|
shade of a clump of gaunt mulberry trees. There, making the most of the
inadequate shade, the bored grooms lounged beside the horse-lines.
The troops were exhausted and their resentment of the victims was
understandable. Fortunately, however, Pilate's fears that disorders might
occur in Jerusalem during the execution were unjustified. When the fourth
hour of the execution had passed, against all expectation not a man remained
between the two cordons. The sun had scorched the crowd and driven it back
to Jerusalem. Beyond the ring formed by the two Roman centuries there were
only a couple of stray dogs. The heat had exhausted them too and they lay
panting with their tongues out, too weary even to chase the green-backed
lizards, the only creatures unafraid of the sun, which darted between the
broken stones and the spiny, ground-creeping cactus plants.
No one had tried to attack the prisoners, neither in Jerusalem, which
was packed with troops, nor on the cordoned hill. The crowd had drifted back
into town, bored by this dull execution and eager to join in the
preparations for the feast which were already under way in the city.
The Roman infantry forming the second tier was suffering even
it l glulmm rhf lf lrlklil gmllm kk mgmo lsim mk lo m q
sdjksdfsdfsdlgkj sdflkjsdf lksdjfsdfsdf
|
