Saint Peter - his third denial (Notes)

Saint Luke - Chapter 22

And the Lord turning looked on Peter. J-J Tissot

[59] Et intervallo facto quasi horae unius, alius quidam affirmabat, dicens : Vere et hic cum illo erat : nam et Galilaeus est.
And after the space, as it were of one hour, another certain man affirmed, saying: Of a truth, this man was also with him; for he is also a Galilean.

[60] Et ait Petrus : Homo, nescio quid dicis. Et continuo, adhuc illo loquente, cantavit gallus.
And Peter said: Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, as he was yet speaking, the cock crew.

[61] Et conversus Dominus respexit Petrum, et recordatus est Petrus verbi Domini, sicut dixerat : Quia priusquam gallus cantet, ter me negabis.
And the Lord turning looked on Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, as he had said: Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

In spite of his repeated denials, Peter approached the Judgment Hall to try to see what was going on, whilst Saint John thus left to himself had availed himself of his own special facilities to secure a place as near as possible to Jesus.  Peter, finding himself surrounded on all sides by strangers, for as a Galilean he was, of course, a foreigner, and attracted the constant notice of the guards by his peculiar accent, became nervous, lost his presence of mind and, getting more and more over-excited, he denied his Master for the third time.
The man referred to by a Saint Luke, though he does not mention his name, was perhaps the kinsman of Malchus, of whom saint John speaks in his account of the same scene; or it may even have been the same person who Saint Matthew relates said to Peter "thou also art one of them, for thy speech betrays thee".  It is, however, very possible that each of the three men mentioned was a different person, and that Peter did not utter his false oaths until he was absolutely driven to do so by the harassing attacks made on him from every side.
Saint Mark seems to sanction this interpretation of the denier's conduct, by attributing to several different persons the questions the other Evangelists appear to put into the mouth of one man only.  They that stood by him said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: "for thou art a Galilean and thy speech betrays thee." When the scene represented in my picture took place, the trial was over, the sentence had been pronounced, and the judges were retiring.  It is late, about three o'clock, and the cock Crows again.  Jesus is leaving the Judgment Hall, given over for a few moments to the tumultuous mob, intoxicated with fury against Him, which has been surging about the scene of the trial for nearly four hours.  He is being taken, subjected the while to the most cruel treatment, to a small prison adjoining the Judgment Hall where he is to be kept in sight by His guards for the rest of the night, and it is in this short transit that Jesus turns round and looks upon Peter.  It would indeed be difficult to analyse all that look expresses; but Peter himself understood it all too well; that rapid glance lights up his troubled conscience like a flash of lightning in the night, and suddenly everything comes back to his memory: his protestations on the way to Gethsemane, the warnings of Jesus, his own thrice-repeated denial and the crowing of the cock.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam