Page:Life and death of Judas Iscariot, or, The lost and undone son of perdition.pdf/9

 genius and behaved himself so wisely, that the king made him his principal steward.

Judas being arrived at this rank, still coveted greater, and remembering the queen one day said, that if the prince, her son died, Judas should be her heir, he therefore set about contriving to kill him, accordingly he professed great love and friendship for him; and one day being walking together, Judas took occasion to quarrel with the prince, and maliciously slew him, thinking all would go well with him if he was dead.

Though none accused him of the murder, yet his conscience so stung him, that he soon quitted the kingdom, leaving all his pomp and finery behind him, and changing his name, took upon him the mean employ of a servant, wandering about from place to place, until at length he arrived at Joppa, the place of his nativity; here he soon got a place in a nobleman’s family, where he behaved so well as to gain the esteem of his lord and lady, and all that knew him. One day it happened that as his lady was walking abroad big with child, she longed for some fruit, which she saw in Judas’s father’s garden, bidding him go and buy her some. He took the money, but was resolved to steal the fruit; and going to the garden, broke down the fences, which as he was doing his father came out, and seized him for the robbery; and Judas to extricate himself from the hand of justice murdered his father upon the spot, and immediately escaped to