THERE was no third person present when Percival and I talked over the subject of the picture on which he had bestowed his most loving pains.
It was the only one, as he told me, in which he had ventured to introduce more than two figures. His mind had so pondered over his subject that to him, at least, the scene appeared to be real.
Percival had, as it were, sat on the ground with the mourners for a crucified Master; realized their sense of desolation; with them, bowed his head and wept. What must have been the darkness when the Sun of Righteousness had set! What the appalling stillness, when the sacred body of the murdered Hope of Israel lay cold in the rock-hewn tomb!
The scene depicted was a room on the ground-floor of some Jerusalem home. Scarcely any furniture is seen save a few mats on the earthen floor, and clay lamps burning dimly in niches on the wall.
There is also a low bedstead, on which, in a half-reclining position, appears the principal female figure, with another woman crouching on the ground, in silent unutterable woe, at her feet. A third, standing with clasped hands and upturned gaze, is seen near, but her wan face bears an expression of trustful confidence which has in it something of the sublime. She is not crushed, but exalted by trial.
Seyton. Here we doubtless see the three Maries. The central form is that of the Lord's desolate mother; but she seems rather to be absorbed in deep thought, than overwhelmed by the bitter grief of bereavement.
Percival. I pictured in my mind the three Maries, as types of Memory, Love, and Faith. The mother, in her silent sorrow, is meditating over wondrous recollections of the past; which, like the wall-lamps, cast some light on what would otherwise appear as one chaos of gloom. "Is it possible that He whose coming was foretold to me by a glorious angel; at whose birth seraphs sang and the shepherds were glad—is it possible that He has really passed from earth like a dream! Was it for nothing that holy Elisabeth and Anna prophesied, and the aged Simeon rejoiced? The sword has indeed pierced my soul; aye, drank as it were my very life's blood: but was not this also foretold! Doth God give the bitter, and withhold the sweet? Must not prophecies be fulfilled?"
Seyton. It has struck me that the circumstance of Mary of Nazareth's not being mentioned amongst the women who visited the sepulchre—may have arisen from her stronger faith. She, the Lord's mother, did not, as far as we know, seek the living amongst the dead: at least, her so doing is not recorded by any one of the four Evangelists.
Percival. The things which Mary so long pondered in her heart may, like buried seeds, have sprung to light in the hour of her bitterest anguish. The Lord's mother was a thoughtful woman; and she knew that the Babe whom she had folded in her arms and pressed to her bosom was indeed the Son of God.