by the head of Gideon that we shall see
all these paragons of virtue, all these pearls of chastity, all these
angels of modesty, beginning with the seigneurs priests, and the
seigneurs doctors in law, throw away their sandals and tuck up their
robes that they may run the quicker. Oh! what was I saying?' added
Banaias, laughing still more loudly, like many others, 'there they are,
dispersing like a herd of swine pursued by a wolf.'

'And swine they are!' said another.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rising sun, shedding its lustrous beams on the figure of the son of
Mary, attired in his white tunic and his blue mantle, made his celestial
visage to appear resplendent, and casting its rays on his long chestnut
hair, seemed