withered.
One of its broken, crooked branches stretched out towards Jerusalem, as
though in blessing or in threat, and this one Judas had chosen on which
to hang a noose.

But the walk to the tree was long and tedious, and Judas Iscariot was
very weary. The small, sharp stones, scattered under his feet, seemed
continually to drag him backwards, and the hill was high, stern, and
malign, exposed to the wind. Judas was obliged to sit down several times
to rest, and panted heavily, while behind him, through the clefts of the
rock, the mountain breathed cold upon his back.

"Thou too art against me, accursed one!" said Judas contemptuously, as
he breathed with difficulty, and swayed his heavy head, in which all the
thoughts were now petrifying.

Then he raised it suddenly, and opening wide his now fixed eyes, angrily
muttered:

"No, they were too bad for Judas. Thou hearest Jesus? Wilt Thou trust me
now? I am coming to Thee. Meet me kindly, I am weary--very weary. Then
Thou and I, embracing like brothers, shall return to earth. Shall we
not?"

Again he swayed his petrifying head, and again he opened his eyes,
mumbling:

"But maybe Thou wilt be angry with Judas when he arrives? And Thou wilt
not trust him? And wilt send him to hell? Well! What then! I will go to
hell. And in Thy hell fire I will weld iron, and weld iron, and demolish
Thy heaven. Dost approve? Then Thou wilt believe in me. Then Thou wilt
come back with me to earth, wilt Thou not, Jesus?"

Eventually Judas reached the summit and the crooked tree, and there the
wind began to torment him. And when Judas rebuked it, it began to blow
soft and low, and took leave and flew away.

"Right! But as for them, they are curs!" said Judas, making a slip-knot.
And since the rope might fail him and break, he hung it over a
precipice, so that if it broke, he would be sure to meet his death upon
the stones. And before he shoved himself off the brink with his foot,
and hanged himself, Judas Iscariot once more anxiously prepared Jesus
for his coming:

"Yes, meet me kindly, Jesus. I am very weary."

He leapt. The rope strained, but held. His neck stretched, but his hands
and feet were crossed, and hung down as though damp.

He died. Thus, in the course of two days, one after another, Jesus of
Nazareth and Judas Iscariot, the Traitor, left the world.

All the night through, like some monstrous fruit, Judas swayed over
Jerusalem, and the wind kept turning his face now