_--"The Gospel of the Lord! The Gospel of Eve!"

_The Encratites_--"The Gospel of Thomas!"

_The Cainites_--"The Gospel of Judas!"

_Basilides_--"The treatise of the spirit that has come!"

_Manes_--"The prophecy of Barcouf!"

Antony makes a struggle and escapes them, and he perceives, in a corner
filled with shadows, the old Ebionites, dried up like mummies, their
glances dull, their eyebrows white.

They speak in a quavering tone:

"We have known, we ourselves have known, the carpenter's son. We were of
his own age; we lived in his street. He used to amuse himself by
modelling little birds with mud; without being afraid of cutting the
benches, he assisted his father in his work, or rolled up, for his
mother, balls of dyed wool. Then he made a journey into Egypt, whence he
brought back wonderful secrets. We were in Jericho when he discovered
the eater of grasshoppers. They talked together in a low tone, without
anyone being able to hear them. But it was since that occurrence that he
made a noise in Galilee and that many stories have been circulated
concerning him."

They repeat, tremulously:

"We have known, we ourselves; we have known him."

_Antony_--"One moment! Tell me! pray tell me, what was his face like?"

_Tertullian_--"Fierce and repulsive in its aspect; for he was laden with
all the crimes, all the sorrows, and all the deformities of the world."

_Antony_--"Oh! no! no! I imagine, on the contrary, that there was about
his entire person a superhuman beauty."

_Eusebius of Caesarea_--"There is at Paneadae, close to an old ruin, in
the midst of a rank growth of weeds, a statue of stone, raised, as it is
pretended, by the woman with the issue of blood. But time has gnawed
away the face, and the rain has obliterated the inscription."

A woman comes forth from the group of Carpocratians.

_Marcellina_--"I was formerly a deaconess in a little church at Rome,
where I used to show the faithful images, in silver, of St. Paul, Homer,
Pythagoras and Jesus Christ.

"I have kept only his."

She draws aside the folds of her cloak.

"Do you wish it?"

_A voice_--"He reappears himself when we invoke him. It is the hour.
Come!"

And Antony feels a brutal hand laid on him, which drags him along.

He ascends a staircase in complete darkness, and, after proceeding for
some time, arrives in front of a door. Then his guide (is it Hilarion?
he cannot tell) says in the ear of a third person, "The Lord is abou