only common bailiffs, carrying cords and chains, and after them came the six agents with whom Judas had been in communication for some time.  One of these was a priest and a confidant of Annas, a second was devoted to Caiphas, the third and fourth were Pharisees, and the other two Sadducees and Herodians.  These six men were courtiers of Annas and Caiphas, acting in the capacity of spies, and most bitter enemies of Jesus.

The soldiers remained on friendly terms with Judas until they reached the spot where the road divides the Garden of Olives from the Garden of Gethsemani, but there they refused to allow him to advance alone, and entirely changed their manner, treating him with much insolence and harshness.

CHAPTER III.

Jesus is arrested.

Jesus was standing with his three Apostles on the road between Gethsemani, and the Garden of Olives, when Judas and the band who accompanied him made their appearance.  A warm dispute arose between Judas and the soldiers, because he wished to approach first and speak to Jesus quietly as if nothing was the matter, and then for them to come up and seize our Saviour, thus letting him suppose that he had no connection with the affair.  But the men answered rudely, ’Not so, friend, thou shalt not escape from our hands until we have the Galilean safely bound,’ and seeing the eight Apostles who hastened to rejoin Jesus when they heard the dispute which was going on, they (notwithstanding the opposition of Judas) called up four archers, whom they had left at a little distance, to assist.  When by the light of the moon Jesus and the three Apostles first saw the band of armed men, Peter wished to repel them by force of arms, and said:  ’Lord, the other eight are close at hand, let us attack the archers,’ but Jesus bade him hold his peace, and then turned and walked back a few steps.  At this moment four disciples came out of the garden, and asked what was taking place.  Judas was about to reply, but the soldiers interrupted, and would not let him speak.  These four disciples were James the Less, Philip, Thomas, and Nathaniel; the last named, who was a son of the aged Simeon, had with a few others joined the eight Apostles at Gethsemani, being perhaps sent by the friends of Jesus to know what was going on, or possibly simply incited by curiosity and anxiety.  The other disciples were wandering to and fro, on the look out, and ready to fly at a moment’s notice.

Jesus walked up to the soldiers and said in a firm and clear voice, ‘Whom seek ye?’ The soldiers answered, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’  Jesus said to them, ‘I am he.’  Scarcely had he pronounced these words than they all fell to the ground, as if struck with apoplexy.  Judas, who stood by them, was much alarmed, and as he appeared desirous of approaching, Jesus held out his hand and said:  ‘Friend, whereto art thou come?’ Judas stammered forth something about business which