As for Anna, the wife of Caiaphas, she sat silent, her head bowed upon her knees. Mary thought that perhaps she slept, and in her tender heart she hoped that this was so.
Every hour the chief jailer flashed the light of his torch into their prison. "Where now is he that delivereth?" he cried tauntingly. And again, "If angels visit thee during the night watches cry aloud, for I have sworn by my life to deliver thy bodies to judgment on the morrow." Being insensible--as indeed are most mortals to celestial sights and sounds--he did not perceive that the whole place was filled with the airs of heaven and with the rustling of angelic pinions.
At midnight the drowsy guards were awakened by a loud knocking upon the outer gate of the prison.
"Open!" cried a voice. "Open at once, in the name of the Sanhedrim." The governor of the prison looked out, and beholding by the light of the lantern that it was Caleb himself who knocked, he opened cautiously and admitted him.
"I have orders," said Caleb, "to speak a word in private with one of the women who are in ward here; this is the token of my authority," and he displayed before the eyes of the chief jailer the signet ring of Annas.
"But the Pharisee Saul--" began the jailer.
Caleb waved his hand impatiently. "Fetch the woman out to me and at once," he said.
"They are chained to the floor," grumbled the jailer, "and I will not fetch out any one of them, were it by the order of Herod himself. Go thou in."
So Caleb went into the prison, the jailer following close upon his heels. "Which is the woman called Anna?" he said. "I have here a message for her."
And when the daughter of Annas had been pointed out to him, he thrust into her hand a packet. "Use what is within to save the honor of thy house," he whispered. "It is sent thee in mercy by the hand of Annas." Then he turned swiftly and went out.