ound, and the archers reproached her, one of them
saying, 'What hast thou to do her, woman? He would not have been in our
hands if he had been better brought up.'

A few of the soldiers looked touched; and, although they obliged the
Blessed Virgin to retire to the doorway, not one laid hands upon her.
John and the women surrounded her as she fell half fainting against a
stone, which was near the doorway, and upon which the impression of her
hands remained. This stone was very hard, and was afterwards removed to
the first Catholic church built in Jerusalem, near the Pool of
Bethsaida, during the time that St. James the Less was Bishop of that
city. The two disciples who were with the Mother of Jesus carried her
into the house, and the door was shut. In the mean time the archers had
raised Jesus, and obliged him to carry the cross in a different manner.
Its arm being unfastened from the centre, and entangled in the ropes
with which he was bound, he supported them on his arm, and by this
means the weight of the body of the cross was a little taken off, as it
dragged more on the ground. I saw numbers of persons standing about in
groups, the greatest part amusing themselves by insulting our Lord in
different ways, but a few veiled females were weeping.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Simon of Cyrene. Third Fall of Jesus.

The procession had reached an arch formed in an old wall belonging
to the town, opposite to a square, in which three streets terminated,
when Jesus stumbled against a large stone which was placed in the
middle of the archway, the cross slipped from his shoulder, he fell
upon the stone, and was totally unable to rise. Many
respectable-looking persons who were on their way to the Temple
stopped, and exclaimed compassionately: 'Look at that poor man, he is
certainly dying!' but his enemies showed no compassion. This fall caused
a fresh delay, as our Lord could not stand up again, and the Pharisees
said to the soldiers: 'We shall never get him to the place of execution
alive, if you do not find someone to carry his cross.' At this moment
Simon of Cyrene, a pagan, happened to pass by, accompanied by his three
children. He was a gardener, just returning home after working in a
garden near the eastern wall of the city, and carrying a bundle of
lopped branches. The soldiers perceiving by his dress that he was a
pagan, seized him, and ordered him to assist Jesus in carrying his
cross. He refused at first, but was soon com