Tertullus turned to question the captive, while the clerk of the court, with lifted pen, sat ready to record the dialogue; for, be it known, there were in that age scribes who, by a system of abbreviations, were capable of writing as fast as a man could speak. “Your name?” began Tertullus. “You ask me my name?” said the Zealot with a laugh of scorn. “You ought to know, seeing what fear it has put into the hearts of you Romans. I am Simon, son of Giora, of the tribe of Benjamin.” “Your birthplace?” “Gerasa, beyond Jordan.” “Your calling?” “Slayer of the Romans.” “Consider! You desire the clerk to write down that answer?” “Let him write it twice, yea thrice, and in his largest characters.” “You confess, then, that you are of the sect known as the Zealots?” “A curse on your Gentile terms; I am of the sect of the Kenaïm.” “Zealots or Kenaïm, ’tis much the same. What are their tenets?” “These: call no one king but God; pay no tax save to the temple; slay every Roman who presumes to exercise authority over the holy seed.” “‘Call no one king but God’? Then you do not acknowledge the authority of Cæsar?” “Cæsar!” It is impossible to describe the contempt with which he spoke the name. “Cæsar! I spit at the name of Cæsar.” And he did, there and then, upon the pavement. This repudiation of imperial authority was received by the servile Græco-Syrian mob with a roar of execration. “_Læsa majestas!_” was their cry. “Fling him over the rails!” “‘Assassinate every Roman’?” continued Tertullus. “Then you would assassinate Florus, if you could?” The very suggestion caused the face of the Zealot to mantle with ferocious joy. “Place a dagger in my freed hands, set me within three paces of him, and you shall see.” “The court will take the will for the deed,” observed Tertullus dryly. “Attend to the indictment. You are charged with being the chief of a band of Zealots, or, if it please you, Kenaïm. Stationed among the heights in the Pass of Adummim, it was your wont to issue forth, and to rob and to hang every Roman that came that way.” “A marvel! A lawyer speaks the truth!” “How many Romans have been put to death by you?” “Put that question to the vultures. I kept no register of the slain. Thus much I know, that, give me my freedom, and you shall see me repeat the work with a new band.” “Traitor to the empire, do you glory in your guilt?”