MARY MAGDALENE (_pale and staggering, takes a few steps toward the back of the Atrium and gazes into the distance_) Yes.... APPIUS They are wrapped in a cloud of dust.... There are two or three thousand of them crowding toward the entrance.... I think it is those who were at the grave.... VERUS They would not dare!... MARY MAGDALENE Verus!... VERUS Fear nothing, Magdalene: this time, I alone will defend you. APPIUS They are following, at a distance, a man clad in white, who is entering the court.... VERUS But what is the janitor of the first courtyard doing?... Will he not stop him?... APPIUS Yes.... He is coming now.... What is he doing?... One would think he was afraid!... He suddenly stops and lets him pass without a word.... VERUS And the others follow him.... They are entering the second court.... The impudence of those Jews is really incredible!... In Rome, even during the Saturnalia, we should not allow the crowd to push its way like that.... What are the slaves doing?... MARY MAGDALENE Is it he?... SILANUS Who?... MARY MAGDALENE The Nazarene.... SILANUS I think not.... It is not his walk.... I believe rather that it is.... APPIUS There he is, in the plane-tree avenue! SILANUS He is coming straight in our direction.... VERUS He is even taking the shortest way. He is coming up the steps under the boxwood arbour.... He seems at home.... Fortunately, the slaves are running from every side to bar his entrance to the vestibule.... MARY MAGDALENE Hush, I entreat you!... VERUS What is the matter?... APPIUS He is coming nearer; he is terribly pale.... SILANUS I believe it is.... MARY MAGDALENE Who?... SILANUS The other one.... The one whom he brought forth from the.... MARY MAGDALENE Lazarus?... SILANUS Yes, I recognize him.... VERUS What does he want with us?... Ghosts do not walk like that, in broad daylight.... He is horrible!... MARY MAGDALENE Oh, hush, hush!... SILANUS Here he is.... SCENE III _THE SAME, LAZARUS. At the back of the vestibule, the SLAVES. Further away, imagined rather than perceived, the crowd of JEWS._ (_A great silence. LAZARUS advances slowly from the back of the vestibule. He looks neither to the right nor to the left. The SLAVES of the villa, who have hastened up among the last columns, form a group for a moment as though to block his way. But, at the approach of the man risen from the dead, who seems unaware of their presence, they fall back silently, one after the other. LAZARUS ENTERS by the back of the Atrium and stops on the threshold, which is raised by three steps. MARY MAGDALENE moves backwards to one of the columns in the foreground, against which she crushes herself, motionless. But VERUS, breaking the silence, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, goes up to LAZARUS._) VERUS (_in a hectoring voice_)