Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/393

Rh out for his own—"If it must be Lazarus or I, kill me, for Lazarus must testify." And she bared her lovely bosom with proud gesture to the poignard, pressing against it that the pain might be the sooner over, that the sharp steel might sever the cords of life with swifter touch; then she sank on to her knees and, as her head fell back, she cried: "Forgive her, Lord, for she knoweth not. She loveth much; forgive her much as Thou forgavest me. O Lord, receive my soul!"

Then she fell quite back and died, and, as she fell, Rebekah leaned over her and smiled with a hard, triumphant smile, but with the light of madness in her eyes. Then, when the Magdalene moved not, her eyes opened wide with horror, and as the dark red current gushed in a ceaseless torrent to the ground from her white bosom, Rebekah held her hands with horrific terror to her head and watched. At last, once she shrieked; then tore madly through the grove of olive trees towards the home of Caiaphas. And the Magdalene lay dead beneath the dawn-tinted trees, the will of God accomplished. At rest at last.