"The trial will be to-morrow; no man is condemned unheard," rejoined the soldiers, obeying orders in speaking thus, and fearing a disturbance. "No man is condemned in Jerusalem unheard," they repeated; "and for mercy's sake we brought Him first to Annas, for perchance he will set Him free."
"Annas, Annas, 't is indeed the merciful," cried the crowd derisively, making a play on the meaning of his name. Then closing doors pressed out the lingering bystanders, shut out the night and the free, fresh air, and every living witness of the Nazarene's arrest, for Peter had joined the servants in the offices of the palace. Alone Jesus appeared before Annas, but for the guard that attended Him.
Perhaps the old man hovering on the confines of life and death, with keener memory of prophecy, with greater crimes upon his head than had any other ruler, face to face at last with the majestic presence he had barely seen as it had wandered through the streets of Jerusalem and up and down the mountains, proclaiming upon earth its mission, felt a slight quivering, a fleeting terror lest events stupendous should befall. The sublime countenance of the Nazarene, that like a sunbeam had shone on earth for thirty years, the lateness of the hour, the silence inside his palace, the dull roar of the voices of the populace without—all these had their effect on the old man, who, like all the Jews, was not without his superstitions and belief in the supernatural. He had long desired to interrogate this Man, who, for three years had convulsed Jerusalem with His miracles and teachings; who, till now, had
