AT THE THIRD HOUR.
On the morrow a great crowd had assembled about the prison which held
the four who were condemned to public scourging and to death; for evil
tidings travel fast, and there is ever an ignoble multitude who reckon
as high holiday a spectacle of human agony.
Yet there were those who looked in one another's faces with sombre and
despairing eyes. "The last days are at hand," they murmured, "the days
of wrath and of burning. For shall not God avenge his own elect which
cry day and night unto him? Yea, he will avenge them, and that right
speedily." But still the sun poured down with impartial splendor,
gilding alike the gloomy walls of the blood-stained prison, and the
yellow curls of the year-old babe. And the placid heaven gave no sign
of the invisible hosts of glory behind its azure wall.
Exactly at the third hour, Saul accompanied by a strong guard approached
the prison. His face was pale and haggard, but upon it was stamped a
look of savage determination before which the mob fell back with a dull
low murmur.
The governor of the prison greeted him with manifest joy. "The
prisoners which thou didst commit to my charge are safe--quite safe, my
lord," he said, rubbing his hands. "We had no visions; neither angels,
earthquakes, nor demons. We are----"
"Fetch them forth," said Saul, with a peremptory gesture and a fierce
look at the jailer, before which that functionary drew back with an
apologetic obeisance.
"Yes, certainly, at once, my worshipful lord; just as soon as we shall
be able to undo the chains. Here you," he roared, addressing the
turnkey, "fetch the four from the inner prison."
So presently the condemned came forth into the prison yard, and stood
before Saul. Their faces were calm, even joyful, and the Pharisee
ground his teeth as he looked at them.
"Hast thou counted the cost of thy perverseness?" he said abruptly.
"We have counted the cost," replied Mary of Nazareth in a firm voice,
"and the reward is exceeding glorious above all that it hath entered
into the heart of man to imagine."
"Thinkest thou so?" answered Saul. "Those of thy company may be of a
better mind. Take heed to what I shall say," he added, turning to the
other three. "The Sanhedrim is full of mercy and compassion; and while
it will without faltering carry on the work which it hath undertaken of
cleansing and purifying Israel of this monstrous and blasphemous belief
in a perished malefactor, it also offers pardon freely to all who
confess and forsake the error of their ways. If now at this last hour
ye will acknowledge that the Nazarene was an impostor inspired by the
father of lies; that he justly died the accursed death; that his body
moreover was stolen by his followers from out the tomb in which it was
buried, for the express purpose of confirming this accursed blasphemy;
if ye shall now make confession of these things, it is the merciful
mandate of them which are in authority that ye be immediately released
without further scathe or punishment. Ye have heard. Wilt thou,
maiden, so confess, thereby securing to thyself bodily safety and the
blessing of the Almighty?"
There was a breathless silence for an instant, then Anat raised her
large dark eyes to the face of the Pharisee. "Sir, I have heard thy
offer of safety, and this is my answer. I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, because I who was once blind now see; I believe that he was put
to death upon the cross that he might draw all men unto him and heal
them from their sins, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness that the stricken Israelites might look and be saved; I
believe that he arose from among the dead on the third day, and is set
down forever at the right hand of God. These things I do affirm and
believe in this the last hour of my mortal life."
"Thou art condemned," said Saul slowly, but his face was more white than
the face of the maiden.
"Young man," he said, turning to Seth, "wilt thou confess to the things
which I have already enumerated, that thou mayest live out thy days in
peace?"
"I cannot deny him on whom I have believed, even for the sake of
life--and life is sweet," faltered Seth, on whom the shadow had lain
very heavily all the night.
"Thou art condemned," repeated Saul in a hollow voice.
"Woman, who by reason of thine exalted birth shouldst have remained a
mother in Israel, wilt thou renounce these vile errors after which thou
hast strayed? In so renouncing thou shalt find again a father's, a
husband's forgiveness and favor. For so I am bidden to say unto thee."
Anna trembled and was silent.
"Dost thou so acknowledge thy sin?" said Saul; and it seemed to them
that listened that there was a note of entreaty in his stern voice.
"God of my fathers!" cried the wife of Caiaphas, looking up into the
dazzling blue of the sky. "Help me to know without shadow of doubt what
is truth; and enable me to witness to it without faltering." Then she
turned to Saul. "Tell my husband and my father, that the forgiveness
and favor of God is rather to be desired than the forgiveness and favor
of any mortal, however beloved. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Messiah of Israel; and if I must now die for that belief, I die
willingly."
Saul bowed his head without speaking. "Close up about the prisoners,"
he commanded the guard, who had stood silent witnesses of the scene,
"and conduct them to the place of punishment."
* * * * *
Abu Ben Hesed had not been idle during the hours which had passed since
he had seen the prisoners disappear behind the closed door of the
judgment hall. He had followed them to the prison; and from a temple
underling who was not insensible to the glitter of gold as seen through
the fingers of the desert chief, he had made shift to find out the
number of guards, the strength of the walls and the general plan of the
prison.
"A safe prison, truly," he said to his informant, as the gold changed
hands--neither apparently being aware of the transaction.
"Safe as the tomb," assented the temple official, slyly rubbing the coin
with a corner of his robe. "Once within yonder walls, a man is seen no
more till he is fetched out." Then he fell to eying the hand of Ben
Hesed, fancying that he again saw there a gleam of something yellow. He
was not mistaken; and his face grew proportionately genial as a second
coin joined the first in his own greedy palm.
"I am but lately arrived in Jerusalem," said Ben Hesed, "and have as yet
not witnessed the punishment of any of these apostates. 'Twere a goodly
sight to see a blasphemer suffer?"
"Ay, a goodly sight. I have seen many. Man, but they be obstinate!
Wouldst thou witness a grand spectacle, then be without the Damascus
Gate to-morrow. 'Twill be in the very place where they stoned the
pestilent Gentile, Stephen."
"They will stone only the man, I suppose?" said Ben Hesed with apparent
unconcern.
"They will scourge all four--forty stripes save one," and the fellow
smacked his lips in anticipation. "I myself am to handle one of the
scourges, and I understand the business as none other in Jerusalem. I
can fetch the blood every time; thou wilt see." And he winked at Ben
Hesed, and cautiously clinked the gold pieces with the air of a man who
is at peace with himself and all the world.
Ben Hesed could with difficulty keep his hands from the throat of the
wretch.
"After the scourging, the Sanhedrim will give them one more chance to
renounce their evil beliefs," continued the official, "a mere form, for
they are all as stubborn as the father of lies himself. A few stones
will suffice to finish them. So perish all who blaspheme the law!"
"I shall be there," declared Ben Hesed. "Ah, stay, should they change
the hour and place bring me word, and I will recompense thee with as
much again as thou hast already in thy hand. I am not minded to lose
the sight. Thou wilt find me encamped just without the Damascus Gate."
"I will bring thee word, son of Abraham, I swear it by the veil of the
Temple. Peace be with thee."
An hour later Ben Hesed held a council of war in his camp. "We cannot
take the prison," he said, drawing his heavy brows together. "For they
would straightway rouse the Romans at the citadel, which is but a
stone's throw from the outer wall of the place. We must wait till they
fetch them out to-morrow, and may the Almighty give us the wisdom and
the strength which we need. Ay, and he will give it," he added, his eye
flashing fire. "It is ever the pleasure of Jehovah to show forth his
power by the hand of the few, even as by the hand of Gideon with three
hundred men he overthrew the hosts of the Midianites and Amalekites,
which were as the grasshoppers for multitude."
Then directed he the twelve men who were with him after what manner they
should do on the morrow, and every man of them lay down and slept. But
Ben Hesed slept not all the night, for he prayed mightily unto God that
he would deliver them which were persecuted out of the hand of the
destroyer; and he prayed also for him that was wasting the church, that
his eyes might be opened. At the coming of the dawn he also laid down
for a space, for he said, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep;
for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety. The Lord will save the
afflicted people, he will give me the necks of his enemies, for God is a
God of great deliverances."
Very early the people began to pour out from the Damascus Gate, that
they might secure good places for the seeing. They brought with them
food and drink also, that they might make merry. Ben Hesed looked at
them and he waxed exceeding angry.
"Behold!" he said, "these dwellers in the holy city are come out as to a
holiday, with laughing and feasting. They are become as the dwellers in
Sodom, and as the inhabitants of the earth before the flood, for they
delight themselves in blood and in violence. They make merry and eat
and drink to-day, but the days shall come wherein they shall mourn and
cry aloud, and their tears shall be their meat day and night."
As the third hour drew nigh, the people began to crane their necks
toward the gate through which the condemned were to come forth, and they
grew impatient and murmured as the moments dragged by.
"What now if they have already confessed?" said one woman. "We shall
have put ourselves to this trouble for naught. Nay, but I believe that
they have confessed."
"Mayhap," said her neighbor, "but I shall not give up the matter before
noon, now that I am here. Verily," she added with a shrug, "I am glad
now that I did not go over to their number; I came near it once when the
man Peter preached in our street that their Messiah would come back and
that right speedily. If what they tell about the Nazarene being alive
were true, he would certainly come in these days." Then they fell to
gossiping in neighborly fashion about their husbands, the linen that
they had spun, and the preparations for the approaching feast-day,
stopping suddenly to listen as a loud and ever growing murmur of sound
arose from within the gates.
"They are coming!" cried the multitude as with one voice.
"They are coming!" said Ben Hesed, tightening his grasp on the strong
bow upon which he was leaning. The little band of fourteen men had
established themselves on a rocky eminence directly above the spot where
the scourging was to take place, well screened from observation by a
tangle of low-growing shrubs.
The procession, headed by a strong detachment of temple guards, soon
came in sight, the prisoners heavily chained walking two by two. Behind
them followed a number of Sanhedrists, among whom the women pointed out
to one another the famous Saul of Tarsus, as second only in interest to
the condemned prisoners.
"They do say," whispered one, "that he enters without ceremony into the
houses wherein dwell them that believe on the Nazarene, and that he
drags them forth to prison and to death without mercy."
"That is true," returned her neighbor. "I chanced to be in the house of
Mary when he came there--for as thou knowest, she was a kind soul,
whatever her sins, and ready always to lend from her store for the
convenience of them that lacked--indeed one might say as much of them
all."
"And how didst thou escape?"
"I simply repeated what the man bade me, without ado; but I had like to
have fainted. How I reached my home afterward I scarce know; my husband
hath forbidden me to speak with any of them hereafter--though God knows
the command was needless. But see! They are about to bind them to the
posts for the scourging." At the next breath the speaker screamed aloud
in terror, grasping her neighbor by the arm. A swift something had
smitten the man who was advancing to lay hold on Mary of Nazareth, and
with a wild yell of agony he leapt high into the air, falling stone dead
at his victim's feet.
Before the startled multitude had time to recover themselves, a very
whirlwind of destruction, savage, swift, merciless, had swept down upon
them from the rocky eminence above their heads, the wild battle-cry of
the desert sounding in their guilty ears like the trumpet call of the
last day. And the people fled from before it in a frenzy of mad fear,
running, stumbling, falling, the strong trampling the weak under foot,
amid a wild tumult of shrieks, curses and entreaties to God to spare
them.
The temple guard, encouraged by the ringing voice of Saul of Tarsus,
made at the first some faint show of resistance, then they too turned
and fled for their lives.
"Cowards!" shouted Saul angrily; "there are but a handful of them."
But his voice was drowned in the general uproar. Seizing a spear from
the hand of one of the flying guard, he flung himself into the thickest
of the fight, striking out right and left in a sort of blind fury. Then
something struck him full in the forehead, a wave as of fire flashed
before his eyes, the spear dropped from his nerveless fingers, and he
fell--down--down into darkness and silence.