"But," said Augustus, "the accredited rumor runs that Herod condemned his two sons, Aristobulus and Alexander, to death. Nay, I have the official report sent to me at the time by the prefect of Syria, and letters from Herod the Idumæan himself."
"Herod condemned them, but the executioner killed others instead," answered the Jew. "They escaped to Sidon."
"Them and they!" said Augustus; "you mean that others were executed instead of them?"
"Yes, my commander."
"Why do you not," pursued Augustus, "say INSTEAD OF US?"
"I do not understand," replied the Jew.
"Are you not," asked Augustus, "one of them?"
"I am the son of Herod."
"You speak as though you had gone out of that person. You speak rather like a historian than like a sufferer and an actor. You are talking of yourself and your brother, yet you say THEY, not WE!"
"Such is the style of the east, emperor."