g to Pilate
and his visitors, however, let me say distinctly that the music was the
Italian _Marcia Reale_ played, not as the other scraps were played, but
with a loud and jaunty heartlessness as though the miraculous pen were
jeering at the priests:

"There! you didn't expect that; now, did you?"

Joseph and Nicodemus also came to Pilate begging the body of Jesus. The
priests objected, for they had not forgotten the prophecy about building
the Temple of God in three days, and they feared trickery. Pilate
compromised, granting the request but setting a guard.

Next we saw the Descent from the Cross, effected by Joseph and Nicodemus;
and while the body lay on a couch, a melancholy Miserere was sung behind.
The Entombment followed, the Madonna in black lamenting and weeping.

The last scene was in a wood, where Judas came to finish his remorse. He
refused all comfort and all the benevolent suggestions of the angels who
visited him. They told him that God is ever willing to pardon the sinner
who sincerely repents and freely confesses his sin. It is with God
always as it is with men at the season of the Gloria. But the wretched
Judas could not think of repentance and confession; his cowardly soul was
not torn by sorrow for past sin, it was paralysed by fear of future
punishment; or we may have been intended to understand that the road to
perdition lies through madness. He spoke three sentences, and the last
word of each was echoed by a diabolical voice and then appeared written
in letters of blood and fire:--Giuda:--Dio:--Stesso. These words made a
sentence by themselves and signified: "_Judas_ is against _God_ and
against _Himself_." Faith, Hope, and Charity appeared to him separately;
he would have nothing to do with any of them and they all deserted him.
A devil approached and Judas trembled, knowing his time had come. He
went and fetched a rope, and with the devil's help accomplished his fatal
destiny by hanging himself to one of the trees of the wood, and as his
wicked soul came out of his mouth the devil greedily snatched it away and
carried it down to be eternally tormented in hell. It was like an untidy
black hen.

EASTER DAY

I had to go into the country for the night, and so was obliged to miss
the Resurrection as presented by the marionettes. I did not, however,
much mind, because I had seen the Gloria in the cathedral, where the
Christ over the altar was modelled much better than any figure