“Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”
“Herod?” asked the officer, confounded.
“Herod’s kingship is from Cæsar; not Herod.”
“There is no other King of the Jews.”
“But we have seen the star of him we seek, and come to worship him.”
The Roman was perplexed.
“Go farther,” he said, at last. “Go farther. I am not a Jew. Carry the question to the doctors in the Temple, or to Hannas the priest, or, better still, to Herod himself. If there be another King of the Jews, he will find him.”
Thereupon he made way for the strangers, and they passed the gate. But, before entering the narrow street, Balthasar lingered to say to his friends, “We are sufficiently proclaimed. By midnight the whole city will have heard of us and of our mission. Let us to the khan now.”
CHAPTER XIII
That evening, before sunset, some women were washing clothes on the upper step of the flight that led down into the basin of the Pool of Siloam. They knelt each before a broad bowl of earthenware. A girl at the foot of the steps kept them supplied with water, and sang while she filled the jar. The song was cheerful, and no doubt lightened their labor. Occasionally they would sit upon their heels, and look up the slope of Ophel, and round to the summit of what is now the Mount of Offence, then faintly glorified by the dying sun.