As the winds rose and the black sky threatened to unleash its wrath the crowd on the hillside began to melt away, small groups and pairs and an occasional individual hurried toward the dark, brooding buildings of the city. Even the morbid attraction of a crucifixion could not hold the fickle mob against the portent of the fury of a spring storm.

At the last there were few to witness the deaths of the crucified or their laborious descent from the crosses. The four soldiers who had made up the crucifixion detail, a few others who served as guards, and the centurion were the only ones in the immediate area, save for the tiny group that huddled sadly at the foot of the central cross. Three women and a man had moved in timidly but determinedly toward the end. Now they stood with blank expressi…