towards her: and they perverted their own mind and turned away their eyes that they might not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments. So they were both wounded with the love of her, yet they did not make known their grief one to the other: for they were ashamed to declare to one another their lust, being desirous to have to do with her: and they watched carefully every day to see her: and one said to another: Let us now go home, for it is dinner-time. So going out, they departed one from another. And turning back again, they came both to the same place: and asking one another the cause, they acknowledged their lust: and then they agreed upon a time, when they might find her alone. And it fell out, as they watched a fit day, she went in on a time, as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and was desirous to wash her self in the orchard: for it was hot weather. And there was nobody there, but the two old men that had hid themselves and were considering her. So she said to the maids: Bring me oil, and washing-balls, and shut the doors of the orchard, that I may wash me. And they did as she bade them: and they shut the doors of the orchard, and went out by a back door to fetch what she had commanded them, and they knew not that the elders were hid within. Now when the maids were gone forth, the two elders arose, and ran to her, and said: Behold the doors of the orchard are shut, and nobody seeth us, and we are in love with thee: wherefore consent to us, and he with us. But if thou wilt not, we will bear witness against thee, that a young man was with thee, and therefore thou didst send away thy maids from thee. Susanna sighed and said: I am straitened on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to me: and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord. With that Susanna cried out with a loud voice: and the elders also cried out against her. And one of them ran to the door of the orchard, and opened it. So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the orchard, they rushed in by the back door to see what was the matter. But after the old men had spoken, the servants were greatly ashamed; for never had there been any such word said of Susanna. And on the next day, when the people were come to Joakim her husband, the two elders also came full of wicked device against
