At the hospice, word of Gov. Bush’s fresh intervention came to protesters across a megaphone held up to a small boom box. People prayed, pumped their fists and cried out with thanks.

“God is our best hope to keep Terri Schiavo alive,” said David Gibbs, another attorney for the Schindlers. “Her eyes are getting dark. Her energy is diminishing. Her skin is beginning to peel; it looks like chapped skin.”

The judge’s order came shortly after the state Senate voted 21-18 to reject legislation aimed at allowing a court to intervene when a conflict occurs such as that which has pitted Schiavo’s parents against her husband.

“I’m here today pleading for mercy, have mercy on Theresa Marie Schiavo,” said Republican Sen. Daniel Webster, sponsor of the measure.

Webster repeatedly urged senators to “err on the side of life.”

But senators opposed to the measure said lawmakers were wrong to try to intercede again in the case. Legislators in 2003 hastily approved legislation that resulted in Schiavo’s feeding tube being reinserted at the time, but the measure was eventually declared unconstitutional.

“When one gets to the stage of no recovery, in the sense of a persistent vegetative state, the soul has passed and it’s time for the body to rest,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Klein.

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In the Senate gallery, Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler was watching the debate, occasionally covering his eyes and lowering his head during the four-hour exchange.

Earlier at the hospice, veteran pro-life activists skilled in civil disobedience at abortion clinics joined demonstrators to orchestrate the peaceful arrest of 10 people, including three children, ages 10 to 14.

Those arrested were charged with trespassing after their staged attempt to carry Styrofoam cups of water into the hospice.

“It’s an act of Biblical obedience, not civil disobedience,” said Chet Gallagher, 55, a former Las Vegas motorcycle policeman turned anti-abortion activist with Operation Rescue.

Gallagher, fired from his job in 1989 after he joined anti-abortion demonstrators whom he was supposed to arrest, has been jailed “at least 100 times” for his activism, he said.

Each stepped up to waiting officers, then knelt down and acknowledged that they still wanted to proceed into the hospice.

Police then notified them that they were being arrested, helped them to their feet, and handcuffed each of them, including Chris Key, 43, of Texas, and three of his children. The adults were taken to the Pinellas County Jail. The children went to a juvenile center.

“My 10-year-old said that Jesus said, “If you offer a cup of water in my name, you did it for me.’ And he told me that’s what he wanted to do,” said Key’s wife, Gaylen.

Another strategist for the demonstration was former Kissimmee bar owner the Rev. Phillip “Flip” Benham, a director of the Dallas-based anti-abortion group, Operation Save America.

Now pastor of the Truth Temple in Kannapolis, N.C., the Florida State University graduate ran his family’s bar, The Mad Hatter, in Kissimmee before turning his life around and becoming a minister and activist, he said.

Benham called the orchestrated arrests a “living parable” and promised more in the days to come if Schiavo is not reconnected to her feeding tub.

“It is imperative that if Terri Schiavo dies, she does not die alone – you do this because you love somebody,” Benham said.

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