“Put up again thy sword into its place,” said the Master; “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Then, answering further the thoughts that looked out of the bewildered, terror-stricken eyes of the man whom he had named “The Rock,” [pg 135]he said: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”
But he uttered no prayer to his Father, and the ranks of the angelic host remained hid from the expectant eyes that searched the empty heavens.
In that same hour Jesus said to the multitude which gathered about him, threatening, yet awe-stricken by the miracle, “Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
At that word the darkness closed in about him—and it was night.
In the courtyard of the high priest’s house Tor lurked in the shelter of a doorway and looked on. No one had noticed the child as he slipped in with the crowd that held at its core the silent Man of Nazareth. Peter had also followed. Tor watched the Galilean seat himself with the others at a small fire which was kindled in the midst of the place. He had turned his back upon the travesty of a legal examination which was going on at the upper end of the hall and was warming his fingers with an air of complete indifference.
“So the dangerous prophet is proven but a man of straw, after all,” quoth one of the lesser officers of the police with a contemptuous gesture toward the meek figure of the Nazarene. “Look you upon the fellow now, he hath never a word to say for himself, and there are [pg 137]no lightnings—no thunders. By the seven-branched candlestick, I declare to you that I was in a cold sweat when I laid hands on the man. But I felt nothing more terrible than an arm of flesh and blood under his rabbi’s robe.”
“A rabbi’s robe, indeed,” chuckled another. “He will wear another sort before many days, I promise you.”
“But what sayest thou to the healing of Ben-Joseph’s ear?” demanded a woman who had approached the fire. “I have just talked with the son of Joseph. He declares that from henceforth he is a believer.”
A great shout of laughter greeted this speech. “Ben-Joseph hath ever a nimble tongue,” quoth a black-bearded young fellow who carried a short sword stuck in his belt. “A nimble tongue, say I, [pg 138]and the long ears of an ass. One of the Galileans made a lunge at him, but, being a clumsy knave of a fisherman and knowing naught of the uses of a sword, he merely grazed the ear.”
“Nay, fellow, the ear was sliced clean off,” growled Peter, stung to retort by the sneering words of the Judean.