‘Now Peter was sitting outside in the court, and a maid came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus the Galilaean.” '
As Peter was sat in the courtyard in the semi-darkness, surrounded by men who, if they discovered who he was, would, in his view, unquestionably have had him apprehended, he must undoubtedly have been in a state of constant high tension. He was an impulsive and brave man, which was how he came to be there, but he was not good at facing this kind of steady continual pressure. And when a servant girl approached him and said to him, “You also were with Jesus the Galilaean” (this was an expression of contempt, for Galilaeans were despised in Jerusalem. But in contrast we are also expected to recognise that it was in Galilee that the light had shone - Matthew 4:16), it all proved too much, and he tried to dismiss the suggestion by indicating that the idea was ludicrous. Most of us would have done something similar in the same situation. He was just evading recognition in the face of danger.
‘A maid came forward to him.' The verb is the same one as that used of he witnesses who ‘came forward' against Jesus (Matthew 26:60). Peter too was being witnessed against. The ‘also' used in her accusation may indicate that she knew of the other disciple who had entered the palace. Indeed that would explain how she knew who Peter was. She had after all let him in along with the other disciple who was known to her (John 18:15-17).