Chapter III: Act III

(_In the house of JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA. The Supper-room in which the
Last Supper took place. Windows at the back. Doors to the right
and left. Judæo-Roman architecture. The lamps are lit. It is the
end of the night of the sixth of April._)

SCENE I

_NICODEMUS. LEVI THE PUBLICAN. SIMON THE LEPER. LAZARUS, THE
MAN RISEN FROM THE DEAD. CLEOPHAS, ZACCHÆUS. THE MAN THAT WAS
BORN BLIND. BARTIMÆUS, THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO. THE MAN OF
GERASA POSSESSED BY A DEVIL. THE IMPOTENT MAN OF BETHESDA.
THE MAN HEALED OF A DROPSY. THE MAN WHOSE HAND WAS WITHERED.
SIMON PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW MARY CLEOPHAS. SALOME, THE WIFE
OF ZEBEDEE. SUSANNA. Several nameless MEN AND WOMEN CURED BY
MIRACLES. A few HUNCHBACKED, HALT, BLIND, LEPERS and PALSIED
waiting to be healed. Some BEGGARS, two or three HARLOTS, etc.
(All these people are struck with consternation and alarm at
the arrest of JESUS and at the bad news that is current. They
crowd at the back of the room, muttering and whispering. ENTER
MARTHA, the sister of LAZARUS._)

MARTHA (_affrighted, looking anxiously around her_)

I have seen him!

(_Sensation. ALL gather eagerly round MARTHA._)

NICODEMUS

Where is he?...

MARY CLEOPHAS

Has he suffered?...

SALOME

What does he say?...

MARTHA

Where is my sister?...

MARY CLEOPHAS

She is with her mother, in our host’s chamber.... Her mother was worn out with sorrow....

MARTHA (_going to one of the windows_)

Did no one follow me?... No, the street is empty.... I went a long way round....

NICODEMUS

Where did you see him?...

MARTHA

He was coming out of Annas’ palace.... I followed him to Caiaphas’.... It seems they are looking for us.... They have a special grudge against Lazarus, the man raised from the dead.... Where is he?...

NICODEMUS (_pointing to LAZARUS, in the shadow_)

Here, among us....

MARTHA

They mean to arrest all those who went with him.... They mean to stone us according to the law.... They will persecute all those who come from Galilee....

CLEOPHAS

We are all Galileans....

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

No, not I....

ANOTHER

Nor I: I am from Bethany.

BARTIMÆUS

And I from Jericho....

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

It is not well that we should be found together....

NICODEMUS

Where will you go?...

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

No matter where.... We shall be safer than here....

ANOTHER

They do not know us.... I have never been seen with him....

A WOMAN

Nor I either: he just simply healed me.... I was bowed together and he made me straight....

A MAN

I saw him only once: it was when he said to me, “Arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house.” I am he whom they let down through the roof upon a bed.... Now I walk like other men.... (_He turns to the door and GOES OUT, followed by THOSE CURED BY MIRACLES who spoke before him._)

A SICK MAN

They are right.... We are not known either.... I came to be healed of a dysentery.... I have not had time to touch him. (_He also makes for the door._)

MARTHA

Are you not ashamed?...

THE SICK MAN (_stopping on the threshold_)

Of what?... It serves no purpose that those whom he has healed should perish because of him.... (_He GOES OUT._)

ANOTHER MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

He can do nothing for us, because he can do nothing for himself; and we can do nothing for him....

A HUNCHBACK

Yes, why does he not protect us?... He is constantly speaking of his father and the angels.... Where are those angels?

NICODEMUS

It is because his hour has not yet come.

THE HUNCHBACK

When will his hour come?... When it is too late.... I have not the time to wait.... (_He GOES OUT._)

NICODEMUS

Let those who do not love him go.... The Son of Man shall come in such an hour as you think not....

CLEOPHAS

His kingdom is not of this world....

A BLIND MAN

His kingdom is lost....

NICODEMUS

He said, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God?”...

CLEOPHAS

He said, “Live not in careful suspense.”...

NICODEMUS

He said, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”...

THE BLIND MAN

But he also said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” (_He gropes his way to the door and GOES OUT._)

A LAME MAN

I am going away, not that I am afraid, but to go and look for him....

ANOTHER

I also.... (_They GO OUT._)

A LEPER

Who said that we must wait for him here?...

NICODEMUS

Simon Peter.

THE LEPER

Where is Simon Peter?... He hardly shows himself.

MARTHA

He was by the fire, in the high-priest’s hall....

NICODEMUS

And John?...

MARTHA

I heard that he was in Annas’ house....

