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

"He hath proclaimed himself a king, and if thou dost not
find that treason, then thou art not Caesar's friend!"
"Art thou in very truth King of the Jews?" the Governor
turned curious eyes upon the prisoner.
"Sayest thou this thing of me, or did others tell thee of
it?" the young man answered.
"Am I a Jew?" the Procurator asked. "Thy own nation
and thy chief priests have brought thee unto me for judgment.
What hast thou done?"
There came no answer from the prisoner, but the
murmuring outside grew ominous. A mob had gathered at the
entrance and the guards were having trouble holding it in
check.Again the Procurator challenged. "Art thou in truth a
king, and if so, of what kingdom?"
"Thou hast said it. To this end was I born, and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the
truth...."
"What is truth?" the Governor mused. "Myself have
heard the sages argue long about it, but never have I found
two who agreed on it. Claudius!" he turned to the centurion
who stood behind his chair.
"Excellence!"


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"I am minded to put these men to the test. Go thou to the
dungeons and bring the greatest malefactor thou canst find
into the hall. We shall see how far this bigotry can go."
As the soldier turned to execute the order the Governor
faced the chief priest and his satellites. "I will have him
scourged, then turn him free," he pronounced. "If he hath
transgressed your laws the scourging will be punishment
enough; as to the charge of treason, I find no fault in him."
Docilely the prisoner followed a decurion to the barrack
room where the soldiers stripped his garments off and lashed
him to a pillar, then laid a tracery of forty stripes upon his
naked back.
"The King of Jews, is he?" laughed the decurion. "Why,
by the glorious eyes of Juno, every king should have a crown
to call his own, yet this one hath no crown at all. Ho, there,
some of you, go make a fitting crown for Jewry's King!"
A chaplet of thorn-branch was quickly plaited and thrust
upon the prisoner's head, and the long sharp spines bit deeply
in his tender flesh, so that a jewel-like diadem of ruby droplets
dewed his brow. Then another found a frayed and tattered
purple robe which they laid on his bleeding shoulders. Finally
a reed torn from a hearth-broom was thrust between his tight-