"Thou art silent, Lord? Thou commandest me to go?"

And again silence.

"Allow me to remain. But perhaps Thou canst not? Or darest not? Or wilt
not?"

And again silence, stupendous, like the eyes of eternity.

"But indeed Thou knowest that I love Thee. Thou knowest all things. Why
lookest Thou thus at Judas? Great is the mystery of Thy beautiful eyes,
but is mine less? Order me to remain! But Thou art silent. Thou art ever
silent. Lord, Lord, is it for this that in grief and pains have I sought
Thee all my life, sought and found! Free me! Remove the weight; it is
heavier than even mountains of lead. Dost Thou hear how the bosom of
Judas Iscariot is cracking under it?"

And the last silence was abysmal, like the last glance of eternity.

"I go."

But the evening stillness woke not, neither uttered cry nor plaint, nor
did its subtle air vibrate with the slightest tinkle--so soft was the
fall of the retreating steps. They sounded for a time, and then were
silent. And the evening stillness became pensive, stretched itself out
in long shadows, and then grew dark;--and suddenly night, coming to meet
it, all atremble with the rustle of sadly brushed-up leaves, heaved a
last sigh and was still.

There was a bustle, a jostle, a rattle of other voices, as though some
one had untied a bag of lively resonant voices, and they were falling
out on the ground, by one and two, and whole heaps. It was the disciples
talking. And drowning them all, reverberating from the trees and walls,
and tripping up over itself, thundered the determined, powerful voice of
Peter--he was swearing that never would he desert his Master.

"Lord," said he, half in anger, half in grief: "Lord! I am ready to go
with Thee to prison and to death."

And quietly, like the soft echo of retiring footsteps, came the
inexorable answer:

"I tell thee, Peter, the cock will not crow this day before thou dost
deny Me thrice."

CHAPTER VII

The moon had already risen when Jesus prepared to go to the Mount of
Olives, where He had spent all His last nights. But He tarried, for some
inexplicable reason, and the disciples, ready to start, were hurrying
Him. Then He said suddenly:

"He that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he
that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. For I say unto
you that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me: 'And he
was reckoned among the transgressors.'"

The disciples we