rolled forward to the group round the fire and, sitting
down among them, commenced to warm himself. It was a miscellaneous
group there in the glare of the fire, and no notice was taken of him.
He took his place as if he were one of them.

It was, however, a dangerous situation in another sense than he
supposed. It was of bodily peril he was in terror; he did not
anticipate danger to his soul; yet this was very near. It is always
dangerous when a follower of Christ is sitting among Christ's enemies
without letting it be known what he is. "Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of
sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." It is more than
probable that when Peter sat down the air was ringing with jest and
laughter about Jesus; but he did not interrupt: he kept silence and
tried to look as like one of the scorners as he could. But not to
confess Christ is the next step to denying Him.

Temptation, as is its wont, came suddenly and from the most unexpected
quarter. As has been said, when he was skulking beneath the archway,
his movements were noted by the portress. They were suspicious, and
she, with a woman's cleverness, divined his secret. Accordingly, when
she was relieved at her post by another maid, she not only pointed him
out to this companion and communicated to her what she thought about
him, but, in passing to her room, she went up to the fire among the
soldiers and, looking him straight in the face, said, with a malicious
twinkle in her eye, This is one of the Nazarene's followers.

Peter was taken completely by surprise. It was as if a mask had been
torn from his face. In a moment the instinct of terror seized him;
perhaps, too, the instinct of shame at being thought a disciple of Him
they were mocking. Indeed, there was a further shame: how could he
confess himself the disciple of the Master whom he had heard blasphemed
without protest? He had denied his Master in act before he denied Him
in word; and the preceding act made the word also necessary. "I do not
know what you mean," he said, with a surly frown; and away she tripped
laughing, having done her work quite successfully.

None pursued the subject. But Peter was uneasy, and took the earliest
opportunity of escaping from the fireside. He went away into the
archway, intending apparently, if he could, to get out of the place
altogether. But here the trap was closed; for the other