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