him to be reconciled to him; but the brother who was in fetters would not be persuaded to do this, and continued in his wrathful condition, and when the brother saw this he left him and departed in sorrow.
And on the following day the judge commanded and they brought in before him the man who was bound and in prison, and he asked him if he would be persuaded to deny his God and to worship the sun, and he would not agree to do either; and the judge gave orders that he was to be laid out and beaten, and to be smitten with rods, and when they had laid him out, and the strokes were being laid on by two [men] at a time, he denied Christ. Now when the judge saw this, he commanded the men to stop beating him, and he called him to him, and asked him, saying, “What aileth thee? I caused thee to bear severe stripes on three previous occasions, and thou wast neither overcome nor didst play the coward’s part, and yet now, whilst they are coming near thee, thou dost deny [thy God].” And the brother said, “I have acted thus because I have sinned and treated with contempt the commandments of the Lord my God, Who commanded us to forgive each his offences. I had once a brother in our Lord, and we lived together in one monastery, and it happened that some cause for anger rose up between us, and we separated from each other in enmity. Yesterday he came to me in prison, and fell down before me and begged for peace from me, and I would not consent to be reconciled unto him, and therefore the goodness of God was cut off from me, and He did not help me this day as He hath always done before, and I denied [Him]. During the stripes which I received formerly I used to see Him spread out about a hand’s breadth above me, and He did not permit me to suffer, but to-day He forsook me, and at a small amount of pain I was terrified and I denied [Him].” Now when the judge had heard these things from him, he commanded that his fetters should be loosed from off him, and that he should be dismissed; and the brother, feeling disgrace and shame at the fall which had come upon him, went forth from the presence of the judge, and directed his way straight to his companion, and he fell down on his face at his feet, and wept and cried out bitterly, and entreated for mercy and peace; and when his companion looked upon him, he also suffered great grief, and he received him, and they were reconciled, and he prayed for him, and though the thing was bitter to him, they separated one from the other.
Then the brother who had denied his God straightway returned to the door of the judge, and he began to cry out and to curse the king, so that they might again bring him before the judge for examination; but the judge did not wish to say
