“Ecce Homo.”
And the crowd shouted: “Not this man, but Barabbas.”
Pilate ironically congratulated them:
“You are right, O ignorant People!” and, telling Barabbas to go and thieve again, he liberated him.
Then the false witnesses came. One was a soldier, the other a Turk. They took the oath to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. They were both of them stupid and comic, confused and contradictory, and made the audience laugh, and when one of them admitted that he had been bribed, Annas in his rage gobbled like a turkey.
Pilate closed the debate and washed his hands in a basin held by a servant. Then he wrote the sentence and made Misandro read it. The trial lasted a whole hour, the intention being, I suppose, to reproduce that tediousness which is so characteristic of real trials.
In the next scene Judas continued his remorse and Peter—it was really Peter this time—came and counselled him to ask pardon of Jesus, but he would not listen.
Then came the journey to Calvary and the meeting with the Daughters of Jerusalem and S. Veronica, Misandro ill-treating the women and Claudio Cornelio protecting them.
The last scene was the Crucifixion. The thieves were in place. At the back was the Cross lying on the ground. The figure of Christ was nailed to it by a Turk with a hammer; the Cross was raised; Misandro approved; the Turk gave the sponge; Misandro reviled Christ, saying: “Thou that destroyest the temple of God and buildest it in three days, save thyself”; Christ and the thieves held their dialogue; the Madonna and S. John stood at the foot of the Cross while Christ spoke the sentences and inclined his head. Then there was the earthquake, and we saw the souls in purgatory surrounding the Cross and heard them welcoming their Lord.