tortured most.

It was there the keen police, the levites, were, and their masters the
Sadducees, who had placed a price on his head. Did he get within the
walls, then surely he was lost. At the possibilities which that idea
evoked her thoughts sank like the roots of a tree and grappled with the
under-earth. To her despair, regret brought its burden. A moment of
self-forgetfulness, and, however horrible that forgetfulness might have
been, in it danger to him whom she revered would have been averted, and,
for the time being at least, dispersed utterly as last year's leaves. It
had been cowardice on her part to let Judas go; she should have been
strong when strength was needed. There were glaives to be had; the head of
Holofernes could have greeted his. The legend of Judith still echoed its
reproach, and recurring, pointed a slender finger of disdain.

To the heart that is sinking, hope throws a straw. Immaterial and
caressing as a shadow, came to her the fancy that if the Master were in
the neighborhood, at any moment he might appear. In that event it was
needful that she should be prepared to aid him at once beyond the confines
of Judaea. Were he already beyond them, presently she must learn it, and
then could warn him of the danger of return. But meanwhile, for security's
sake, had he gone by any chance to Jerusalem, some one must be there to
warn him of the plot. She thought of her sister, and dismissed her. Martha
was too feather-headed for an errand such as that. She thought of Ahulah,
but some of those well-intentioned friends that everyone possesses had
told of the misadventure to her husband, and the latter, cruel as a woman,
had spat upon her, and now through the suburbs she wandered, distraught,
incompetent to aid. Her brother occurred to her. It was on him she could
rely. His devotion was surpassed only by her own. Thereupon she sought him
out, instructed him in his duty, and sent him forth to watch and warn.

The green afternoon faded in the hemorrhages of the setting sun. Twilight
approached like a wolf. Night unfurled her great black fan; the moon came,
fumbling the shadows, checkering the underbrush with silver spots. Once a
caravan passed, and once from the hillside came the bark of a dog, caught
up and repeated in some farm beyond; otherwise the night was unstirred;
and as Mary stared into the immensities where lightning wearies and
subsides, a lethargy beset her, her body was imprisoned; but her soul w