Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/551

Rh it should go on. It is the will of the Nazarene it is God’s will. Let us do as the Egyptian here—let us hold our peace and pray.&quot;

As he looked up on the knoll again, the words were wafted to him through the awful stillness—

He bowed reverently as to a person speaking.

Up on the summit meantime the work went on. The guard took the Nazarene's clothes from him; so that he stood before the millions naked. The stripes of the scourging he had received in the early morning were still bloody upon his back; yet he was laid pitilessly down, and stretched upon the cross—first, the arms upon the transverse beam; the spikes were sharp—a few blows, and they were driven through the tender palms; next, they drew his knees up until the soles of the feet rested flat upon the tree; then they placed one foot upon the other, and one spike fixed both of them fast. The dulled sound of the hammering was heard outside the guarded space; and such as could not hear, yet saw the hammer as it fell, shivered with fear. And withal not a groan, or cry, or word of remonstrance from the sufferer: nothing at which an enemy could laugh; nothing a lover could regret.

&quot;Which way wilt thou have him faced?&quot; asked a soldier, bluntly.

&quot;Towards the Temple,&quot; the pontiff replied. &quot;In dying I would have him see the holy house hath not suffered by him.&quot; The workmen put their hands to the cross, and carried it, burden and all, to the place of planting. At a word, they dropped the tree into the hole; and the body of the Nazarene also dropped heavily, and hung by the bleeding hands. Still no cry of pain only—the exclamation divinest of all recorded exclamations,

&quot;Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.&quot;

The cross, reared now above all other objects, and standing singly out against the sky, was greeted with a burst of delight; and all who could see and read the writing upon the board over the Nazarene’s head made haste to decipher it. Soon as read, the legend was adopted by them and