"Art thou mocking us, thou false Christ?" cried the Tetrarch angrily. "Wilt thou neither speak nor act? If thou art not an impostor, do a miracle before us all, and we will believe in thee!"
Jesus remained motionless, yet preserved a firm and majestic countenance.
"He is a deceiver! He performed his works through Beelzebub, who has now deserted him!" cried the priests.
"Nazarene," said Herod, "I am a Jew also. If thou wilt prove to me by a sign that I will name, that thou art the Christ, I will not only become thy follower, but will let thee go free. Thy silence is an insult to my power. Thou seest yonder marble statue of Judas Maccabeus. Command the sword in its hand to wave thrice above its helmeted head, and I will bend the knee to thee. Nay, wilt not? I will give thee then, something easier to do. Seest thou the carved pomegranates in the entablature of the wall? Bid the one which hangs over this column become ripe, natural fruit, and fall at my feet. No?"
"He has no power—his friend Beelzebub hath given him up into our hands! Death to the necromancer!" were the terrible words which now made the hall tremble.
"See the whirlwind thou hast raised, O Nazarene!" cried Herod, rising. "If thou art a prophet, no harm can they do thee; and if thou art an impostor, if they kill thee thou deservest thy fate! I give thee up into their hands! Save thyself, if thou be the Christ!"
Scarcely had Herod spoken these words, relinquishing Jesus into the hands of his foes, than with a savage cry, as the famished jackals in the desert rush upon their prey, they rushed upon their victim. Æmilius could not protect him; nay, some of Herod's soldiers, whom the Jews had half intoxicated with wine, joined them as soon as they saw their master Antipas had cast him off, and began to scoff and mock him, and one of them thrust a helmet on his head and pulled the visor down over his eyes.
"Nay," said Herod on seeing this. "As he calls himself a king, remove the helmet and crown him, and robe him royally, and place a sceptre in his hand; and lo, yonder block will make him a proper throne! We must show Pilate how we Jews serve men who usurp the power of his master, Cæsar!"
One of his men of war brought a cast-off robe of purple which belonged to Herod and, with loud shouts of laughter and coarse jests, they robed him in it, unresisting as the lamb wreathed for the sacrifice. Some one then twined the creeping thorn, which grew on the outer wall, and, twisting it into the shape of a crown, handed it over the heads of the men to Abner.
When Abner saw the crown he smiled with malicious gratification and, nodding approvingly to the man said: