first break the
legs of these two."

Catiline said, "Come, let us put this business through without more
delay." Then all the hangmen took ladders and placed them against the
crosses of the thieves. Catiline, seizing a strong club, then mounted
the ladder against the cross on the right hand.

"Strike," said Faustus, "so as to kill him." Then Catiline smote the
penitent thief heavily over each of the thighs and then across the
shoulder bone. As the blow fell the man's head fell forward and he
gave up the ghost.

"There," said Catiline, "he wakes no more."

In like manner did Nero to the thief on the left hand, saying, "I will
hasten the other out of the world."

When the blows were falling upon the body of the thief, Mary, the
mother of Jesus, who had watched with terror the blows of the hangman,
cried out, shuddering, "O my Son, they will surely not deal so cruelly
with thy holy body!"

Nero called out to the thief, "Movest thou no more? No, thou hast had
enough. I have given thee thy wages." Then coming down from the
ladder they made ready to break the legs of Jesus.

But as the hangman approached the foot of the cross with the ladder and
the club, Mary Magdalene sprang before him, and thrusting him back with
her slender arm, cried piteously, "Oh, spare him, spare him!"

Then Catiline looking up at Jesus said, "Behold, he is already dead.
There is no need therefore to break his legs."

"But," said Faustus, "in order to make sure, I will pierce his heart
with a spear." Then grasping a lance he thrust it into the right side
of Jesus, and forthwith there spurted out blood and water. John, who
was looking up at the holy women, shuddered as the spear entered the
side of Jesus.

Mary Magdalene turning to Mary said, "Oh, mother, that thrust hast
pierced thy own heart also."

Then said the centurion, "Now, take down the bodies from the cross."

"Where," said one of the hangmen, "shall we put them?"

The centurion replied, "As ordered, into the grave of the malefactor."

Then said Mary, with a terrible sob: "What a word; it pierces my heart
anew."

"Ladders here," said the hangmen, "we shall soon have them down." Then
the hangmen unfastened the cords which bound the thieves to their
crosses, and mounting the ladder received their bodies in their arms
and bore them away.

While they were busy Mary Magdalene went out to the centurion and said
to him: "May we not even pay the last honors to our friend