rate
entrances. This appeared to be the usual number in those parts, for
there were five roads at the baths, at the place where they baptised,
at the pool of Bethsaida, and there were likewise many towns with five
gates. In this, as in many other peculiarities of the Holy Land, there
was a deep prophetic signification; that number five, which so often
occurred, was a type of those five sacred wound of our Blessed Saviour,
which were to open to us the gates of Heaven.

The horsemen stopped on the west side of the mount, where the
declivity was not so steep; for the side up which the criminals were
brought was both rough and steep. About a hundred soldiers were
stationed on different parts of the mountain, and as space was
required, the thieves were not brought to the top, but ordered to halt
before they reached it, and to lie on the ground with their arms
fastened to their crosses. Soldiers stood around and guarded them,
while crowds of persons who did not fear defiling themselves, stood
near the platform or on the neighbouring heights; these were mostly of
the lower classes--strangers, slaves, and pagans, and a number of them
were women.

It wanted about a quarter to twelve when Jesus, loaded with his
cross, sank down at the precise spot where he was to be crucified. The
barbarous executioners dragged him up by the cords which they had
fastened round his waist, and then untied the arms of the cross, and
threw them on the ground. The sight of our Blessed Lord at this moment
was, indeed, calculated to move the hardest heart to compassion; he
stood or rather bent over the cross, being scarcely able to support
himself; his heavenly countenance was pale and was as that of a person
on the verge of death, although wounds and blood disfigured it to a
frightful degree; but the hearts of these cruel men were, alas! harder
than iron itself, and far from showing the slightest commiseration,
they threw him brutally down, exclaiming in a jeering tone, 'Most
powerful king, we are about to prepare thy throne.' Jesus immediately
placed himself upon the cross, and they measured him and marked the
places for his feet and hands; whilst the Pharisees continued to insult
their unresisting Victim. When the measurement was finished, they led
him to a cave cut in the rock, which had been used formerly as a
cellar, opened the door, and pushed him in so roughly that had it not
been for the support of angels, his legs must have been broken by so