ce, over
which we must linger before proceeding to the civil trial. At the very
hour when in the hall of the high priest's house Christ was uttering
His great confession, one of His disciples was, in the court of the
same building, pouring out denial after denial.

I.

When Jesus was bound in Gethsemane and led away back to Jerusalem, all
His disciples forsook Him and fled. They disappeared, I suppose, among
the bushes and trees of the garden and escaped into the surrounding
country or wherever they thought they would be safe.

But two of the Twelve--St. Peter and St. John, who tells the
story--soon rallied from the first panic and followed, at a
distance,[1] the band in whose midst their Master was. Keeping in the
shadow of the trees by the roadside, keeping in the shadow of the
houses in the streets, they stole after the moving mass. At last, when
it got near its destination--the palace of the high priest---they
hurried forward; and St. John went in with the crowd; but somehow,
probably through irresolution, St. Peter was left outside in the
street; and the door was shut.

To understand what follows, it is necessary to describe more in detail
the construction of such a house as the high priest's palace; for it
was very unlike most of our houses. A Western house looks into the
street, but an Oriental into its own interior, having no opening to the
front except a great arched gateway, shut with a heavy door or gate.
When this door is opened, it discloses a broad passage, penetrating the
front building and leading into a square, paved courtyard, open to the
sky, round which the house is built, and into which its rooms, both
upstairs and downstairs, look. A similar arrangement is to be seen in
some large warehouses in our own cities, or you may have seen it in
large hotels on the Continent. It only requires to be added that on
the side of the passage, inside the outer gate, there is a room or
lodge for the porter or portress, who opens and shuts the gate; and in
the gate there is a little wicket by which individuals can be let in or
out.

When the band conducting Jesus appeared in front of the palace, no
doubt the portress opened the large gate to admit them and then shut it
again. They passed under the archway into the court, which they
crossed, and then entered one of the apartments overlooking the
courtyard. But the police and other underlings employed in the arrest,
their work being now done, stayed