ne king."

"We want to see this Jesus crucified," raged the people.

"But why, by Jupiter? I cannot see that He is guilty of anything."

One of the High Priests came up to him.

"If you set free this blasphemer, this demagogue, who, so He says,
intends to redeem the Jewish nation from bondage, who has the devil's
eloquence with which to influence the masses, if you let this man go
about among the people again, then you are your Emperor's bitterest
enemy. Then we shall ask for a governor who is as true to the Emperor
as we are!"

"You would be more imperial than Pontius Pilate!" He threw out that
sentence to them, measuring their figures with contempt. Whenever Rome
touched any of their chartered rights they seethed with anger; but
whenever they needed power to accomplish some purpose hostile to the
people, they cringed to Rome. They recognised no people and no
Emperor; their Temple-law was all in all to them. And they dared to
advise the Governor to be imperial! But the crowd murmured angrily.
The storm of passion was increasing in the courtyard. A thousand
voices threatening, shouting shrilly, demanded the Nazarene's death.
At that moment his wife sent to Pilate and reminded him of her dream.
He was inclined to set the accused free at once. Then in the dim light
of the torches and the dawning day a dark mass appeared above the heads
of the people. It was one of those criminals' stakes with the
cross-beam like those erected out at Golgotha, only more massive and
imposing. They had dragged the cross here, and when it became visible
to the crowd they broke out in heightened fury: "Crucify Him! Crucify
Him! Jesus or Pilate!"

"Jesus--or Pilate?" Was that what they shouted?

"Jesus or Pilate?" was re-echoed from courtyard to courtyard, from
street to street.

"Do you hear, Governor?" one of the High Priests asked him. "There is
nothing else to be done! You see, the people haven't been asleep
to-night. They are mad!" So saying, he seized the staff of justice,
and offered it to Pilate. He had turned pale at the sight of the
raging mob. He signed with his hand that he wished to speak. The
tumult subsided sufficiently for his words to be heard, and he shouted
hoarsely:

"I cannot find that this man has committed any crime. But you wish to
crucify Him. So be it, but His death is on your consciences!"
Purposely following the Jewish custom, he washed his hands in a bowl,
so that those who could n