came hastily
into the street that lay between those of Pilate and Annas. He carried
a basket, and looking anxiously around him, said, "I must hasten in
order to get into the city. The eve of the feast is coming, and I have
only a short time left in which to make my purchases and get everything
ready, so that I may get home in time." Hardly had he said this than
he heard the sound of a great outcry, and amidst which he could only
distinguish the words, "Let him not rest! Urge him on with blows!"

Said Simon, "I hear a tumult--an outcry of a crowd--what has happened
in the city? I will keep quiet a little--perhaps my ears have deceived
me." Jesus had fallen faint and had staggered against the house of
Ahasverus and was there endeavoring to support himself.

The third executioner said to him roughly, "It is no use thy fainting.
Thou must keep on to Golgotha."

Then Ahasverus came out of his house and said, "Be off from my house;
here is no place for resting." Simon, who was listening without being
able to see the cause of the commotion, said, "The noise waxes louder.
I must hasten to see what it is. What comes there? Ah, I cannot get
in here. I will wait and see what happens."

Then, as the procession turned the corner of Annas' street, Joseph of
Arimathea, listening, said, "I think the crowd is coming out of the
city gates," and John, seeing the cross said, "It appears that someone
is being led out to Golgotha for execution."

Mary, the mother of Jesus, saw him and cried out with a piercing wail,
"It is he. Oh God! it is my son."

Jesus meanwhile staggered under the cross, but was forced forward by
the executioners grumbling as they did so, "He will drop on the road."

[Illustration: "Jesus staggered under the cross."]

The centurion, seeing that Jesus from sheer exhaustion had again
fallen, reached him a bottle, saying, "Here, strengthen thyself."
Jesus took it, but did not drink of it.

Mary cried, weeping, "Ah, there, I see him led to death even as a
malefactor!"

Then said John, as he tenderly supported her, "Mother, it is the hour
of which he has told us before. Such is the will of the Father."

Then said the centurion to Jesus, "Wilt thou not drink? Then you must
go on!"

Then one of the executioners shook him, saying, "Rouse thyself, lazy
king of the Jews!"

Another of the executioners said, "Forward! Pull thyself together!"
The third said, "Do not act thus weakly; we must get on."