bloody sweat, and wipe with a linen towel the face of the poor martyr,
who thanked Veronica by a smile of celestial sweetness. A little farther
on, and whilst in the street which led to the Judicial Gate, Jesus
passed before several women who were weeping; he stopped a moment, and
said to these women, with an accent of profound melancholy:

'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me! but weep for yourselves, weep
for your children; for there will come a time when it shall be said,
"Blessed are the barren! Blessed are they who have no children! Blessed
are they who have not given suck!"'

Then Jesus, though broken with suffering, drawing himself up with an air
of inspiration, his features impressed with a heart-rending grief, as if
he had a consciousness of the frightful miseries he foresaw, exclaimed,
in a prophetic tone which made the pharisees themselves tremble:

'Yes, the time approaches in which men, in their fear, will say to the
mountains, "fall upon us!" and to the hills, "cover us!"'

And Jesus, bowing his head on his bosom, painfully pursued his march
amidst the silence of stupor and alarm which had succeeded his prophetic
words. The cortege continued to climb the steep street that leads to the
Judicial Gate, under which you pass to ascend to Golgotha, a little hill
situated outside the city, and at the summit of which are erected the
crosses of the condemned.

Genevieve remarked that the crowd, at first so basely hostile to Jesus,
began, as the hour of execution approached, to be moved, and to lament
the fate of the victim. These unfortunate people comprehended, no doubt,
but, alas, too late, that in allowing the friend of the poor and
afflicted to be put to death, they not only deprived themselves of a
defender, but that by their shameful ingratitude they froze up, for the
future, the generous hearts that would have devoted themselves to their
cause. When the Judicial Gate was passed, they commenced ascending Mount
Calvary. This ascent was so steep, that frequently Simon the Cyrenean,
still carrying Jesus' cross, was obliged to stop, as well as the young
man himself. The latter seemed to have preserved scarcely sufficient
strength to enable him to reach the summit of this barren hill, covered
with rolling stones, and where a few blades of sickly verdure alone
grew. The sky was covered with thick clouds; the day being gloomy and
funereal, threw a veil of sadness over all things. Genevieve, to her
great sur