shame than 
 with pain," said Genevieve, vanquished by the sweet- 
 ness of her mistress, "but your words console me." 
 
 "Listen, Genevieve, I am not here simply to console 
 you. You can flee from this house, and render a great 
 service to the young man of Nazareth perhaps even 
 save his life ! ' ' 
 
 "What say you, dear mistress!" cried Genevieve, 
 thinking less of her own freedom than of the service 
 that she might be able to render to the son of Mary. 
 "0, speak! I am ready to give you my life, if neces- 
 sary, for him who says that one day the chains of the 
 slaves shall be broken." 
 
 "Since that day when we spent the night out of the 
 house to hear the sermons of Jesus, Joanna and I did 
 not see each other. Seigneur Chuza forbade her to 
 leave her premises. But, to-day, yielding finally to 
 her entreaties, he brought her here and while he con- 
 versed with my husband she informed me that the 
 young master of Nazareth had been betrayed, and that 
 he was to be arrested this very night, and put to 
 death." 
 
 ' ' Betrayed ! He ! By whom I " . 
 
 "By one of his own disciples " 
 
 "0, the infamous wretch! "
 
 108 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Already triumphing over the death of the poor 
 Nazarene, Seigneur Chuza had revealed the whole plot 
 to Joanna, in order to derive a wicked joy from the 
 grief that such sad news would cause her. This is 
 what happened : The Pharisees, the doctors of the law, 
 the Senators and the chief priests all of them being 
 exasperated by the precepts and prophecies of the 
 young man, gathered at the residence of the High 
 Priest Caiaphas, and there plotted to capture the 
 Nazarene by surprise. "Fearing an uproar among the 
 people in case he was arrested yesterday, a holyday in 
 Jerusalem, they postponed the execution of their evil 
 designs for to-night," concluded Aurelia. 
 
 " What ? To-night ? This very night T ' ' 
 
 "Yes, one of his own disciples, one named Judas, is 
 to deliver him." 
 
 "One of those who, a few nights ago, accompanied 
 him to the Wild Ass tavern?" 
 
 "The very one whose somber and sullen face called 
 your attention that night. Well, Judas went to the 
 chief priests and the doctors of the law, and he said to 
 them: 'Give me money, and I shall deliver the 
 Nazarene to you '- 
 
 "The wretch!" 
 
 "The Pharisees covenanted with him for thirty 
 pieces of silver, and at this very hour, may be, the poor 
 young man who mistrusts nobody, may have fallen a 
 victim to treason."
 
 GENEVIEVE'S MARTYRDOM. 109 
 
 "Alas, if so it is, what service could I render to 
 him?" 
 
 "Listen these were Joanna's words to me this 
 evening: 'It was on our way to you, dear Aurelia, 
 that my husband informed me with cruel delight of 
 the doom that threatens Jesus. Under surveillance as 
 I am, I have no means of warning him. My servants 
 stand in such dread of Seigneur Chuza, that not all 
 the entreaties or money bribes that I might offer them 
 could induce any to leave the house on such an errand 
 as taking a word of warning to the son of Mary. A 
 thought struck me. Your slave Genevieve seems to 
 be endowed with as much courage as devotedness. 
 Might she not be of service to us at this emergency?' 
 I informed Joanna of the cruel vengeance that my hus- 
 band had taken upon you. But so far from giving up 
 her project, Joanna inquired from me where Gremion 
 kept the key of your prison. 'Under his pillow at 
 night,' I answered her. 'Try to get it while he is 
 asleep,' suggested Joanna; 'if you succeed in securing 
 it, set Genevieve free; you will have no difficulty in 
 helping her out of the house ; let her go straight to the 
 Wild Ass tavern; she will probably be able to meet 
 someone there who can tell her where the young mas- 
 ter is.' " 
 
 "Oh, dear mistress," cried Genevieve, "I shall prove 
 myself worthy of the confidence that you repose in 
 me. Let us open the house-door quickly." 
 
 "One moment. Before proceeding any further with
 
 110 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 our project, we must guard against my husband's 
 anger. It is not for my sake that I fear the same but 
 for your sake. You may judge, poor Genevieve, .from 
 the atrocious treatment that you received, what you 
 would have to expect when you return home " 
 
 "Let us not think of me!" 
 
 "On the contrary, we did think of you! Listen fur- 
 ther. My friend's nurse lives near the Judicial Gate. 
 She sells woolen goods and is called Veronica, wife of 
 Samuel. Can you remember those names ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes; yes. Veronica, the wife of Samuel, mer- 
 chant of woolen goods near the Judicial Gate. But, 
 dear mistress, let us make haste; time passes; every 
 minute lost may be fatal to the young master. Oh, I 
 entreat you, let us hasten to open the street-door." 
 
 "No, not before I shall have at least informed you 
 where you can find a safe refuge. Under no circum- 
 stances could you come back to this house. I shudder 
 at the thought of the punishment that my husband 
 would inflict upon you." 
 
 "What, leave you! Leave you forever, my dear 
 mistress ! ' ' 
 
 "Would you prefer to undergo some infamous pun- 
 ishment, and still worse torture, perhaps?" 
 
 "I would prefer death to such disgrace!" 
 
 *'My husband would not kill you. A slave repre- 
 sents a sum of money. So, you see, there is no help 
 for it, we must separate. It grieves me greatly I 
 may never again find a slave in whom I can trust like
 
 GENEVIEVE'S MARTYRDOM. Ill 
 
 you but after I heard the words of that young man, 
 I share the enthusiasm that he inspires in Joanna. If 
 you agree to save him " 
 
 "Do you doubt that, dear mistress?" 
 
 "No; I know your devotedness and courage. This, 
 then, is what you must do : If you succeed in finding 
 the young master of Nazareth, you shall warn him 
 that he has been betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples, 
 and that there is nothing for him to do but flee from 
 Jerusalem in order to escape the Pharisees, who have 
 sworn his death! Joanna is of the opinion that by 
 withdrawing to Galilee, his native country, the son of 
 Mary will be safe, because his enemies would not dare 
 to pursue him so far away." 
 
 "But, dear mistress, even here, in Jerusalem, all he 
 would have to do would be to call the people to his 
 defence. His disciples, who worship him, will place 
 themselves at the head of the revolt, and not all the 
 Pharisees combined would be strong enough to effect 
 his arrest, even with the help of the militiamen." 
 
 "Joanna also thought of that. But, in order for 
 him to arouse the people in his behalf it is necessary 
 that he, or his disciples, be made aware of the danger 
 that threatens them." 
 
 "Therefore, dear mistress, we have not a minute to 
 lose." 
 
 "Once more, poor Genevieve, you are forgetting the 
 risks that you run. As soon as you shall have warned 
 the young master or any of his disciples, go to the
 
 118 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 house of Veronica, the wife of Samuel. You will tell 
 her that you come from Joanna, and, as a proof, you 
 will give her this ring which my friend took from her 
 finger, and which her nurse will recognize. You will 
 request Veronica to conceal you in her house, and to 
 repair later to Joanna, who will inform her of the fur- 
 ther plans that we shall have matured for your safety. 
 Veronica, my friend said to me, is a good and accom- 
 modating woman. She, as well as her husband, feel 
 very grateful towards the young man of Nazareth, be- 
 cause he healed one of their children. You will be in 
 perfect safety with those people, until Joanna and I 
 shall have arrived at some proper plan for you. That's 
 not yet all. You must go in man's disguise. Now get 
 ready quick to run to the Wild Ass tavern." 
 "Dear, dear mistress you think of everything!" 
 "Get ready quick I shall go out and unlock the 
 street door."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE GARDEN OP OLIVES. 
 
 Aurelia left the cellar and returned almost immedi- 
 ately. She found Genevieve buckling on a leather 
 belt around her tunic. 
 
 "I cannot unlock the door!" exclaimed Aurelia in 
 despair. "The key will not turn in the lock, as usual! 
 Can it have been plugged?" 
 
 "Dear mistress," answered Genevieve, "come with 
 me. We two, together, may succeed in turning the 
 key." 
 
 And the two crossed the courtyard, and arrived at 
 the outer gate. Genevieve 's efforts proved as futile 
 as those of her mistress. The key refused to turn in 
 the lock. The gate was surmounted by an open half- 
 arch. But it was impossible to reach that opening 
 without a ladder. Genevieve suddenly turned to 
 Aurelia : 
 
 ' ' In the family narratives left to Fergan I read that 
 one of my ancestresses named Meroe, the wife of a 
 mariner, managed, with the aid of her husband, to 
 climb up quite a high tree." 1 
 
 "How?" 
 
 1 The Incident referred to occurs In "The Brass Bell," the 
 ond of this series.
 
 114 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Be good enough, dear mistress, to place your back 
 firmly against the gate. Now, clasp your hands and 
 hold them tight, so that I may rest my foot in their 
 hollow ; I shall then place my other foot on your shoul- 
 der, reach the opening, and leap from there down into 
 the street." 
 
 Suddenly the slave was startled by the voice of Seig- 
 neur Gremion, who, from the terrace, called out 
 angrily : 
 
 "Aurelia! Aurelia!" 
 
 "My husband!" cried the young woman in a trem- 
 ble. *'0h! Genevieve, you are lost!" 
 
 "Your hands, your hands, dear mistress!" said the 
 slave hurriedly. "If I can only climb up to the open- 
 ing I am safe." 
 
 Aurelia obeyed Genevieve almost mechanically. The 
 threatening voice of Seigneur Gremion drew nearer 
 and nearer. After placing one foot in the hollow of 
 her mistresses 's two hands, the slave leaped up. gently 
 supported her other foot upon Aurelia 's shoulder, 
 reached the height of the opening, managed to sit her- 
 self upon the wall, and remained crouched for a mo- 
 ment under the half-arch. 
 
 "But," suddenly exclaimed Aurelia in fear, "you 
 may hurt yourself, poor Genevieve, in jumping down 
 into the street." 
 
 That instant Seigneur Gremion arrived upon the 
 scene, pale and enraged, and holding a lamp in his 
 hand.
 
 THE GARDEN OF OLIVES. 116 
 
 "What are you doing here?" he shouted, addressing 
 his wife. "Answer! Answer!" And immediately 
 perceiving the slave crouching above the gate he 
 added : 
 
 "Ah! The wretch! The rascal! The infamous 
 beggar ! You are trying to escape from my house, are 
 you! And my unworthy wife is seconding your 
 flight!" 
 
 "Yes!" answered Aurelia boldly. "Yes! Even if 
 you were to kill me on the spot, she shall escape your 
 ill treatment ! ' ' 
 
 After having surveyed the street from the height of 
 the opening in which she was cowering, Genevieve 
 saw that she had to leap down a distance of twice her 
 height. For an instant she hesitated. She heard Seig- 
 neur Gremion, who brutally shook his wife by the arm 
 in order to pull her away from the chain of the gate to 
 which she clung with desperation, bellowing : 
 
 "By Hercules! Will you let me through! I shall 
 go outside and wait there for your miserable slave. If 
 she does not break her neck in jumping out into the 
 street, I shall myself break every bone in her body with 
 a club!" 
 
 "Try jump down and save yourself, Genevieve!" 
 Aurelia called out. "Be not afraid! He will have to 
 trample me under his feet before he can open the 
 door!" 
 
 Genevieve raised her eyes to heaven to invoke the 
 protection of the gods, gathered herself together, leaped
 
 11 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 down from the half-arch, and was lucky enough to 
 strike ground without hurting herself. Nevertheless, 
 for an instant the fall dazed her ; but she speedily rose 
 and fled rapidly, her heart aching at the cries emitted 
 from within by her mistress, whom her husband 
 was striking. 
 
 After first running precipitately in order to be as far 
 as possible from her master's house, the slave stopped 
 a moment for breath, and then pursued her way in the 
 direction of the Wild Ass tavern, where she expected 
 to ascertain the whereabouts of the young master of 
 Nazareth, whom she was to warn of the danger that 
 threatened him. 
 
 Her expectations were not deceived. The tavern- 
 keeper to whom she addressed herself informed her 
 that Jesus had left the place a few hours before her 
 arrival, leading several of his disciples in the direction 
 of the Torrent of Cedron to a garden planted with olive 
 trees, where he often repaired at night to meditate and 
 pray. 
 
 Genevieve started in haste towards the place desig- 
 nated. As she was passing through the city gate, she 
 saw at a little distance behind her in the dark the 
 light of several torches shimmering upon the casques 
 and armors of a considerable troop of soldiers. They 
 marched in disorder, and emitted confused clamors. 
 Fearing they might have been sent out by the Phari- 
 sees to seize the son of Mary, the slave began to run,
 
 THE GARDEN OF OLIVES. "7 
 
 hoping to be beforehand with them, and arrive in time 
 10 give the alarm to Jesus or his disciples. 
 
 She was but a little distance away from these armed 
 men, whom she recognized as Jerusalem militiamen, 
 people who enjoyed but a poor reputation for courage, 
 when, by a ray of light from the torches that they 
 carried, she noticed on one side of the highway and 
 winding in the same direction, a narrower path lined 
 with turpentine-trees. She struck into the path in order 
 to escape being seen by the soldiers, at the head of whom 
 she distinguished Judas, the disciple of the young mas- 
 ter whom she had noticed at the Wild Ass tavern on 
 the night of her previous sally with her mistress. She 
 now heard him say in a loud voice to the militia offi- 
 cer in command of the escort : 
 
 "Seigneur, whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is 
 the Nazarene." 
 
