and betrayed the fugitives. And he said: "Daughter of Uriah! twice
have you given your son life: once through pleasure, once through a
lie. So his life will be a lie. He will breathe without living, and
yet he will not be able to die!"

"Mercy!" she cried.

"He will see Jerusalem fall!"

"Woe is me!"

"He will see Rome burn!"

"Mercy!" she groaned.

"He will see the old world perish. He will see the barbarians of the
north prevail. He will wander restless, he will be ill-treated and
despised everywhere, he will suffer the boundless despair of universal
misery, and he will not be able to die. He will envy men their death
anguish and their right to die. He will learn how they suck sweet
poison from the loveliest blossoms, and how twelve-year-old boys kill
themselves from sheer weariness. He is the son of lies and is banished
into the kingdom of lies. He will lament over the torments of old age,
and he will not be able to die. He will call those children whom Herod
slew blessed, and gnash his teeth at the memory of the woman who saved
him through a lie."

"Oh, stop!" shrieked the woman. "When will he be redeemed?"

"Perhaps when the eternal Truth is come."