Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita -
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one cohort here in Jerusalem! Under the city walls you are going to see the
Fulminata legion at full strength and Arab cavalry too. Then the weeping and
lamentation will be bitter! Then you will remember that you saved Bar-Abba
and you will regret that you sent that preacher of peace to his death!
Flecks of colour spread over the High Priest's face, his eyes burned.
Like the Procurator he grinned mirthlessly and replied:
'Do you really believe what you have just said, Procurator? No, you do
not! It was not peace that this rabble-rouser brought to Jerusalem and of
that, hegamon, you are well aware. You wanted to release him so that he
could stir up the people, curse our faith and deliver the people to your
Roman swords! But as long as I, the High Priest of Judaea, am alive I shall
not allow the faith to be defamed and I shall protect the people! Do you
hear, Pilate?' With this Caiaphas raised his arm threateningly;
'Take heed. Procurator! '
Caiaphas was silent and again the Procurator heard a murmuring as of
the sea, rolling up to the very walls of Herod the Great's garden. The sound
flowed upwards from below until it seemed to swirl round the Procurator's
legs and into his face. Behind his back, from beyond the wings of the
palace, came urgent trumpet calls, the heavy crunch of hundreds of feet, the
clank of metal. It told the Procurator that the Roman infantry was marching
out, on his orders, to the execution parade that was to strike terror into
the hearts of all thieves and rebels
'Do you hear. Procurator? ' the High Priest quietly repeated his
words. ' Surely you are not trying to tell me that all this '-- here the
High Priest raised both arms and his dark cowl slipped from his head--' can
have been evoked by that miserable thief Bar-Abba?'
With the back of his wrist the Procurator wiped his damp, cold