 "Oh! This time," answered the officer, "he shall 
 not escape us, and to-morrow, before the sun is down, 
 the seditious fellow will have paid the penalty of his 
 crimes. Let us hurry. Let us hurry. Someone of his 
 disciples might notify him of our approach. Let us 
 be cautious lest we fall into some ambush and let us 
 be particularly cautious when on the point of seizing the 
 Nazarene. He might employ against us some magical 
 or diabolical charm. In recommending prudence to 
 you," explained the militia officer affecting a bold 
 ,'oice, "it is not because I am afraid of danger but in 
 order to insure the success of our enterprise."
 
 118 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 The militiamen did not seem greatly reassured by 
 these words of their officer, and they slackened their 
 pace out of fear of falling into ambush. Genevieve 
 profited by this circumstance, and starting to run, she 
 arrived at the banks of the Torrent of Cedron. She 
 noticed a little hill planted with olives at a short dis- 
 tance from where she stood. This wood, wrapt in the 
 shade, was hardly distinguishable from the surround- 
 ing darkness of the night. She listened. Silence all 
 around. Only at a distance behind her the measured 
 steps were heard of the soldiers who drew slowly near. 
 For a moment Genevieve gathered hope, thinking that, 
 perhaps, warned in time, the young master of Naza- 
 reth had left the place. She was advancing cautiously 
 in the dark when she stumbled against a body that 
 lay at the foot of an olive tree. She could not with- 
 hold a cry of fear, when the man against whom her 
 feet had struck awoke with a start, saying : 
 
 "Master, forgive me, but this time again I could not 
 overcome the sleep that fell upon me. ' ' 
 
 "A disciple of Jesus!" cried the slave, anew 
 alarmed. "He must be here!" 
 
 And addressing herself to the man : 
 
 "Since you are a disciple of Jesus, save him it is 
 still time. Look yonder, in the distance, the torches ! 
 Do you hear confused clamors? They want to ar- 
 rest him and do him to death. Save him ! Save the 
 young master!" 
 
 "Who?" answered the disciple, still half numb with
 
 THE GARDEN OF OLIVES. 119 
 
 sleep. "Whom do they want to do to death? Who 
 are you?" 
 
 "It matters not who I am! Save your master! 
 They are coming to seize him the soldiers are ap- 
 proaching " 
 
 "Yes!" answered the disciple in a tone of surprise 
 and fear, being now finally thoroughly awake. "I see 
 at a distance the shimmer of casques in the light of 
 torches. But, ' ' he added, looking around him, ' ' where 
 are my companions?" 
 
 "Probably asleep like yourself," said Genevieve. 
 "And your master, where is he?" 
 
 "Yonder, in the Garden of Olives, whither he fre- 
 quently withdraws to meditate. This night his soul 
 felt exceeding sorrowful he wished to be alone, and 
 withdrew under those trees, after recommending to us 
 all that we watch " 
 
 ''Pie must have anticipated the danger that threat- 
 ened him," cried Genevieve, "and you had not the 
 strength to resist sleep?" 
 
 "No. I and my companions struggled in vain our 
 master came twice and woke us up, kindly reproach- 
 ing us for having fallen asleep and then he retired 
 again to meditate and pray under the trees " 
 
 "The militiamen!" cried Genevieve. seeing that the 
 light of the torches drew nearer and nearer. "They 
 are here ! He is lost ! unless he can hide in the wood 
 or that you die in his defence Are you armed?" 
 
 "We have no arms with us," answered the disciple
 
 120 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 beginning to tremble. "Besides, it would be senseless 
 to think of resisting the soldiers! " 
 
 "No arms!" cried Genevieve indignant. "Are arms 
 necessary ? Are not the stones on the road, is not cour- 
 age enough to crush those men?" 
 
 "We are not men of the sword," said the disciple 
 looking around uneasily, seeing that the militiamen 
 were near enough to *vhere he stood partly to light up 
 Genevieve, the disciple and several of his companions 
 vvhom she then began to distinguish lying here and 
 there asleep at the feet of the trees. 
 
 The militiamen hastened to the spot tumultnously. 
 Descrying by the light of their torches several men, 
 some still asleep on the ground, others rising, and some 
 standing, they precipitated themselves upon them, 
 threatening them with their swords and staves, sev- 
 eral of them being armed only with staves, and all 
 shouting : 
 
 "Where is the Nazarene? Tell us, Judas, where is 
 he?" 
 
 The traitor and infamous disciple, after examining 
 by the light of the torches the countenances of his old 
 companions, the disciples of Jesus, who were now held 
 prisoners, said to the officer : 
 
 "The young master is not among these." 
 
 "Is he to escape us this time again?" cried the offi- 
 cer. "By the pillars of the Temple! You received 
 the price of his blood, traitor ! You shall deliver him 
 to us!"
 
 THE GARDEN OF OLIVES. 121 
 
 Genevieve held herself aloof in the shadow. Sud- 
 denly she noticed a few steps from her, on the side of 
 the Garden of Olives, something resembling a white 
 figure and clearly distinguishable from the darkness, 
 approaching the soldiers. Genevieve 's heart felt like 
 breaking. Undoubtedly it was the young master, whom 
 the noise of the loud voices was attracting to the spot. 
 She was not mistaken. She soon recognized Jesus by 
 the light of the torches. On his sweet, sad face neither 
 fear nor surprise was depicted. 
 
 Judas made a sign of intelligence to the officer, ran 
 forward to meet the young man of Nazareth, and 
 said: 
 
 "Hail, master;" and he kissed him. 
 
 At these words, those of the militiamen not engaged 
 in holding the disciples who vainly struggled to escape, 
 remembering the recommendations of their officer on 
 the subject of the infernal sorceries that Jesus would 
 be inclined to use against them, looked at him with 
 fear, and hesitated to approach and seize their pris- 
 oner. The officer himself kept at a safe distance be- 
 hind his soldiers, and urged them to lay hands on 
 Jesus, without himself daring to set them the exam- 
 ple. 
 
 Calm and pensive, the young master took a few 
 steps towards the armed men, and said to them in his 
 sweet voice : 
 
 "Whom seek you?" 
 
 "We seek Jesus of Nazareth," answered the officer,
 
 122 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 without coming from behind his soldiers. "We seek 
 Jesus of Nazareth." 
 
 "I am he," said the young master, taking another 
 step towards the soldiers. 
 
 The latter went backward, afraid. 
 
 Jesus repeated : 
 
 "I ask you again, whom seek you?" 
 
 "Jesus of Nazareth!" they all answered in chorus. 
 "We want to seize Jesus of Nazareth." 
 
 And again they went back. 
 
 "I told you that I am he," answered the young mas- 
 ter, stepping nearer to them. "If therefore you seek 
 me, let those go their way," he added, pointing to his 
 disciples, who were still held fast by the soldiers. 
 
 The officer made a sign to the militiamen, who still 
 wavered. Nevertheless two of them approached 
 Jesus to bind him, while he remarked to them in a kind 
 voice : 
 
 "Are you come out as against a thief with swords 
 and staves for to take me ? I sat daily with you teach- 
 ing in the Temple, and you laid no hold on me." 1 
 
 Then voluntarily he extended his hands to the cords 
 with which he was bound. The cowardly disciples of 
 the young master did not have the courage to defend 
 him. They dared not even accompany him as far as 
 the prison. The instant they were no longer held 
 by the soldiers they fled in all directions. 
 
 A sad smile flitted over the lips of Jesus, as he saw 
 
 John 18.6-8; Matthew 26.55-56.
 
 THE GARDEN OF OLIVES. 123 
 
 himself thus betrayed and forsaken by those whom he 
 had loved so dearly, and whom he took to be his 
 friends. 
 
 Hidden in the shadow of an olive-tree, Genevieve 
 could not hold back tears of grief and indignation at 
 seeing those men thus abandon the young master like 
 cravens. She now understood why the doctors of the 
 law and the chief priests, instead of arresting him in 
 plain day, waited for the night to seize him. They 
 feared the anger of the people, and of such resolute 
 men as Banaias. These never would have allowed the 
 friend of the poor to be carried away without offering 
 resistance.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 
 
 The militiamen marched out of the Garden of Olives 
 loading their prisoner in their midst. They returned 
 to the city. After a while Genevieve noticed that a 
 man, whose face she could not see clearly in the dark, 
 followed at a little distance behind her, and several 
 times she heard the man sigh and sob aloud. 
 
 After re-entering Jerusalem through silent and de- 
 serted streets, as these usually are at this hour of the 
 night, the soldiers proceeded to the palace of Caiaphas, 
 the High Priest, whither they took Jesus. Perceiving 
 a large number of domestic servants at Caiaphas' door, 
 Genevieve mingled among them when the soldiers 
 went in, and remained for a while in the vestibule 
 which was lighted by torches. It was only then that, 
 in the light shed by the torches, she recognized the man 
 who had followed the friend of the oppressed from the 
 Garden of Olives. He looked at once grieved and 
 afraid. Tears inundated his face. Genevieve at first 
 believed that at least one of the friends of the young 
 master had remained true to him, and that he would 
 surely prove his loyalty by accompanying Jesus before
 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 125 
 
 the tribunal of Caiaphas. Alas! The slave was mis- 
 taken. Hardly had Peter crossed the threshold when, 
 instead of walking on and joining the son of Mary, he 
 sat down upon one of the benches in the vestibule 
 among the servants of Caiaphas, and hid his face in his 
 hands. 
 
 Seeing at the farther end of the courtyard a bright 
 light escaping from a door outside of which pressed 
 the soldiers of the escort, Genevieve approached them. 
 The door belonged to a spacious hall, in the center of 
 which rose a tribunal lighted by numerous flambeaux. 
 She recognized, seated behind the tribunal, many 
 faces that she had seen at the supper party of Pontius 
 Pilate. Seigneur Caiaphas, the High Priest; Baruch, 
 the doctor of the law; Jonas, the Senator and banker 
 were among the judges of the young master of Naza- 
 reth. The prisoner was led before them with his hands 
 bound. His face preserved its habitual serenity, sad- 
 ness and sweetness. A short distance from him stood 
 the tip-staves. Behind these, and mixed with the mili- 
 tiamen and domestics of the household of Caiaphas, 
 were the two spies whom Genevieve had noticed at the 
 tavern of the Wild Ass. 
 
 The countenance of the friend of the afflicted was 
 tranquil and dignified. His judges looked irritated. 
 Their features expressed the triumph of a spiteful joy. 
 They spoke in a low voice among themselves, and off 
 and on they pointed their fingers threateningly at
 
 126 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 the son of Mary, who patiently waited to be interro- 
 gated. 
 
 Unnoticed among the audience that crowded the 
 hall, Gtenevieve could hear all that the enemies of the 
 young master said among themselves. 
 
 "Caught, at last, this Nazarene who preached sedi- 
 tion!" 
 
 "Ha! He now looks less insolent than when he was 
 at the head of his band of villains and prostitutes!" 
 
 "He preaches against the rich ! " exclaimed one of the 
 domestics of the High Priest. "He commands the re- 
 nunciation of riches but if our masters were to keep 
 poor cheer, we servants would then be reduced to the 
 lot of hungry mendicants, instead of fattening upon 
 the abundant scraps of delicate feasts, and getting 
 drunk on the leavings in the bottles of delicate wines." 
 
 "And that's not all," came from another servant. 
 "If the accursed Nazarene were to have his way, our 
 masters, after voluntarily impoverishing themselves, 
 would have to renounce all magnificence and all enjoy- 
 ments. They could not cast off every day superb robes 
 or tunics, the color or the embroidery of which pleased 
 them no longer. Now, who profits by the whims of 
 our fastidious seigneurs but we? Tunics and robes 
 fall to our share ! 
 
 "And if our masters were to renounce pleasure in 
 order to live amid fasts and prayers, they would no 
 longer keep handsome concubines; they would not 
 have occasion to entrust us with their amorous mes-
 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 12T 
 
 sages, or to engage our services in brokerages that are 
 so magnificently rewarded when successful ! ' ' 
 
 "Yes yes " cried several of them together, 
 "death to the Nazarene, who would turn us, who live 
 in idleness, abundance and joy, into mendicants, or 
 beasts of burden!" 
 
 Genevieve heard a good many other remarks made in 
 an undertone, and all ominous to the life of the friend 
 of the afflicted. One of the two secret emissaries, 
 behind whom she happened to stand, said to his fel- 
 low: 
 
 "Our evidence will suffice to convict the hellish 
 Nazarene. I have arranged matters with Seigneur 
 Caiaphas." 
 
 At that moment, one of the High Priest's tip-staves, 
 who was placed beside the young master of Nazareth, 
 and charged to keep watch over him, struck the slab- 
 stones of the hall with his mace. Immediately there 
 was a dead silence. 
 
