The parents of one of the thieves who had been crucified, perceiving that the soldier was not strictly guarding the crosses, took down the body of their son and buried it. Next morning, seeing the body gone, the soldier knew what his punishment would be, and went and told the woman. He would, he declared, kill himself with his sword rather than be sentenced by a military court, and told her to make room for her lover to lie beside her late husband. But the lady was as compassionate as she was pure. “May the gods forbid,” said she, “that I should lay eyes at one time on the corpses of the two men who are dearest to me! It were better to hang up a dead body than to kill a breathing man.” And therewith she told the soldier to take the husband’s body from its place and put it upon the cross that was vacant. The soldier at once acted upon the matron’s clever suggestion, and the next day people wondered how the dead man had been able to crucify himself.