hus came up to him and said, 'Did I not see thee in the
garden with him? Didst thou not cut off my brother's ear?'

Peter became almost beside himself with terror; he began to curse
and to swear 'that he knew not the man,' and ran out of the vestibule into
the outer court; the cock then crowed again, and Jesus, who at that
moment was led across the court, cast a look of mingled compassion and
grief upon his Apostle. This look of our Lord pierced Peter to the very
heart,--it recalled to his mind in the most forcible and terrible manner
the words addressed to him by our Lord on the previous evening: 'Before
the cock crows twice, thou shalt thrice deny me.' He had forgotten all
his promises and protestations to our Lord, that he would die rather
than deny him--he had forgotten the warning given to him by our Lord;--but
when Jesus looked at him, he felt the enormity of his fault, and his
heart was nigh bursting with grief. He had denied his Lord, when that
beloved Master was outraged, insulted, delivered up into the hands of
unjust judges,--when he was suffering all in patience and in silence. His
feelings of remorse were beyond expression; he returned to the exterior
court, covered his face and wept bitterly; all fear of being recognised
was over;--he was ready to proclaim to the whole universe both his fault
and his repentance.

What man will dare assert that he would have shown more courage than
Peter if, with his quick and ardent temperament, he were exposed to
such danger, trouble, and sorrow, at a moment, too, when completely
unnerved between fear and grief, and exhausted by the sufferings of
this sad night? Our Lord left Peter to his own strength, and he was
weak; like all who forget the words: 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not
into temptation.'

CHAPTER XI.

Mary in the House of Caiphas.

The Blessed Virgin was ever united to her Divine Son by interior
spiritual communications; she was, therefore, fully aware of all that
happened to him--she suffered with him, and joined in his continual prayer
for his murderers. But her maternal feelings prompted her to supplicate
Almighty God most ardently not to suffer the crime to be completed, and
to save her Son from such dreadful torments. She eagerly desired to
return to him; and when John, who had left the tribunal at the moment
the frightful cry, 'He is guilty of death,' was raised, came to the house
of Lazarus to see after her, and to relate the particulars