ful, offending and wishing to offend no one. The third lance to me was the crown of thorns, which so cruelly pierced his sacred head, that the blood flowed into his mouth, down his beard, and into his ears. The fourth was his piteous voice on the cross, when he cried to his Father, saying: “O Father, why hast thou forsaken me ?” as though he would say: “ Father, there is none to pity me but thou.” The fifth lance which pierced my heart was his most cruel death. My heart was pierced with as many lances as there were veins from which his precious blood gushed; for the veins of his hands and feet were pierced, and the pain of his lacerated nerves came inconsolably to his heart, and from his heart to the nerves again, and as his heart was most excellent and strong, as being formed of the best substance, therefore life and death contended, and thus life was bitterly prolonged in pain. But as death approached, when his heart was breaking with intolerable pain, then his limbs quivered, and his head, which had sunk on his shoulders, was slightly raised. His half closed eyes were opened midway. His mouth, too, opened, and his tongue was seen drenched in blood. His fingers and arms, which were somewhat contracted, expanded. Having
