The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

JAMES.

Though I should die, yet will I not deny It is some marriage feast; the joyful maid

thee.

Behold, O Lord, Outside the garden wall the path divides;
Surely they come not hither.

PETER.

Behold, here are two swords!

They sleep again.

Even unto death! Tarry ye here and Alas! we know not what to answer thee!

watch.

He goes apart.

It is for sorrow that our eyes are heavy.Behold, the torches now encompass us.

Ye know nothing at all. Come here and warm thy hands.

Simon Ben Camith, my great predecessor,
On whom be peace! would have dealt

presently

With such a demagogue. I shall no less.
The man must die. Do ye consider not
It is expedient that one man should die,
Not the whole nation perish? What is
death?

It differeth from sleep but in duration.
We sleep and wake again; an hour or two
Later or earlier, and it matters not,
And if we never wake it matters not;
When we are in our graves we are at peace,
Nothing can wake us or disturb us more.
There is no resurrection.

PHARISEES, aside.

O most faithful

Disciple of Hircanus Maccabæus,
Will nothing but complete annihilation
Comfort and satisfy thee?

CAIAPHAS.

While ye are talking And plotting, and contriving how to take him,

Fearing the people, and so doing naught,
I, who fear not the people, have been act-

ing;

DAMSEL to PETER.

Art thou not also

One of this man's disciples?

PETER.

I am not.

DAMSEL.

Now surely thou art also one of them;
Thou art a Galilean, and thy speech
Bewrayeth thee.

PETER.

Woman, I know him not!

CAIAPHAS to CHRISTUS, in the Hall.
Who art thou? Tell us plainly of thyself
And of thy doctrines, and of thy disciples.

CHRISTUS.

Lo, I have spoken openly to the world,
I have taught ever in the Synagogue,
And in the Temple, where the Jews resort;
In secret have said nothing. Wherefore

then

Askest thou me of this? Ask them that
heard me
What I have said to them.
know

Have taken this Prophet, this young Naza- What I have said!

Behold, they

What brings the rest of you? | And cannot answer!

From my cavern in the crags,
From my lair of leaves and flags,
I could see, like ants, below,
The camels with their load
Of merchandise, on the road
That leadeth to Jericho.

And I struck them unaware,
As an eagle from the air

Drops down upon bird or beast;
And I had my heart's desire

Of the merchants of Sidon and Tyre, And Damascus and the East.

But it is not for that I fear;
It is not for that I am here

In these iron fetters bound; Sedition! that is the word That Pontius Pilate heard,

And he liketh not the sound.

What think ye, would he care
For a Jew slain here or there,

Or a plundered caravan ?
But Cæsar!-ah, that is a crime,
To the uttermost end of time

Shall not be forgiven to man.

Therefore was Herod wroth
With Matthias Margaloth,

And burned him for a show!
Therefore his wrath did smite
Judas the Gaulonite,

And his followers, as ye know.

For that cause and no more,
Am I here, as I said before;

For one unlucky night,
Jucundus, the captain of horse,
Was upon us with all his force,

And I was caught in the fight.

I might have fled with the rest,
But my dagger was in the breast
Of a Roman equerry;
As we rolled there in the street,
They bound me, hands and feet;
And this is the end of me.

Who cares for death? Not I!
A thousand times I would die,
Rather than suffer wrong!
Already those women of mine
Are mixing the myrrh and the wine;
I shall not be with you long.

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