e is at last taken, then, this Nazarene, who preached revolt!'

'Oh! he is less haughty now than when he was at the head of his troop of
vagabonds and abandoned women!'

'He preaches against the rich,' said a servant of the high priest; 'he
commands the renunciation of riches; but if our masters were to keep
poor cheer, we servants should be reduced to the lot of hungry beggars,
instead of fattening on the many feasts given by our masters.'

'And this is not all,' said another; 'if we listened to this cursed
Nazarene, our masters, voluntarily impoverished, would denounce all
pleasures; they would not throw away every day superb robes or tunics
because the embroidery or color of these garments did not please them.
Now, who profits by these caprices of our ostentatious masters, unless
ourselves, since tunics and robes all fall to our share?'

'And if our masters renounced pleasures, to live on fasting and prayer,
they would have no more gay mistresses, they would no longer charge us
with those amorous commissions, recompensed magnificently in case of
success!'

'Yes, yes,' they all cried together; 'death to the Nazarene who would
make of us, who live in idleness, abundance and gaiety, beggars or
beasts of burthen!'

Genevieve heard many other remarks, spoken half aloud and menacing for
the life of Jesus; one of the two mysterious emissaries, behind whom she
stood, said to his companion: 'Our evidence will now suffice to condemn
this cursed fellow; I have come to an understanding with Caiphus.'

At this moment one of the officers of the high priest, placed by the
side of the Nazarene and charged to watch him, struck with his mace on
the floor of the hall; immediately there was a dead silence. Then
Caiphus, after a few words exchanged in a low voice with the other
pharisees composing the tribunal, said to those assembled: 'Who are they
who can depose here against the man called Jesus of Nazareth?'

One of the two emissaries advanced to the foot of the tribunal and said
in a solemn voice:

'I swear having heard this man affirm that the high priests and doctors
of the law were all hypocrites, and that he treated them as a race of
serpents and vipers!'

A murmur of indignation rose from the soldiers and servants of the
priests, the judges looked at one another, appearing to ask each other
if it were possible that such words could have been pronounced. The
other emissary approached near his companion and added in a v