is brooding, and if he
go up to yon town it will be to---- Judas could not bring himself to
pronounce the words "declare himself God," so blasphemous did they seem
to him. And before the wayfarers could ask him, as they were minded to,
if he were sure that he had rightly understood Jesus, the apostle had
bidden them farewell, and, running up a by-track, disappeared into the
darkness, leaving behind him a memory of a large bony nose hanging over
a thin black moustache that barely covered his lips.

As they walked towards the city, over which the moon was hanging,
filling the valleys and hills with strange, fantastical shadows, they
remembered the black, shaggy eyebrows, the luminous eyes, and the
bitter, penetrating voice, and they remembered the gait, the long
striding legs as they hastened up the steep path; even the pinched back
often started up in their memory. And the next three or four days they
sought him in the crowds that assembled to make the triumphal entry
with Jesus into Jerusalem, but he was not to be seen; and if he had been
among the people they could not fail to have discovered him. He is not
here to welcome Jesus, Joseph muttered under his breath, and added: can
it be that he has deserted to the other side?

He is a sort of other Jesus, Nicodemus said. But yonder Jesus comes
riding on an ass, on which a crimson cloak has been laid. As Jesus
passed Nicodemus and Joseph he waved his hand, and there was a smile on
his lips and a light in his eye. He seems to have become suddenly young
again, Joseph said. He is exalted, Nicodemus added sadly, by his
following. And they counted about fifty men and women. Does he think
that with these he will drive the Pharisees and Sadducees out of the
Temple? he added. He is happy again, Joseph answered. See how he lifts
up the fringe of the mantle they have laid upon the ass, and admires it.
His face is happier than we have seen it for many a day. He likes the
people to salute him as the Son of David. Yet he knows, Nicodemus said,
that he is the son of Joseph the Carpenter. Ask him to beg the people
not to call him the Son of David, Joseph pleaded. And, running after the
ass, Nicodemus dared to say: ask the people not to call thee the Son of
David, for it will go against thee in the end. But Jesus' heart at that
moment was swollen with pride, and he answered Nicodemus: what thou
hearest to-day on earth was spoken in heaven before our Father bade the
stars give light. Be