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 betray the Son of Man with a kiss?’ Horror filled his soul, his head began to wander, and the arch fiend again whispered, ’It was here that David crossed the Cedron when he fled from Absalom.  Absalom put an end to his life by hanging himself.  It was of thee that David spoke when he said:  “And they repaid me evil for good; hatred for my love.  May the devil stand at his right hand; when he is judged, may he go out condemned.  May his days be few, and his bishopric let another take.  May the iniquity of his father be remembered in the sight of the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out, because he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor man and the beggar and the broken in heart, to put him to death.  And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him.  And he put on cursing like a garment, and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil into his bones.  May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle, with which he is girded continually.”  Overcome by these terrible thoughts Judas rushed on, and reached the foot of the mountain.  It was a dreary, desolate spot filled with rubbish and putrid remains; discordant sounds from the city reverberated in his ears, and Satan continually repeated, ’They are now about to put him to death; thou has sold him.  Knowest thou not the words of the law, “He who sells a soul among his brethren, and receives the price of it, let him die the death”?  Put an end to thy misery, wretched one; put an end to thy misery.’  Overcome by despair Judas tore off his girdle, and hung himself on a tree which grew in a crevice of the rock, and after death his body burst asunder, and his bowels were scattered around.

CHAPTER XV.

Jesus is taken before Pilate.