join the soldiers who were approaching the house
of Pontius Pilate.--At the moment she doubled her pace, she remarked a
sort of tumult amongst the Jerusalem militia, which suddenly stopped.
She mounted on a bench and saw Banaias alone at the entrance of a narrow
arcade which the soldiers had to cross to reach the governor's house,
audaciously barring the passage, brandishing his long stick terminated
by a knob of iron.

'Ah! this one at least does not abandon him he calls his friend!'
thought Genevieve.

'By the shoulders of Samson!' cried Banaias in his loud voice, 'if you
do not instantly set our friend at liberty, militia of Beelzebub! I'll
beat you as dry as the flail beats the wheat on the barn floor! Ah! if I
had but time to collect a band of companions as resolute as myself to
defend our friend of Nazareth, 'tis an order I would give you instead of
a simple prayer, and this simple prayer I repeat: set our friend at
liberty, or else by the jawbone used by Samson, I will destroy you all
like he destroyed the Philistines!'

'Do you hear the wretch! he calls this audacious menace a prayer!'
exclaimed the officer commanding the militia, who prudently kept himself
in the middle of his troop; 'run your lances through the miserable;
strike him with your swords if he does not make way for you!'

The Jerusalem militia was not a very valiant troop, for they had
hesitated before arresting Jesus, who advanced towards them, alone and
disarmed: so that, despite the orders of their chief, they remained a
moment undecided before the menacing attitude of Banaias.

In vain did Jesus, whose firm and gentle voice was heard by Genevieve,
endeavor to appease his defender, and entreat him to retire. Banaias
resumed in a threatening tone, thus replying to the supplications of the
young Nazarene:

'Do not trouble yourself about me, friend; you are a man of peace and
quietness. I am a man of violence and battle, when the feeble are to be
protected. Let me alone. I will stop these wicked soldiers here, until
the noise of the tumult has apprised and brought my companions; and
then, by the five hundred concubines of Solomon, who danced before him,
you shall see these devils of the militia dance to the tune of our
knobbed sticks, keeping time on their helmets and cuirasses.'

'How much longer will you suffer yourselves to be insulted by a single
man, you cowardly dogs?' exclaimed the officer to his men.

'Oh! if I had not orders not t