, but for the
cords that bound him to the pillar by the middle of his body. Pontius
Pilate, after having ordered this punishment, had re-entered his own
house; he now again came out, and signed to the executioners to release
the condemned.

They unbound and supported him; one of them threw over his shoulders his
woollen tunic. The contact of this rough cloth on the quivering flesh
caused a new and so cruel an agony, that Jesus trembled in every limb.
The very excess of pain brought him to himself; he raised his head,
endeavored to stand so firm on his legs as to do without the assistance
of his executioners, opened his eyes, and threw on the multitude a look
of tenderness.

Pontius Pilate, thinking he had satisfied the hatred of the pharisees,
said to the Crowd, after having had Jesus unbound:

'There is the man;' and he signed to his officers to enter his house; he
was preparing to follow them, when Caiphus, the high priest, after
consulting in a low voice with Doctor Baruch, and Jonas the banker,
exclaimed, stopping the governor by taking hold of his robe:

'Seigneur Pilate, if you deliver up Jesus you are not a friend of the
Emperor; for the Nazarene calls himself king, declares himself against
the Emperor.'

'Pontius Pilate will fear passing for a traitor with his master, the
Emperor Tiberius,' said to his companions one of the emissaries placed
behind Genevieve.

'He will be compelled to give up the Nazarene.'

Then the wicked man cried out, in a very loud voice:

'Death to the Nazarene! the enemy of the Emperor Tiberius, the protector
of Judea!'

'Yes, yes!' exclaimed several, 'the Nazarene called himself King of the
Jews!'

'He would overthrow the dominion of the Emperor Tiberius!'

'He would declare himself king, by exciting the populace against the
Romans, our friends and allies.'

'Reply to that, Pontius Pilate!' cried, from the middle of the crowd,
one of the two emissaries.

'How is it that we, Jews, are more devoted than you to the power of the
Emperor Tiberius, your master? How is it that 'tis we, Jews, who demand
the death of the seditious who would destroy the Roman authority; and
that 'tis you, governor for Tiberius, who would pardon this rebel?'

This apostrophe appeared the more to trouble Pontius Pilate, as from all
sides they cried:

'Yes, yes, it would be to betray the Emperor to deliver up the
Nazarene!'

'Or prove, perhaps, that they have been accomplices!'

Pontius Pilate