He walked over to the shop door, stood there, and looked at the crowds while he awaited her waking.
VII
The Roman governor at Jerusalem had a young wife, and she had had a dream during the night preceding the day when Faustina entered the city.
She dreamed that she stood on the roof of her house and looked down upon the beautiful court, which, according to the Oriental custom, was paved with marble, and planted with rare growths.
But in the court she saw assembled all the sick and blind and halt there were in the world. She saw before her the pest-ridden, with bodies swollen with boils; lepers with disfigured faces; the paralytics, who could not move, but lay helpless upon the ground, and all the wretched creatures who writhed in torment and pain.
They all crowded up towards the entrance, to get into the house; and a number of those who walked foremost pounded on the palace door.
At last she saw that a slave opened the door and came out on the threshold, and she heard him ask what they wanted.
Then they answered him, saying: “We seek the great Prophet whom God hath sent to the world. Where is the Prophet of Nazareth, he who is master of all suffering? Where is he who can deliver us from all our torment?”
Then the slave answered them in an arrogant and indifferent tone—as palace servants do when they turn away the poor stranger:
“It will profit you nothing to seek the great Prophet. Pilate has killed him.”