one for Martha and Mary when they come
with spices and fine linen for the embalming? His mind was divided
whether he should close the tomb and go his way, or watch through the
Sabbath, and while seeking to come upon a resolve he was overcome by
desire to see his dead friend once more, and he entered the tomb,
holding high the lantern so that he might better see him. But as he
approached the couch on which the body lay he stopped, and the colour
went out of his face; he trembled all over; for the sheet with which
Martha and Mary covered over the face had fallen away, and a long tress
of hair had dropped across the cheek. He must have moved, or angels must
have moved him, and, uncertain whether Jesus was alive or dead, Joseph
remembered Lazarus, and stood watching, cold and frightened, waiting for
some movement.

He is not dead, he is not dead, he cried, and his joy died, for on the
instant Jesus passed again into the darkness of swoon. Joseph had no
water to bathe his forehead with, nor even a drop to wet his lips with.
There is none nearer than my house, he said. I shall have to carry him
thither. But if a wayfarer meets us the news that a man newly risen from
the tomb was seen on the hillside with another will soon reach
Jerusalem; and the Pharisees will send soldiers.... The tomb will be
violated; the houses in the neighbourhood will be searched. Why then did
he awaken only to be taken again? Jesus lay as still as the dead, and
hope came again to Joseph. On a Sabbath evening, he said, I shall be
able to carry him to my house secretly. The distance is about
half-a-mile. But to carry a swooning man half-a-mile up a crooked and
steep path among rocks will take all my strength.

He took cognisance of his thews and sinews, and feeling them to be
strong and like iron, he said: I can do it, and fell to thinking of his
servants loitering in the passages, talking as they ascended the stairs,
stopping half-way and talking again, and getting to bed slowly, more
slowly than ever on this night, the night of all others that he wished
them sound asleep in their beds. Half-a-mile up a zigzagging path I
shall have to carry him; he may die in my arms; and he entertained the
thought for a moment that he might go for his servants, who would bring
with them oil and wine; but dismissing the thought as unwise, he left
the tomb to see if the darkness were thick enough to shelter himself and
his burden.

But Jesus might pass away in his sw