[LETTER XXXI.]
Dearest Father:
I have only terminated my last letter to take up my pen for the beginning of another, for I find relief only in writing to you from the deep affliction which has struck me to the earth. If anything can add to my mortification at the death of the Nazarene, Jesus, it is that I shall have endeavored so earnestly to make you believe in him also. Oh, I shall never have confidence in a human being again; and the more lovely, the more holy, the more heavenly the character of any one, the wiser and purer their teachings, the more distrustful shall I be of them.
But I will turn from these painful thoughts and, as I promised in my last, will give you an account of what passed at his trial.
It is now the morning following the crucifixion, and I am calmer than I was yesterday and will be able to write with more coherency. Twenty-four hours have passed since he was nailed to the cross. His followers have been, since his arrest, hunted like wild beasts of the wilderness. Annas has hired and filled with wine fierce Roman soldiers, and sent them everywhere to seize the fugitive Nazarenes. John was especially sought out, and the emissaries of Annas came at midnight last night to the house to take him, but we assisted him in making his escape by means of the subterranean passage that leads from the dwelling of Rabbi Amos to the catacombs beneath the Temple.
Æmilius, though only recently a convert from the paganism of Rome, is firm in his faith that Jesus will rise again to life; and, instead of giving up all, as we do, he says that he should not be amazed to be suddenly told by the soldiers, whom he left to guard his tomb, that he had burst forth alive from the dead!
But I have forgotten that I am to narrate to you, dear father, the particulars of his accusation, trial and condemnation. As I was not present in the Pretorium, I am indebted for the further details which I shall give, in part to John and in part to Rabbi Amos.
"As soon as the mob of Jews who had Jesus under arrest, and which I saw pass the house, reached the abode of Rabbi Annas, he asked them whom they had in custody, and when they answered that it was the great Nazarene Prophet, he said with joy: