“She looked at me not without distrust, and said that nothing had happened to her, but what she deserved, 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 redemption that they had forfeited; there I had heard the woeful cries of the faint-hearted, who feared death as much as they feared treason to the most High.  There were things to be seen there that might harrow the soul, but also examples of the sublimest greatness.  Men have I seen there, aye, and women, who went to their death in calm and silent bliss, and whose end was, indeed, noble—­more noble than that of the much-lauded Codrus or Decius Mus.