NICODEMUS

And what was the Master doing when you saw him?...

MARTHA

I saw him only for a moment, while he passed between the columns of the vestibule.... There was a great crowd around him....

MARY CLEOPHAS

Did he see you?...

MARTHA

Yes. He looked at me....

NICODEMUS

He was not free?...

MARTHA

His hands were bound.... The Roman soldiers were striking him to make him walk faster....

MARY SALOME

Oh!...

CLEOPHAS

And the others, the twelve, where are they?...

MARTHA

Nobody knows.... They were seized with panic.... I have heard that Thomas and Jude have fled to Galilee....

NICODEMUS

And Mary Magdalene, did you see her?...

MARTHA

No, but James met her.... She is mad with grief, it seems.... She was crying out, tearing her garments and dashing her head against the walls in Annas’ palace.... The servants drove her away; and, since then, nobody knows what became of her.... A poor man told me that she was wandering in the Roman quarter....

NICODEMUS

Does she know that we are here?...

MARTHA

Yes, Simon Peter told her....

A SICK MAN

When she comes, do not let her go out again.... She will bring misfortune upon us. She is dangerous and does not know what she is doing....

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

There are men marching in the street.... I hear the sound of arms.... They are coming to arrest us!... Let all escape who can!... (_To NICODEMUS, who is going to a window_) Do not go to the windows, you will be recognized!...

BARTIMÆUS

I will go, I am not known, I am from Jericho.... (_He looks cautiously into the street_). It is twelve soldiers, with a centurion.... Hush!... Do not speak!...

NICODEMUS

Are they stopping?...

BARTIMÆUS

No.... They are passing.... There is no one in the street now.... Yes!... There is some one coming at the other end.... Do not make a noise.... It is a woman and four men.... Why, I know them!... It is Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathæa, James, I believe, and Andrew and Simon Zelotes.... They are looking around them.... They are knocking.... Go down and open the door to them....

SCENE II

_THE SAME, MARY MAGDALENE, JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA, JAMES, ANDREW and
SIMON ZELOTES_

MARY MAGDALENE (_beside herself, dishevelled, barefoot, with torn
garments_)

How many are you?... Are you ready?... What have you been doing while waiting for me?... I have come from the Antonia Tower.... The military tribune was not in the Roman quarter.... But I have seen his friend Appius.... He will send him to us as soon as he returns.... Verus said that it might be possible to save him.... I do not know how.... He will explain it to us.... But, if he does not save him, we must.... James and Simon have swords under their cloaks. Where is Peter? Where is John?...

MARTHA

I saw them in the hall of the high-priest’s house....

MARY MAGDALENE

They ought to be here.... We must be many.... He is to pass through this street, under that window, on his way to Pilate....

NICODEMUS

When?...

MARY MAGDALENE

To-night, before the second watch.... Which of you has arms? Where are they hidden?...

NICODEMUS

What do you wish to do?...

MARY MAGDALENE

To deliver him, if Verus does not deliver him.... It is easy, you shall see.... They will let us do as we please, I know they will.... The Romans do not want to judge him.... Appius told me so, they are perplexed.... When they took him to Caiaphas, there were only two soldiers to guard him and two sergeants from the Temple, armed with sticks.... If only there had been five or six men with me!... We would have hidden him, I know where; and he would have been saved!... But I was all alone!...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

It is not so easy as you think, Magdalene.... All the populace was there, ready to stone him....

MARY MAGDALENE

But the populace is on his side and the crowd adores him!... You have forgotten his triumphal entry!...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

It is different now.... They were all shouting for his death outside Caiaphas’ palace....

MARY MAGDALENE

It was a few servants of the Pharisees and Sadducees....

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

A few servants would not have been enough to cover a public place to the very roofs.... It was indeed the same crowd as on the day of the triumph.... No, believe me, Magdalene, he knows what he wishes.... He is determined to be destroyed.... He has confessed everything....

MARY MAGDALENE

What can he have confessed, when he has done no wrong?...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

He admitted that he was the Son of God and the King of the Jews.

MARY MAGDALENE

Is it not the truth?...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

No doubt, but it would have been better not to proclaim it to-night. In the eyes of the priests and Romans, it is a crime punishable by law....

AN INFIRM MAN

He must be guilty, or they would not have arrested him....

NICODEMUS

We cannot do more than he wishes and commands; and he renounces his defence.

MARY MAGDALENE

But you do not see that he does that to try your faith, your strength, your love!...

NICODEMUS

He foretold all this many times....

