s not
unworthy of his kingdom, but the kingdom of the King. There was
something loftier even than royalty in the glazing eyes which never
ceased to look with sorrow on the City of Righteousness, which had now
become a city of murderers. The Jews felt the intensity of the scorn
with which Pilate had treated them. It so completely poisoned their hour
of triumph that they sent their chief priests in deputation, begging the
governor to alter the obnoxious title. "Write not," they said, "'The
King of the Jews,' but that 'He _said_, I am the King of the Jews.'" But
Pilate's courage, which had oozed away so rapidly at the name of Caesar,
had now revived. He was glad in any and every way to browbeat and thwart
the men whose seditious clamor had forced him in the morning to act
against his will. Few men had the power of giving expression to a
sovereign contempt more effectually than the Romans. Without deigning
any justification of what he had done, Pilate summarily dismissed these
solemn hierarchs with the curt and contemptuous reply, "What I have
written I have written."

In order to prevent the possibility of any rescue, even at the last
moment--since instances had been known of men taken from the cross and
restored to life--a quaternion of soldiers with their centurion were
left on the ground to guard the cross. The clothes of the victims always
fell as perquisites to the men who had to perform so weary and
disagreeable an office. Little dreaming how exactly they were fulfilling
the mystic intimations of olden Jewish prophecy, they proceeded,
therefore, to divide between them the garments of Jesus. The _tallith_
they tore into four parts, probably ripping it down the seams; but the
_cetoneth_, or undergarment, was formed of one continuous woven texture,
and to tear would have been to spoil it; they therefore contented
themselves with letting it become the property of any one of the four to
whom it should fall by lot. When this had been decided, they sat down
and watched him till the end, beguiling the weary lingering hours by
eating and drinking, and gibing, and playing dice.

It was a scene of tumult. The great body of the people seem to have
stood silently at gaze; but some few of them as they passed by the
cross--perhaps some of the many false witnesses and other conspirators
of the previous night--mocked at Jesus with insulting noises and furious
taunts, especially bidding him come down from the cross and save
himself,