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and the shrieks of several women audible above the roar. That means they have led them out on to the platform, thought Pilate, and those screams are from women who were crushed when the crowd surged sean john leather coats forward. He waited for a while, knowing that nothing could silence the crowd until it had let loose its pent-up feelings and quietened of its own accord. When that moment came tlie Procurator threw up his right hand and the last murmurings of the crowd expired. Then sean john leather coats Pilate took as deep a breath as he could of the hot air and his cracked voice rang out over the thousands of heads : In the name of imperial Caesar! . . . At once his ears were struck by a clipped, metallic chorus as the cohorts, raising lances and standards, roared out their fearful response: Hail, Caesar! Pilate jerked his head up straight at the sun. He had a sensation of green fire piercing his eyelids, his brain seemed to burn. In hoarse Aramaic he flung his words out over the crowd : Four criminals, arrested in sean john leather coats Jerusalem for murder, incitement to rebellion, contempt of the law and blasphemy, have been condemned to the most shameful form of execution--crucifixion! Their execution will be carried out shortly on Mount Golgotha The names of these felons are Dismas, Hestas, Bar-Abba and sean john leather coats Ha-Notsri and there they stand before you! Pilate pointed to the right, unable to see the prisoners but knowing that they were standing where they should be. The crowd responded with a long rumble that could have been surprise or relief. When it had subsided Pilate went on : But only three of them are to be executed for, in accordance with law and custom, in honour of the great feast of Passover the emperor Caesar in his magnanimity will, at the choice of the Lesser Sanhedrin and with the approval of the Roman government, render back to one of these convicted men his contemptible life! As Pilate rasped out his words he noticed that the rumbling had given way to a great silence. Now not a sigh, not a rustle reached his ears and there even came a moment when it seemed to Pilate that the people around him had

vanished altogether. The city he so hated might have died and only he alone stood there, scorched by the vertical rays of the sun, his face craning skywards. Pilate allowed the silence to continue and then began to shout again: The name sean john leather coats of the man who is about to be released before you . . . He paused once more, holding back the name, mentally confirming that he had said everything, because he knew that as soon as he pronounced the name of the fortunate man the lifeless city would awaken and nothing more that he

might say would be audible. Pilate turned and walked back along the platform towards the steps, glancing only at the parti-coloured wooden blocks of the steps beneath his feet to save himself from stumbling. He knew that behind his back a hail of bronze coins and dates was showering the platform, that people in the whooping crowd, elbowing each other aside, were climbing on to shoulders to see a miracle with their own eyes--a man already in the arms of death and torn from their grasp! They watched the sean john leather coats legionaries as they untied his bonds, involuntarily causing him searing pain in his swollen arms, watched as grimacing and complaining he nevertheless smiled an insane, senseless smile. Pilate knew that the escort was now marching the three bound prisoners to the side steps of the platform to

lead them off on the road westward, out of the city, towards Mount Golgotha. Only when he stood beneath and behind the platform did Pilate open his eyes, knowing that he was now safe--he could no longer see the convicted men. As the roar of the

crowd began to die down the separate, piercing voices of the heralds could be heard repeating, one in Aramaic, the others in Greek, the announcement that the Procurator had just made from the platform. Besides that his ears caught the approaching irregular clatter sean john leather coats of horses hoofs and the sharp, bright call of a trumpet. This sound was echoed by the piercing whistles of boys from the rooftops and by shouts of Look out! A lone soldier, standing in the space cleared in the square, waved his standard in warning, at which the sean john leather coats Procurator, the Legate of the Legion and their escort halted. A squadron of cavalry entered the square at a fast trot, cutting across it diagonally, past a knot of people, then down a side-street along a vine-covered stone wall in order to gallop on to Mount Golgotha by the shortest route. As the squadron commander, a Syrian as small as a boy and as dark as a mulatto, trotted past Pilate he gave a high-pitched cry and drew his sword from its scabbard. His sweating, ugly-tempered black horse snorted sean john leather coats