MARY MAGDALENE

That was because he knew the cowardice of those who pretended to love him!... Ah, men are great and heroic and proud!... The only men who have not fled, those who tremble least, the best of you discuss and argue as though they had to do with a measure of wheat; and the women are silent and weep!... Well, what do you say, my sisters?... Is not this the moment to show your love?... And those whom he has healed, where are they, what are they doing?... You there, who want to flee, blind Bartimæus, the other one from Jericho, the other from Siloam: those eyes, which he has opened, you turn from me, because I have the courage to speak to you of him!... You, Simon the Leper, you, the other from Samaria, have you forgotten that, before he came, you were more hideous than death?... I see nothing around me but miracles in hiding!... The man whose hand was withered, the man who was healed of a dropsy on the Sabbath and the man of Gerasa possessed by a devil, who dares not lift up his head!... And, among the palsied, he of Bethesda who is running to the door, using his legs only to forsake the God who healed him!... Even those whom he raised from the dead are afraid!... Why, look at Lazarus: he is more pale than any of you!... And yet you saw death, you; you lay touching it for four long days.... Is it more terrible than men thought?... You do not answer?...

(_A long pause._)

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

Listen, Magdalene.... I lack neither courage nor loyalty.... Notwithstanding the power of the priests, I have thrown open my house to those who followed him. I know the price which I shall have to pay.... I am prepared to sacrifice everything and life itself to him. But I know his will and I cannot disobey him.... Peter wished to defend him and drew his sword.... He made him put it up into the sheath.... I was at Gethsemane....

MARY MAGDALENE

Since you were there, why did you not help Peter?... We save those whom we love; we listen to them afterwards!... But what will you do when you have destroyed him?... Oh, I am delaying too long with those who are afraid!... What am I doing here, among men who will do nothing?... I am wasting his last chances and his last minutes.... I will go to meet Verus; after him, we shall see.... (_She turns to the door. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA and NICODEMUS block her way._)

NICODEMUS

Do not go out, Magdalene: it means destroying him and destroying us with him....

MARY MAGDALENE

Ah, destroying you with him, that is the trouble!... Wait! (_She takes another step towards the door. NICODEMUS stops her resolutely._)

NICODEMUS

You shall not go out.

MARY MAGDALENE

I shall not go out?... True, you dare fight against a woman. I had not foreseen this great courage born of terror. You all shake your heads like empty cornspikes; and the women rejoice in at last discovering the cowardice of the men, showing itself suddenly more signal than their own!...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

Take counsel, Magdalene; think of him and reflect that, if he heard you....

MARY MAGDALENE

Well, if he heard me, it would be as on the day when that one among you whom you all resemble reproached me with anointing his feet with too costly an ointment!... Have you forgotten what he said?... Whom did he declare to be right?... You have understood nothing!... For months and years, you have lived in his light; and not one of you has the least idea of what I saw because I loved him, I who did not come until the eleventh hour, I whom he drew from lower than the lowest slave of the lowest among you all!...

NICODEMUS (_listening to the sounds outside_)

Hush!... Listen!... Some one is walking outside the house.... (_To BARTIMÆUS._) Go see who it is....

BARTIMÆUS (_at the window_)

It is a man wrapped in a cloak.... A Roman.... He has stopped.... He knocks at the door.... He is coming in.... The door was not closed....

MARY MAGDALENE (_running to the door of the Supper-room_)

It is he, it is Lucius Verus!... Open the door to him! Open quickly!... I hear him!...

(_They open the door of the Supper-room. LUCIUS VERUS appears in
the embrasure. At the sight of the strange assembly of PERSONS
CURED BY MIRACLES, CRIPPLES, BEGGARS and SICK, he stops and
stands dumbfoundered on the threshold._)

SCENE III

THE SAME, LUCIUS VERUS

MARY MAGDALENE (_running to VERUS with outstretched arms_)

It is you, my Verus, it is indeed you!... An eye that looks me in the face, a sword, shoulders, hands that do not tremble!... Come! Come! What are we to do?... Have you seen him?... Where are we going?... How can we help him?... How many men do you need?... Where are yours? He is not only innocent, as you well know, he is so pure, he stands so high that the thoughts of men cannot reach him.... In his goodness he is bearing everything for the sins of the world; but we will not have him sacrifice himself for us.... A single glance from his eyes, a single word from his mouth, are worth all the lives of all other men....

VERUS (_icily_)

Is this indeed the place where I was to meet you?... Who are these ... these men ... surrounding you?...

MARY MAGDALENE

They can be trusted.... They love him as well as he loved them; but they want a leader.... They were waiting for you.... They will follow you everywhere....

