The Templar Heresy

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‘The Lord Antipas wishes this event to be performed with dignity, and with a minimum of suffering,’ the chamberlain said, ‘so make sure it takes only a single blow.’

The executioner nodded and walked over to the guards to give them their instructions. Then he stepped back and watched as they led the condemned man forward to the centre of the cleared area, the ground under his tattered leather sandals beaten flat by the passage of innumerable feet and stained dark brown, a silent reminder of countless previous executions performed on the same spot. The victim looked around him calmly, gazing without apparent curiosity at the circle of spectators, people who had been drawn to the palace courtyard by the spectacle of his imminent death. Some fifty or sixty men, and just a handful of women, had assembled to witness this final act at the end of the day’s judicial proceedings. A gentle susurration was clearly audible, a muttering of conversation that had grown in volume as the condemned man was led into position by two soldiers.

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