utiful garments and sparkling jewels. You shall
not glisten like doves when you are false like snakes."

The women were angry, and tried to set snares for him. So they smiled
sweetly, and asked: "Your words of wisdom, oh prophet! only concern the
women of the people. Royally-born women are excepted."

Then spoke the preacher; "Women born in the purple are of the same
stuff as the leprous beggar-woman who lies in the street. No woman is
excepted. The wives of kings live in the sight of all, and must obey
the law twice and thrice as strictly. Since Herod put away his
rightful wife, the Arab king's daughter, and lives openly in incest
with his brother's wife, the angel of hell will strike at her."

"You all hear," said the women, turning to the assembled crowd. Then
they pulled up their gowns high over their ankles, stepped into the
river where it is shallow, and bared their brown necks, in order that
the wild preacher might pour the water over them. The men pressed
closer, but the prophet tore a branch from the cedar and drove the
hypocritical penitents back. Some were glad that sin had no power over
this holy man.

Then they sent an old man to him to ask who he really was. "Are you
the Messiah whom we are expecting?"

"I am not the Messiah," answered the preacher. "But he is coming after
me. I prepare the way for him like the morning breeze ere the sun
rises. As the heaven is above the earth, so is he greater than I. It
is my prayer that I may be worthy to loosen his shoe latchets. I
sprinkle your heads with water; he will sprinkle them with fire. He
will separate you according as your hearts be good or evil. He will
lay up the wheat in the garner with his fan and burn the chaff.
Prepare yourselves--the kingdom of God is nearer than ye think."

The people were uneasy. Clouds came up over the mountains of Galilee,
and their edges shone like silver. The air lay like a heavy weight
over the valley of the Jordan, and not a twig stirred in the cedars.
The strangers from Samaria and Judaea did not know the man who climbed
down over the stones and went towards the preacher. He wore a blue
woollen gown that came down over his knees, so that only his sandalled
feet were seen. He might have been taken for a working man had not his
head, with its high, pale forehead and heavy waving locks, been so
royal. A soft beard sprang from his upper lip, and there was such a
wonderful light in his dark blue eyes th