ad been casting lots for the robe, several bystanders had
collected. Among them was a thickly built man with a peculiar mark on
his face. Straight above the line of his black beard it lay across one
cheek like a red and purple band ending in a black mark at the tip on
his ear. He wore a handsomely embroidered turban and carried a blue
cloak. When the game, which he watched with interest, was finished and
the new owner of the robe had taken possession of it, the bystander
said, "How fareth the King whose robe now becometh thine?"

"When we left him but a short time since, he no longer begged for water
and his head hung limp."

"Perhaps he hath but fainted," the man with the blue cloak suggested.

"Then shall the breaking of bones make sure his end."

"Knowest thou where the bone-breaker is?"

"I am he."

"And when wilt thou break the bones of his body?"

"What matter to thee when his bones are broken?"

"None save this. When the vast darkness that just now is lifting, was
blackest, I heard a company of his followers whispering, and they did
say he swore that, though dead, yet on the third day would he rise from
the grave."

"And thou wouldst know of a surety that his legs are broken so that if
he be stolen from the tomb his legs carry him not far?" and the
soldiers laughed. "Fret not, the bones of the Jew will soon be broken."

"Wouldst thou break them sooner for a piece of gold?" and he drew from
his cloak a wallet.

The soldier sprang up eagerly and held out his hand saying, "A coin
upon the palm doth grant thy desire before thine eyes. The coin--then
come, let us to the bone-breaking."

The man with the wallet had his hand on the gold, and the man with the
heavy sword had his hand well held out for the gift, when a woman
appeared suddenly before them and said to the soldier, "Lift not thy
hand against the bones of the Jew!"

"What meanest thou--follower of the Jew?" the soldier replied angrily.

"Nay, not a follower of the Jew am I. Yet I know he was a just man."

"Thou dost lie with clumsy tongue," the soldier declared. "Thou art
one of his followers."

"Whether I lie, or whether I lie not, break not a bone of the Jew's
body!"

"Thou art a cunning follower of the Jew, and bold. Yet shall his bones
be broken. Move thou on farther from the cross. Stand to one side,"
and he lifted his broad sword.

"And when did it come to pass," she said without moving, "that a dog of
a soldier lifted