The traitor, and infamous disciple, after having examined by the light of the torches his ancient companions, detained prisoners, said to the officer:
"The young master is not amongst these."
"Will he escape us this time?" exclaimed the officer.
"By the pillars of the temple! you promised to deliver him to us, Judas: you have received the price of his blood; you must deliver him to us, Judas!"
Genevieve had kept aloof; suddenly she saw a few paces off, towards the olive wood, a white form, which issuing from the darkness, approached slowly towards the soldiers. The heart of Genevieve almost broke; it was no doubt the young Nazarene, attracted by the noise of the tumult.--She was not deceived. Presently she recognized Jesus; on his sad and gentle features she read neither fear nor surprise.
Judas made a sign of intelligence to the officer, ran to meet the young man of Nazareth, and said, whilst embracing him,
"Master, I kiss you."
At these words one of the soldiers who were not occupied in detaining as prisoners the disciples, who in vain endeavored to fly, remembering the recommendations of their officer respecting the infernal sorceries that Jesus might employ against them, regarded him with fear, hesitating to approach in order to seize him; the officer himself kept behind the soldiers in order to excite them to seize Jesus, but did not approach him himself. Jesus, calm and thoughtful, made a few steps towards the armed men and said to them in his gentle voice:
"Whom seek you?"
"We seek Jesus," replied the officer, still keeping behind his soldiers:
"We seek Jesus of Nazareth."
"I am he!" said the Nazarene, making a step towards the soldiers. But the latter drew back frightened.
Jesus resumed: "Once more, whom is it you seek?"
"Jesus of Nazareth!" they all cried with one voice; "we wish to take Jesus of Nazareth!" and they again drew back.
"I have already told you that I am he," replied the young man, going to them; "and since you seek me, take me, but allow these to go," he added, pointing to his disciples still retained as prisoners.
The officer made a sign to the soldiers who did not seem as yet completely rea.s.sured; they approached Jesus, however, to bind him, whilst he said to them mildly: "You came here armed with swords and sticks to take me, as if I were a malefactor, and yet, I sat amidst you every day in the temple, praying, and you did not arrest me."
Then, of himself, he tendered his hands to the cords with which they bound him. The cowardly disciples of the young man had not had the courage to defend him; they dared not even accompany him to his prison; and the moment they were released by the soldiers, they fled on all sides. A mournful smile crossed the lips of Jesus, when he found himself thus betrayed and abandoned by those he had so loved, and whom he believed his friends.
Genevieve, hidden by the shade of an olive tree, could not restrain tears of grief and indignation on seeing these men so miserably abandon Jesus; she comprehended why the doctors of the law and the high priests, instead of arresting him in open day, had arrested him during the night; they feared the rage of the people and of the resolute men like Banaias; these would not have allowed him to be carried off without resistance, the friend of the poor and the afflicted.
The soldiers quitted the olive wood, having their prisoner in the midst of them; they directed their steps towards the town.
After some time Genevieve perceived that a man, whose features she could not distinguish in the darkness, was walking behind her, and she frequently heard the man sigh and sob.
After entering Jerusalem through the deserted and silent streets, as they are at that hour of the night, the soldiers repaired to the house of Caiphus, the high priest, where they conducted Jesus. The slave, remarking at the door of this house a great many servants, glided among them as the soldiers entered, and remained at first beneath the vestibule lighted by torches. By this light she recognized the man who, like herself, had followed the friend of the oppressed since he left the wood; it was Peter, one of his disciples. He appeared as much grieved as alarmed, the tears streaming down his face; Genevieve thought at first that one at least of his disciples would be faithful to him and he would show his devotedness by accompanying Jesus before the tribunal of Caiphus. Alas! the slave was deceived. Scarcely had Peter crossed the threshold of the door, when, instead of joining Mary"s son, he sat down on one of the benches of the vestibule, amongst the servants of Caiphus, burying his face in his hands.
Genevieve then seeing, at the extremity of the court, a strong light escaping from a door beyond which pressed the soldiers of the escort, approached them. The door was that of a hall in the middle of which was erected a tribunal lighted by a number of flambeaux. Seated behind this tribunal, she recognized several of the persons she had seen at the supper given by Pontius Pilate; the Seigneurs Caiphus, the high priest; Baruch, doctor of law; Jonas, the banker, were among the judges of the young man of Nazareth. He was conducted before them; his hands bound, his features still calm, gentle and sad; a short distance from him were the officers of the court, and behind these, mixed with the soldiers and the servants of Caiphus, the two mysterious emissaries whom Genevieve had remarked at the tavern of the Wild a.s.s. Inasmuch as the countenance of the friend of the afflicted was serene and dignified, so did those of his judges appear violently irritated; they expressed the joy of a disgraceful triumph; they spoke in a low tone and from time to time they pointed with a menacing gesture to Mary"s son, who patiently awaited his interrogatory.
