When the wicked Abner read this, he turned angrily to the centurion, and to Æmilius, who stood sadly near the cross.
"Write not, O Roman, that he is 'King of the Jews,' but that he said he was King of the Jews!"
"I have placed above him what Pilate has ordered to be written," answered the centurion.
Abner, upon this, mounted a mule and hastened into the city to the Procurator, and laid his complaint before him.
"What I have written, I have written, sir priest," we have heard that the Procurator coldly answered.
"But you, then, have crucified this man for being our king, which we deny!" retorted Abner.
"I will take his word, before that of all the Jews in Cæsar's empire!" answered Pilate angrily. "He said he was a king; and if ever a king stood before a human tribunal, I have had a true and very king before me to-day—and I have signed the warrant for his execution. But his blood be on your heads! Leave my presence, Jew!"
Abner left his presence abashed, and returned to the place of crucifixion. The Jews, in the meanwhile, mocked Jesus, and wagged their heads at him, and reminded him of his former miracles and prophecies.
"Thou that raisedst Lazarus, save thyself from death!" said a Pharisee.
"If thou art the Son of God, prove it by coming down from the cross!" cried the leader of the Sadducees, Eli.