the torments which I shall have this even, for when I am in torment I am like a bit of lead molten in a crucible day and night.  In the midst of the mountain which ye have seen, there is Leviathan with his crew, and I was there when it swallowed up your brother, and therefore hell was glad, and sent forth great flames, and thus doth it ever when it devoureth the souls of the wicked.  But that ye may know the measureless goodness of God, I will tell you of my rest.  I have here my rest every Lord’s Day from evening to evening—­,"’ and then follow some words as to other days which are evidently corrupted both in Jubinal’s text and in that of the Salamanca MS. Then it continues, ’"But the other days I am tormented with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and therefore I beseech you for the sake of the Redeemer of the world, that ye be pleased to plead for me with the Lord Jesus that it be granted me to be here until to-morrow at the rising of the sun, that at your coming the devils may not torment me nor carry me away unto that evil heritage which I have bought unto myself."’ This is done.  There is some talk, from which it appears that the cloth is one which Judas once gave to a leper, the forks some which he had given to Priests whereon to hang pots, and the stone whereon he sits, one with which he had once filled up an hole in a public highway.  The whole episode closes thus:—­’At the breaking of the day, when the man of God began to take his journey, behold, an infinite multitude of devils covered the face of the deep, speaking with dreadful voices and saying, “O man of God, cursed be thy coming in and thy going out, for our prince hath scourged us this night with grievous stripes, because we brought him not that accursed prisoner.”  And the man of God saith unto them, “Let that curse be not upon us but upon you, for blessed is he whom ye curse, and cursed is he whom ye bless.”  The devils said, “That unhappy Judas shall suffer double pains these six days, because ye have shielded him this night.”  The saint saith unto them, “Ye have no power, neither your princes, for power is of God.”  And he said, “In the name of the Lord, I command you and your prince that ye put him to no greater torments than ye have been wont.”  They answered him, “Art thou the Lord of all, that we should obey thy words?” The man of God saith unto them, “I am the servant of the Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His Name, it is done; and I have no ministry save of them whom he giveth me.”  And so they followed him, continually blaspheming, until he was borne away from Judas; and the devils went back and lifted up that most unhappy soul among them, with a great rushing and shouting.’

This subject is one that ought not to be treated at all.  It ought to be left veiled in the unknown, as it has been left for us by the Infinite Mercy from Whose revelation we know all that we know about it.  As a matter of fact, I am only aware, as I have stated, of one other writer besides this Irish romancer, who has treated it.  That writer is Dante.  At the lowest depth of his Inferno sits Satan munching Brutus, Cassius, and Judas in his threefold mouth.  Brutus and Cassius have their heads and upper parts hanging outside the mouth.