seem deep, but resemble what would be made upon a thick piece of dough,
if a person leaned his hand upon it.



CHAPTER II.

Judas and his band.



Judas had not expected that his treason would have produced such
fatal results. He had been anxious to obtain the promised reward, and
to please the Pharisees by delivering up Jesus into their hands, but he
had never calculated on things going so far, or thought that the
enemies of his Master would actually bring him to judgment and crucify
him; his mind was engrossed with the love of gain alone, and some
astute Pharisees and Sadducees, with whom he had established an
intercourse, had constantly urged him on to treason by flattering him.
He was sick of the fatiguing, wandering, and persecuted life which the
Apostles led. For several months past he had continually stolen from
the alms which were consigned to his care, and his avarice, grudging
the expenses incurred by Magdalen when she poured the precious ointment
on the feet of our Lord, incited him to the commission of the greatest
of crimes. He had always hoped that Jesus would establish a temporal
kingdom, and bestow upon him some brilliant and lucrative post in it,
but finding himself disappointed, he turned his thoughts to amassing a
fortune. He saw that sufferings and persecutions were on the increase
for our Lord and his followers, and he sought to make friends with the
powerful enemies of our Saviour before the time of danger, for the saw