Yet it is simple enough: in saving him, I hand you over, without defence, to the fellow who will drag you with him, by fall after fall, to the bottom of none can tell what pit of folly and wretchedness, whence no human and reasoning power will be able to extricate you. Moreover, speaking for myself, I lose you irrevocably by thus giving you, with my own simple, foolish hands, to one who robs me of my happiness by methods against which a man who values the name does not try to struggle. Whereas, if I abandon him to his fate, there remains a chance of seeing you return to the light and for me some prospect of finding you in my path; for our two lives have still, I hope, a long space to cover; and many roads, as you well know, lead to Rome....
Mary Magdalene
I understand.... I understand, since I needs must understand.... But I do not yet believe.... No, it is not possible; and you, the man whom I know, have not come to tell me coldly that you wish to destroy him and thus revenge yourself for an injury which he has not done you.... There is, there must be, something else....
Verus
Yes, there is something else.... There remains to us, if you are absolutely bent upon it, one means of saving him. But, at the point to which we have come and to which I have driven the adventure, saving him probably means ruin to myself. Besides, time presses. The sentence is written, I have seen it. He will be put to death at daybreak; for the hours are numbered because of the Passover....
Mary Magdalene
What must I do?... Quick, quick, I will do it....
Verus
The prisoner is guarded by my men; it is therefore not quite impossible to effect his escape....
Mary Magdalene