VERUS (_ironically_)

I have not come to command this ... foreign ... troop.... I do not know what you mean. There is some misunderstanding; and we should not, I think, explain it here, before so many witnesses....

MARY MAGDALENE

You are right.... (_To the others_) Leave us.... I will call you when the time comes for action....

(_ALL GO OUT, except MARY MAGDALENE and LUCIUS VERUS._)

SCENE IV

LUCIUS VERUS, MARY MAGDALENE

VERUS (_sarcastically_)

Who are those extraordinary persons?... I have never seen so many cripples, vagrants and evil-smelling sick people gathered together.... What do they want with you?... I was told that you were living in the midst of uncouth creatures, the oldest, the ugliest, the dirtiest and the most pestilential of those Jews whom you mocked so pleasantly in the house of the wise Silanus; but I could not have believed that they were so intimate with you as this.... However, that no longer concerns me. But I told you that we should meet again before long.... Appius informed me that you had been looking for me in the Roman quarter. I left everything to hasten at your first summons. I knew what was happening and I was biding my time....

MARY MAGDALENE

How good and generous you are!... How reassuring and comforting your presence and your smile!... Those others ... if you only knew!... They were trembling like the reeds of which our Master speaks; and I was helpless and dying with shame.... But I knew that you would come back to us; and now this is you, your arms, your breast.... It seems to me that Rome in her entirety is protecting us and that your arms, which can do all things, cannot abandon him....

VERUS

They will not abandon you, Magdalene. The rest depends upon yourself alone.... I am good and generous, perhaps, but in my own manner; and we must understand each other.... So they have arrested him in whom you take so lively an interest, as I told you that they would?...

MARY MAGDALENE

They have not only arrested him: all the menials of the Temple, the grooms, the herds, the meanest scullions in the kitchens rushed at him, insulted, flouted and ill-treated him.... And, as they were afraid, as they were too cowardly to venture it alone, they made the Roman soldiers help them!...

VERUS

I know.... But had we not best be brief and to the point?...

MARY MAGDALENE

Yes, we have no time to lose....

VERUS

Even so. It is not now a question of arrest nor of more or less justifiable ill-usage, but of imminent death. I have seen the Procurator Pontius Pilate.

MARY MAGDALENE

Good. What did he say?...

VERUS

I found him anxious, perplexed, at a loss. He is a mild, irresolute man, an enemy to quarrels and violence. He had to choose between the inevitably bloody revolt of the priests and their sectaries and the sacrifice of an agitator who was unquestionably troublesome and dangerous, but who has not, perhaps, incurred the death penalty in the eyes of Roman law and justice. I spoke according to my duty and conscience. He did not hesitate. He chose the more humane and wiser course. And, as I am the armed guardian responsible for the Roman peace, he gave the fate of your Nazarene into my hands. However, I must admit that, before our interview, I had purposely allowed events to take the course they did....

MARY MAGDALENE

He is saved! I was sure of it! And how right I was to fear nothing and to hope all things in turning to you!...

VERUS

Do not let us go too fast. There are many things to consider....

MARY MAGDALENE

What do you say?...

VERUS

I say that there are many things to consider.... Had I known nothing whatever of your adventure, my choice would not have been in doubt: I should, while more or less pitying him, have sacrificed the wretched man to the public tranquillity; it is the sovereign law of the empire; but now....

MARY MAGDALENE

But now, it is different, you know him, you know everything.... There is no excuse for a moment’s hesitation; it would be monstrous....

VERUS

Indeed, there is no excuse for a moment’s hesitation; it would be monstrous, as you say.... Shall I, to snatch a favoured rival from a well-merited death, for the second time lose the only woman whom I love or can love?... That certainly is impossible....

MARY MAGDALENE

I do not quite understand....

VERUS

Yet it is simple enough: in saving him, I hand you over, without defence, to the fellow who will drag you with him, by fall after fall, to the bottom of none can tell what pit of folly and wretchedness, whence no human and reasoning power will be able to extricate you. Moreover, speaking for myself, I lose you irrevocably by thus giving you, with my own simple, foolish hands, to one who robs me of my happiness by methods against which a man who values the name does not try to struggle. Whereas, if I abandon him to his fate, there remains a chance of seeing you return to the light and for me some prospect of finding you in my path; for our two lives have still, I hope, a long space to cover; and many roads, as you well know, lead to Rome....

MARY MAGDALENE

I understand.... I understand, since I needs must understand.... But I do not yet believe.... No, it is not possible; and you, the man whom I know, have not come to tell me coldly that you wish to destroy him and thus revenge yourself for an injury which he has not done you.... There is, there must be, something else....

