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     'And . ..  and you've  been invited  here in that capacity?' he  asked,
stammering.
     'Yes, in that capacity,' the professor confirmed,  and explained: 'In a
state  library   here   some   original  manuscripts  of  the  tenth-century
necromancer Gerbert of Aurillac[26] have  been  found. So  it  is
necessary for me to sort them out. I am the only specialist in the world.'
     'Aha! You're a historian?' Berlioz asked with great relief and respect.
     'I am a historian,' the scholar confirmed, and added with  no rhyme  or
reason: This evening there will be an interesting story at the Ponds!'
     Once again editor and poet were  extremely surprised, but the professor
beckoned them both to him, and when they leaned towards him, whispered:
     'Bear in mind that Jesus did exist.'
     'You  see. Professor,' Berlioz  responded  with  a  forced  smile,  'we
respect  your great  learning, but  on this question we hold  to a different
point of view.'
     'There's  no  need  for  any  points  of view,'  the  strange professor
replied, 'he simply existed, that's all.'
     'But there's need for some proof. . .' Berlioz began. "There's  no need
for any  proofs,' replied the professor, and he began to speak softly, while
his accent for  some reason disappeared: 'It's all  very simple: In a  white
cloak with blood-red lining, with  the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, early
in the  morning of  the fourteenth  day  of  the  spring month of Nisan .  .
,'[27]

CHAPTER 2. Pontius Pilate

     In a white cloak  with  blood-red lining, with the shuffling gait of  a
cavalryman, early in the morning of  the fourteenth day of  the spring month
of  Nisan, there came out to the  covered colonnade between the two wings of
the  palace  of  Herod  the Great'  the  procurator of  Judea,[2]
Pontius Pilate.[3]

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