Page:As others saw Him.djvu/132

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126
AS OTHERS SAW HIM.

my mantle over my head, hurried out after the passers-by. But when they came to the Broad Place before the Water Gate, they turned sharp to the right, and went down the Tyropœon as far as the Fountain Gate, where I overtook them. There I found all the most turbulent of the city population. Some of the men I knew had been engaged in the recent riot under Jesus Bar Abbas. Others were the leading Zealots in Jerusalem, and all were men eager for the freeing of the city from the Romans. And among them, too, were others who cared not for freedom, nor hated the Romans, but would only be too pleased if the city were given up to disorder and rapine. While these waited there, we heard cries from behind us, and looking back, saw filing out from the Temple courts on to the Xystus Bridge, and down into the Tyropœon, the brigade of beggars who pass almost their whole life in the Court of the Gentiles. These came down slowly, for among them were many halt and some blind, and all were old and feeble of limb. "Why come they forth from the courts?" I asked; "and why are we waiting?"