and one Baptism.' And he took and read.
Then said the angel: ' Believest thou this, or doth something else please thee?'
Valerian answered; ' What can ever be truer
or more to be believed in by any living man?'
And with that word the angel departed from him.
Then straitway afterward the pope baptized him,
and taught him his faith, and let him go home again
to Caecilia, the holy maiden.
Then the youth found the woman standing
at her prayers in her bower alone,
and God's angel standing with golden wings
with two crowns nigh to the maiden.
The crowns were shining in a wondrous way,
with the rose's redness and the lily's whiteness.
And thereupon he gave one to the noble maiden,
and the other to the youth, and said to them thus;
'Keep these crowns with a pure heart,
because I received them in the plains of paradise;
they shall never grow sere nor lose their sweetness,
nor shall their beauty turn to a worse hue,
nor shall any man see them save he who loveth chastity;
and thou, Valerian, because thou lovest chastity,
the Saviour biddeth thee ask whatsoever boon thou wilt.'
Then the youth kneeled and said to the angel:
- There is nothing so dear to me living in this life
as was my brother; and it is a grief to me
that I should be saved and he perish in torments.
This boon I ask, that my brother Tiburtius
be saved through God and turned to the faith,
and that He make us both His worshippers.'
Then said the angel to him again with gladness: 'because thou hast prayed for this,
God is the better pleased that thy brother Tiburtius
shall be begotten through thee to eternal life,
even as thou didst believe in God through Caecilia's lore,
