Then, as ever should be, was the miracle which 895
the Lord of hosts, Giver of life, had wrought for
the salvation of mankind, impressed upon the minds
of the people. But there the fiend, the devil from
hell, dire monster mindful of evil, sinning with his 900
lies, rose up into the air, flying, and spake thus:--'Lo!
what man is this who doth again in the
ancient enmity destroy my following, swell the
olden hatred, and waste my possessions? Continual 905
strife is this. No longer may the souls of them
that work evil dwell among my possessions, since
now a stranger hath come, whom I counted fast
in his sins, and hath robbed me of my every right 910
and of all my wealth. This is not a just deed.
The Saviour, who was raised up in Nazareth, hath
done me many an evil, acts of deep hatred. As he
grew up from childhood, he ever turned to himself 915
my possessions, nor now can any justice succeed
[against him]. His kingdom is broad over the
world, while my teaching is weakened beneath the
heavens. I dare not despise this cross with scoffing
laugh. Lo! the Saviour hath again shut me into 920
my narrow home, smitten with woe. Once I was
filled with joy by a Judas: but now, again by a
Judas, am I humbled, bereft of possessions, abhorred,
and friendless. But I know how to discover 925
again by my sin a way of return hereafter from
the home of the damned. I shall incite against thee
another king who shall persecute thee, and shall
forsake thy teaching and follow my ways of 930
evil; then will he cast thee into the darkest and
worst of terrors, that thou, racked with pain, mayst
vehemently renounce the crucified King, whom thou
didst formerly obey.'
Then the wise Judas, daring hero in strife, 935
answered him (the Holy Spirit was granted unto
him with strength, a love hot as fire, a knowledge
welling up through the learning of a warrior); and
he spake this word, filled with wisdom:--'Thou
needst not so mightily, ever mindful of evil, renew 940
sorrow and enkindle strife, O sinful prince of murder,
inasmuch as the mighty King, who hath awakened
with His word many of the dead, doth thrust
thee into the nether depths, thou worker of iniquity, 945
into the abyss of torture, bereft of joy. Know thou
full clearly that thou in folly didst forsake the
brightest of lights and the love of the Lord and that
glorious faith, and that thou hast since dwelt in a 950
bath of fire, burdened with tortures and seared with
flame, and that there, with hatred in thy soul, thou
shalt ever suffer woe and misery without end.'
Elene heard how the foe and the friend struggled
together, the glorious and the foul on opposite sides, 955
the sinful and the blessed. And she was the gladder
in heart as she heard that the hellish enemy, the
Prince of evil, was vanquished; she marveled at
the wisdom of the man, how in so little time
he was so filled with faith, and how he who had 960
ever been so ignorant was imbued with knowledge.
And she thanked God, the King of glory, that
through the Son of God the joy of both these things
was come unto her--on the one hand at the sight 965
of the tree of victory, and on the other at this
faith which she so clearly understood as a glorious
gift in the breast of this man.