for herself, and then called a little Christian boy who had come into the
prison with his mother, and gave him the remainder. The child thanked
her prettily, and she drew him to her, and kissed him with passionate
tenderness, though he was sickly and ugly.

"'No one who can love children so well is wholly lost,' said I to myself,
and I offered to help her as far as lay in my power.

"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