Loud and fierce were the utterances of the evil-faced one and his companions, and they cursed their gods for this disappointment. Also they blamed themselves much that they had not sooner taken courage to slay the Greek. It was for this, their cowardice and delay, they said, that the gods had mocked them.
"Never again," said the evil-faced one, "will I throw away a gift that they have placed in my hand. But they might have allowed me the chance I had chosen this night. I have but small confidence in the gods. They are treacherous."
Strong and well made was the Roman camp at the foot of the hill whereon was the castle. There were intrenchments and a mound and lines of palisades, and before these there was drawn up a full cohort of legionaries. It was an evening parade, and along the glittering line there rode without companions an eagle-faced man, who wore no armor.
"Half drilled!" he muttered, angrily. "It is well we are at peace. Of what good were such as these upon the Parthian frontier? Julius Cæsar would never have beaten the Nervii with these dwarfs to face the stout barbarians. He would but have left them to rot in the wilderness, as Crassus did his Syrian levies. But I think I can teach these fellows that they cannot trifle with Pontius the Spearman."
Backward and all around the cohort rode the wrathful procurator of Judea, addressing no man, and then he wheeled and rode out to the highway.
"O thou upon the swift ass!" he suddenly shouted. "Come hither! I require thee."
Bowing low, but answering not, Lysias obeyed him, awaiting further speech.
"Is thy beast as swift as he seemeth?" said Pontius. "I know a good beast. Is he tired?"
"Never saw I one as swift," said Lysias. "But at the close of a day he were better for a rest."
"He may have a short one," said the Roman general, wisely. "I prepare a message that will take thy head with it if it be not delivered rightly. I have naught here but clumsy beasts that travel a league a day."