“We are men unaccustomed to the use of arms. If we were to take issue with the Roman soldiery, they would kill us all, one after the other. Besides, you brought only two swords, and what could we do with only two?”
“We could get more. We could take them from the Roman soldiers,” Judas impatiently objected, and even the serious Thomas smiled through his overhanging moustache.
“Ah! Judas! Judas! But where did you get these? They are like Roman swords.”
“I stole them. I could have stolen more, only some one gave the alarm, and I fled.”
Thomas considered a little, then said sorrowfully—
“Again you acted ill, Judas. Why do you steal?”
“There is no such thing as property.”
“No, but to-morrow they will ask the soldiers: ‘Where are your swords?’ And when they cannot find them they will be punished though innocent.”
The consequence was, that after the death of Jesus the disciples recalled these conversations of Judas, and determined that he had wished to destroy them, together with the Master, by inveigling them into an unequal and murderous conflict. And once again they cursed the hated name of Judas Iscariot the Traitor.
But the angry Judas, after each conversation, would go to the women and weep. They heard him gladly. The tender womanly element, that there was in his love for Jesus, drew him near to them, and made him simple, comprehensible, and even handsome in their eyes, although, as before, a certain amount of disdain was perceptible in his attitude towards them.