My soldiers will not be able to hold their tongues. They will have to choose between silence and their lives. It will therefore be known that they acted only on my orders. Now there is no instance of the high-priests’ ever abandoning a prey, a revenge, a hatred. They will go and complain, first, at Antioch, to the Governor of Syria, and, next, to Cæsar himself, whose anger is kindled at the very breath of a suspicion. Do you know what Cæsar is? The greatest, the most powerful men in Rome tremble before his shadow.... For me, it means, if not death, at least exile far from Rome; and death, to us Romans, seems sweet compared with exile.... That is what I give; that is my stake; I am waiting for yours.
Mary Magdalene
You are waiting for mine?... What would you have me give?... I have nothing left.... I distributed all to the poor the other evening....
Verus
I do not ask for what one gives to the poor.... And, besides, I have had enough of those evasions which lead to nothing and of those shuffling phrases.... Ah, much I care for justice and a vagrant more or less in the world and my own fate and my own exile!... Have you not understood that it is you I want, you alone and all of you; that I have wanted you for years; and that this is my hour?... It is not beautiful, I know, and it is not as I dreamt it!... But it is all I have; and a man takes what he can to make his life!... We stand here face to face, with our two madnesses, which are more powerful than ourselves and cannot recede; we must come to an understanding!... The more you love him, the more I love you, the more you wish to save him and the more I wish to destroy him! We must come to an understanding!... You want his life, I want mine; and you shall have his life, but I shall have you, before he escapes his death.... Is it understood?... Are we agreed?... Say no, if you dare, and let his blood be upon her who has brought him to this pass and who is destroying him twice over!...
Mary Magdalene
Ah, so that was it!... Yes, yes, I know, I see.... I was not conscious and I no longer thought of it; but it was bound to be.... Ah, so it was that which caused me just now, while you were speaking, to have no confidence despite my confidence!... It is so strange, so monstrous, so remote from us!... One needs a little time to understand.... All one’s thoughts become deranged and one’s soul falls, falls, like a stone in a well.... One grasps the meaning of nothing.... One no longer knows where one stands....
Verus
You and I know quite well; and there is nothing extraordinary in all this.... A few days ago, you would not have needed so much urging; and I do not understand that to-day, when the price of love is something quite different, to-day, when a life, dear to you among all lives....
Mary Magdalene