“What is day?” asked Judas.
Now everything is ablaze, everything glows, everything has grown young, and the smoke above is no longer blue but pink. The sun is rising.
“What is the sun?” asketh Judas.
CHAPTER VIII.
They pointed him out with their fingers, and some contemptuously, while others with hatred and terror added:
“See, this is Judas, the Traitor.”
This was the beginning of his shameful infamy to which he condemned himself for all ages. Thousands of years will pass, nation will succeed nation, and still the words will be heard in the air, uttered with contempt and dread by the good and the evil:
“Judas, the Traitor! Judas, the Traitor!”
But he listened with indifference to the words spoken concerning him, absorbed in a feeling of a supreme curiosity. From the very morn that Jesus was led out of the guard-house after His chastisement Judas followed Him, his heart strangely free from longing, pain or joy. It was only filled with the unconquerable craving to see and to hear all. Though he had not slept all night he felt as though walking on air; where the people would not let him pass he elbowed his way forward and with agility gained a point of vantage. During the examination of Jesus by Kaiaphas he held his hand to his ear so as not to lose a word and nodded his head approvingly, whispering:
“That’s so. That’s so. Hearest Thou this, Jesus?”