 Thereupon, after exchanging a few words in a low 
 voice with the other Pharisees who constituted the 
 tribunal, Caiaphas addressed the audience: 
 
 ' ' Is there any present who has come to depose against 
 the man named Jesus of Nazareth?" 
 
 One of the emissaries stepped to the foot of the 
 tribunal and said in a solemn voice: 
 
 "I swear that I heard this man affirm that the high 
 priests and the doctors of the law were all a lot of
 
 128 THE SILVER CROSS, 
 
 hypocrites, and that he spoke of them as a generation 
 of vipers and serpents." 
 
 A murmur of indignation ran through the ranks of 
 the militiamen and domestic servants of the High 
 Priest. The judges looked at one another, as though 
 they asked whether it were possible for such words to 
 have been uttered. 
 
 The other emissary then stepped forward beside his 
 accomplice, and, raising his hand above his head, added 
 in a no less solemn voice : 
 
 "I swear I heard this man affirm that the people 
 should rise against Prince Herod, and also against 
 the Emperor Tiberius, the august protector of Judea, 
 and proclaim himself King of the Jews." 
 
 While a smile of pity flitted over the lips of the son 
 of Mary at these false charges, seeing he had distinctly 
 said: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, 
 and unto God the things that are God's," the Pharisees 
 of the tribunal raised their hands to heaven in order 
 to take it to witness of such enormities. 
 
 One of the domestic servants of Caiaphas now 
 stepped forward, and, in turn, said to the judges : 
 
 "I swear I heard this man say that all the Pharisees 
 should be massacred, their houses should be sacked, and 
 their wives violated!" 
 
 A fresh movement of horror was manifested among 
 the judges and their devoted partisans in the audi- 
 ence.
 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 129 
 
 "Pillage! Massacre! Violation of women!" cried 
 out some. 
 
 "Just think of what the Nazarene proposes!" cried 
 others. 
 
 "Abomination and desolation!" came from another 
 set of throats. 
 
 "That is why he always leads a gang of villains at 
 his heels! " 
 
 "He surely meant to set fire some day to Jerusa- 
 lem!" 
 
 "And sack the city!" 
 
 "And put the people to the sword! " 
 
 Caiaphas the High Priest, who presided, made a 
 sign to one of the tip-staves to order silence. The offi- 
 cer struck the slab with his mace. Everyone kept 
 quiet. 
 
 Then, addressing the young master in a threatening 
 voice, he said: 
 
 "Why answer you not to what these witnesses 
 have testified against you?" 
 
 Jesus answered in an accent that breathed sweetness 
 and dignity: 
 
 "I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the 
 synagogue, and in the Temple, whither the Jews always 
 resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why ask 
 you me? Ask them which heard me, what I have said 
 unto them; behold, they know what I said." 
 
 Hardly had he spoken when Genevieve saw one of 
 the tip-staves, furious at this so just and calm answer,
 
 130 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 raise his hand and strike Jesus in the face with the palm 
 of it, crying: 
 
 "Answer you the High Priest so?" 
 
 At so infamous an outrage, to strike a man whose 
 hands were bound. Genevieve felt her heart leap, and 
 tears welled out of her eyes, while among the soldiers 
 and domestic servants of the High Priest, on the con- 
 trary, loud roars of laughter rent the air. 
 
 The son of Mary remained imperturbably placid. He 
 only turned toward the tip-staff and said to him 
 gently : 
 
 "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but 
 if well, why smite me?" 1 
 
 These words, this angelical meekness did not disarm 
 the persecutors of the young man. Fresh peals of 
 coarse laughter broke out throughout the hall, and 
 insulting jeers were recommenced from all sides. 
 
 "Ha! The Nazarene, the man of peace, the enemy 
 of war does not belie himself! He is a coward and 
 suffers his face to be smitten ! 
 
 "Why call you not to your disciples! Let them 
 come to your deliverance and to revenge you ! 
 
 "His disciples!" came mockingly from one of the 
 militiamen who had arrested Jesus. "His disciples! 
 Ha! Had you only seen them! At the mere sight 
 of our lances and torches, the cowards fled like a brood 
 of owls!" 
 
 "They were only too happy to escape from the spell 
 
 John 18.20-23.
 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 131 
 
 of the Nazarene, who held them, bound to him by 
 magic!" 
 
 ' ' The proof that they hate and despise him is clear 
 not one of them, not a single, solitary one dared to 
 come in here with him ! ' ' 
 
 "Oh!" thought Genevieve. "How much must not 
 Jesus suffer from this cowardly ingratitude of his 
 friends! That must be more painful to him than the 
 insults that he bends under." 
 
 And turning her head in the direction of the street 
 door, she saw Peter at a distance. He was still seated 
 on the bench with his face buried in his hands, and too 
 cowardly to step forward to the defence of his kind 
 master before the tribunal of blood. 
 
 The uproar caused by the tip-staff's act of violence 
 subsided by little and little. One of the emissaries then 
 resumed in a stentorian voice: 
 
 "Finally, I swear that this abominable man blas- 
 phemed by calling himself the Christ, the son of 
 God!" 
 
 Caiaphas, then, again addressing Jesus, said to 
 him in a still more menacing voice : 
 
 "Answer you nothing? What is it which these wit- 
 ness against you?" 
 
 But the young master slightly shrugged his shoulders 
 and held his peace. 
 
 The silence of Jesus enraged Caiaphas ; he rose in his 
 seat, and shaking his fist at the son of Mary, cried :
 
 132 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us 
 whether you be the Christ, the son of God! " 
 
 " You have said; I am;" answered the young master 
 with a sad smile. 
 
 Genevieve had heard Jesus say that all men were 
 the sons of God, in the same spirit that the druids 
 teach that all men are children of one God. What, 
 then, was the astonishment of the slave when she now 
 saw the High Priest, the moment Jesus answered him 
 that he was the son of God, rise, rend his clothes with 
 all the signs of terror and horror, and, addressing him- 
 self to the members of the tribunal, exclaim: 
 
 "He speaks blasphemy! "What further need have 
 we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blas- 
 phemy. What think ye?" 
 
 "He is guilty of death!" 
 
 That was the answer of all the judges of that tribunal 
 of iniquity. 
 
 But the voices of Doctor Baruch and of the banker 
 Jonas were heard above all others. Striking the mar- 
 Me of the tribunal, they cried aloud : 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene! He deserves death !" 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" responded the militiamen and domes- 
 tic servants of the High Priest. "He deserves death! 
 Death to the villain!" 
 
 "Take the criminal before the judgment seat of 
 Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea for the Emperor 
 Tiberius !" ordered Caiaphas to the soldiers. "Only he
 
 BEFORE CAIAPHAS. 133 
 
 can issue the order to put the condemned man to 
 death." 
 
 At these words of the High Priest, the son of Mary 
 was dragged out of the house, in order to be taken be- 
 fore Pontius Pilate. x 
 
 'Matthew 26.62-66.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE ! 
 
 To the cry of: "On, to Pontius Pilate!" the mob of 
 menials followed the soldiers who took Jesus to the 
 Roman magistrate. 
 
 Mixing among the servants Genevieve also followed 
 the soldiers. As she passed under the vault of the 
 outer door she saw Peter, the cowardly disciple of the 
 young master, although less cowardly than all the rest, 
 seeing that he alone had followed Jesus so far. She 
 saw Peter turn his head away as Jesus, who sought to 
 catch his disciple's eye, passed before him in the cus- 
 tody of the soldiers. 
 
 One of the female servants of the house, thinking she 
 recognized Peter, said to him : 
 
 "You also were with Jesus of Galilee." 
 
 But Peter, blushing and dropping his eyes answered : 
 
 "I know not what you say." 
 
 Another servant, who heard Peter's answer, said 
 unto them that were there : 
 
 "I tell you this fellow was also with Jesus of Naza- 
 reth." 
 
 "I swear," cried Peter, "I swear I do not know 
 Jesus of Nazareth."
 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE! 135 
 
 Genevieve's heart revolted with indignation and dis- 
 gust. Peter, who either through a cowardly weakness, 
 or, perhaps, fearing to share his master's fate, denied 
 him twice with perjury, was in her estimation the low- 
 est of men. More than ever did she pity the son of 
 Mary for having been betrayed, deserted and then de- 
 nied by the very ones who were so near to his heart. 
 
 In this way she explained to herself the heart-rending 
 look of sadness that she had observed on the face of 
 Jesus. A great soul like his could not fear death, he 
 could only feel distressed at the ingratitude of those 
 whom he took for his dearest friends. 
 
 The slave left the house of the High Priest where 
 Peter the renegate and foremost disciple had remained 
 behind, and speedily rejoined the soldiers who carried 
 Jesus away. Day was beginning to dawn. A number 
 of mendicants and vagabonds who spent the night upon 
 the benches, placed on either side of the doors of the 
 houses, awoke at the noise made by the tramp of the 
 approaching soldiers who led Jesus captive. For a 
 moment Genevieve hoped that these poor people, who 
 had followed the young master everywhere, who called 
 him their friend, and for whom they now seemed to 
 have so much pity, would hasten to notify their ac- 
 quaintances, gather them together, and free the young 
 master of Nazareth from his captors. 
 
 She addressed one of these : 
 
 "Are you aware that those soldiers have seized the 
 young master of Nazareth, the friend of the poor and
 
 136 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 afflicted ? They mean to put him to death. Run to his 
 defence! Free him! Arouse the people! The sol- 
 diers will flee before you." 
 
 But the man answered in a timorous voice : 
 
 "The Jerusalem militia may, perhaps, flee. But the 
 soldiers of Pontius Pilate are veterans. They have 
 strong lances, thick cuirasses, and sharp-edged swords. 
 "What could we do against them?" 
 
 "But you may rise in mass! You may arm your- 
 selves with stones and sticks!" cried Genevieve. "At 
 least you could die in attempting to revenge a man who 
 consecrated himself to your cause!" 
 
 The mendicant shook his head and answered as one 
 of his friends drew near him : 
 
 "However wretched life may be, a man holds fast 
 to it. It would be like rushing into the jaws of death 
 to rub our rags against the cuirasses of the Roman sol- 
 diers." 
 
 "Besides," put in the other vagabond, "if Jesus of 
 Nazareth is a Messiah, like so many others who pre- 
 ceded and so many more who will follow him, it would 
 be, indeed, a misfortune if he is killed. But we never 
 run short of Messiahs in Israel." 
 
 "But if he is done to death," cried Genevieve in 
 despair, "it is because he has loved you it is because 
 he took pity upon your distress it is because he cast 
 up to the rich the hypocrisy and the hardness of their 
 hearts towards those who suffer." 
 
 "That's all very true. He has unceasingly predicted
 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE! 137 
 
 to us the coming of the kingdom of God upon earth," 
 answered the vagabond, stretching himself out again 
 upon his bench in order to enjoy the warmth of the 
 rising sun. "Nevertheless the happy days which he 
 promises us do not arrive we are beggars to-day, as 
 much so as we were yesterday." 
 
 "And who tells you but that those happy days which 
 he promises will arrive to-morrow?" inquired Gene- 
 vieve. "Do not the crops need time to germinate, to 
 grow and to ripen? Poor impatient blind men that 
 you are! Consider that if you suffer him whom you 
 call your friend to be killed before he has fecundated 
 the good seed that he sowed in the hearts of the people, 
 you thereby suffer a harvest, that may become bounti- 
 ful, to be trampled under foot and destroyed in the 
 bud." 
 
 The two vagabonds remained silent and shook their 
 heads. Genevieve left them, thinking to herself with 
 redoubled sorrow: 
 
 "Am I to meet on all hands nothing but ingratitude, 
 oblivion, cowardice and treachery! Oh, it is not the 
 body of Jesus that will be crucified; it will be his 
 heart!" 
 
 The slave hastened to come up with the soldiers who 
 were rapidly drawing near the palace of Pontius Pilate. 
 At the moment when she began to quicken her pace she 
 observed a sort of tumult among the Jerusalem mili- 
 tiamen who made a sudden halt. She mounted upon 
 a stone bench, and then saw Banaiias standing alone
 
 138 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 and intercepting the passage of the soldiers in a nar- 
 row arcade which the troop had to cross in order to 
 reach the Governor's palace. Banaias barred the pass- 
 age with audacity, whirling his iron-tipped stick over 
 his head. 
 
 ' ' Oh ! He at any rate did not desert the man whom 
 he called his friend!" thought poor Genevieve. 
 
 "By the shoulders of Sampson!" bellowed Banaias. 
 "If you. do not set our friend free on the spot, you 
 militiamen of Beelzebub, I shall rain blows upon you 
 as hard as the flail beats the wheat on the barn-floor! 
 Ah! If I only had had time to gather a band of my 
 companions who are as determined as myself to de- 
 fend our friend of Nazareth, I would issue an order 
 instead of addressing a request to you, and that request 
 I now repeat let go our friend! If you don't, by the 
 jawbone that Sampson helped himself with, I shall 
 brain everyone of you, even as Sampson brained the 
 Philistines!" 
 
 "Do you hear the villain? He calls such an insolent 
 threat a request!" cried the officer in command of the 
 militiamen, prudently keeping himself in the midst of 
 his soldiers. "Run the wretch through with your 
 lances! Smite him with your swords, if he does not 
 clear the way!" 
 
