huge
boughs, when suddenly he saw the crowd, black against the snow,
watching him. Weeping, he made signs to them to help him; and they
went into the garden. Then the sacristan, the Red Dwarf, the landlord
of the Blue Lion and he of the Golden Sun, the parish-priest, with a
lantern, and many other peasants climbed into the snow-laden
walnut-tree to cut down the corpse, which the women of the village
received in their arms at the foot of the tree, even as at the descent
from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The next day they buried her; and nothing else out of the common
happened at Nazareth that week. But, on the following Sunday, hungry
wolves ran through the village after high mass and it snowed until
noon; then the sun suddenly shone in the sky; and the peasants went
in to dinner, as was their wont, and dressed for benediction.

At that moment there was no one in the market-place, for it was
freezing cruelly. Only the dogs and hens remained under the trees,
where some sheep were nibbling at a three-cornered patch of grass,
while the priest's maid-servant swept away the snow from the
presbytery-garden.

Then a troop of armed men crossed the stone bridge at the end of the
village and halted in the orchard. Some peasants came out of their
houses; but, on recognizing the Spaniards, they retreated in terror
and went to their windows to see what would happen.

There were some thirty horsemen, clad in armour, around an old man
with a white beard. Behind them they carried red and yellow
foot-soldiers, who jumped down and ran over the snow to shake off
their stiffness, while several of the men in armour also alighted and
eased themselves against the trees to which they had fastened their
horses.

Then they turned to the Golden Sun and knocked at the door. It was
opened hesitatingly; and they warmed themselves at the fire and called
for ale.

Next they came out of the inn, carrying pots and jugs and wheaten
loaves for their comrades, who sat ranked around the man with the
white beard, waiting in the midst of the lances.

As the street was empty, the commander sent horsemen to the back of
the houses, to guard the village on its open side, and ordered the
foot-soldiers to bring to him all the children of two years old and
under, to be massacred, as is written in the Gospel according to St.
Matthew.

The soldiers went first to the inn of the Green Cabbage and to the
barber's cottage, which stood side by side, midw