Haggart bursts out laughing.

“Now you have said something funny.  And I?  Listen, Flerio, old friend.  This woman who stands and looks—­No, that will not be funny!”

He advances a step.

“Khorre, do you remember how well this man prayed?  Why was he killed?  He prayed so well.  But there is one prayer he did not know—­ this one—­’To you I bring my great eternal sorrow; I am going to you, Father Ocean!’”

And a distant voice, sad and grave, replies: 

“Oh, Haggart, my dear Haggart.”

But who knows—­perhaps it was the roaring of the waves.  Many sad and strange dreams come to man on earth.

“All aboard!” exclaims Haggart cheerily, and goes off without looking around.  Below, a gay noise of voices and laughter resounds.  The cobblestones are rattling under the firm footsteps—­Haggart is going away.

“Haggart!”

He goes, without turning around.

“Haggart!”

He has gone away.

Loud shouting is heard—­the sailors are greeting Haggart.  They drink and go off into the darkness.  On the shore, the torches which were cast aside are burning low, illumining the body, and a woman is rushing about.  She runs swiftly from one spot to another, bending down over the steep rocks.  Insane Dan comes crawling out.

“Is that you, Dan?  Do you hear, they are singing, Dan?  Haggart has gone away.”

“I was waiting for them to go.  Here is another one.  I am gathering the pipes of my organ.  Here is another one.”

“Be accursed, Dan!”

“Oho?  And you, too, Mariet, be accursed!”

Mariet clasps the child in her arms and lifts him high.  Then she calls wildly: 

“Haggart, turn around!  Turn around, Haggart!  Noni is calling you.  He wants to curse you, Haggart.  Turn around!  Look, Noni, look—­that is your father.  Remember him, Noni.  And when you grow up, go out on every sea and find him, Noni.  And when you find him—­hang your father high on a mast, my little one.”

The thundering salute drowns her cry.  Haggart has boarded his ship.  The night grows darker and the dashing of the waves fainter—­the ocean is moving away with the tide.  The great desert of the sky is mute and the night grows darker and the dashing of the waves ever fainter.

JUDAS ISCARIOT AND OTHERS

CHAPTER I

Jesus Christ had often been warned that Judas Iscariot was a man of very evil repute, and that He ought to beware of him.  Some of the disciples, who had been in Judaea, knew him well, while others had heard much about him from various sources, and there was none who had a good word for him.  If good people in speaking of him blamed him, as covetous, cunning, and inclined to hypocrisy and lying, the bad, when asked concerning him, inveighed against him in the severest terms.