"Surely this is some angel," he muttered to himself; then, making his gruff voice as gentle as he could, he said: "Good woman, the High Priest, Caiaphas, hath commanded me to search this cottage, lest the Nazarene be hidden here, and, if I find Him, to bring Him to him."
"Sir, do as thou wilt," replied the Virgin. "The Lord is not here, but, if He were, ye could do nothing unless it were given ye from on high. Seek ye Him."
The men searched, but without much ardour. They were not anxious to find the Nazarene, nor had they imagined that He would be there, for it was well known that He dwelt not now at Nazareth.
"Mother of the Nazarene," said the soldier, after he and his men had searched the house, "I have yet an ugly message to convey to thee. Caiaphas hath commanded that, if we found not the Nazarene, we should bring to him all within this house." While he was speaking his eyes fell on the Magdalene.
"Thou here?" he exclaimed. Then his lips parted with a coarse, rude smile, ready to speak some prurient jest. A look from the mother of the Christ arrested him, but the Magdalene had seen and understood the look, and bent her head humbly to the ground. That henceforward would be the cross she would have to bear. The moral crucifixion of the world's opinion had begun. No nails could pierce more sharply, no spear strike more deeply, no burden be bitterer or harder to bear than would the judgment of the world on sins that she had done with. For God forgives more quickly than does man. It would never be wiped out, that past of Mary Magdalene's; daily, hourly, the familiarity of
