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 against the profaner of the sanctuary, and Paul now seemed in a fair way to win the bloody crown of martyrdom.

The great noise made by the swarming multitudes who were gathering around Paul, soon reached the ears of the Roman garrison in castle Antonia, and the soldiers instantly hastened to tell the commanding officer, that "the whole city was in an uproar." The tribune, Claudius Lysias, probably thinking of a rebellion against the Romans, instantly ordered a detachment of several companies under arms, and hurried down with them, in a few moments, to the scene of the riot. The mob meanwhile were dilgently occupied in beating Paul; but as soon as the military force made their way among the crowd, the rioters left off beating him, and fell back. The tribune coming near, and seeing Paul alone in the midst, who seemed to be the object and occasion of all the disturbance, without hesitation seized him, and putting him in chains, took him out of the throng. He then demanded what all this riot meant. To his inquiry, the whole mob replied with various accounts; some cried one thing and some another; and the tribune finding it utterly impossible to learn from the rioters who he was or what he had done, ordered him to be taken up to the castle. Castle Antonia stood at the northwestern angle of the temple, close by one of the great entrances to it, near which the riot seems to have taken place. To this, Paul was now taken, and was borne by the surrounding soldiers, to keep off the multitude, who were raging for his blood, like hungry wolves after the prey snatched from their jaws,—and they all pressed after him, shouting, "kill him!" In this way Paul was carried up the stairs which led to the high entrance of the castle, which of course the soldiers would not allow the multitude to mount; and when he had reached the top of the stairs, he was therefore perfectly protected from their violence, though perfectly well situated for speaking to them so as to be distinctly seen and heard. As they were taking him up the stairs, he begged the attention of the tribune, saying, "May I speak to thee?" The tribune hearing this, in some surprise asked, "Canst thou speak Greek? Art thou not that Egyptian that raised a sedition some time ago, and led away into the wilderness a band of four thousand cut-throats?" This alarming revolt had been but lately put down with great trouble, and was therefore fresh in the mind of Lysias, who had been concerned in quelling it, along with the whole Roman force in Palestine,—and from some of the outcries of the mob, he now took up the