the
world of his crime, and of the price of his treachery. He ran like one
beside himself into the Temple, where several members of the Council
had gathered together after the judgment of Jesus. They looked at one
another with astonishment; and then turned their haughty countenances,
on which a smile of irony was visible, upon Judas. He with a frantic
gesture tore the thirty pieces of silver from his side, and holding
them forth with his right hand, exclaimed in accents of the most deep
despair, 'Take back your silver--that silver with which you bribed me to
betray this just man; take back your silver; release Jesus; our compact
is at an end; I have sinned grievously, for I have betrayed innocent
blood.' The priests answered him in the most contemptuous manner, and, as
if fearful of contaminating themselves by the contact of the reward of
the traitor, would not touch the silver he tended, but replied, 'What
have we to do with thy sin? If thou thinkest to have sold innocent
blood, it is thine own affair; we know what we have paid for, and we
have judged him worthy of death. Thou hast thy money, say no more.' They
addressed these words to him in the abrupt tone in which men usually
speak when anxious to get rid of a troublesome person, and instantly
arose and walked away. These words filled Judas with such rage and
despair that he became almost frantic: his hair stood on end on his
head; he rent in two the bag which contained the thirty pieces of
silver, cast them down in the Temple, and fled to the outskirts of the
town.

I again beheld him rushing to and fro like a madman in the valley of
Hinnom: Satan was by his side in a hideous form, whispering in his ear,
to endeavour to drive him to despair, all the curses which the prophets
had hurled upon this valley, where the Jews formerly sacrificed their
children to idols.

It appeared as if all these maledictions were directed against him,
as in these words, for instance: 'They shall go forth, and behold the
carcases of those who have sinned against me, whose worm dieth not, and
whore fires shall never be extinguished.' Then the devil murmured in his
ears, 'Cain, where is thy brother Abel? What hast thou done?--his blood
cries to me for vengeance: thou art cursed upon earth, a wanderer for
ever.' When he reached the torrent of Cedron, and saw Mount Olivet, he
shuddered, turned away, and again the words vibrated in his ear, 'Friend,
whereto art thou come? Judas, dost thou b