Genesis 44:34

For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad [be] not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.

Ver. 34. For how shall I go up, &c.] Here love ascends, as fit it should. Judah, a man wise and well spoken, prefers his father's life before his own liberty. He could not live to see the death of his aged father. A certain citizen of Toledo being condemned to die, his son ceased not with prayers and tears to entreat that he might be put to death instead of his father. This he obtained after much suit, and most gladly died for him. a At Gaunt in Flanders, when a father and his son were condemned to die together, the earl, desirous to make trial whether of the two were more loving, granted that he should live that would cut off the other's head. And after much ado between them, the father, by many arguments, persuaded his son to be his executioner. b

a B. Fulgos, lib. v.

b Philip. Camerar., cent. i. cap. 92.