Genevieve, confounded among those who filled the hall, heard them say to one another:
"He is at last taken, then, this Nazarene, who preached revolt!"
"Oh! he is less haughty now than when he was at the head of his troop of vagabonds and abandoned women!"
"He preaches against the rich," said a servant of the high priest; "he commands the renunciation of riches; but if our masters were to keep poor cheer, we servants should be reduced to the lot of hungry beggars, instead of fattening on the many feasts given by our masters."
"And this is not all," said another; "if we listened to this cursed Nazarene, our masters, voluntarily impoverished, would denounce all pleasures; they would not throw away every day superb robes or tunics because the embroidery or color of these garments did not please them.
Now, who profits by these caprices of our ostentatious masters, unless ourselves, since tunics and robes all fall to our share?"
"And if our masters renounced pleasures, to live on fasting and prayer, they would have no more gay mistresses, they would no longer charge us with those amorous commissions, recompensed magnificently in case of success!"
"Yes, yes," they all cried together; "death to the Nazarene who would make of us, who live in idleness, abundance and gaiety, beggars or beasts of burthen!"
Genevieve heard many other remarks, spoken half aloud and menacing for the life of Jesus; one of the two mysterious emissaries, behind whom she stood, said to his companion: "Our evidence will now suffice to condemn this cursed fellow; I have come to an understanding with Caiphus."
At this moment one of the officers of the high priest, placed by the side of the Nazarene and charged to watch him, struck with his mace on the floor of the hall; immediately there was a dead silence. Then Caiphus, after a few words exchanged in a low voice with the other pharisees composing the tribunal, said to those a.s.sembled: "Who are they who can depose here against the man called Jesus of Nazareth?"
One of the two emissaries advanced to the foot of the tribunal and said in a solemn voice:
"I swear having heard this man affirm that the high priests and doctors of the law were all hypocrites, and that he treated them as a race of serpents and vipers!"
A murmur of indignation rose from the soldiers and servants of the priests, the judges looked at one another, appearing to ask each other if it were possible that such words could have been p.r.o.nounced. The other emissary approached near his companion and added in a voice not less solemn:
"I swear having heard this man affirm that they must revolt against Prince Herod and against the Emperor Tiberius, the august protector of Israel, in order to proclaim Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews."
While a smile of pity crossed the lips of Mary"s son at these false accusations, since he had said: "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar"s, and unto G.o.d that which is G.o.d"s!" the pharisees of the tribunal lifted up their hands to heaven as if to invoke it as a witness of such enormities. One of the high priest"s servants, advancing in his turn, said to the judges:
"I swear having heard this man say, that they must ma.s.sacre all the pharisees, pillage their houses and violate their wives and daughters!"
A fresh movement of horror manifested itself amongst the judges and those of the auditory who were devoted to them.
"Pillage! ma.s.sacre! and violation!" exclaimed some.
"Such is the object of the Nazarene! "Tis for this he drags after him this band of wretches."
"He would some day, at their head, give up Jerusalem to fire, pillage and blood!"
The high priest Caiphus, president of the tribunal, signed to one of the officers to demand silence; the officer again struck the floor with his mace, all were silent. Caiphus, addressing the young Nazarene in a menacing voice, said to him:
"Why do you not reply to what these persons depose against you?"
Jesus said to him in an accent full of gentleness and dignity:
"I have spoken publicly to every one; I have always taught in the temple and in the synagogue in which all the Jews were a.s.sembled; I have said nothing in secret, why, then, do you question me? Question those who have heard me, to ascertain what I have said to them: these know what I have taught."
Scarce had he spoken these words when Genevieve saw one of the officers, furious at this reply, so just and so calm, raise his hand against Jesus and strike him in the face, exclaiming:
"Is it thus you reply to the high priest?"
At this infamous outrage, to strike a man bound, Genevieve felt her heart leap, her tears stream, whilst on the contrary, loud bursts of laughter rose from amidst the soldiers and servants of the high priest.
Jesus still remained placid, but he turned to the officer and said to him mildly: