"Roads by Seabury Quinn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Quinn Seabury)

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II. The Road to
Calvary






LUCIUS PONTIUS PILATE, Procurator of Judea, leant
across the parapet and looked down at the night-bound city.
Lights blossomed here and there among the flat-roofed
houses; now and then the clatter of mailed hoofs was heard
upon the cobblestones; almost incessantly there came the roar
of jostling, fractious crowds. Jerusalem was crowded to the
bursting point; for days the people had been streaming
through the Joppa Gate, for a great feast was in preparation -
these Jews were always celebrating either feast or fast - and

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the police power of his legionaries had been put upon its
mettle.
"A turbulent and stiff-necked people these, my
Claudius," the Governor addressed the tall blond-bearded
man who stood three paces to his left and rear. "Ever
disputing, always arguing and bickering, everlastingly in
tumult of some sort. But yesterday when the troops marched
from the citadel with the Eagles of the Legion at their head a
band of townsmen stoned them, crying out that they bore
graven images through the Holy City's streets. It seems they
hold it a sin to make the simulacrum of anything that walks or
flies or swims. A stubborn, narrow-minded lot, methinks."
"Aye, Excellence, a stubborn and rebellious lot," the first