When the party--Balthasar, Simonides, Ben-Hur, Esther, and the two faithful Galileans--reached the place of crucifixion, Ben-Hur was in advance leading them.

How they had been able to make way through the great press of excited people, he never knew; no more did he know the road by which they came or the time it took them to come.

He had walked in total unconsciousness, neither hearing nor seeing anybody or anything, and without a thought of where he was going, or the ghostliest semblance of a purpose in his mind.

In such condition a little child could have done as much as he to prevent the awful crime he was about to witness.

The intentions of God are always strange to us; but not more so than the means by which they are wrought out, and at last made plain to our belief.
Ben-Hur came to a stop; those following him also stopped.