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

[38]



engrossed on stiffened parchment. Pilate smiled with grim
amusement as he passed the sheet to Claudius.
"Take thou this unto the place of execution, and with
thine own hand fix it over the young Prophet's head," he
ordered. "'Twill give Caiaphas and his plate-lickers something
fresh to whine about."
The centurion glanced at the scroll. In letters large
enough for those who walked to read yet not be forced to
slacken pace or strain their eyes is proclaimed:

IESVS NAZARENVS

REX IVDAEORVM

Which was to say: "This is Jesus (for such was the forename
that the young Prophet bore) King of the Jews." Not only in
Latin, but in Hebrew and Greek as well was the legend writ,
that all who passed the place of crucifixion, whatever tongue
they spake, might read and understand.
"They have prated long about a king who shall sweep
away the power of Rome," the Procurator smiled. "Let them
look upon him now, gibbeted upon a cross. By Jupiter, I
would that I might see that fat priest's face when he reads my
superscription!"
Three crosses crowned the bald-topped hill when
Claudius reached the place of crucifixion. On two of them
hung burly robbers, nailed by hands and feet, supported by

[39]



the wooden peg or sedule set like a dowel in the upright beam
between their legs, that their bodies might not sag too much
or fall down from the gallows if their hands tore loose from
the nails with their weight. In the center, spiked upon the
tallest cross, hung the young Prophet, his frailer body already
beginning to give way beneath the dreadful torment it
endured. A decurion set a ladder up beside the cross, and
armed with nail and hammer Claudius mounted quickly and
fixed the placard to the upright beam above the bowed head
of the dying man.
A thin, high, nickering cry of mixed astonishment and
rage sounded as the legend on the card appeared. "Not that!"
screamed Caiaphas as he put his hand up to his throat and