 The Jerusalem militiamen were not a very valiant 
 set of men. They had hesitated considerably before 
 seizing Jesus, who advanced towards them alone and 
 unarmed in the Garden of Olives. Despite the orders
 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE! 139 
 
 of their chief they remained undecided for a moment 
 before the threatening attitude of Banaias. In vain 
 did Jesus, whose sweet yet firm voice Genevieve could 
 hear, seek to appease his defender and request him to 
 withdraw. 
 
 Banaias' only answer to the entreaties of the young 
 master was to bellow still louder and more threaten- 
 ingly at the latter 's captors, and addressing him 
 said : 
 
 ' ' Take no thought of me, our friend. You are a man 
 of peace and harmony. I, on the contrary, am a man 
 of violence and struggle. When a weak man is to be 
 protected leave that to me. I shall block the path of 
 these soldiers until the noise of the affray reaches my 
 friends and fetches them to my support. Then by 
 the five hundred concubines of Solomon who danced 
 naked before him ! you will then see the jig that these 
 militiamen of the devil will be put through, to the 
 tune of our iron-headed sticks beating time upon their 
 casques and shining cuirasses!" 
 
 "How long are you going to allow yourselves to be 
 insulted by a single man, my brave soldiers ! ' ' cried the 
 officer of the militiamen. "Oh! If only my orders 
 were not to stick close as his shadow to the Nazarene 
 then then I would show you what to do my long 
 sword would long ago have cut the bandit's throat!" 
 
 "By the navel of Abraham! It is I who will run 
 through your bowels and tear our friend from your 
 clutches;" responded Banaias. "I am all alone but
 
 140 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 one good falcon is worth more than a hundred black- 
 birds!" 
 
 Saying this Banaias rushed upon the militiamen, 
 whirling his iron-headed stick over his head, desoite 
 the entreaties of Jesus. 
 
 Taken at first off their guard and thrown into dis- 
 order by such audacity, several soldiers in the front 
 ranks of the escort took to their heels. But presently 
 ashamed of their cowardice and realizing that there 
 was only one man to contend with, they rallied and at- 
 tacked Banaias in turn. Galled from all sides and 
 overwhelmed by superior numbers, Banaias finally 
 dropped dead, cut to pieces, despite the heroic resist- 
 ance that he offered. Genevieve saw the enraged sol- 
 diers thereupon pick up and throw the bleeding, man- 
 gled body of the only defender of the son of Mary into 
 a pit that stood near the arcade. After this exploit 
 the officer, brandishing his long sword, placed himself 
 valorously at the head of his troop, and the whole body 
 proceeded on its march to the residence of Seigneur 
 Pontius Pilate, where Genevieve had accompanied her 
 mistress Aurelia a few days previous. 
 
 The sun was now high in the sky. Attracted by the 
 noise of the struggle between Banaias and the soldiers, 
 a large number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem had 
 come out of their houses and followed the troop of 
 militiamen. 
 
 The residence of the Roman Governor was situated 
 in one of the richest quarters of the city. The people
 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE! 141 
 
 who, attracted by curiosity, accompanied Jesus, so 
 far from taking pity upon him, overwhelmed him with 
 insults and hootings. 
 
 "At last!" cried out some. "The Nazarene who 
 threw our city into commotion and alarm is caught! " 
 
 "The seditious fellow strove to drive the beggars to 
 mutiny against the rich and the bourgeois ! " 
 
 "The impious villain blasphemed against our holy 
 religion in every address that he delivered! " 
 
 "The audacious miscreant sought to upturn our 
 families by glorifying the prodigal and debauched 
 sons!" shouted one of the two emissaries who kept 
 himself near the skirts of the troop. 
 
 "The infamous scamp tried to corrupt our wives/' 
 cried the other emissary, ' ' by glorifying adultery ! He 
 snatched one of those sinners, a shameless woman, from 
 the death that she deserved ! ' ' 
 
 "Thanks be to the Lord!" added a money-changer. 
 "If the Nazarene is put to death, which would be no 
 more than just, we shall be able to set up again our 
 stalls under the colonnade of the Temple, whence the 
 profanator and his band of vagabonds drove us 
 away! " 
 
 "What fools we were to stand in fear of his mob of 
 beggars who clung around him!" exclaimed still an- 
 other. "Not one of the lot dared resist the arrest of 
 the Nazarene, by whose name they had been continu- 
 ously swearing and whom they called their friend!"
 
 !42 THE SILVER CROSS* 
 
 "Let short work be made of the abominable inciter 
 to riot! Crucify him, and be done with him! " 
 
 "Yes! Yes! Death to the Nazarene!" cried the 
 mob that surrounded Genevieve. 
 
 And the crowd, that was steadily swelling in num- 
 bers, repeated with increasing fury the ominous cry : 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene!" 
 
 "Alas!" said the slave to herself. "Can there be 
 any lot more horrible than that of this young man 
 deserted by the poor whom he cherished, hated by the 
 rich to whom he preached abnegation and charity! 
 How bitter must not be the grief that tears at his 
 heartstrings!" 
 
 Ever followed by the mob, the body of militiamen 
 arrived in front of the residence of Pontius Pilate. 
 Several chief priests, doctors of the law, Senators and 
 other patricians, among whom were Caiaphas, Doctor 
 Baruch and the banker Jonas had joined the troop, 
 and now marched at its head. 
 
 One of these Pharisees cried out : 
 
 "Seigneur, let us go in to Pontius Pilate and demand 
 of him the immediate sentence of death upon the 
 Nazarene!" 
 
 But the High Priest Caiaphas answered with a 
 pious air: 
 
 ' ' My seigneurs ! We cannot this day set foot in the 
 house of a pagan. Such a defilement would prevent us 
 from eating the passover to-day. Are we to violate 
 our religious laws?" 1 
 
 'John 18.28.
 
 ON, TO PONTIUS PILATE! 143 
 
 " No ! ' ' exclaimed Doctor Baruch. ' ' We cannot com- 
 mit such an act of abominable impiety!" 
 
 "Do you hear them?" said one of the spies in ac- 
 cents of admiration. "Do you hear the saintly men? 
 How profound their respect for the commandments of 
 our religion! Ah! They are not like that impious 
 Nazarene, who mocks and utters blasphemy at the most 
 sacred things ! He dared to say that the Sabbath need 
 not be observed!" 
 
 "Oh! The infamous hypocrites!" thought Gene- 
 vieve to herself. "How well did Jesus know them! 
 How right he was to unmask them ! Just look at them 
 afraid to defile their sanda.ls by stepping into the 
 ho ise of a pagan during the passover, and yet they do 
 not fear to defile their souls by demanding of the same 
 pagan that he spill the blood of a just man and one of 
 their own countrymen, at that! Oh! Poor young 
 master of Nazareth! They will make you pay with 
 your life for your courage to attack the wicked 
 frauds!"
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 BEFOEE PONTIUS PILATE. 
 
 The officer of the militiamen entered the palace of 
 Pontius Pilate, leaving the escort on the street with 
 the prisoner in their custody. Genevieve in the mean- 
 time climbed up behind a wagon that was hitched to 
 a yoke of oxen and that the crowd had stopped. From 
 her position the slave commanded a full view of the 
 young man of Nazareth. 
 
 She saw him standing erect in the center of the 
 squad of soldiers, with his hands bound behind his 
 back, his head bare, his long blonde hair falling down 
 over his shoulders, his looks calm, with a smile of resig- 
 nation upon his lips. He contemplated the tumultu- 
 ous and threatening crowd with a sort of grieved com- 
 miseration, as if he pitied these people for their blind- 
 ness and iniquity. From all sides insults were hurled 
 at him. Even the militiamen treated him with extreme 
 brutality, and had torn almost to shreds the blue man- 
 tle that he wore over his white tunic. To all these 
 outrages and ill treatment Jesus opposed an unalterable 
 placidity. Only, from time to time, he raised his eyes 
 to heaven. But Genevieve did not see the least sign
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 145 
 
 of impatience or the slightest sign of anger betrayed 
 upon his pale and beautiful countenance. 
 Suddenly these words ran over the crowd: 
 "Here comes Seigneur Pontius Pilate! " 
 "He will now pronounce the sentence of death upon 
 the accursed Nazarene " 
 
 "At last we shall see him crucified on Golgotha, 
 where the criminals are executed " 
 
 In fact, Genevieve soon saw Seigneur Pontius 
 Pilate appear at the door of his house. He evi- 
 dently had been roused from his bed, seeing he was 
 wrapped in a morning robe. His hair and beard were 
 in disorder. His red and swollen eyes seemed dazzled 
 by the rays of the rising sun. He had hard work to 
 suppress his yawns, and seemed greatly annoyed at 
 having been awakened so early in the morning; when, 
 according to his habit, he probably had prolonged the 
 previous evening's supper far into the small hours of 
 the night. Accordingly, addressing Doctor Baruch in 
 a brusque and ill-natured tone, Pontius Pilate said to 
 him: 
 
 "What accusation bring you against this man?" 
 Doctor Baruch looked hurt at the brusqueness and 
 ill-nature of Pontius Pilate, and answered angrily: 
 
 "If he were not a malefactor, we would not have 
 delivered him up unto you." 
 
 Pontius Pilate, in turn offended at the angry tone of 
 Doctor Baruch, replied testily:
 
 143 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 1 ' Very well, since you say he sinned against the Law, 
 take him and try him according to your own Law. ' ' 
 
 And the Governor turned his back upon Doctor 
 Baruch, shrugging his shoulders, and withdrew into his 
 house. 
 
 For a moment Genevieve believed the young man of 
 Nazareth was safe, seeing the answer of Pontius Pilate 
 aroused widespread murmurs among the crowd. 
 
 "Just like the Romans!" said some. "All they 
 want is to promote disturbances in our country, in 
 order to dominate it and levy increased contribu- 
 tions" 
 
 "That Pontius Pilate seems to protect the accursed 
 Nazarene! " 
 
 "As for me, I feel, quite sure the Nazarene is a 
 secret agent of the Romans," put in one of the spies. 
 "They ever utilize such seditious wretches to carry 
 out their dark projects! " 
 
 "There can be no doubt about it," answered the 
 other spy; "the Nazarene has sold himself to the 
 Romans. He is an agent provocateur. ' ' 
 
 As this fresh insult fell upon the ears of Jesus, Gene- 
 vieve saw him raise his eyes to heaven with a distress- 
 ful look, while the mob proceeded to repeat : 
 
 "Yes! Yes! He is a traitor!" 
 
 "He is an agent of the Romans! " 
 
 "Death to the traitor! 1 ' 
 
 "Death to the spy!" 
 
 Doctor Baruch was not ready to let slip his prey.
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 147 
 
 Upon seeing Pontius Pilate withdraw into his house, he 
 and several chief priests ran after him, and having en- 
 treated him to come out again, they led him forward 
 amid great plaudits from the mob. 
 
 Seigneur Pontius Pilate seemed to continue the inter- 
 rogatory very much against his will. He again asked 
 Doctor Baruch impatiently, pointing at Jesus : 
 
 "What accusation bring you against this man?" 
 
 The doctor of the law answered in a loud voice : 
 
 "This man stirs up the people, teaching throughout 
 all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place." 
 
 At this accusation Genevieve overheard one of the 
 spies say to the other in an undertone : 
 
 "Doctor Baruch is a sly fox. This accusation 
 amounts to a charge of sedition. He will thereby com- 
 pel the Roman Governor to find the Nazarene guilty." 
 
 Pontius Pilate having beckoned Jesus to approach, 
 they exchanged a few words. At each answer made by 
 the young master of Nazareth with his habitual serenity 
 and dignity, Pontius Pilate looked more and more con- 
 vinced of his innocence. Finally he resumed aloud, 
 addressing the chief priests : 
 
 "You have brought this man unto me, as one that 
 perverts the people; and, behold, I, having examined 
 him before you, have found no fault in this man touch- 
 ing those things whereof you accuse him. I do not deem 
 him worthy of death. I will therefore chastise him 
 and release him." 1 
 
 'John 18.29-31 ; Luk 23.14-16,
 
 148 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 And smothering a last yawn he made a sign to one 
 of his servants, who left, running. 
 
 Not satisfied with the verdict of Pontius Pilate, the 
 crowd first murmured, and then broke out into loud 
 complaints. 
 
 "It was not merely to chastise the Nazarene that he 
 was brought here," clamored some, "but to have him 
 sentenced to death! " 
 
 "After he is chastised, he will resume his seditious 
 conduct and will continue to stir up the people! " 
 
 "We do not ask for the chastisement of Jesus, but 
 for his death! " 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" clamored several voices. "Death! 
 Death!" 
 
 Pontius Pilate made no answer to these clamors and 
 cries except to shrug his shoulders, and he went in once 
 more. 
 
 "If the Governor is convinced of the innocence of 
 the young master," thought Genevieve, "why chastise 
 him at all? That is at once cowardice and cruelty. 
 Perhaps he hopes by such a concession to allay the 
 wrath of the enemies of Jesus. Alas ! He is mistaken. 
 He can appease them only with the death of the just 
 man!" 
 
