shed down and took him under their protection; and,
when their captain learned that he was a Roman citizen, his safety was
secured.

167. But the fanaticism of Jerusalem was now thoroughly aroused, and
it raged against the protection which surrounded Paul like an angry
sea. The Roman captain on the day after the apprehension took him down
to the Sanhedrin in order to ascertain the charge against him; but the
sight of the prisoner created such an uproar that he had to hurry him
away, lest he should be torn in pieces. Strange city and strange
people! There was never a nation which produced sons more richly
dowered with gifts to make her name immortal; there was never a city
whose children clung to her with a more passionate affection; yet, like
a mad mother, she tore the very goodliest of them in pieces and dashed
them mangled from her breast. Jerusalem was now within a few years of
her destruction; here was the last of her inspired and prophetic sons
come to visit her for the last time, with boundless love to her in his
heart; but she would have murdered him; and only the shields of the
Gentiles saved him from her fury.

168. Forty zealots banded themselves together under a curse to snatch
Paul even from the midst of the Roman swords; and the Roman captain was
only able to foil their plot by sending him under a heavy escort down
to Caesarea. This was a Roman city on the Mediterranean coast; it was
the residence of the Roman governor of Palestine and the headquarters
of the Roman garrison; and in it the apostle was perfectly safe from
Jewish violence.

169. Imprisonment at Caesarea.--Here he remained in prison for two
years. The Jewish authorities attempted again and again either to
procure his condemnation by the governor or to get him delivered up to
themselves, to be tried as an ecclesiastical offender; but they failed
to convince the governor that Paul had been guilty of any crime of
which he could take cognizance or to persuade him to hand over a Roman
citizen to their tender mercies. The prisoner ought to have been
released, but his enemies were so vehement in asserting that he was a
criminal of the deepest dye that he was detained on the chance of new
evidence turning up against him. Besides, his release was prevented by
the expectation of the corrupt governor, Felix, that the life of the
leader of a religious sect might be purchased from him with a bribe.
Felix was interested in his prisoner an