  Once more she felt herself floating upward in a dark morass of confused and tangled dreaming. Then as she seemed to burst through the heavy waters to the surface and a sudden effulgent light, she sat up, eyes blinking and sleep drained from her. The knocking and calling were restrained but insistent from Tullia’s side of the door. “Mistress! Oh, Mistress! Mistress!” She sprang from the bed. “Just a moment, little one, until I can draw back the bolt.” The movement and her exclamation awakened Longinus; precipitately he sat up in bed. “Tullia’s returned,” she explained to him, as he blinked sleepily. She opened the door. “Bona Dea, you’re breathless,” she said to the girl. “What’s happened, by great Ceres?” “I’ve run all the way from the Hasmonean Palace where I left Joanna....” She paused, breathing hard. “Mistress”—her face flamed with new excitement—“Jesus is alive! He’s come from the tomb alive! He did it, Mistress! He really did it!” “Sit down, Tullia,” she said calmly. “You’re excited, little one. Calm yourself. Longinus told me that the Galilean was not in a trance; he said he knew he was dead; he said....” “He was dead, Mistress, I know. But now he’s alive again! He’s alive, Mistress, alive!” Claudia shook her head dubiously. “I don’t doubt that you think so, but when a man’s dead....” She paused. “And you’ve been under such tension, so troubled....” “But I’m no longer troubled, Mistress,” Tullia said calmly. “Nor have I lost my reason. He is alive. Mary of Magdala talked with him at the tomb. We’ve just come from there, Mistress.” “But where were Cornelius and his soldiers? Surely they didn’t all go to sleep and let the Galilean’s friends....” “They had gone,” the maid answered. “But nobody stole the body, Mistress. Jesus walked away. He told Mary to tell those of his company that he would meet them down in Galilee.” “Then Cornelius and his guards weren’t at the tomb when the Galilean walked from it, Tullia?” Longinus, adjusting his tunic, came through the doorway. “Oh, no, Centurion, I meant they were gone when we got there. But they had left only a few minutes before. In fact, we met them coming in through the city gate as we were going out. I recognized Centurion Cornelius, although I don’t think he noticed me. He seemed greatly disturbed.” “Then, by the gods, Claudia, I must go find him. This is amazing. Tullia, by great Jupiter, do you know what you’re saying? Do you realize that you are saying a dead man....?” His question was interrupted by a knocking on the corridor door. Quickly Tullia opened it. A palace servant announced that Centurion Cornelius was trying to find Centurion Longinus. “Tell him to come in,” Claudia had overheard. “The Centurion Longinus is here.” “I’ve been trying since daylight to locate you, Longinus,” he “So Tullia has just told us,” Longinus said. “She contends that he came to life and simply walked out.” His eyes narrowed. “By the gods, Cornelius, did your guards go to sleep and allow his friends to slip in and...?” “No, Longinus, we weren’t asleep.” He shook his head slowly. “Nobody was asleep. I can’t understand it. I had stationed my men so that no one could slip past us to get to the tomb. And that heavy stone ... Longinus, it had to be rolled uphill on its track, and that requires the hard work of at least two or three strong men.” His forehead wrinkled in a puzzled frown. “Well, then,” Longinus pursued, “what did happen?” “That’s what I don’t know. Nothing happened. At least, I saw and heard nothing. I asked the men later if any of them had, and they all insisted, to a man, that they hadn’t heard a sound or seen anything the least bit unusual. Only a moment before I had checked the tomb’s mouth. The seal hadn’t been disturbed. And there was a dim light from a little fire we had kindled earlier to keep off the night chill; it had burned down, but there was still a light on the stone at the mouth. In fact, that’s how we noticed....” “The Galilean?” “Oh, no, we didn’t see him. But one moment the stone was in place, and the next ... well, I looked over there, and it had been rolled up the track and the mouth was wide-open.” “What did you do then?” “I lighted a torch from the smoldering fire and investigated. The Galilean was gone, disappeared. The linen strips with which the body had been wrapped were lying there, still in folds but collapsed, just as though the body they had been enfolding had melted away.” He shook his head, gestured with palms up. “Longinus, I can’t figure it any other way.” “You mean you actually believe he returned to life?” “What else can I believe?” “But what about the stone? How could he have rolled it back?” “If he had the power to call back his life,” Cornelius said, “rolling away the stone would surely have been no problem.” “But, Cornelius,” Claudia interposed, “Tullia, too, has just come from the tomb. She was there with Mary of Magdala and Joanna and some other followers of the Galilean.” “I didn’t see them....” “They got there just after you left. They saw you at the city gate as you were coming away, she said. But Mary of Magdala saw the Galilean and talked with him.” She shrugged. “Or at any rate that’s what she told Tullia.” The centurion’s amazement was not feigned. “Then where did he go? Where is he now?” “According to Tullia, he told Mary that he was going down to Galilee. He said he would meet his band there.” “Then we may come upon him somewhere, beside the sea with the fishermen or maybe in Capernaum.” “But, Cornelius”—Claudia’s expression betrayed a sudden apprehension—“how would he receive Longinus?” “In a spirit of forgiveness, I hope ... and believe. It was really not Longinus who did it. The guilt was Herod’s and Pilate’s ... and, of course, even more, the High Priest’s.” “Cornelius, does Pilate know ... about the empty tomb, I mean?” “Yes, Claudia. I reported to him first, before I started to look for Longinus. He was still in his bedchamber.” “What did he say? How did he act?” “At first he was angry; he charged that the guards had gone to sleep, said the High Priest would be greatly agitated, and threatened to punish us severely. But when I stood my ground and insisted that no one had stolen the body, he began to show concern, and when I left him he was thoroughly frightened.” He turned to Longinus. “That’s why I want to get started as quickly as possible for Tiberias, before Pilate orders my century to remain in Jerusalem to help protect him from the Galilean. Can you be ready to start by midday?” Longinus nodded. “Yes. I’m already packed. All I have to do is pick up my bags at Antonia.” |
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