As an old cheat, coughing, smiling fawningly, bowing incessantly, Judas Iscariot the Traitor appeared before the Sanhedrin.  It was the day after the murder of Jesus, about mid-day.  There they were all, His judges and murderers:  the aged Annas with his sons, exact and disgusting likenesses of their father, and his son-in-law Caiaphas, devoured by ambition, and all the other members of the Sanhedrin, whose names have been snatched from the memory of mankind—­rich and distinguished Sadducees, proud in their power and knowledge of the Law.

In silence they received the Traitor, their haughty faces remaining motionless, as though no one had entered.  And even the very least, and most insignificant among them, to whom the others paid no attention, lifted up his bird-like face and looked as though no one had entered.

Judas bowed and bowed and bowed, and they looked on in silence:  as though it were not a human being that had entered, but only an unclean insect that had crept in, and which they had not observed.  But Judas Iscariot was not the man to be perturbed:  they kept silence, and he kept on bowing, and thought that if it was necessary to go on bowing till evening, he could do so.

At length Caiaphas inquired impatiently: 

“What do you want?”

Judas bowed once more, and said in a loud voice—­

“It is I, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed to you Jesus of Nazareth.”

“Well, what of that?  You have received your due.  Go away!” ordered Annas; but Judas appeared unconscious of the command, and continued bowing.  Glancing at him, Caiaphas asked Annas: 

“How much did you give?”

“Thirty pieces of silver.”

Caiaphas laughed, and even the grey-bearded Annas laughed, too, and over all their proud faces there crept a smile of enjoyment; and even the one with the bird-like face laughed.  Judas, perceptibly blanching, hastily interrupted with the words: 

“That’s right!  Certainly it was very little; but is Judas discontented, does Judas call out that he has been robbed?  He is satisfied.  Has he not contributed to a holy cause—­yes, a holy?  Do not the most sage people now listen to Judas, and think:  He is one of us, this Judas Iscariot; he is our brother, our friend, this Judas Iscariot, the Traitor!  Does not Annas want to kneel down and kiss the hand of Judas?  Only Judas will not allow it; he is a coward, he is afraid they will bite him.”

Caiaphas said: 

“Drive the dog out!  What’s he barking about?”

“Get along with you.  We have no time to listen to your babbling,” said Annas imperturbably.

Judas drew himself up and closed his eyes.  The hypocrisy, which he had carried so lightly all his life, suddenly became an insupportable burden, and with one movement of his eyelashes he cast it from him.  And when he looked at Annas again, his glance was simple, direct, and terrible in its naked truthfulness.  But they paid no attention to this either.