Then Pontius Pilate, turning towards the young man of Nazareth, said to him,
'Are you King of the Jews?'
'Do you say this of yourself?' inquired Jesus, in a voice weakened by suffering; 'or do you ask it of me because others have said it to you before me?'
'The high priests and senators have delivered you up to me,' said Pilate. 'What have you done? Do you pretend to be King of the Jews?'
Jesus gently shook his head, and said:
'My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom had been of this world, my friends would have combated to prevent my being delivered to you; but I repeat, my kingdom is not of this world.'
Pontius Pilate again turned to the pharisees, as if to take them as witnesses of Jesus' reply, which would absolve him, since he proclaimed that his kingdom was not of this world.
'His kingdom,' thought Genevieve, 'is no doubt, in unknown worlds, where, according to our druidical faith, we shall rejoin those we have loved here. How will they dare condemn Jesus as a rebel against the Emperor? He who has so often repeated:
"Render unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar's, and unto God that which is God's!"
But, alas! Genevieve forgot that the hatred of the pharisees was implacable.