Verus (rushing to the bottom of the garden)
This way!... Follow me!... Appius, Cœlius, your swords!...
(At the moment when he rushes down, the laurel-hedge is burst through in every part by the yelling and gesticulating crowd pursuing Mary Magdalene. She makes a frenzied attempt to reach the terrace. Verus and his two friends run towards her, to try to protect her against the invading multitude. Stones fly. Verus, standing in front of the others, brandishes his bare sword. Just as the fighting is about to begin, when already branches are broken, a statue overturned and so forth, suddenly a loud call of the supernatural voice rings under the nearer olive-trees. All cease, struck with stupor. A word of command is passed from mouth to mouth: “Silence! Silence!... Listen! Listen!... He is speaking! He is going to speak!... The Master has made a sign!... Listen! Listen!...” Then, in the silence thus suddenly produced, the divine voice rises, calm, august, profound and irresistible.)
The Voice
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!...
(The stones are heard to drop to the ground. The crowd sways to and fro, abashed, and disappears gradually, in silence, through the hedge. Verus comes forward to support Mary Magdalene, who has stopped and is standing erect and motionless in the middle of the walk. She rejects the proffered aid, with a harsh and fierce gesture, and, staring in front of her, alone among the others, who look at her without understanding, slowly she climbs the steps of the terrace.)
CURTAIN
ACT II
(The Tablinum [or large room behind the Atrium] of Mary Magdalene’s villa at Bethany. At the back, leading one into the other, the Atrium and a long vestibule with marble columns.)