So thought Miriam, praying and weeping, and around her were many other women. "O weeping one," said one of these, "knowest thou not? The Master himself hath said to us that he is to be crucified!"
"Crucified!" exclaimed Miriam.
"Yea," said the other, "but that in three days he will arise from the dead and that then he will take the kingdom. It is a hard saying."
"That the dead rise we do know," replied Miriam, "but none hath ever seen them after their resurrection. I think this saying is like the words of my beloved concerning the city of the gods where I am to live with him. And he—O God of Israel! Where is he now and what hath befallen him?"
The evening of that day was set apart for the feast of the Passover. Many were gathered to eat of it at the house of Ben Ezra, for the kinsfolk of Isaac came also to partake of it. The Scriptures were read and hymns and psalms were sung, and they communed sorrowfully concerning the present desolation of their people, the terrors of the Herods, the oppression of the Romans, and their fears of the things which were yet to come upon them. After this some of them slumbered, but not all. There were those who waked and watched, for through all the city had gone a saying of Jesus of Nazareth that he was the Messiah, and that his kingdom was at hand.
Even the Romans had heard of this saying, but Pontius the Spearman had laughed, for he thought of his forts and his legionaries and he troubled not his mind concerning some unarmed mob of Jewish enthusiasts.
[CHAPTER XL.]
"A Little While."
It was toward the morning of a new day that one came knocking loudly at the door of the house of Ben Ezra.