d, and she would bear it. Before I
could enquire of her any further, we were interrupted by the Christian
prisoners, who crowded around the worthy Ammonius, who was exhorting and
comforting them with edifying discourse. She listened attentively to the
old man, and on the following day I found her in conversation with the
mother of the boy to whom she had given her bread.

"One morning, I had gone there with some fruit to offer as a treat to the
prisoners, and particularly to her. She took an apple, and said, rising
as she spoke, 'I would now ask another favor of you. You are a Christian,
send me a priest, that he may baptize me, if he does not think me
unworthy, for I am burdened with sins so heavily as no other woman can
be.' Her large, sweet, childlike eyes filled again with big silent tears,
and I spoke to her from my heart, and showed her as well as I could the
grace of the Redeemer. Shortly after, Ammonius secretly baptized her, and
she begged to be given the name of Magdalen, and so it was, and after
that she took me wholly into her confidence.

"She had left her husband and her child for the sake of a diabolical
seducer, whom she had followed to Alexandria, and who there had abandoned
her. Alone and friendless, in want and guilt, she remained behind with a
hard-hearted and covetous hostess, who had brought her before the judge,
and so into prison. What an abyss of the deepest anguish of soul I could
discover in this woman, who was worthy of a better lot! What is highest
and best in a woman? Her love, her mother's heart, her honor; and
Magdalen had squandered and ruined all these by her own guilt. The blow
of overwhelming fate may be easily borne, but woe to him, whose life is
ruined by his own sin! She was a sinner, she felt it with anguish of
repentance, and she steadily refused my offers to purchase her freedom.

"She was greedy of punishment, as a man in a fever is greedy of the
bitter potion, which cools his blood. And, by the crucified Lord! I have
found more noble humanity among sinners, than in many just men in
priestly garb. Through the presence of Magdalen, the prison recovered its
sanctity in my eyes. Before this I had frequently quitted it full of deep
contempt, for among the imprisoned Christians, there were too often lazy
vagabond's, who had loudly confessed the Saviour only to be fed by the
gifts of the brethren; there I had seen accursed criminals, who hoped by
a martyr's death to win back the red