"Seigneur, here are his words,' said Caiphus, 'listen well: 'The
disciple is no more than the master, nor the slave more than his lord;
'tis enough for the disciple to be equal with his master, and for the
slave with his lord.'"

A fresh murmur of furious indignation was heard. 'Only see the fine
concession this Nazarene deigns to make to you,' exclaimed the banker
Jonas.--'Really, 'tis enough for the slave to be equal to his lord! You
concede us this, Jesus of Nazareth! You permit the slave not to be
greater than his lord: many thanks!'

'And mark,' added the doctor of law, 'mark the consequences of these
frightful doctrines, if they were ever published; and we may speak thus
between ourselves, now that our servants have quitted the festive hall;
for, in fact, the day on which the slave shall think himself the equal
of his master, he will say to himself: if I am the equal of my master,
he has no longer the right to keep me in servitude, and I have the right
to rebel. Now, my lords, you know what such a revolt would be! It would
be the end of society!'

'The end of the world!'

'Chaos!' exclaimed Doctor Baruch; 'for chaos must succeed to the
unchaining of the most detestable popular passions, and the Nazarene
only flatters them in order to unloosen them; he promises mountains and
marvels to these miserables, to make proselytes of them; he flatters
their hateful envy by telling them that at the day of judgment, the
first shall be last, and the last shall be first.'

'Yes, in the kingdom of heaven,' said Jane, in a mild but firm voice:
''tis thus I understand the young master.'

"Ah! really?' said the Seigneur Chusa, her husband, in a sardonic tone,
'it simply alludes to the kingdom of heaven? You think so? Why then,
some time ago, did one named Peter, one of his disciples, I believe, say
to him in plain terms, 'Master, if we abandon all and follow thee, what
shall we have in return for it?'"

'This Peter was a cautious man,' said Jonas the banker, in a tone of
raillery; 'this worthy didn't like working for nothing.'

'To this question of Peter's,' said Chusa, 'what did the Nazarene reply,
in order to excite the cupidity of the brigands, whom sooner or later he
will make his instruments?'

"He replied in these very words: 'He who abandons house, brothers,
sisters, father, mother, children and fields for me and for the gospel,
shall receive for the present a hundred fold more than he abandons, and
in future age