I thought so.... Besides, I have seen much more extraordinary magicians in Thrace and Egypt.... But, to return to this leper without leprosy, what happens behind that hedge and in the house of your mysterious neighbour? SILANUS The Nazarene has been his guest for the past three days. This Simon, his sister, his wife and, I believe, his brother-in-law are common people, who live on the produce of their olive-trees. They were timorous, peaceable neighbours; but, since the arrival of the Nazarene, everything is in commotion. It is a perpetual coming and going, a perpetual tumult. Their orchard is filled incessantly with a multitude of sick, of vagrants, of cripples, issuing from all the rocks in Judæa to beseech him whom, with loud cries, they call the Saviour of the World, the Son of David and King of the Jews. There are sometimes so many of them that they overflow into my garden. The hedge, as you see, has been trampled, crushed and even torn in certain places. Fortunately, the Nazarene’s appearances are few and brief. Besides, this picturesque spectacle, despite its inconveniences, amuses and puzzles me. (_ENTER, on the left, five or six POOR FOLK._) CŒLIUS Who are those people? SILANUS What did I tell you?... Here are half-a-dozen coming to ask for bread.... APPIUS Do they belong to this famous band? MARY MAGDALENE They are hateful and loathsome!... One of them has his face gnawed with an ulcer, another is almost naked, another is starving!... APPIUS They certainly lack shame, thus to flaunt ugliness and dread.... SILANUS Do not be uneasy: these will not long mar the pleasing grace of the porticoes that refresh our eyes. My gardener has discovered them; he is armed with a stout hoe and is driving them back uncivilly.... You see, they do not insist, they walk away in silence, hanging their heads.... And, now that we have occupied ourselves long enough with these unfortunate people, with their great leader and their maladies, let us think a little of ourselves and enjoy the delightful afternoon which spring-time sets before us.... My pleasure at seeing you here would be flawless, if only our old friend Longinus had yielded to Appius’ entreaties and consented to accompany you.... APPIUS I never felt more keenly the vanity of the great eloquence which he himself taught me. To all my most convincing and well-stated arguments he replied with a sullen silence, or shook his head, repeating that he did not wish to throw a gloom over our happy party with his dismal presence.... CŒLIUS And yet it is quite three weeks since that child died.... I should not have thought that grief could have affected him so much.... APPIUS The more so as it concerned a child of tender years, whom her father knew less well than did her nurse!... SILANUS