Then a slender nocturnal pastoral which is even more difficult to see, representing Mary Magdalen in a rocky landscape, and opposite it a similar work representing S.Mary of Egypt, which one knows to be austere and beautiful but again cannot see.
Since the story of S.Mary of Egypt is little known, I may perhaps be permitted to tell it here.

This Mary, before her conversion, lived in Alexandria at the end of the fourth century and was famous for her licentiousness.

Then one day, by a caprice, joining a company of pilgrims to Jerusalem, she embraced Christianity, and in answer to her prayers for peace of mind was bidden by a supernatural voice to pass beyond Jordan, where rest and comfort were to be found.

There, in the desert, she roamed for forty-seven years, when she was found, naked and grey, by a holy man named Zosimus who was travelling in search of a hermit more pious than himself with whom he might have profitable converse.

Zosimus, having given her his mantle for covering, left her, but he returned in two years, bringing with him the Sacrament and some food.
When they caught sight of each other, Mary was on the other side of the Jordan, but she at once walked to him calmly over the water, and after receiving the Sacrament returned in the same manner; while Zosimus hastened to Jerusalem with the wonderful story.
The next year Zosimus again went in search of her, but found only her corpse, which, with the assistance of a lion, he buried.