The gaoler saw little of the writing. Directly he rattled his keys, it
was hidden under the sheet--just as children hide their treasures from
intrusive eyes. When five or six weeks had gone by, hundreds of
written sheets lay there.

Konrad placed them in a cover and wrote on it

I.N.R.I.




CHAPTER I

When darkness covers the world men look gladly towards the east. There
light dawns. All lights come from out of the east. And the races of
men are said to have come hither from that quarter. There is an
ancient book, in which is written the beginning of things and of men.
The book came from the nation of the Jews, and the old Jews were called
the people of God, for they recognised only one eternal God. And great
men and holy prophets arose in that nation. The greatest of them was
named Moses, and it is written that he it was who brought down to men
the Ten Commandments. But the Jews fell on evil times, they sank lower
and lower and were heavily oppressed by stronger nations. Like us,
they suffered poverty and curses and despair, and this lasted for a
thousand years and more. Prophets appeared from time to time, and with
words of mercy announced that a Saviour would come to lead the Jews
into the kingdom of glory. For that Saviour they waited many hundreds
of years. Oftentimes one would appear whom they took for Him, but they