For an hour we stood quietly in this packed
courtyard. Then the men began to grow restless.
There was pushing and shoving forward, and a
mild hubbub of voices. Nothing rough, however,
or violent; merely the restlessness of weary and
hungry men. At this juncture forth came the
adjutant. I did not like him. His eyes were not
good. There was nothing of the lowly Galilean
about him, but a great deal of the centurion who
said: " For I am a man in authority, having soldiers
under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth;
and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it"

Well, he looked at us in just that way, and those
nearest to him quailed. Then he lifted his voice.

"Stop this ere, now, or I ll turn you the other
wy, an march you out, an you ll get no break
fast."

I cannot convey by printed speech the insuffer
able way in which he said this, the self-conscious
ness of superiority, the brutal gluttony of power.
He revelled in that he was a man in authority,
able to say to half a thousand ragged wretches,
"You may eat or go hungry, as I elect."

To deny us our breakfast after standing for
hours ! It was an awful threat, and the pitiful,
abject silence which instantly fell attested its awful-
ness. And it was a cowardly threat, a foul blow,

[[130]]

p129 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p130w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p131

v?