Free The Kingdom of the Wicked by Anthony Burgess

worshippers — less real generosity than a token of it.
           Peter and John were also going to the Temple for the ceremony of the ninth hour. The other disciples were sleepy; the baptizing of a thousand or so had been hard work. So Peter and John mounted to the Court of Israel through the Court of the Gentiles, passing the notice which said in Greek and Latin that the unbeliever would be stoned to death if he went any further. There were nine gates from the outer court to the inner, and one of these, which led to the Court of the Women, was called the Nicanor Gate or the Gate Beautiful. It was made of Corinthian bronze and was skilfully crafted. It had, of course, cost a pretty penny. As Peter and John approached this gate, they saw a cripple on a cart, a boy with him. The beggar had a strod or thumb — stick with a crossbar. He said to Peter and John:
           'In the name of the Lord, give. For the sake of the love of the Lord —’
           Peter saw the cruciform shadow of the beggar's stick on the square right post of the gate. He was being told something. Peter looked the beggar in the eyes and waited for the capricious Holy Spirit to rush in. 'Look at me,' he said. And then: 'We have no gold nor silver, being poor men like yourself. But what I have I now give you. Get out of that cart. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.'
           The beggar made a grotesque mime of walking, to show that he could not, and then, to Peter and John's surprise as much as his, got up on his useless feet. Peter held out his right hand and he took it. Then he found he could walk.
           'Always knew he was a cheat,' a Sadducee said. 'The same with too many of them here. He's certainly kept it up for a long time.' The beggar allowed indignation to usurp the place of fear, wonder, gratitude, regret at the loss of his trade: ask, and you always get too much or too little, never enough. He said:
           'I know you, Zadok the fat, and you know me. I'm coming up to forty-one and I've had no use of the ankles since I was born. Now, look at that bone and muscle and praise the Lord's goodness before you start sneering.'
           'You'll have to dance for a living now,' the Sadducee sneered. 'Watch me.' And the beggar began to leap and cavort. A Pharisee nodded in awe and said:
           'Isaiah thirty-five six. "Then shall the lame man leap as a hart".'
           'Come in with us,' Peter said, embarrassed. 'Pray. Attend the sacrifice.' So the beggar leapt the way along to the candled gloom within and merely walked in a decorous fashion down to the place of sacrifice. When he and Peter and John came out again, they were followed by a large crowd towards Solomon's colonnade. Peter knew he had to say something, so he waited for what he took to be an inflation from the Holy Spirit, a bird fluttering in his lungs and fire on his tongue, and he spoke.
           'People of Israel, what you see you truly see, no trickery. What has happened to this leaping beggar here has not come out of any power or goodness that I have, or that John here has. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who is the God of our fathers has glorified the Lord Jesus his servant. Don't forget that it was you who delivered him up to what you called justice in your mealymouthed ignorance. You had him stretched on a tree and jeered at while you let a murderer go free to commit more murders. The Prince of Life is what he was and is, for we saw him rise up from the grave. Faith in his name turned into the strength which made this man whole. Now you see that what was prophesied was no foolery. Repent and be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Set your feet on the new road.'
           'Trickery,' muttered some of the Sadducees, 'for all his fine blasphemous talk. Ah — now we'll see.'
           For the crowd and the flying rumour of a miracle had brought to the colonnade of Solomon the chief of the Temple police, the sagan