night. He whom ye have crucified hath
saved you from the wrath to come. He hath saved others, Himself He
would not save. Even for such as I, who have secretly opened, who have
secretly entered, the doors of sin--"

With a gasp of horror and a mad desire to take her away from the sight
of this gaping, fascinated crowd, Charley made to rush forward, but Jo
Portugais held him back.

"Be still. You will ruin her, M'sieu'!" said Jo.

"--even for such as I am," the beautiful voice went on, "hath He died.
And in the ages to come, women such as I, and all women who sorrow, and
all men who err and are deceived, and all the helpless world, will
know that this was the Friend of the human soul." Not a gesture, not a
movement, only that slight, pathetic figure, with pale, agonised face,
and eyes that looked--looked--looked beyond them, over their heads to
the darkening east, the clouded light of evening behind her. Her voice
rang out now valiant and clear, now searching and piteous, yet reaching
to where the farthermost person knelt, and was lost upon the lake and in
the spreading trees.

"What ye have done may never be undone; what He hath said shall never
be unsaid. His is the Word which shall unite all languages, when ye that
are Romans shall be no more Romans, and ye that are Jews shall still be
Jews, reproached and alone. No longer shall men faint in the glare--the
shadow of the Cross shall screen them. No more shall woman bear her
black sorrows, alone; the Light of the World shall cheer her."

As she spoke, the cloud drew back from the sunset, and the saffron glow
behind lighted the cross, and shone upon her hair, casting her face in
a gracious shadow. Her voice rose higher. "I, the Magdalene, am the
first-fruits of this sacrifice: from the foot of the cross I come. I
have sinned more than all. I have shamed all women. But I have confessed
my sin, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Her voice now became lower, but clear and even, pathetically exulting:

"O world, forgive, as He hath forgiven you! Fall, dark curtain, and hide
this pain, and rise again upon forgiven sin and a redeemed people!"

She stood still, with her eyes upraised, and the curtain came slowly
down.

For a long time no one in all the gathered multitude stirred. Far over
under the trees a man sat upon the ground, his head upon his arms, and
his arms upon his knees, in a misery unmeasurable.