Somewhere, afar off, lights gleamed among the dark trees; stealthy footfalls and hushed voices beyond the garden wall reached the boy’s keen ears. He sprang up and listened intently.
The glare of smoking torches and the irregular tread of hurrying feet sent vibrations of horror through the shuddering night. But the Man of Nazareth no longer lay upon his face amid the shadows. He came forth to receive the brimming cup of his sorrows radiant with the power that had never failed him. Stooping over his sleeping disciples he called them: “Arise, let us be going: behold, he that betrayeth me is at hand.”
Now Judas had before agreed with the officers that he would greet his Master with a kiss. “So that ye may know the man from his disciples,—stupid dolts every one and not worth the taking.”
As the motley crowd of temple police, bearing torches, followed by a rabble of the curious, advanced into the gloom of the garden a superstitious awe fell upon them. They drew back to a man and [pg 133]hesitated, casting fearful glances at the dark masses of trees moving gently in the night wind. Some unseen, noiseless terror seemed to lurk amid the shifting shadows. “If the man be a prophet,” whispered one, “there be blasting lightnings at his call. Let us go back.”
But Judas turned his sneering face upon the speaker with a low laugh of scorn. “Master! Master!” he cried mockingly, and running forward he clasped and kissed the Saviour of the world.
Jesus said to him, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?”
“Lord, shall we smite with the sword?” cried one of the disciples.
Not waiting for an answer, Peter drew his weapon and aimed a mighty blow at the officer nearest him. The man fell back with a bellow of rage and pain, [pg 134]while his companions sprang forward and seized Jesus.
The eyes of the prisoner, grave, calm, and compassionate, were fixed upon the wounded man, from whose severed ear blood spurted in a torrent. “Permit me thus far,” he said gently to the officers who grasped him by the arms, and reaching forth he touched the ear and healed it.
Then that omniscient gaze turned full upon Peter, who stood staring in a frozen stupor at the being he had believed to be the invincible Messiah.