"At last the duty of the day was done, And night came on. Forth from the gates I went, Anxious and pained by many a dubious thought, To seek for Judas, and to comfort him. The sky was dark with heavy lowering clouds; A lifeless, stifling air weighed on the world; A dreadful silence like a nightmare lay Crouched on its bosom, waiting, grim and grey. In horrible suspense of some dread thing. A creeping sense of death, a sickening smell, Infected the dull breathing of the wind. A thrill of ghosts went by me now and then, And made my flesh creep as I wandered on. At last I came to where a cedar stretched Its black arms out beneath a dusky rock, And, passing through its shadow, all at once I started; for against the dubious light A dark and heavy mass that to and fro Slung slowly with its weight, before me grew. A sick dread sense came over me; I stopped-- I could not stir. A cold and clammy sweat Oozed out all over me; and all my limbs, Bending with tremulous weakness like a child's, Gave way beneath me. Then a sense of shame Aroused me. I advanced, stretched forth my hand And pushed the shapeless mass; and at my touch It yielding swung--the branch above it creaked-- And back returning struck against my face. A human body! Was it dead or not? Swiftly my sword I drew and cut it down, And on the sand all heavily it dropped. I plucked the robes away, exposed the face-- 'Twas Judas, as I feared, cold, stiff, and dead; That suffering heart of his had ceased to beat." Thus Lysias spoke, and ended. I confess This story of poor Judas touched me much. What horrible revulsions must have passed Across that spirit in those few last hours! What storms, that tore up life even to its roots! Say what you will--grant all the guilt--and still What pangs of dread remorse--what agonies Of desperate repentance, all too late, In that wild interval between the crime And its last sad atonement!--life, the while, Laden with horror all too great to bear, And pressing madly on to death's abyss; This was no common mind that thus could feel-- No vulgar villain sinning for reward!