him," I sneered. "Doubtless you will wear a crown when he wins
to his kingdom."

She nodded affirmation, and I could have struck her in the face for her
folly. I drew aside, and as she moved slowly on she murmured:

"His kingdom is not here. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God.
He is whatever He has said, or whatever has been said of Him that is good
and great."

* * * * *

"A wise man of the East," I found Pilate chuckling. "He is a thinker,
this unlettered fisherman. I have sought more deeply into him. I have
fresh report. He has no need of wonder-workings. He out-sophisticates
the most sophistical of them. They have laid traps, and He has laughed
at their traps. Look you. Listen to this."

Whereupon he told me how Jesus had confounded his confounders when they
brought to him for judgment a woman taken in adultery.

"And the tax," Pilate exulted on. "'To Caesar what is Caesar's, to God
what is God's,' was his answer to them. That was Hanan's trick, and
Hanan is confounded. At last has there appeared one Jew who understands
our Roman conception of the State."

* * * * *

Next I saw Pilate's wife. Looking into her eyes I knew, on the instant,
after having seen Miriam's eyes, that this tense, distraught woman had
likewise seen the fisherman.

"The Divine is within Him," she murmured to me. "There is within Him a
personal awareness of the indwelling of God."

"Is he God?" I queried, gently, for say something I must.

She shook her head.

"I do not know. He has not said. But this I know: of such stuff gods
are made."

* * * * *

"A charmer of women," was my privy judgment, as I left Pilate's wife
walking in dreams and visions.

The last days are known to all of you who read these lines, and it was in
those last days that I learned that this Jesus was equally a charmer of
men. He charmed Pilate. He charmed me.

After Hanan had sent Jesus to Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrim, assembled in
Caiaphas's house, had condemned Jesus to death, Jesus, escorted by a
howling mob, was sent to Pilate for execution.

Now, for his own sake and for Rome's sake, Pilate did not want to execute
him. Pilate was little interested in the fisherman and greatly
interested in peace and order. What cared Pilate for a man's life?--for
many men's lives? The school of Rome was iron, and the governors sent
out by Rome to rule conquered peoples were likewise iron. Pilate thought
and acted in governmental