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 compelled to obey, although his children, being frightened, cried and made a great noise, upon which some women quieted and took charge of them.  Simon was much annoyed, and expressed the greatest vexation at being obliged to walk with a man in so deplorable a condition of dirt and misery; but Jesus wept, and cast such a mild and heavenly look upon him that he was touched, and instead of continuing to show reluctance, helped him to rise, while the executioners fastened one arm of the cross on his shoulders, and he walked behind our Lord, thus relieving him in a great measure from its weight; and when all was arranged, the procession