falling at times during the morning, but the
sun came out again after ten o'clock, and a thick red fog began to
obscure it towards twelve.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The Nailing of Jesus to the Cross.

The preparations for the crucifixion being finished four archers
went to the cave where they had confined our Lord and dragged him out
with their usual brutality, while the mob looked on and made use of
insulting language, and the Roman soldiers regarded all with
indifference, and thought of nothing but maintaining order. When Jesus
was again brought forth, the holy women gave a man some money, and
begged him to pay the archer anything they might demand if they would
allow Jesus to drink the wine which Veronica had prepared; but the
cruel executioners, instead of giving it to Jesus, drank it themselves.
They had brought two vases with them, one of which contained vinegar
and gall, and the other a mixture which looked like wine mixed with
myrrh and absinthe; they offered a glass of the latter to our Lord,
which he tasted, but would not drink.

There were eighteen archers on the platform; the six who had
scourged Jesus, the four who had conducted him to Calvary, the two who
held the ropes which supported the cross, and six others who came for
the purpose of crucifying him. They were strangers in the pay of either
the Jews or the Romans, and were short thick-set men, with most
ferocious countenances, rather resembling wild beasts than human
beings, and employing themselves alternately in drinking and in making
preparations for the crucifixion.

This scene was rendered the more frightful to me by the sight of
demons, who were invisible to others, and I saw large bodies of evil
spirits under the forms of toads, serpents, sharp-clawed dragons, and
venomous insects, urging these wicked men to still greater cruelty, and
perfectly darkening the air. They crept into the mouths and into the
hearts of the assistants, sat upon their shoulders, filled their minds
with wicked images, and incited them to revile and insult our Lord with
still greater brutality. Weeping angels, however, stood around Jesus,
and the sight of their tears consoled me not a little, and they were
accompanied by little angels of glory, whose heads alone I saw. There
were likewise angels of pity and angels of consolation among them; the
latter frequently approached the Blessed Virgin and the rest of the
pious persons who were assembled there, and whispered