VERUS

Yes, there is something else.... There remains to us, if you are absolutely bent upon it, one means of saving him. But, at the point to which we have come and to which I have driven the adventure, saving him probably means ruin to myself. Besides, time presses. The sentence is written, I have seen it. He will be put to death at daybreak; for the hours are numbered because of the Passover....

MARY MAGDALENE

What must I do?... Quick, quick, I will do it....

VERUS

The prisoner is guarded by my men; it is therefore not quite impossible to effect his escape....

MARY MAGDALENE

Why yes, why yes, it is simple; and that, of course, is what we must do!... Once free, he will hide and he will be forgotten.... Let us lose no time.... But I do not understand why you came to say....

VERUS

You will soon understand.... I answer for the prisoner, therefore. Do you know what I am doing, do you know what I risk by restoring him to liberty?...

MARY MAGDALENE

You are only doing your duty in freeing an innocent man....

VERUS

It is not for me to enquire into his innocence; that does not concern me. I am not his judge, but his keeper....

MARY MAGDALENE

Your soldiers will hold their tongues and no one will know that....

VERUS

My soldiers will not be able to hold their tongues. They will have to choose between silence and their lives. It will therefore be known that they acted only on my orders. Now there is no instance of the high-priests’ ever abandoning a prey, a revenge, a hatred. They will go and complain, first, at Antioch, to the Governor of Syria, and, next, to Cæsar himself, whose anger is kindled at the very breath of a suspicion. Do you know what Cæsar is? The greatest, the most powerful men in Rome tremble before his shadow.... For me, it means, if not death, at least exile far from Rome; and death, to us Romans, seems sweet compared with exile.... That is what I give; that is my stake; I am waiting for yours.

MARY MAGDALENE

You are waiting for mine?... What would you have me give?... I have nothing left.... I distributed all to the poor the other evening....

VERUS

I do not ask for what one gives to the poor.... And, besides, I have had enough of those evasions which lead to nothing and of those shuffling phrases.... Ah, much I care for justice and a vagrant more or less in the world and my own fate and my own exile!... Have you not understood that it is you I want, you alone and all of you; that I have wanted you for years; and that this is my hour?... It is not beautiful, I know, and it is not as I dreamt it!... But it is all I have; and a man takes what he can to make his life!... We stand here face to face, with our two madnesses, which are more powerful than ourselves and cannot recede; we must come to an understanding!... The more you love him, the more I love you, the more you wish to save him and the more I wish to destroy him! We must come to an understanding!... You want his life, I want mine; and you shall have his life, but I shall have you, before he escapes his death.... Is it understood?... Are we agreed?... Say no, if you dare, and let his blood be upon her who has brought him to this pass and who is destroying him twice over!...

MARY MAGDALENE

Ah, so that was it!... Yes, yes, I know, I see.... I was not conscious and I no longer thought of it; but it was bound to be.... Ah, so it was that which caused me just now, while you were speaking, to have no confidence despite my confidence!... It is so strange, so monstrous, so remote from us!... One needs a little time to understand.... All one’s thoughts become deranged and one’s soul falls, falls, like a stone in a well.... One grasps the meaning of nothing.... One no longer knows where one stands....

VERUS

You and I know quite well; and there is nothing extraordinary in all this.... A few days ago, you would not have needed so much urging; and I do not understand that to-day, when the price of love is something quite different, to-day, when a life, dear to you among all lives....

MARY MAGDALENE

Ah, you do not understand!... And to think that scarcely any one, not even those who loved him, would understand better!... Am I then the only being that has seen into his soul?... And yet it is not so very difficult!... He has spoken to me only three times in my life, but I know what he thinks. I know all that he wishes, I know all that he is as completely as though I were within him, or as though he were there, near me, fixing upon my brow his glance in which the angels come down from heaven, as on the evening when I kissed his feet and wiped them with my hair....

VERUS

I well knew that I came too late, but I should never have believed that you had gone so far.... If he has spoken to you only three times, he has not wasted the minutes and has told you enough to remove my doubts.... But let us be calm. It is a question other than of love; and your lover himself, were he consulted, would judge that a kiss does not weigh much in the presence of death.... Since you love him so well, is his life not worth a slight displeasure, which but lately would not have inspired you with such horror?... If there were a looking-glass in this room, I would go and gaze at myself with curiosity, to make out what, in a few days, has made me so repulsive that the torture of the one man whom you adore is preferred to the touch of my lips!... But what is the matter?... One would think that I was speaking of unimaginable things!... What have I said? What have I done?... Your face is distorted.... There is no need to look at me like that, with mad and terrified eyes, as though they beheld the fall of the sun or the violation of a tomb!...