 Hardly had Pilate issued the orders for the chastise- 
 ment of the son of Mary when the militiamen seized 
 him ; tore from his shoulders the last remaining shreds 
 of his mantle ; pulled off his linen and his woolen tunic ; 
 rolled the same down to his leather girdle; and thus
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 149 
 
 left the upper part of his body bare. They then bound 
 him fast to one of the pillars that ornamented the en- 
 trance of the Roman Governor's residential palace. 
 
 Jesus offered no resistance ; he uttered no complaint. 
 He only turned his celestial countenance towards the 
 crowd, and contemplated the same in sadness, without 
 seeming to hear the insults, the hootings and the denun- 
 ciations of him, that increased in volume and bitter- 
 ness. 
 
 Someone had gone for the city executioner, who 
 was to administer the whipping to Jesus with switches. 
 While awaiting the arrival of the executioner, the 
 vociferations, incited by the emissaries of the Pharisees, 
 continued unabated : 
 
 "Pontius Pilate thinks he will satisfy us by having 
 the villain scourged. He is mistaken!" said some. 
 
 "The guilty negligence of the Roman Governor," 
 suggested one of the spies, "shows quite clearly that 
 he has a secret understanding with the Nazarene. " 
 
 "Oh! my friends what are you complaining 
 about?" came from a third. "Pontius Pilate is grant- 
 ing us more than we even asked for. We asked only 
 for the death of the Nazarene. Now he will be flogged 
 before being put to death. Glory to the generous Pon- 
 tius Pilate!" 
 
 "Yes! Yes! He is bound to pronounce the death 
 sentence. We shall see to it that he does so ! - 
 
 "Ha! Here comes the executioner!" cried several
 
 150 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 voices. "Here is the executioner, and his two assist- 
 ants." 
 
 Genevieve recognized the two men, who, three days 
 before, had scourged her at her master's house. Tears 
 involuntarily welled to her eyes at the thought that 
 the young man, who was all love and mercifulness, was 
 about to undergo the ignominious chastisement re- 
 served for slaves. 
 
 The executioners carried under their arms, each, a 
 bundle of hazel switches, long, flexible and of about the 
 thickness of a thumb. Each executioner took one, and, 
 at a sign given by Caiaphas, the strokes began to rain, 
 hard and thick, upon the shoulders of the young man 
 of Nazareth. Each time a switch broke, a fresh one 
 was taken. 
 
 At first, Genevieve turned her face away from the 
 cruel spectacle. But she could not help hearing the 
 ferocious jests of the mob, which could not but be an 
 even more painful suffering to the son of Mary than 
 the chastisement itself. 
 
 "You who said: 'Love ye one another,' you accursed 
 Nazarene!" cried several voices, "here is a sample of 
 how we love you! " 
 
 "You who said: 'Share your bread and your cloak 
 with him who has neither bread nor cloak' take note, 
 our honest executioners follow your precepts they 
 share their switches to break them on your back ! " 
 
 "You who said it was easier for a hawser to go 
 through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 151 
 
 paradise, don't you think it would be easier to go 
 through the eye of a needle than to escape the switches 
 that are caressing your loins? " 
 
 "You who glorified vagabonds, thieves, courtesans 
 and other gallows-birds no doubt you loved the vil- 
 lains! .Well, you knew that some day you would be 
 whipped like any of them! " 
 
 Jesus emitted not a cry ; he uttered not a complaint. 
 He was so impassive that Genevieve feared he had 
 fainted away with pain. She turned her face anxiously 
 towards him. 
 
 Alas ! Horrible was the spectacle that met her eyes. 
 
 The young master's back was but one broad bleeding 
 wound, broken here and there by long bluish welts. 
 Only at such places was the skin not cut. Jesus turned 
 his head heavenward, and shut his eyes, no doubt to 
 escape the sight of the pitiless mob. His countenance, 
 livid and bathed in perspiration, revealed horrible suf- 
 ferings as each fresh flagellation lashed his skin, already 
 cut to the quick. This notwithstanding, at times it 
 was noticeable that he strove to smile with angelic 
 resignation. 
 
 The chief priests, the doctors of the law, the Sena- 
 tors and all the rest of the wicked Pharisees followed 
 with triumphant and greedy eyes the process of the 
 torture. Among the most eager to feast upon the young 
 man's agony were Doctor Baruch, Caiaphas and the 
 banker Jonas. The executioners' arms began to tire. 
 They had broken almost all the switches of their bun*
 
 152 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 dies on the back of Jesus. They questioned Doctor 
 Baruch with a look, as if to ask whether it was not 
 time to stop the torture. But the dcetor of the law 
 cried : 
 
 "No! Use up your switches, to the very last one!" 
 
 The order of the Pharisee was carried out. The last 
 switches were broken upon the shoulders of the young 
 master, bespattering the executioners' faces with blood. 
 It no longer was the skin that they flagellated it was 
 a bleeding wound. So excessive was the chastisement 
 that, despite his courage, Jesus fainted away ami 
 dropped his head with a dull thud upon his left shoul- 
 der. His knees beSit under him, and he would have 
 fallen to the ground but for the cords that held him 
 fast by the waist to the column of the portico. 
 
 After having ordered the chastisement Pontius Pilate 
 had again withdrawn into his house. At this moment 
 he came out once more, and ordered the executioners 
 to unbind the condemned man. They unfastened the 
 cords and held him up. One of them threw his woolen 
 tunic over his shoulders. The contact of the coarse 
 material with the quivering flesh caused such a sharp 
 pain to Jesus that a tremor ran over his frame. The very 
 excess of the pain recalled him to consciousness. He 
 raised his head, sought to steady himself upon his leg-}, 
 opened his eyes, and cast a merciful look upon the 
 crowd. 
 
 Pontius Pilate, believing he had satisfied the hatred
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 153 
 
 of the Pharisees, said to the crowd after Jesus was un- 
 bound : 
 
 "Behold the man!" 
 
 With these words he motioned his officers to return 
 into the house. He was about to follow them when 
 Caiaphas, the High Priest, after taking a hurried 
 council with Doctor Baruch and the banker Jonas, 
 cried out aloud, holding the Governor by his robe : 
 
 "Seigneur Pilate, if you let this man go, you are 
 not Caesar's friend. The Nazarene calls himself King. 
 Whosoever makes himself a King, speaks against 
 Caesar!" 
 
 "Pontius Pilate will now fear to be taken for a 
 traitor to his master Tiberius," said to his accomplice 
 one of the spies who stood near G-enevieve. "He will 
 be obliged to condemn the Nazarene." 
 
 Whereupon that wicked man cried out aloud : 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene, the enemy of the Emperor 
 Tiberius, protector of Judea ! ' ' 
 
 "Yes! Yes!" answered a chorus of voices. "The 
 Nazarene calls himself King of the Jews! " 
 
 "He means to overthrow the supremacy of Emperor 
 Tiberius!" 
 
 "He means to declare himself King by a popular 
 uprising against the Romans, our friends, our protec- 
 tors and allies. " 
 
 "Answer me this question. Pontius Pilate!" cried 
 one of the spies from the midst of the crowd. ''How
 
 154 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 does it happen that we Hebrews show ourselves more 
 devoted than you to the Emperor your master?" 
 
 "How does it happen," screamed the other spy, 
 "that it is we, the Hebrews, who demand the death of 
 the seditious villain who aims at overthrowing the 
 authority of Borne, while you, the Governor in 
 Tiberius 's name, look with favor upon the rebel and 
 inciter to rebellion ? ' ' 
 
 This apostrophe seemed to affect Pilate all the more, 
 seeing that from all parts of the crowd the cry now 
 resounded : 
 
 "Yes! Yes! To set the Nazarene free is to betray 
 the Emperor!" 
 
 "Or, perhaps to betray a secret understanding with 
 the rebel!" 
 
 "Yes! Is Pontius Pilate his accomplice?" 
 
 Despite his possible desire to save the young man of 
 Nazareth, Pilate looked more and more troubled at the 
 reproaches that issued from the mob, reproaches that 
 seemed to impeach his loyalty to Tiberius. * He 
 stepped towards the Pharisees, spoke with them in a 
 low voice, while the militiamen kept Jesus safely in 
 their midst with his hands pinioned behind him. 
 
 Caiaphas then spoke up aloud, addressing Pontius 
 Pilate so as to be heard by the whole mob, and pointing 
 at Jesus ; 
 
 "We have found that this man perverts our people, 
 that he prevents them from paying tribute to Caesar* 
 
 Before CaiapJiai gn<f Pilate, Dupln, Br ; p, 106,
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 155 
 
 and that he proclaims himself the Bang of the Jews, 
 by virtue of being the son of God." 
 
 Pontius Pilate thereupon turned towards the young 
 man of Nazareth and said : 
 
 "Are you the King of the Jews?" 
 
 "Do you say this thing of yourself?" answered 
 Jesus in a voice weakened by pain, "or did others tell 
 it you of me?" 
 
 "The chief priests and the Senators have delivered 
 you unto me," answered Pontius Pilate. "What have 
 you done? Do you pretend to be the King of the 
 Jews?" 
 
 Jesus shook his head gently and answered : 
 
 "My kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom 
 were of this world, then would my friends fight, that I 
 should not be delivered to you but I repeat to you 
 my kingdom is not from hence." 
 
 Pilate looked again at the Pharisees as if taking 
 themselves to witness of the answer that Jesus made, 
 an answer that spoke him guiltless, seeing that he pro- 
 claimed his kingdom was not of this world. 
 
 "His kingdom," thought Genevieve to herself, "is 
 surely in those unknown worlds where, as our druid 
 faith teaches us, we shall rejoin those whom we have 
 loved here. How can they venture to sentence Jesus, 
 as a rebel to the Emperor, he who has so often said: 
 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
 unto God the things that are God's'?" 
 But, alas, Genevieve forgot that the hatred of the
 
 15 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Pharisees was implacable. The seigneurs Baruch, 
 Jonas and Caiaphas having again spoken in a low voice 
 to Pontius Pilate, he once more asked Jesus : 
 
 "Are you the son of God yes or no?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Jesus in his sweet and firm voice; 
 "yes, I am." 
 
 At this answer the priests, the doctors and Senators 
 grew indignant and uttered loud exclamations which 
 the mob promptly echoed : 
 
 "He speaks blasphemy! " 
 
 "He says he is the son of God!" yelled one of the 
 spies. 
 
 "He who calls himself the son of God thereby calls 
 himself the King of the Jews!" 
 
 "He is an enemy of the Emperor ! " 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene! " 
 
 "Sentence him!" 
 
 "Order him crucified! " 
 
 Pontius Pilate, a singular mixture of cowardly 
 weakness and of equity, wishing, no doubt, to make a 
 last effort to save Jesus, addressed the crowd saying 
 that it was the custom on that hotyday to set a criminal 
 free, and that the people would now have to choose for 
 this act of clemency between a prisoner named Barrabas 
 and Jesus, who already had been whipped with 
 switches. And he added : 
 
 "Which of the two will you, therefore, that I release 
 unto you Jesus or Barrabas?"
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 157 
 
 Genevieve saw the agents of the Pharisees run from 
 group to group among the mob, saying : 
 
 ''Let us demand the release of Barrabas! Let us 
 demand the release of Barrabas!" 
 
 Soon the whole mob was crying : 
 
 ".Release Barrabas, not Jesus!" 
 
 "But," replied Pilate, "what shall I do with 
 Jesus?" 
 
 "Crucify him!" came from thousands of throats. 
 
 "Crucify him!" they repeated. 
 
 "But," Pontius Pilate still objected, "what evil has 
 he done?" 
 
 ' ' Crucify him ! ' ' was the only answer that came from 
 the mob that grew more and more furious. 
 
 "Crucify him!" 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene! " 
 
 Lacking the courage to protect Jesus whom he found 
 innocent, Pontius Pilate made a sign to one of his 
 domestics. The man ran into the Governor's house 
 while the mob cried with increasing fury: 
 
 "Crucify the Nazarene! " 
 
 "Crucify him!" 
 
 Jesus, ever calm, sad, and pensive, seemed a stranger 
 to what was happening around him. 
 
 "No doubt," thought Genevieve, "his thoughts al- 
 ready roam in those mysterious worlds where we are 
 re-born when we depart from this world." 
 
 The domestic servant of Pontius Pilate returned, 
 holding a silver pitcher in one hand and a basin in the
 
 158 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 other. A second domestic servant took the basin and, 
 as the first servant poured water into it out of the 
 pitcher, Pontius Pilate dipped his hands in the water 
 and said aloud: 
 
 "I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See 
 you to it. As for me, I wash my hands of this affair." 
 
 "Let the blood of the Nazarene be on us!" cried one 
 of the spies. 
 
 "Yes! Let his blood be on us and on our chil- 
 dren!" 
 
 "Then," said Pontius Pilate, "take Jesus and crucify 
 him yourselves. And as you so wish it. Barrabas shall 
 be released." 1 
 
 Saying this Pontius Pilate went into his house fol- 
 lowed by the loud acclamations of the mob, while 
 Caiaphas, Doctor Baruch, the banker Jonas, and the 
 other now triumphant Pharisees shook their fists at 
 Jesus. 
 
