The Silver Cross; Or, The Carpenter of Nazareth

'Let him who has enough to eat do the same.

'For when the day of judgment comes, God will say to those who are on his left:

"Far from me, cursed! go into the fire eternal! for I was hungry and ye gave me not to eat! I was thirsty, and ye gave me not to drink! I was in want of lodging, and you did not lodge me! I was without garments, and you did not clothe me! I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me!" And then the wicked will reply to the Almighty:

"Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? or without garments? or without lodging? or in prison?"

But the Almighty will reply to them:

"I say unto you that as often as you have failed to render these services to one of the poorest among men, you have failed to render them to myself, your Lord God."

To the great chagrin of the crowd, much affected by the divine words of the son of Mary, who could comprehend the poorest in mind, as the young Nazarene said, his discourse was interrupted in consequence of a violent tumult that arose. The cause was this; a troop of men on horseback, coming from the mountains, travelling rapidly towards Jerusalem, was obliged to stop before the vast assemblage grouped at the base of the mount where Christ was preaching. These cavaliers, in their impatience, brutally desired the crowd to disperse, and to make room for the Seigneur Chusa, the steward of Prince Herod's household, and for the Seigneur Gremion, an agent of the Roman treasury.

On hearing these words Aurelia, wife of Gremion, turned pale and said to Jane:

'Our husbands! already returned! they have turned back; they will find us absent from our homes; they will know that we have left them since yesterday; we are lost.'

'Have we, then, anything to reproach ourselves with?' replied Jane: 'Have we not been listening to teachings, and assisting at examples which renders good hearts still better?'

'Dear mistress,' said Genevieve to Aurelia, 'I think that the Seigneur Gremion has recognized you from his horse, for he is speaking quietly to the Seigneur Chusa, and is pointing his finger this way.'

'Ah! I tremble!' replied Aurelia, 'what's to be done? What will become of me? Oh! cursed be my curiosity!'

'Blessed, on the contrary,' said Jane to her; 'for you carry away treasures in your heart. Let us go boldly and meet our husbands; ‘tis the wicked who hide themselves and bow their heads. Come, Aurelia, come, and let us walk home with a firm front.'

At this moment, Magdalen the repentant, approached the two young women, and said to Jane, with tears in her eyes:

'Adieu, you who tendered me a hand when I had fallen into contempt; your remembrance will be always present to Magdalen in her future solitude.'

'Of what solitude do you speak?' said Jane, surprised: 'where are you going, then, Mary Magdalen?'

'To the desert!' replied the penitent, stretching her arms towards the summit of the arid mountains beyond which extend the desolate solitudes of the dead sea:

'I go to the desert to weep for my sins, bearing in my heart a treasure of hope! Blessed be the son of Mary, to whom I am indebted for this divine treasure!'

The crowd, opening respectfully before this great repentant, she slowly retired towards the mountains. Scarcely had Magdalen disappeared, when Jane, leading her friend almost in spite of herself, advanced towards the cavaliers through the people, irritated at the coarse words of the escort.

They abhorred Herod, the prince of Judea, who would have been driven from the throne but for the protection of the Romans. He was cruel, dissolute, and crushed the Jewish people with taxes; thus, when they learnt that one of the cavaliers was the Seigneur Chusa, steward of this execrated prince, the hatred they felt for the master was visited on the steward as also on his companion, the Seigneur Gremion, who in the name of the Roman tax-gatherer, gleaned where Herod had reaped. Thus, whilst Jane, Aurelia, and the slave Genevieve painfully traversed the crowd to reach the two cavaliers, hootings burst from all sides against Chusa and Gremion, and they listened, trembling with rage, to words such as the following, the faint echo of the anathemas of the young master against the wicked:

'Woe to you, Herod's steward! who crush us with taxes, and eat up the house of the widow and the orphan!

'Woe to you, too, Roman! who also come to take a part in robbing us!'

Banaias, with one hand waiving his cutlass in a threatening and ferocious manner, approached the two seigneurs, and, showing his fist to them, exclaimed:

'The fox is cowardly and cruel! but he has called to his aid the wolf, whose teeth are longer, and whose strength is greater! The fox, cowardly and cruel, is your master Herod, Seigneur Chusa! and the ferocious wolf, is Tiberius, your own master, Roman! who helps the fox in hunting the game!'

And as the Seigneur Chusa, pale with rage, was about to draw his sword to strike Banaias, the latter raised his cutlass, and exclaimed:

'By the belly of Goliath! I will cut you in two like a water melon, if you put a hand on your sword!'

The two seigneurs, having only five or six men as an escort, restrained themselves, from a fear of being stoned by the enraged people, and endeavored to sneak out of the crowd, which, more and more enraged, exclaimed:

'Yes, woe to you! tax-gatherers of Herod and Tiberius! Woe to you! for we are hungry; and the bread moistened with our sweat, which we carry to our lips, you snatch it from our hands in the name of taxes!

'Woe to you! for instead of pardoning misery you overwhelm with miseries people without defence! Woe to you, but happiness to us, for the day of justice approaches, the young man of Nazareth has said so. Yes, yes, for you wicked and oppressors, there will soon be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and then the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.'

Chusa and Gremion, more and more alarmed, consulted each other by a look, not knowing how to escape this menacing crowd. The most threatening already began to pick up large stones at the voice of Banaias, who had exclaimed on replacing his cutlass at his belt, and arming himself with a large stone:

'Our master said this morning, speaking of the poor girl whom these hypocritical pharisees would have stoned, 'Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.' And I, my friends, say this to you —

'Let him who has been flayed by the tax-gatherer throw the first stone at these flayers! and may it be followed by many another!'

'Yes, yes!' cried the crowd, 'Let them disappear under a mountain of stones.'

'Let us stone them!'

'To the stones! to the stones!'

'Our husbands are exposed to danger, ‘tis another reason why we should approach them,' said Jane to Aurelia, redoubling her efforts in order to reach the cavaliers, more and more surrounded.

Suddenly was heard the gentle and penetrating voice of the Nazarene dominating the tumult and pronouncing these words —

'In verity, I say unto you, if these men have sinned, can they not repent between this and the day of judgment? Let them sin no more but go in peace.'

At these words of Mary's son, the popular tempest was appeased as if by enchantment. The crowd was calmed, became silent, and by a spontaneous movement, turned aside to make room for the cavaliers and their escort. Then Jane and Aurelia contrived to reach their husbands. At the sight of his wife, Seigneur Gremion said to Chusa in an angry manner:

'I was sure of it! I had recognized my wife!'

'And mine also accompanies her!' said Chusa, not less enraged.

'And like her, under a disguise. ‘Tis the abomination of desolation.'

'Nothing is wanting to the fete,' added Gremion, 'for here is my wife's slave.'

Jane, always gentle and calm, said to her husband:

'Seigneur, give me a place; I will mount on behind on your horse to reach my house.'

'Yes,' replied Chusa, grinding his teeth with rage: 'you shall reach home with me. But, by the columns of the temple! you shall not again quit it without me.'

Jane made no reply, but tendered her hand to her husband for him to assist her to get up behind; with a light bound she seated herself on the horse.

'Mount behind me also,' said Gremion to his wife, in an angry tone.

'Your slave Genevieve; and by Jupiter she shall pay dear for her complicity in this indignity! your slave, Genevieve, shall mount behind one of the cavaliers of the escort.'

It was thus arranged, and they then pursued their way to Jerusalem. The horseman, who carried Genevieve behind, following close upon Gremion and Chusa, the slave heard the latter harshly scolding their wives.