MARY MAGDALENE

Let me be.... You cannot know.... I am only beginning to understand....

VERUS

A few days since, you were not so slow in understanding....

MARY MAGDALENE (_in a soft and distant voice_)

Yes, yes.... For one sees only little by little.... (_Staring before her_) It is unfolded slowly, like a thing that has no beginning, no end, no name.... There are two deaths here, I hold two deaths in my hand; and that is too heavy a weight for a poor creature born upon this earth....

VERUS

Two deaths?... What do you mean?... You do not intend to follow him, surely?... Your death, since he loves you, would only add a very useless bitterness to his....

MARY MAGDALENE (_in the same soft and distant voice_)

No.... I am not speaking of mine.... It is two other deaths.... I still have my senses.... I can see clearly in the abyss.... Let me look, where you can see nothing....

VERUS

I should not have thought that, when I came to bring you his safety and the great sacrifice which I am making to love....

MARY MAGDALENE (_with a sudden outburst_)

The sacrifice which you are making to love!... Ah, if you could see the sacrifice which is being accomplished here and which the very angels dare not look upon!... But you cannot know what has happened on earth since he descended upon it!... It is no longer the same earth; and it is no longer possible!... Before he came, the purest would not have hesitated!... Before he came! Before he came!... And, even then, to-day, I, who have been born again through him, if it were not he, if it were a question of another, I should not have the strength!... I should perhaps sin against all that he loves, to save what I love!... But he gives too much strength to love and to suffer!... I could save him in spite of himself; but no longer in spite of myself!... If I bought his life at the price which you offer, all that he wished, all that he loved would be dead!... I cannot plunge the flame into the mire to save the lamp! I cannot give him the only death that could touch him!... But look at me with clearer eyes and you shall perhaps see all that I perceive without being able to tell you!... Were I to yield but for a moment under the weight of love, all that he has said, all that he has done, all that he has given would sink back into the darkness, the earth would be more deserted than if he had not been born and heaven would be closed to mankind for ever!... I should be destroying him altogether, destroying more than himself, to gain for him days which would destroy everything....

VERUS

It is not so much a question of gaining days for him as of sparing him tortures, the mere thought of which should make you reflect....

MARY MAGDALENE

I know! I know!... Because I love him thus, as none has ever loved upon this earth where heaven had not yet poured forth its love, must I not sacrifice to him what no human soul has possessed before me?... But you come to ask for all that he has given; and what he has given is much more than his life and lives more in our hearts than it lives in himself!... If I destroy him in myself, I destroy him in us!... I know no more, I see no more, I understand no more.... I would do it, perhaps, if my soul were alone; but it is no longer possible and God would not have it!...

VERUS

The gods always will what men will.... Be sure that, if he whom you are about to deliver to the torture could make his voice heard at this moment, he would not hesitate....

MARY MAGDALENE

Ah, I know that he would not hesitate! And that is why I am struggling thus, like a blind beast, between two sacrifices!... It is my past shame that overwhelms me and prevents me from rising to the level of his will!...

VERUS

Man has but one will in the presence of death....

MARY MAGDALENE

My God! My God!... I am nothing, I am defiled with every defilement: what matters this one, which brings thee life?... But am I in question?... Is it not thou alone whom I defile to-day in defiling thy salvation, thou, the very source whence the source of all purity and of every happiness and of every life will spring?... I no longer know where to thrust back my soul!... Nothing remains to me, if I lose it; nothing remains to us, if I save it!...

VERUS

Nothing is lost so long as life endures....

MARY MAGDALENE

Hush, I beseech you!... Leave me alone in his silence and his will.... Let me contemplate, let me listen to other things.... I do not yet love him as he would be loved!... In vain I raise my eyes to his heaven of light: I see only his death, his sorrows, his suffering ... his steadfast face, his eyes that lit up all he looked upon, his mouth that spoke unceasingly of happiness ... his feet which I have kissed, lifeless and icy cold!... Verus, Verus, have pity!... I cannot bear it, I cannot bear it! I am falling!... Do with me what you will!...

VERUS (_catching her in his arms_)

Magdalene, Magdalene!... I knew....

MARY MAGDALENE (_springing back at his touch_)

No, you did not know! And it is not that!... There is something else!... There is another outlet!... Verus, Verus, come, you are not without feeling, you are not a monster, you will understand also.... It depends on you.... For me it is impossible.... There is a wall there defended by his angels.... I cannot pass it.... I must not think of it.... But you, you can do everything!... To think that you hold there, in that human hand of yours, the life of the God of Gods descended upon earth!... I know, I know, you do not believe it.... But you must at least believe in his innocence; and you know that he has done no evil.... He does not even know what evil is, since he is all goodness.... He has done nothing but heal, console and pray.... He has done nothing but breathe over men’s souls and flood them with happiness.... If only you knew him, if he had spoken to you, were it but once!... Because he is innocent and because you are just, because you have strength and because you are brave, you cannot deliver him defenceless to the executioners.... It would not be Roman, it would not even be manly....

