A thousand voices threatening, shouting shrilly, demanded the Nazarene's death.
At that moment his wife sent to Pilate and reminded him of her dream.
He was inclined to set the accused free at once.

Then in the dim light of the torches and the dawning day a dark mass appeared above the heads of the people.

It was one of those criminals' stakes with the cross-beam like those erected out at Golgotha, only more massive and imposing.

They had dragged the cross here, and when it became visible to the crowd they broke out in heightened fury: "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Jesus or Pilate!" "Jesus--or Pilate ?" Was that what they shouted?
"Jesus or Pilate ?" was re-echoed from courtyard to courtyard, from street to street.
"Do you hear, Governor ?" one of the High Priests asked him.

"There is nothing else to be done! You see, the people haven't been asleep to-night.