like a moon, and its shadows were
ghostly. Terrified rooks and bats flew around, and hovered about the
cross in this horrible twilight. Rocks on the hills broke away, and
skulls rolled down the slope. As for the people, they seemed to have
lost the power of speech, they stood dumb and looked at one another.

"Something has happened," said an old man to himself.

The crowd began to move, uncertainly at first, then with more animation
and noise.

"What has happened?" asked a bystander.

"My friend, what has happened now has thrown the world off its balance.
I do not know what it is, but it has thrown the world off its balance.
If it is not the end of the world, then it must be its beginning."

"Inri! Inri!" shouted the voice of a shuddering lunatic.

Then there was a general shout. "What is it? It is dark! I've never
been so terrified in all my days."

"Look at the cross! It's growing longer! Higher, ever higher, higher!
I can't see the top of it! It's a giant cross!"

Then came news. "A pillar has fallen in the Temple. The curtain of
the Holy of Holies has been rent in twain. Outside, in the cemetery,
the tombs have opened and the dead wrapped in their white shrouds have
risen from them."

"The end of the world!"

"The beginning of the world!"

"Jesus Christ!"

* * * * * *

"JESUS CHRIST!" rustles through the crowd like the spring breezes over
the desert. The words sound through the whole of Jerusalem, they sound
throughout the broad land of Judaea, these words of all power. They
kindle a fire which has lighted up the universe until the present day.

His dear and faithful ones assembled at the cross where the dead Master
hung. There are more of them than there were yesterday, among them
even some who had shouted in the night: "Crucify Him!" The disciples
stood there silent, making no lamentation. Mary, the mother, stood by
John's side, and Magdalen by him. A marvellous quiet had come over
their hearts, so that they asked themselves:

"How can this be? Is not our Jesus dead?"

"My brothers," said Peter, "for me it is as if He still lives."

"He in us, and we in Him," said John.

Only Bartholomew was restless. Hesitatingly he asked James if he had
not also understood Him to say: "Father, do not forsake Me." But James
was thinking of another word and of another of the brothers. He went
away from the cross to seek out Judas. He would tell him that i