 The officer in command of the squad of militiamen 
 which was charged to arrest the son of Mary in the 
 Garden of Olives, approached Caiaphas and re- 
 marked : 
 
 "Seigneur, in order to take the Nazarene to Golgo- 
 tha, where criminals are executed, we shall have to 
 cross the crowded quarter of the Judicial Gate. It 
 may be that the present quietness on the part of the 
 partisans of the rebel is only in seeming and that, as 
 soon as we arrive in that quarter of the slums they will 
 
 iJohn~l~9 12-lfi; Luke 23.21-23; 
 
 Matthew 27.1126; Mark 15.9-12.
 
 BEFORE PONTIUS PILATE. 159 
 
 rise to set the Nazarene free. I answer for the bravery 
 of my good militiamen. Already this morning they 
 sustained a stubborn fight, and put to flight a large 
 gang of desperadoes commanded by a bandit named 
 Bana'ias, who insisted that we release Jesus. Not one 
 of the rebels escaped despite the furious resistance 
 that they offered." 
 
 ''The cowardly liar!" said Genevieve to herself, as 
 she heard the boastfulness of the militiamen's officer, 
 who proceeded : 
 
 "Nevertheless, Seigneur Caiaphas, despite the tried 
 bravery of our militia, it might be more prudent to en- 
 trust the Roman guard with the duty of conveying the 
 Nazarene to the place of execution." 
 
 "I think so, too," answered the High Priest. "I 
 shall request one of the officers of Pontius Pilate to keep 
 the Nazarene in the Praetorium of the Roman cohort 
 until the hour of execution." 
 
 While the High Priest proceeded to make his pro- 
 posed arrangements with one of the officers of 
 Pontius Pilate, Genevieve saw the commander of the 
 militiamen step towards Jesus, and a moment later she 
 heard him, in answer to some words spoken by the 
 young master, say to him mockingly : 
 
 "You seem to be in a great hurry to stretch out your 
 limbs upon the cross. It must first be built, and that 
 is not done in the shake of a lamb's tail. You ought 
 to know that better than anyone else, since you are a 
 carpenter yourself."
 
 160 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 The officer of Pontius Pilate, with whom the 
 High Priest had just been speaking, now returned to 
 Jesus and said: 
 
 "I shall take you to the Praetorium of our soldiers. 
 When the cross is ready it will be brought there, and 
 you will thereupon proceed to Calvary under our 
 escort. Now, follow me!"
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM. 
 
 Jesus, still pinioned, was conducted by the militiamen 
 to a near-by hall in the court of a building where the 
 Roman soldiers were quartered. The door, before which 
 a sentinel was slowly pacing, stood open. Several peo- 
 ple, who, like Genevieve, had followed the Nazarene 
 looked in from the street to see what happened within. 
 
 When the young master was taken to the court of the 
 Praetorium this is the name given to the barracks of 
 the Roman soldiers the men were scattered in several 
 groups among themselves. Some were furbish- 
 ing their arms; others were playing at a variety 
 of games; still others were being exercised in 
 the use of the lance under the direction of an officer; 
 finally, not a few lay stretched out on the benches in 
 the sun, and sang, or chatted together. From their 
 faces, bronzed in the sun; from their martial and sav- 
 age bearing; from the military character of their 
 weapons and their raiment ; from all these tokens the 
 brave, veteran but pitiless soldiers were recognizable 
 who had conquered the world, leaving behind them in 
 their wake massacre, spoliation and slavery.
 
 162 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 The instant the Romans heard the name of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, and saw him brought to the court of the 
 Praetorium by one of their officers, all dropped their 
 games, and ran to see him. 
 
 Genevieve realized, when she noticed the mocking 
 and hardened mien of the soldiery, that the son of 
 Mary was about to undergo fresh outrages. The slave 
 remembered having read in the narratives, left to her 
 husband Fergan by his ancestors, of the horrors com- 
 mitted by the soldiers of Caesar, the scourge of Gaul. 
 She made no doubt but that the men who now sur- 
 rounded the youiig master were as cruel as those of 
 former days. 
 
 There stood in the very center of the court of the 
 Praetorium a stone bench upon which the Romans im- 
 mediately made Jesus sit down, with his hands left 
 pinioned behind his back. Thereupon, planting them- 
 selves in a semi-circle around him, they began to mock 
 and insult him : 
 
 "Look at the famous prophet!" said one of them. 
 "Look at the prophet who announced that the day will 
 come when the sword will be turned into a pruning 
 hook, and there will be no more war, and no more bat- 
 tles!" 
 
 "No more war? By brave Mars, no more war?" 
 cried several soldiers, deeply indignant. "Ha! That* 
 is the kind of stuff that you prophesy, is it? Prophet 
 of misfortune ! ' ' 
 
 "Think of it, no more war! Which means to say, no
 
 IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM. 163 
 
 more clarions, no more floating ensigns, no more shining 
 cuirasses, no more casques with cockades to attract the 
 women ! ' ' 
 
 "No more war! Why that means no more conquests, 
 no more plunder, no more rapes ! ' ' 
 
 ' ' What ! No more wiping our iron spiked shoes upon 
 the heads of conquered people ! ' ' 
 
 '"'No more drinking their wine while making love to 
 iheir daughters as we do here as we did in Gaul as 
 we did in Britain as we did in Spain in short, as we 
 have done all over the universe ! ' ' 
 
 "No more war! By Hercules! And what would 
 become of the strong and the brave, accursed Naza- 
 rene? I presume you would have them plow the earth . 
 from early dawn to dusk, or spin cloth like base slaves, 
 instead of dividing their time between battle, idleness, 
 the tavern and love ! ' ' 
 
 "You who cause yourself to be styled the son of 
 God," said one of the Romans, shaking his fist at the 
 young master, "you must be the son of God Fear, pol- 
 troon that you are ! ' ' 
 
 "You who now cause yourself to be called the King 
 of the Jews, do you contemplate having yourself ac- 
 claimed the King of all the cowards in the universe!" 
 
 "Comrades!" cried one of the soldiers, bursting into 
 uproarious laughter. "Since he is King of the pol-. 
 troons, he should be crowned! " 
 
 The suggestion was received with insulting mirth, 
 Several voices crfer 1 out on the spot 5
 
 164 THE SILVER CROSS- 
 
 "Yes! Yes! Since he is King he should be in- 
 vested with the purple!" 
 
 "We must put a scepter in his hand a crown on 
 his head a royal mantle on his shoulders! Let us 
 glorify him ! Let us render homage to him as unto our 
 august Emperor Tiberius!" 
 
 And while their companions continued to crowd 
 around and to insult the young master of Nazareth, 
 who remained indifferent to the outrages that they 
 heaped upon him, several of the soldiers went away. 
 One went after a rider's red cloak, a second in search 
 of a centurion's cane, a third, seeing in a corner a heap 
 of brush, destined to kindle fire with, started to plat a 
 crown. 
 
 Thereupon several voices cried out: 
 
 "And now, let us proceed to the coronation of the 
 King of the Jews!" 
 
 "Yes! Let us crown the King of the Cowards!" 
 
 "The son of God!" 
 
 "Friends, the coronation must be done with pomp, 
 as if he were a veritable Caesar!" 
 
 "I am the crown-bearer!" 
 
 "I the scepter-bearer!" 
 
 "I the bearer of the imperial mantle!" 
 
 And in the midst of hootings and coarse jests, the 
 Romans formed themselves into a sort of mock proces- 
 sion. 
 
 The crown-bearer marched first, holding aloft the 
 crown of thorns with a solemn air arid followed by sev-
 
 IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM. 165 
 
 oral soldiers. Next came the scepter-bearer, also fol- 
 lowed by a suite of soldiers. Last came the one who 
 held 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 the poltroons hail! " 
 
 Meekly seated on the stone bench Jesus looked at the 
 preparations for the insulting ceremony with unalter- 
 able serenity. 
 
 The crown-bearer was the first to approach the young 
 master of Nazareth ; he raised the thorny braid over his 
 head, and said : 
 
 "I crown thee, O, King!" 
 
 And the Roman slammed the crown so brutally upon 
 the head of Jesus that the thorns lacerated his forehead. 
 Thick drops of blood flowed like bloody tears down the 
 face of the victim. But, excepting the first involun- 
 tary quiver, caused by the pain, the features of the 
 young master preserved their habitual meekness, and 
 betrayed neither resentment nor anger. 
 
 "And I invest thee with the imperial purple, O, 
 King!" added the next Roman, while one of his com- 
 panions tore away the tunic that had been thrown over 
 the lacerated back and shoulders of Jesus. No doubt 
 the wool of the garment had already stuck to the liv- 
 ing flesh. When it was violently torn off the shoulders 
 of Jesus he uttered a deep cry of pain. But that was
 
 166 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 all. He quietly suffered himself to be clad in the red 
 mantle. 
 
 "And, now, grasp thy scepter, 0, great King!" said 
 the third Roman, kneeling down before the young mas- 
 ter, and placing in his hand the centurion's vine- 
 stock. 
 
 Thereupon all shouted in chorus amid great roars of 
 laughter : 
 
 "Hail, 0, King of the Jews, hail!" 
 
 A large number of them went even so far as to kneel 
 down before him in mockery while they repeated : 
 
 "Hail, O, great King!" 
 
 Jesus held in his hand the mock scepter and uttered 
 not a word. Such imperturbable resignation and an- 
 gelic sweetness at first struck the Romans so forcibly 
 that they remained stupefied. But speedily their rage 
 boiled at the young master's display of patience, and 
 they vied with one another to irritate him, crying : 
 
 "It is not a man; it is a statue! " 
 
 "All the blood he had in his veins has flowed out 
 under the switches of the executioners! " 
 
 "The coward! He dares not even complain! " 
 
 "Coward?" said a veteran with a thoughtful mien 
 after having long contemplated Jesus, although he was 
 himself, at first, one of his bitter tormentors. "No! 
 That man is no coward. No, in order to endure 
 patiently all that we have made him suffer, it requires 
 more courage than to rush head down and sword iq
 
 IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM. 167 
 
 hand upon the enemy. No," he repeated stepping 
 aside, "no, that man is no coward!" 
 
 And Genevieve believed she saw a tear roll down 
 upon the grey moustache of the old soldier. 
 
 The other Romans, however, sneered at the compas- 
 sion of their comrade and cried : 
 
 "He does not perceive that this Nazarene affects 
 resignation in order to inspire us with sympathy. ' ' 
 
 "That's so ! Within he is all rage and hatred, while 
 externally he shows himself kind and patient. ' ' 
 
 "He is a slinking tiger, covered with a lamb's skin." 
 
 At these words Jesus merely smiled sadly and shook 
 his head. The movement caused a spray of blood to 
 rain down around him, seeing that the wounds cut into 
 his forehead by the thorns were still bleeding. 
 
 At the sight of the blood of that just man, Gene- 
 vieve could not help murmuring to herself the refrain 
 of the song of the Sons of the Mistletoe 
 
 Oh, flow, flow, thou blood of the captive! 
 
 Drop, drop, thou dew of gore! 
 
 Germinate, Bprout up, thou avenging harvest! 
 
 Hasten, you mower, it is ripe! 
 
 Whet your scythe, whet it 
 
 Whet your scythe! 
 
 "Oh!" thought Genevieve, "the blood of this inno- 
 cent man, of this martyr, who has been so shamefully 
 deserted by his friends, by that mass of poor and op- 
 pressed people whom he loved that blood will surely 
 fall upon them and their children. May it also fruc- 
 tify the bloody crop of vengeance!"
 
 168 THE SILVER CROSS* 
 
 Exasperated by the celestial patience of Jesus, the 
 Roman soldiers were at their wits' end to overcome it. 
 Insults and threats being unable to shake it, one of the 
 soldiers pulled out of his hands the vine-stock which he 
 still calmly held, and broke it over his head, crying : 
 
 "This may make you give some sign of life, statue 
 of flesh and bone!" 
 
 But Jesus, having first bowed his aching head under 
 the blow, raised it again and cast a look of forgive- 
 ness upon the man who had struck him. 
 
 Undoubtedly this ineffable sweetness must have 
 either intimidated or embarrassed the barbarians. One 
 of them untied his own scarf, bandaged the eyes of te 
 young master of Nazareth and said to him : 
 
 "0, great King, your respectful subjects are un- 
 worthy to bear your looks ! ' ' 
 
 The eyes of Jesus being thus bandaged, a thought of 
 savage cowardice struck one of the Romans. He ap- 
 proached his victim, smote him on the face, and said 
 with a peal of laughter : 
 
 "0, great prophet, now tell us the name of the one 
 who struck you!" 
 
 A horrible sport began thereupon. 
 
 Those robust and armed men walked up in turn, one 
 after the other, laughing their loudest, and smote the 
 face of the young pinioned man, broken by so many 
 tortures. As each one smote the face of Jesus he 
 shouted : 
 
 ' ' Can you guess this time who struck you ? ' '
 
 IN THE COURT OF THE PRAETORIUM. 169 
 
 Jesus and these were the only words that Gene- 
 vieve heard him utter during that protracted martyr- 
 dom Jesus exclaimed in a merciful voice, raising 
 heavenward his bandaged face : 
 
 "Oh! Lord, my God pardon them they know not 
 what they do!" 
 
