ess
marriages had not that illicit bond of theirs put to shame! And yet as a
boy he had learned the Seventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not commit
adultery." Had she not believed all along that the price of such sweet
sinning must be paid, if not in this life, then in the life hereafter, and
could it--could it be that her soul was even now writhing in fires
unquenchable, whither he, who would have gladly died in torment to save
her from outrage or death, had thrust her?

_"Forgive us our trespasses...."_

O Man of Sorrows, pitying Son of Mary, before Whom the Scribes and
Pharisees brought the woman taken in adultery, forgive her, pardon her! If
a soul must writhe in those eternal fires they preach of, in justice let
it be mine! Thou Who didst pity that woman of old time, standing white and
shameful in the midst of the evil, jeering crowd, with the wicked fingers
pointing at her, say to this other woman, lifting up Thyself before her
terrified, desperate soul, confronted with the awful mystery that lies
behind the Veil....

_"Neither do I condemn thee...."_

And do with me what Thou wilt!

The ragged, wild-eyed man who had been kneeling rigid and immovable before
the wooden symbol reared upon the new-raised cairn of boulders swayed a
little. His head fell forward heavily upon his breast. His eyes closed in
spite of his desperate effort to shake off the deadly, sickening collapse
of will and brain and body that was mastering him. He fell sideways, and
lay in a heap upon the ground.

II

They went to him, and took up and carried him into the tavern, and laid
him down upon a frowzy bed in the room where the child lay upon the
iron-framed cot.

He lay there groaning in the fierce clutches of rheumatic fever. They
tended him in a rude way. A valise and an iron-bound leather lady's trunk
had been brought from the waggon by his orders, and set in the room where
he was in his sight. These contained her clothes and jewels, and he
guarded them jealously even in delirium. About his wasted body was buckled
a heavy money-belt. Bough could feel that when he helped the woman of the
tavern to lift the patient. He winked to her pleasantly across the bed.
But the time was not ripe yet. They must wait awhile. The English
traveller was not always delirious. There were intervals of consciousness,
and though he seemed at death's door, who knew? That strong purpose of his
might even yet lift him from the soiled and comfortless b