To ask what contrast or what parallel To this or that of Jesus, Buddha yields." So Mary, with some heightened flush like shame To speak in this new place and presence, yet Sedately like herself and with a charm Already round her ambient from the pure, The perfect, the accomplished womanhood That hers was, purged of self, charm by all felt At once ere her beginning, thus began: "I think that I was saying, as my words I stayed at our last gathering on the shore, How little like a tragedy so nigh It looked to us, when we beheld the throngs Strewing Christ's way before him with their robes Flung down, and with green branches of the palm, And shouting their hosannas to His name. But Jesus was not blinded as were we! He, on the brink of the descent arrived Steep from the Mount of Olives leading down, Beheld the holy city with its sheen Of splendor from the temple roofs and walls, And, far removed from glorying at the sight As king might welcomed to his capital, Wept over it, with much-amazing tears, And cried: 'Hadst thou but known, but known, even thou, Yea, even in this thy day but known the things That to thy peace belong! But they are hid Now from thine eyes. For days will come on thee--' And then such dreadful days he told us of-- Days which our holy apostles think are nigh, Whence their 'Maranatha!' so often heard, Reminder watchword of the Lord at hand, They solemnly adjuring by the days Reserved for our Jerusalem, a wrath To come upon her to the uttermost Then when He, with the angels of His power, And as the lightning shineth suddenly Ablaze from one end to the other of heaven, Shall back return in clouds to execute His judgment on the city that slew Him!" "But wherefore," the centurion asked once more, And Mary with a loyal look toward him Of honor for his kindly courtesy That day and ever bountiful to them-- Look too betokening welcome of his return To share the audience of her tale again Late interrupted by that message brought Seeming to be of sinister import-- Mary, with such a meaning so conveyed, Paused, while the friendly Roman plied his quest: "But wherefore did Jerusalem desire To slay one innocent of crime like him? Some reason of state I dared to guess there was, But what the reason of state, thou didst not tell," Turning to Paul he said, and Paul replied: "The Jewish rulers of the people said: 'This Jesus, if we let him thus alone, Will draw all men to follow after him; The Romans then will come and take away Alike this city which belongs to us, Yea, and the nation over which we rule.' The rescued remnant of authority Wielded by the chief priests and Pharisees Over our nation under Roman sway, This still was dear to them and this they feared