 That was the single and tender wail that the victim 
 uttered and it was not even a wail it was a prayer 
 that he addressed to the gods, imploring their pardon 
 for his tormentors, who knew not what they were 
 doing ! 
 
 So far from being appeased by such divine meek- 
 ness, the Romans redoubled their acts of violence and 
 outrages. 
 
 The most infamous ones among them spat in the face 
 of Jesus. 
 
 Genevieve would not have been able longer to en- 
 dure the sight of these monstrosities if it had not 
 pleased the gods to put an end to them. A great uproar 
 was heard from the side of the street, and she saw 
 Doctor Baruch, the banker Jonas and the High Priest 
 Caiaphas drawing near. Two men behind them car- 
 ried a heavy cross considerably larger than a man's 
 size. At the sight of the instrument of death, the peo- 
 ple who had crowded outside of the door, and among 
 whom was Genevieve, cried out triumphantly : 
 
 "At last!" 
 
 "Here is the cross! 
 
 "Here is the cross! "
 
 170 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "A spick and span brand new cross! " 
 
 "A cross worthy of a King! " 
 
 When the Romans heard the announcement that the 
 cross was coming, they seemed vexed at the prospect 
 of their victim's escaping them. 
 
 Jesus, on the contrary, when he heard the cries of: 
 "Here comes the cross!" "Here comes the cross!" 
 rose from his stone bench with a kind of relief, no 
 doubt anxious to depart soon as possible from this 
 world. 
 
 The soldiers unbandaged his eyes and removed the 
 red mantle from his shoulders, leaving only the crown 
 of thorns upon his head. Thus he remained half 
 naked. In this condition he was taken to the door of 
 the Praetorium, where stood the men who had brought 
 the cross.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 GOLGOTHA. 
 
 In their still unglutted hatred, Doctor Baruch, the 
 banker Jonas, and the High Priest Caiaphas exchanged 
 looks of triumph among themselves as they pointed to 
 the young master of Nazareth standing before them 
 pale and bleeding, and whose strength seemed about 
 exhausted. The pitiless Pharisees could not resist the 
 cruel delight of heaping some fresh insults upon their 
 victim. 
 
 The banker Jonas said to him: 
 
 "Audacious fraud, now you see what abusing the 
 rich leads to ! You have now stopped mocking them, 
 I notice! You no longer compare them to hawsers, 
 incapable of passing through a needle's eye! It is a 
 pity your taste for satire is all gone!" 
 
 "Are you now satisfied," put in Doctor Baruch, 
 "with having spoken of the doctors of the law as 
 cheats and hypocrites, who like to have the upper seats 
 at feasts? They, at least, will not dispute your place 
 on the cross!" 
 
 "And the priests!" added Caiaphas. "They also 
 were a lot of frauds who devoured widows' houses and 
 for a pretence made long prayers hardened men. more 
 merciless than the heathen Samaritans a lot of dull- 
 ards, narrow-minded enough to observe the Sabbath
 
 172 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 piously proud fellows, who caused trumpets to be 
 sounded before them in order to proclaim the alms 
 that they gave ! You thought yourself well entrenched ! 
 You struck a bold poise at the head of your band of 
 beggars, skip- jacks and prostitutes, whom you recruited 
 in the taverns, where you spent your days and nights ! 
 Where are all your partisans now? What has become 
 of them? Why do you not summon them to your 
 help? Let them come to your deliverance!" 
 
 The hatred of the mob was less patient than that of 
 the Pharisees, who delighted in slowly torturing their 
 victim. Furious cries soon burst all restraint: 
 
 "Death!" 
 
 "Death to the Nazarene! " 
 
 "Hurry up! " 
 
 "Do they mean to afford him a chance of escape by 
 delaying his execution! 
 
 "He will not expire the instant he is nailed to the 
 cross! " 
 
 "No! There will be plenty of time to chat with 
 him after that is done! 
 
 "Yes! Hurry up!" 
 
 "His band of criminals may have been scared only 
 for a moment! " 
 
 "Yes! And they may regain courage and try to 
 take him away from us! " 
 
 "Anyhow, what is the sense of addressing him? It 
 is clear that he does not mean to answer! "
 
 GOLGOTHA. 173 
 
 "Death!" 
 
 ''To death! To death!" 
 
 "And he shall himself carry his cross all the way to 
 the place of execution! " 
 
 The proposition of this fresh barbarity was received 
 with general applause. Jesus was taken out of the 
 Praetorium court, and the cross was laid upon one of 
 his bleeding shoulders. So sharp was the pain, and 
 the weight of the cross so heavy, that the unhappy 
 young man's knees for a moment faltered under him, 
 and he was about to fall to the ground. But draw- 
 ing fresh strength from his own courage and resigna- 
 tion, he seemed to steel himself against weakness and 
 pain, and, bent under his burden, he peacefully com- 
 menced his march. 
 
 The mob at his heels, together with the escort of 
 Roman soldiers, cried out aloud: 
 
 "Room there!" 
 
 "Room for the triumphal march of the King of the 
 Jews!" 
 
 The mournful procession started for the place of 
 execution, which was situated outside of the Judicial 
 Gate. It soon left the rich quarter of the Temple 
 behind it, and proceeded on its route through a less 
 wealthy and much more populous part of the city. In 
 the measure that the procession entered the quarter of 
 the poor, Jesus began to receive at least some tokens 
 of interest.
 
 174 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 Genevieve saw a large number of women standing 
 at their doors, who lamented the fate of the young 
 master of Nazareth. They remembered that he was 
 the friend of the poor and of the little children. Many 
 of these innocents wept and threw kisses to the good 
 Jesus, whose simple and touching parables they knew 
 by heart. 
 
 But, alas! Almost at every step, overcome with 
 pain and crushed under the weight that he carried, 
 the son of Mary stumbled and stopped. Finally, 
 strength wholly failing him, he fell upon his knees, 
 then on his hands, and his forehead struck the ground. 
 
 Genevieve thought he was dead or dying; she could 
 not repress a cry of grief and terror; but he was not 
 dead. His martyrdom and agony were destined to be 
 still prolonged. 
 
 The Roman soldiers of his escort, as well as the 
 Pharisees, cried out to him : 
 
 "Stand up!" 
 
 "Stand up, lazy fellow!" 
 
 "Rise! You are only pretending to faint, in order 
 to escape carrying your cross to the place of execu- 
 tion!" 
 
 "You reproached the chief priests with binding upon 
 the backs of men burdens too heavy to bear, but which 
 they themselves would not touch with their fingers," 
 said Doctor Baruch, "and here you are doing no bet- 
 ter than you blamed others for doing refusing to 
 carry your cross!"
 
 GOLGOTHA. 175 
 
 Jesus, still upon his knees and his forehead bent 
 towards the ground, helped himself with his two hands 
 to rise, which he finally succeeded in doing with great 
 effort. Then, still staggering, he waited for the cross 
 to be placed back upon his shoulders. But hardly was 
 his burden laid upon him anew, when, despite his cour- 
 age and good will, he succumbed and fell down a sec- 
 ond time all of a heap. 
 
 ' ' Come ! ' ' cried out the Roman officer, brutally. ' ' He 
 is pretending!" 
 
 "Seigneur Baruch!" cried one of the spies, who, 
 like the Pharisees, had not quitted their victim, "do 
 you see that man, yonder, in a brown mantle, who is 
 passing so quickly, turning his head away, as if he 
 desired not to be recognized ? I have often seen him at 
 the meetings of the Nazarene. Suppose we make him 
 carry the cross!" 
 
 ' ' Yes ! " said Baruch. ' ' Call him ! " 
 
 "Halloa, there, Simon!" cried the emissary. 
 "Halloa, there, Simon the Cyrenean! You took part 
 in the sermonizings of the Nazarene, now come and 
 take part in carrying his burden!" 
 
 No sooner had this man called Simon, than several 
 voices in the mob joined him: 
 
 "Halloa, there, Simon!" 
 
 "Simon!" 
 
 At first, when summoned by the spy, Simon had has- 
 tened his pace as if he did not hear; when, however, 
 a large number of voices began to call his name, he
 
 176 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 turned back, walked toward the spot where Jesus lay, 
 and approached with a troubled mien. 
 
 "We are going to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, whose 
 preachings you liked to hear so well," said the banker 
 Jonas to him, jeeringly ; "he is your friend. You surely 
 will not refuse to help him carry his cross?" 
 
 "I shall carry it all alone," answered the Cyrenean, 
 who now mustered up courage enough to cast a look 
 of pity at the young master, who, still recumbent upon 
 his knees, seemed ready to faint. 
 
 Having taken charge of the cross, Simon marched 
 ahead of Jesus, and the procession resumed its way. 
 
 About a hundred steps further, at the entrance of 
 the street that led to the Judicial Gate, and passing 
 before the shop of a dealer in woolen goods, Genevieve 
 saw a woman of venerable aspect step out. At the 
 sight of Jesus, pale, broken and bleeding, the woman 
 could not repress her tears. It was only then that the 
 slave, who had so far forgotten that she might be 
 hunted for by orders of her master, Seigneur Gremion, 
 recalled the address given to her by her mistress. Aure- 
 lia, on the part of Joanna, telling her that Veronica, her 
 nurse, who kept a shop near the Judicial Gate, could 
 give her a temporary asylum, where she would be safe. 
 
 But Genevieve thought not at that moment of her 
 own safety. An invincible power held her fast to the 
 steps of the young master of Nazareth, whom she 
 wished to follow to the end. She saw Veronica in tears 
 approach Jesus, whose face was bathed in a bloody
 
 GOLGOTHA. 1T7 
 
 sweat, and wipe with a linen napkin the visage of the 
 poor martyr, who thanked Veronica with a smile of 
 celestial kindness. 
 
 Several steps further, and still on the same street 
 that led to the Judicial Gate, Jesus passed before sev- 
 eral women who bewailed and lamented him. He 
 stopped for a moment and said to those women in an 
 accent of profound sadness: 
 
 "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep 
 for yourselves, and for your children; for, behold, the 
 days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are 
 the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the 
 paps which never gave suck!" 
 
 And, although broken with suffering, drawing him- 
 self up with an inspired air, his features stamped with 
 heart-rending grief as if conscious of the frightful mis- 
 fortunes that he foresaw, Jesus cried out in a prophetic 
 tone that made even the Pharisees themselves tremble : 
 
 "Yes, for, behold, the days are coming when in their 
 horror men will begin to say to the mountains, Fall 
 on us ; and to the hills, Cover us ! m 
 
 And dropping his head upon his breast, Jesus pain- 
 fully pursued his march amidst the silence of stupor 
 and dread that followed those prophetic words. The 
 procession proceeded up the steep street that led to 
 the Judicial Gate under which you pass to ascend Gol- 
 gotha, a hill that lies outside of the city and on the 
 
 'Luke 23.28-30.
 
 178 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 top of which the crosses of condemned criminals are 
 raised. 
 
 Genevieve noticed that the mob, at first so cowardly 
 hostile to Jesus, began, as the hour of execution drew 
 near, to feel moved to bemoan the lot of the victim. 
 The unfortunate people undoubtedly understood, but, 
 alas ! too late, that by suffering the friend of the poor 
 to be done to death, not only were they about to be 
 deprived of a defender, but their shameful ingratitude 
 might have for its consequence to dishearten those who 
 would otherwise have been inclined to continue the 
 work of the young master of Nazareth, and devote 
 themselves to the poor and afflicted. 
 
 After the procession passed under the vault of the 
 Judicial Gate it began to ascend Mount Calvary. The 
 ascent was so steep that more than once was Simon 
 the Cyrenean, who still carried the cross of Jesus, as 
 well as the young master himself, compelled to stop 
 for rest. 
 
 Jesus seemed to have preserved hardly strength 
 enough to reach the top of that barren ridge, that Avas 
 littered with rolling stones, and on which here and 
 there grew briars and a few stunted bushes of a pale 
 green. 
 
 The sky was now overcast with thick clouds. A 
 somber and lugubrious day threw a pall of sadness 
 upon all things around. 
 
 To her great surprise Genevieve observed towards 
 the summit of Calvary two other crosses already
 
 GOLGOTHA. 179 
 
 erected, besides the one that was to be erected for 
 Jesus, the young master of Nazareth. In her surprise, 
 she inquired from a man in the crowd what the pur- 
 pose of those two other crosses was. 
 
 ' ' The two crosses, ' ' she was answered, ' ' are intended 
 for the thieves, who are to be crucified together with 
 the Nazarene." 
 
 ' ' And why are the thieves to be crucified at the same 
 time as the young master?" inquired the slave. 
 
 "Because the Pharisees, men of justice, wisdom, and 
 piety, wished that the Nazarene be accompanied unto 
 death by the sort of wretches with whom he associated 
 in life." 
 
 Genevieve turned around and looked into the face of 
 the man from whom this explanation came. She rec- 
 ognized one of the two spies. 
 
 "Oh! The merciless men!" thought the slave. 
 "They find means to outrage Jesus even unto death." 
 
