apidly towards Jerusalem, was
obliged to stop before the vast assemblage grouped at the base of the
mount where Christ was preaching. These cavaliers, in their impatience,
brutally desired the crowd to disperse, and to make room for the
Seigneur Chusa, the steward of Prince Herod's household, and for the
Seigneur Gremion, an agent of the Roman treasury.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They abhorred Herod, the prince of Judea, who would have been driven
from the throne but for the protection of the Romans. He wa