The lantern suddenly flashed into his mind.  He had left it on the table in his room and Esora would see it.  But why shouldn’t she see the lantern?  The centurion and the carrier and Martha and Mary all knew that he had brought from Jerusalem a sheet in which to wrap the body of Jesus, and a lantern to light their way into the tomb.  It would be in agreement with what he had already said to tell that he brought the lantern back with him, nor would it have mattered if he had not returned to the tomb to fetch the lantern.  The lantern would not cast any suspicion upon him.  But he had done well to refrain from closing the sepulchre with the stone, for the story of the resurrection would rise out of the empty tomb, and though there were many among the Jews who would not believe the story, few would have the courage to inquire into the truth of a miracle.

A faint smile gathered on his lips, and he began to wonder what the expression would be on the faces of Martha and Mary when they came to him on the morrow with the news that Jesus had risen from the dead.

CHAP.  XX.

He said to himself that they would start at dawn, and getting to the sepulchre soon after three, and finding it empty, would come running to him, and, so that himself might open the gate to them, he ordered his watch (it should have ended by midnight) to continue till four o’clock.  And, sitting by the sick man’s side, he listened expectant for the hush that comes at the end of night.  At last it fell upon his ear.  The women are on their way to the sepulchre, he said, and in about an hour and a half I’ll hear the bell clang.  But the bell clanged sooner than he thought for; and so impatient was he to see them that he did not remember to draw his cloak about him as if he were only half dressed (a necessary thing to do if he were to deceive them) till he was in the middle of the garden.  But feigning of disordered raiment was vanity, for the women were too troubled to notice that he had not kept them waiting long enough to testify of any sudden rousing from his bed, and began to cry aloud as he approached:  he has risen, he has risen from the dead as he promised us.  Joseph came towards them yawning, as if his sleep were not yet dispersed sufficiently for him to comprehend them; and he let them through the gate, inviting them into his house; but they cried:  he’s risen from the dead.  The sepulchre is empty, Mary cried, anticipating her sister’s words, and we have come to you for counsel.  Are we to tell what we have seen?  Seen! said Joseph.  Forthwith both began to babble about a young man in a white raiment.  His counsel to them was neither to spread the news nor to conceal it.  Let the apostles, he began—­but Martha interrupted him, saying:  they are all in hiding, in great fear of the Pharisees, who have power over Pilate, and he will condemn them all to the cross, so they say, if they do not escape at once into Galilee.