Mary Magdalene
Even so. Their leader, I hear, is a sort of unwashed brigand who entices the crowds with a rude kind of sorcery and, on the pretence of preaching some new law or doctrine, lives by plunder and surrounds himself with fellows capable of everything.... Besides, I have other causes to complain of them.... Two days ago, when I was walking in my gardens, under the portico that divides them from the road, a dozen wretches, belonging to that band, insulted me foully and threatened me with stones.... It is becoming intolerable; and it is time that the countryside were rid of them....
Verus
I have heard about those people.... I know that the authorities have their eyes upon them.... I will have them watched more closely. For that matter, if you wish, it would be easy for me to arrest their leader....
Mary Magdalene
Do so, I pray you, and as soon as possible.... I should be especially grateful to you....
Silanus
I believe that you are misled. The robbers, in my opinion, must not be looked for there. I am in a fairly good position to know the band, seeing that, for five or six days, it has been gathered near my house. I have even had the pleasure—for everything turns to pleasure at my age—I have even had the pleasure of attending one of their meetings. It was near the old road to Jericho. The leader was speaking in the midst of a crowd covered with dust and rags, among whom I observed a large number of rather repulsive cripples and sick. They seem extremely ignorant and exalted. They are poor and dirty, but I believe them to be harmless and incapable of stealing more than a cup of water or an ear of wheat.... They were listening greedily to a more or less silly anecdote, the story of a son who returns to his father after squandering his patrimony.... I did not hear the end, for they looked upon me with a certain suspicion.... But the Galilean, or the Nazarene, as they call him here, is rather curious; and his voice is of a penetrating and peculiar sweetness.... He appears to be the son of a carpenter.... I will tell you more of him, I know many interesting things about him; but permit me first to go to the other side of the house, which commands the road, to see if my belated guests are not in sight....
(He GOES OUT on the left.)