VERUS

Enough of this; and, as everything is useless, let him be treated as you have decided.... It is not I who am leading him to the torture....

MARY MAGDALENE (_clinging to the garments of VERUS, who takes a
step to the door_)

Verus! Verus!... I implore you!... That is not all!... All is not said!... It cannot be decided like this!... But do not ask the one impossible thing.... I will be your slave, I will live at your feet, serve you on my knees for the rest of my days; but give me his life without destroying in my soul and throughout the earth that which is the very life of our new life!...

VERUS

Enough!... Besides, there is no time. My patience in saving a rival whom I hate is as ridiculous as your persistent attempt to save your lover by singing his praises!... When you see him dead, in less than three hours hence, do not weep over him, lest your tears should be flung back in your own face!... (_Perceiving JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA, who discreetly opens the door, to the left, of the Supper-room._) Who goes there?... Come in, come in, this is the very thing!... We need witnesses. Where are the mountebanks, the monsters, the lepers? I want to tell them....

MARY MAGDALENE

What?...

VERUS

They shall know who has betrayed their god!... We shall then see if you have the heart to despatch him before their eyes and how they will take the news!... Repugnant though they be, I want to see their ugly faces again!... (_He reaches the door and throws it open wide._)

MARY MAGDALENE (_hurrying to stop his action_)

Verus! Verus!... This is not worthy of you!...

VERUS

I know! I know!... I am not worthy of anything, it appears! Not even of you, harlot!... (_Calling in a loud voice_) Hi! Hi! The rest of you!... Where are you?... Hasten this way, you halt and lame, you club-feet, you cripples, you beggars, vagrants, lepers, paralytics!... I have something of importance to tell you!... (_Startled faces appear in the embrasures of the two doors._)

SCENE V

_VERUS, MARY MAGDALENE and nearly ALL THE CHARACTERS of_ SCENE III

VERUS

Come in, come in, you have nothing to fear!... (_They ENTER, timidly._) Are you all there?... There seem to be fewer of you.... Where are the others gone?...

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

Sir, some of them fear lest the night....

VERUS

I understand; they were afraid.... Their love and their faith do not take any risk of blows.... However, these will do.... Do you see that woman?... I came to offer to save your master. She had only to say yes. She has said no. She orders his death. He will therefore die at sunrise.

(_Sensation in the crowd._)

NICODEMUS

What is he saying, Magdalene?...

(_MARY MAGDALENE does not reply._)

VERUS

Ask her, you will learn....

NICODEMUS

Magdalene, is it true?...

(_MARY MAGDALENE remains silent._)

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA

But come, answer!... What is the matter with you?...

VERUS

She is at the same time betraying and destroying all those who followed the tempter. I have spoken. Farewell. Look to yourselves. (_He turns to the door._)

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_stopping him and beseeching him_)

Sir, I beg of you, do not go away like this.... She is mistaken, you will see.... There is some terrible misunderstanding.... Magdalene, come, what is he saying, what do you say?... Why, it is impossible!... What has happened?...

_SEVERAL SICK MEN and BEGGARS (surrounding MAGDALENE, who remains
motionless, gazing blindly into the distance_)

Magdalene! Magdalene....

A HUNCHBACK

She also has sold him!... She was with the Iscariot!...

MARTHA (_putting her arms around MAGDALENE’S neck_)

Magdalene!... Listen to me!... You used to love me.... What has come to you?... Tell me it is not true.... You have not heard....

MARY CLEOPHAS (_putting her hand on MAGDALENE’S shoulder_)

Magdalene, Magdalene!... No, it is impossible.... You cannot have forgotten....

A POOR MAN

How much did you receive?...

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

Yes, how much?... Where is the money?...

ANOTHER

Give back the gold! Give back the gold!... Search her!...

MARY SALOME

Magdalene! Magdalene!... She is mad!...

A VAGRANT

Harlot!... Soldiers’ wench!...

ANOTHER

Strumpet! Strumpet! Strumpet!

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

The seven devils whom he cast out have entered her body again!...

ANOTHER

She has sold us like a herd of oxen!...

A SICK MAN

We shall all have to suffer!...

ANOTHER

Yes, but not before she does!...

