e called the vagabond, the impious, the
seditious; but he bears the name of Jesus.'

'Right. A boaster,' said Pontius Pilate, shrugging his shoulders after
emptying his cup, 'a fool, who talks to geese: nothing more.'

'Seigneur Pontius Pilate!' exclaimed the doctor of law in a tone of
reproach: 'I do not comprehend you! What! You who represent here the
august Emperor Tiberius, our protector, among us honest and peaceable
people, for without your troops, the populace would long ago have risen
against Herod; but prince, you pretend to be indifferent to the words
and acts of this Nazarene; you treat him as a madman. Ah! Seigneur
Pontius Pilate, to-day is not the first time I have told you this;
madmen like this one are public pests!'

'And I repeat to you, seigneurs,' replied Pontius Pilate, extending his
empty cup to his slave standing behind him, 'I repeat that you are
wrong to alarm yourselves; let the Nazarene speak, and his words will
pass like the wind.'

'Seigneur Baruch, you wish much harm to this young man of Nazareth,
then!' said Jane in her gentle voice; 'you cannot hear his name
pronounced without getting in a rage.'

'Certainly, I wish him harm,' replied the learned doctor; 'and it is but
justice, for this Nazarene, who respects nothing, has not only insulted
me, personally, but he has also insulted all my brethren of the senate
in my person. For do you know what he dared to say in the Temple on
seeing me pass?'

'Let us hear the terrible words, Seigneur Baruch,' said Jane, smiling;
'for they must indeed be frightful!'

'Frightful is not enough; 'tis abominable, monstrous, you must say!'
replied the doctor of law; 'I was passing the Temple, then, the other
day; I had just been dining with my neighbor, Samuel; at a distance I
saw a group of beggars in rags, workmen, camel-drivers, men who let out
asses, disreputable women, tattered children, and other individuals of
the most dangerous sort; they were listening to a young man mounted on a
stone. He was holding forth with all his power. Suddenly he pointed at
me; all the vagabonds turn round towards me, and I hear the Nazarene,
for it was he, I could have divined him simply from the circle round
him, I heard the Nazarene say to these good-for-nothings, 'Beware of
these doctors of the law, who love to parade in their long robes, to be
saluted on the public place, to have the highest seats in the
synagogues, and the best places at the feasts.'

'You will