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And there is on of the nayles, that Crist was naylled with on the cros. And some men trowen, that half the cros, that Crist was don on, be in Cipres, in an abbey of monkes, that men callen the Hille of the Holy Cros; but it is not so: for that cros, that is in Cypre, is the cros, in the whiche Dysmas the gode theef was honged onne. But alle men knowen not that; and that is evylle y don.
There was the blow of a hammer on a nail, a spurt of blood from the open hand; another blow, another spurt; and the cross, upraised, settled in a cavity already prepared, a beam behind it for support. Stegas, his thirst slaked, fell as Dysmas had, and the elder caught the gourd and offered it to the Christ.
At the outer angle, to the right, the standard of the empire swayed; and from an oak two vultures soared with a scream into the air, their eyes fixed on the vision of bare white flesh. Through the ranks an elder passed. In his hand was a gourd, which he offered to one of the thieves. “Drink of it, Dysmas,” he invited. “In it grains of frankincense have been dissolved.”
To the rear Annas nodded his approval. His lean, lank jaws parted. “Give strong drink,” he announced, authoritatively; “give strong and heady drink to those about to die, and wine to those that sorrow.” Dysmas drank abundantly of the soporific, and held the gourd to his comrade. “Take it, Stegas.”
"No," answers the disciple; "on his cross our Christus spoke again about another experience for men. By his side was Dysmas, the crucified robber, grieving for his faults and asking comfort. When the cross pain and thirst were over, our Lord replied, the outlaw should walk with him among the bowers of the beautiful Paradise beyond this world's horizon. It was enough.
The two young men were at Saint Pourcain-en-Bourbonnais, where Rene had kinsmen. Meanwhile he had learned a deal of Rene's way of living. "You are a thief," Francois observed to Montigny the day the pardon came, "but you have played a kindly part by me. I think you are Dysmas, Rene, not Gestas. Heh, I throw no stones. You have stolen, but I have killed. Let us go to Paris, lad, and start afresh."
Over the heads of Dysmas and of Stegas the sanis were affixed, wooden tablets smeared with gypsum, bearing the name of the crucified and with it the offence. Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Rex Judæorum. Caiaphas sprang back as from the point of a sword. “Mâlkâ dî Jehudâje!” he bellowed. “King of the Jews! It is a blasphemy, an iniquity, and an outrage. Centurion, tear it down.”
There is indeed no authority for the legend which assigns to him the name of Dysmas, or for the beautiful story of his having saved the life of the Virgin and her Child during their flight into Egypt.
As the second thief raised it to his lips, with a motion of arm and knee an executioner caught Dysmas beneath the chin, behind the leg, and the thief lay on a cross. In a second his wrists were bound, his feet as well.
In this consolation the tortured Dysmas passed on, with a smile of peace upon his face." "Have you more wonders to tell?" presses Quintus, in his eagerness, while the story of the cross begins to compel his judgment and call for his heart's surrender. Then, the consummation! In ecstatic words John tells of the one final and overmastering proof, in the thought of the eleven disciples;
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