late, that this
audacious Lazarus be put to death!'

'But, seigneur,' said Aurelia, 'suppose you hang him, and the young
Nazarene resuscitates him again?'

'We will hang him again! Dame Aurelia!' exclaimed Jonas, the banker: 'We
will hang him again! By Joshua! it would be a joke to yield to these
vagabonds!'

'My seigneurs!' said Pontius Pilate: 'you have your militia, arrest and
hang this Lazarus, if you like; but you will be more unmerciful than we
heathens, whether Greeks or Romans, who, like you, have had our
resuscitated. But, by Jupiter! we do not hang them; for I have heard it
said that quite recently Apollonius of Tyana resuscitated a young girl,
whose funeral he met, followed by her betrothed in great trouble.
Apollonius spoke a few magic words, the young girl issued from her
coffin, more fresh, more charming than ever. The marriage took place,
and the pair lived very happy.'

'Would you then have the poor girl die a second time, my seigneurs?'
inquired Aurelia.

'Yes, certainly,' replied Caiphus, 'if she was the accomplice of an
impostor; and since the seigneur Procurator leaves us abandoned to our
own forces, I and my worthy friend Baruch will quit you, that we may
give instant orders relative to the arrest of this Lazarus.'

'Do so, my seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, rising, 'you are senators
of your city.'

'Seigneur Gremion,' said Chusa, the steward of Herod's household, 'I
must depart the day after to-morrow for Bethlehem: if you would like
that we should travel in company, I will anticipate my departure by a
day, and will start to-morrow morning, we shall return in two or three
days; I shall take advantage of your escort, for in these troubled times
it is right to be well accompanied.'

'I accept your offer, Seigneur Chusa,' replied the treasury-receiver; 'I
shall be delighted to journey with some one who, like yourself, knows
the country.'

'Dear Aurelia,' said Jane to her friend softly, 'you wish to see the
young man of Nazareth?'

'Oh! more than ever, dear Jane; all that I hear redoubles my curiosity.'

'Come to my house to-morrow, after the departure of my husband,' resumed
Jane in a low tone, 'and perhaps we may find means of satisfying you.'

'But how?'

'I will tell you, dear Aurelia.'

'To-morrow then, dear Jane.'

And the two young women quitted, in company with their husbands and me,
the slave Genevieve, the house of Pontius Pilate.

CHAPTER II.

The tavern o