His pleas were met with harsh anger.

It began with insults, then shouts of condemnation. The mass in one accord rushed him…

Then came the rocks. The first hit only his arm, but hurt none the less. Then a second, and a third, and these turned into what seemed an endless flow of bruising blows, until finally he could no longer keep his footing. He fell to the ground where he died.

Standing behind the crowd, a young man looked on with approval. Satisfied the world was a better place without this menace, he considered how to further the elimination of all those who thought as this one did. His train of thought was broken by an utterance from the man on the ground, what was his dying breath. What he thought he heard he quickly dismissed as just noises from the crowd.

Many years later this now aged man…