 When the Roman soldiers who escorted the young 
 master arrived at the summit of Mount Calvary, fol- 
 lowed by the now more and more silent and pitying 
 mob, besides Doctor Baruch, the banker Jonas and the 
 High Priest Caiaphas, all the three anxious to assist 
 at the agony and death of their victim, Genevieve saw 
 the two thieves who were destined for execution at the 
 same time as the young master. Surrounded by their 
 guards, they stood pinioned and ashy pale, and awaited 
 death with a terror mixed with wrath and impotent 
 rage.
 
 180 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 At a sign from the Roman officer in command of the 
 escort, the executioners took down the two crosses 
 from the holes into which they had been temporarily 
 stuck, and laid them down flat upon the ground. The 
 soldiers then seized the two criminals, and despite their 
 loud cries, blasphemies and desperate resistance, strip- 
 ped them of their clothes and stretched them out upon 
 the two crosses. While the soldiers held the two thieves 
 down, the executioners, equipped with long nails and 
 heavy hammers, nailed fast upon the crosses by their 
 hands and feet the wretched men, who uttered piercing 
 cries of pain. By means of this refinement of bar- 
 barity the young master of Nazareth was made to taste 
 in advance the bitter fate that he was soon to undergo 
 himself. Indeed, at the sight of the torments experi- 
 enced by his two companions in punishment, Jesus 
 could not repress his tears. He raised his eyes to 
 heaven, and then hid his face in his hands to keep 
 away the painful spectacle. 
 
 So soon as the two thieves were nailed down, the 
 crosses on which they writhed and moaned were raised, 
 were replaced into the ground and steadied with stones 
 and stakes. 
 
 "Come, now, Nazarene," said one of the execution- 
 ers to Jesus, stepping to the young master, and holding 
 his heavy hammer in one hand and several long, strong 
 nails in the other. "Come, now, are you ready? Shall 
 we have to use force with you also, as we had to do 
 with your friends?"
 
 GOLGOTHA 181 
 
 "I don't know what they have to complain of," 
 stolidly remarked the other executioner; "one lies so 
 comfortably on a cross with one's arms stretched out, 
 like a man who stretches out his limbs after a long 
 sleep!" 
 
 Jesus made no answer. He removed his clothes, 
 placed himself upon his instrument of death, extended 
 his arms over the crossbeams, and looked up to heaven 
 with his eyes bathed in tears. 
 
 Genevieve then saw the two executioners kneel down 
 on either side of the master and take up their hammers 
 and nails. The slave shut her eyes, but she could 
 hear the dull strokes of the hammers as they drove the 
 nails into the quivering flesh, while the two thieves 
 continued rending the air with pitiful cries of pain. 
 The sound of the hammer strokes ceased. Genevieve 
 opened her eyes. The cross to which the young mas- 
 ter of Nazareth had been nailed was raised and set 
 up between the crosses of the other two crucified men. 
 
 Jesus, his brow crowned with thorns, his long blonde 
 hair matted and glued to his temples by sweat mixed 
 with blood, his face livid and bearing the stamp of 
 ominous suffering, and his lips turning bluish, seemed 
 +o be on the point of expiring. With the weight of his 
 whole body resting on his two hands nailed to the 
 cross, as well as upon his feet, from which drops of 
 blood trickled down, his arms suddenly stiffened in 
 convulsive paroxisms, while his half-bent knees 
 against each other.
 
 182 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 At that moment the almost dying voice of the two 
 thieves reached Genevieve's ears as they addressed 
 themselves to Jesus: 
 
 "A curse upon you Nazarene! A curse upon you 
 you who told us that the first would be last and the 
 last first! Here we are crucified! what can you now 
 do for us?" 
 
 "A curse upon you who promised consolation to the 
 afflicted!" responded the other thief. "Here we are 
 crucified where is our consolation?" 
 
 "A curse upon you who told us that only the sick 
 need the physician! We are sick sorely sick where 
 is our physician?" 
 
 "A curse upon you who told us that the good shep- 
 herd would leave his flock to seek for a single lamb 
 gone astray! We went astray, and you leave us in 
 the hands of the executioners!" 
 
 Nor were those wretches the only ones to insult the 
 agony of Jesus. Horrible to say, and hardly believable 
 by Genevieve herself at the hour when she writes this 
 account, Doctor Baruch, the banker Jonas, and Caia- 
 phas the Prince of the Church, vied with one another 
 in mockeries and objurgations, hurled at the young 
 man of Nazareth at the moment when 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 
 Caiaphas, laughing. "How comes it you did not fore-
 
 GOLGOTHA 183 
 
 tell your own fate? Why do you not begin by saving 
 yourself, you who were to save all the world?" 
 
 "You call yourself the Son of God, O, Nazarene!" 
 added the banker Jonas. ' ' We shall take stock in your 
 celestial power if you now come down from that cross ! 
 Son of God, come down! What! You prefer to 
 remain nailed to those beams like a nightbird on a barn 
 door? You may be called Jesus the Crucified, but not 
 Jesus the Son of God! " 
 
 "You always seemed so reliant upon the Lord as 
 your special protector," exclaimed Doctor Baruch; 
 "why do you not call him now to your help? If he 
 is your special protector, if you are, indeed, his son, 
 why does he not thunder against us? Why does he 
 not transform your cross into a rose-bush, whence 
 you could fly, radiant, to heaven?" 
 
 Hootings and mockeries from the Roman soldiers 
 accompanied the cowardly outrages of the Pharisees. 
 Suddenly Genevieve noticed the body of Jesus quiver 
 at every limb, and he made one last effort to turn his 
 heavy head heavenward. A last glimmer of life illu- 
 mined his celestial visage, a heart-rending smile con- 
 tracted his lips, and he murmured in an expiring voice : 
 
 "Lord! Lord! Have mercy upon me! " 
 
 His head then sank upon his breast the friend of 
 the poor and the afflicted had ceased to live. 
 
 Genevieve fell upon her knees and burst into tears. 
 
 That instant she heard an angry voice cry out behind 
 her:
 
 184 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 "Here is my fugitive slave! Oh! I felt certain I 
 would find her in the tracks of the accursed Nazarene, 
 whom final justice has been at last meted out to. Seize 
 her! Bind her hands behind her back! Oh! This 
 time my revenge shall be terrible!" 
 
 Genevieve turned around and saw her master, Seig- 
 neur Gremion. 
 
 "Now," said Genevieve, "I can die since he is dead 
 
 who promised the slaves to break their chains!" 
 * * * 
 
 Although she had to undergo the most cruel tor- 
 ments at the hands of her master, Genevieve did not 
 die, seeing it is she who wrote this account for her 
 husband Pergan. 
 
 After having narrated what she heard and what she 
 knew of the life and death of the young master of 
 Nazareth, Genevieve would deem it preposterous on 
 her part to dare speak of what happened to herself, 
 after the sad day when she saw the friend of the 
 poor and the afflicted expire upon the cross. 
 
 All that Genevieve will say is that, taking for exam- 
 ple the resignation of Jesus, she endured patiently the 
 cruelties of Seigneur Gremion. Out of attachment for 
 her mistress Aurelia, Genevieve submitted to every- 
 thing, not to be separated from her dear mistress. 
 Thus she remained a slave of Seigneur Gremion 's wife 
 during the two years of her sojourn in Judea. 
 
 Alas ! As a natural sequel of human ingratitude, six 
 months after the death of the poor young man of
 
 GOLGOTHA 185 
 
 Nazareth, his memory was effaced from the people's! 
 mind. Only a few of his disciples piously preserved^ 
 his remembrance. 1 
 
 Often did Genevieve say to herself with a sigh: 
 
 "Poor young master of Nazareth! When he an- 
 nounced that one day the fetters of the slaves would 
 be broken, he only listened to the aspirations of his 
 angelic soul. The future was to give the lie to that 
 generous hope." 
 
 In fact, when, after two years spent in Judea with 
 her mistress Aurelia, Genevieve returned to Gaul, she 
 found there slavery still in force, as atrocious, perhaps 
 even more atrocious than it had been before. 
 
 To this narrative which she wrote for her husband 
 Fergan, Genevieve has attached a little silver cross 
 given to her by Joanna, the wife of Seigneur Chuza, 
 shortly after the death of the young man of Nazareth. 
 Some few people, Joanna being of their number, who 
 preserved a pious respect for the memory of the friend 
 of the afflicted, had little crosses made in commemora- 
 tion of the instrument of the death of Jesus, and either 
 
 1 The sentence that smote the events once more upset their ex- 
 master carried immediately wide- pectatlons, and caused them to 
 spread discouragement among his confound the new Christ with all 
 followers. The large crowds, ap- the previous Messiahs, the prom- 
 parently so devoted, that had ises and the efforts of whom had 
 been seen running from all sides remained without lasting effect. 
 to hear his voice, dispersed. They The emotion produced by the 
 had believed In the external and death of Jesus left hardly any 
 sudden formation of the King- traces behind It in the country, 
 dom of God of a new social or- It was lost in a mass of other 
 der which' according to the emotions." Salvador. Jeans 
 word of the son of Mary, would Christ and Hit Doctrine, vol. II, 
 hnvc carried the last to the first p. 212. 
 place. The natural course of
 
 186 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 carried the same, or distributed them among their 
 friends after having deposited them on the summit of 
 Mount Calvary, upon the ground on which that just 
 man's blood had flowed. 
 
 Genevieve knows not whether she is some day to be 
 a mother. If such happiness should fall to her lot 
 but is it happiness to the slave to bring to life other 
 slaves? she will join this little silver cross to the fam- 
 ily relics that the descendants of Joel, the brenn of 
 the tribe of Karnak, are bid to transmit to themselves 
 from generation to generation. 
 
 May this little cross be the symbol of the future 
 emancipation of our old and heroic Gallic race ! 
 
 May one day the words of Jesus be realized for our 
 children's children THE CHAINS OF THE SLAVES WILL 
 
 BE BROKEN.
 
 EPILOGUE 
 
 I, Fergan, the husband of Genevieve, add these few 
 words to the preceding narrative of Genevieve 's: 
 
 Forty years have elapsed since my well beloved, and 
 ever lamented wife wrote down the things she had 
 seen during her sojourn in Judea. 
 
 The hope Genevieve had gathered from the words 
 of Jesus The chains of the slaves will be broken has 
 not been realized, and never will be realized. More 
 than forty years have elapsed since that promise was 
 made, and slavery still prevails. During all these forty 
 and odd years I have continued unceasingly to turn my 
 wheel for my masters, just as my son Judicael now 
 does, seeing that he, like his father, is a weaver slave. 
 
 Poor child of my old age it is now twelve years 
 since Genevieve died in giving life to you you are, if 
 anything, still more frail of body and timid of disposi- 
 tion than myself ! 
 
 Alas! As was foreseen by my grandfather Sylvest, 
 our race has degenerated more and more. 
 
 Poor child of my old age, I have not, as our ances- 
 tors, whether free or slave, but ever brave, any heroic 
 or tragic account to hand down to you of my life 
 
 My life you are acquainted with, my son; should I
 
 188 THE SILVER CROSS. 
 
 live a hundred years, it will continue to be what it has 
 hitherto been, as far back as I can recollect. It can 
 be summed up in these words : 
 
 "To rise early every morning to weave cloth; and 
 go to bed at night. To interrupt the long hours of 
 my monotonous work in order to eat a meager pittance. 
 Sometimes to be beaten, either on account of my mas- 
 ter's whim, or his bad temper." 
 
 Such has been my condition since I knew myself, 
 my poor child ! Such, no doubt, will be yours ! Alas ! 
 Degenerate Gauls, neither you nor I will have aught 
 to add to the worthy traditions of our ancestors. 
 
 I write and sign this forty and odd years after my 
 wife Genevieve saw the young man of Nazareth done 
 to death. 
 
 To you, my son Judicael, I, Fergan. the son of Pearon, 
 bequeath, in order that you may preserve and trans- 
 mit to your descendants, these narratives of our family, 
 accompanied with these following relics: 
 
 The gold sickle of our ancestress Hena ; 
 
 The brass bell of my great-grandfather Guilhern; 
 
 The iron collar of my grandfather Sylvest ; and 
 
 The little silver cross that Genevieve left to me. 
 
 
 
 I Gomer, the son of Judicael, was seventeen years 
 old when my father died that is fifty years ago from 
 the date when I write these lines. As my grandfather 
 and my father foresaw, my slave's life has been, like 
 theirs, monotonous and gloomy.
 
 EPILOGUE. 189 
 
 I blush with shame at the thought that neither I, 
 nor you, my son Mederick, no doubt, will, in turn, 
 have aught to add to the narratives of our ancestors. 
 Alas! They have not yet come, perhaps never will, 
 those days of which our grandmother Genevieve spoke 
 upon the faith of a man whom she calls in her narra- 
 tive the young master of Nazareth, who foretold that 
 one day the chains of the slaves would be broken. 
 
 To you, then, my son Mederick, I, Gomer. the son of 
 Judicael, bequeath for you to preserve, and transmit 
 to our descendants, these family relics and narratives. 
 
 THE END.
 
 DUE 2 WKS FROM DAE RECEIVED
 
 A 000 038 530 2