THE MAN WHOSE HAND WAS WITHERED

She shall not go from here until....

A PALSIED MAN

In any case, she shall not go hence alive, take my word for it!...

(_Almost ALL, shouting, gesticulating, threatening, with clenched
fists, crowd round MAGDALENE, who remains motionless and dumb._)

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_intervening_)

Come, come, do not forget who you are, where you are nor in whose name you are speaking. (_To VERUS_) Sir, I beg of you, a little patience.... I am a just and reasonable man; and everything will be explained.... Listen, Magdalene, I am speaking to you in his name.... There is still time to say yes.... I am speaking as a father....

(_MAGDALENE maintains her motionless silence._)

THE HUNCHBACK

You see!... She has received the price!...

(_An explosion of hatred. ALL surround her more closely. The
cries, the threats, the imprecations, the entreaties, the moans
are redoubled. Suddenly, in the street, rises a tumult which
drowns that in the Supper-room. It is the shouting of an angry
crowd approaching swiftly, the sound of arms and horses. The
uproar in the room is at once lulled. ALL listen, anxiously._)

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

The Romans!... The soldiers!... They are coming to arrest us!... She has betrayed us!... Let us fly!... This way, this way!...

(_ALL lose their heads. Some run wildly round the room, seeking
for an outlet._)

A VAGRANT

No, no!... Do not go out!... There is only one door!... We cannot escape!... They would discover us!...

A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE

Be silent!... Hide yourselves!...

A CRIPPLE

Why do you not put out the lamps?... They will see the lights!... Quick! Quick! Put out the lamps!...

(_The lamps are put out._)

ANOTHER

Do not go to the windows!... Do not show yourselves at the windows!... Lie down along the walls!...

VERUS

It is a noble spectacle and I long to see it out....

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_going up to VERUS_)

Sir, do not ruin them.... They are weak and poor.... Almost all of them are sick.... They know not what they do.... Have pity on men and do not judge them....

(_The shouts--“Crucify him! Crucify him!... Tempter! Tempter!...
Galilean! Nazarene!... He would destroy the Temple!... He would
destroy the Law!... Blasphemer!... Crucify him! Crucify him!
Crucify him!”--are redoubled in the street and are now heard
outside the house itself. The red light of the torches is cast
into the room. THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO steals up to one of the
windows and looks out._)

A PANIC-STRICKEN VOICE

Do not go to the windows!...

A LAME MAN (_going to another window_)

What is happening?...

THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO

It is he!...

(_Several PERSONS, irresistibly attracted, climb up to the
windows and look into the street, with infinite caution.
Occasionally ONE of them turns to those who remain at the back
of the room, to tell them what he sees._)

ONE OF THOSE AT THE WINDOWS

There are soldiers all around him!... There is a crowd of them!...

ANOTHER

He is coming! He is coming this way!... His hands are bound!... They are striking him!...

ANOTHER

He is weeping!... His eyes are bleeding!...

ANOTHER

They are taking him to Pilate!... There are Peter and John, hiding themselves!...

ANOTHER

The blood is dripping on his feet!...

ANOTHER

He cannot walk any farther!... He staggers! He staggers!...

VERUS (_to MAGDALENE, who has not moved and who stands against a
column, in the middle of the room, staring before her, without
turning towards the windows_)

Magdalene!...

(_In the street, suddenly, the tumult falls, as a huge, heavy
object might fall. A wonderful silence._)

A VOICE (_in the room_)

What is it?...

THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO (_at the window_)

He falls!... He has fallen!... He is looking at the house!...

VERUS

Magdalene, I still promise you....

MARY MAGDALENE (_without stirring, without looking at VERUS,
without anger, simply, in a voice from another life, full of
peace, full of divine clarity and certainty_)

Go!...

THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO (_at the window_)

He rises to his feet!... They drag him along!...

(_The tumult, the shouts of “Crucify him!” are resumed and
redoubled in the street. VERUS GOES OUT slowly, with his eyes
on MAGDALENE, who remains motionless, as though in ecstasy and
all illumined with the light of the departing torches._)

CURTAIN

Transcriber's Notes

The following changes have been made to the text as printed:

1. A close-bracket ")" has been inserted after "_to receive_ MARY MAGDALENE" on Page 17.

2. Two instances of punctuation after the speaker's name "MAGDALENE" have been removed (Page 48, Page 59).

3. "THE SAME" (below "SCENE II" on Page 74) has been placed in upright capitals rather than italics.

4. "Judea" (Page 104) has been changed to "Judæa".

5. Indentation and justification of stage directions have been made more consistent.