By Metrodorus, Hermachus and Zeno, there are other things on hand than the too-long-expected happiness of two lovers cutting short their quarrels!... Tell them at once what has happened; shout it to them, with all your throat and all your soul: death no longer exists! The graves are about to open, the spirits of the dead to show themselves; the gods are shaken, all the laws of life are overturned!... We have just admired an unequalled, unspeakable, unheard-of phenomenon, that has never been seen since light first rose upon the world, that will not be seen again before the death of the gods!... SILANUS The more extraordinary it seems to you, Appius, the less should it trouble the perfect composure of your soul, considering that a phenomenon that will not be seen again could not well shake the laws of the universe nor the stability of the gods! VERUS But what has happened? Appius seems to be the victim of a greater exaltation than usual; and you yourself, my worthy master, despite your even mind.... APPIUS I will tell you what has happened: he has brought a dead man to life!... MARY MAGDALENE Who?... SILANUS The Nazarene, whose return I have come to announce to you, as I promised. MARY MAGDALENE He has come back? Since when? Where is he?... Have you seen him?... SILANUS To reply to your questions in order, lady, I will tell you that he returned this morning, that I saw him with my eyes and that, at this moment, he is with my neighbour Simon the Leper. I am surprised, however, that the absolute frenzy which has shaken the country for two or three hours has not yet spread as far as here. It is true that your dwelling is separated by a high hill and some olive-woods from the spot where the sepulchre lies hidden. MARY MAGDALENE I have heard nothing, learned nothing.... In spite of my orders, no one has told me.... But, after all, what has happened?... Appius is as pale as a ghost.... What is it? What has he said, what has he done?... APPIUS He has done a thing which no man, no god, has done before him; a thing which I would not have believed if ten thousand witnesses had come to swear it in the name of the immortals, but in which I believe as firmly as I am bound to believe in my own existence, having seen it with my eyes, as I see you now, and almost touched it with my hands, as I touch this vase. He said, “Rise, come forth and walk.” And the dead man rose, came forth and began to walk among us! VERUS It was apparently a dead man whose health left nothing to be wished for?... SILANUS No, I am convinced that it was really a dead man. APPIUS It was a real, a terrible dead man!... If not, my senses can no longer declare that the sun shines in the blue or that human flesh decays!... He had been four days in the grave!... MARY MAGDALENE But who? How? Where?... And the Nazarene?... I want to know.... Speak for him, Silanus: he has not yet recovered his senses.... SILANUS