Then his friends stood beside his father and said:
'to the peril of thy possessions and of thine own head
preacheth this thy boy so boldly concerning Christ;
if it become known to the emperor, thou canst not save thyself.'
Then the father swelled with anger, and brought his son
into a lightless prison and locked him therein;
and in the evening always sent him food,
little and meagre, and he thus continued there.
Then said the kinsmen to the father again:
'if thou desire to entice thy son from Christ,
then must thou flatter him, and offer him dainties,
and make him to wive; then will he forget
after he is a husband, that he was a Christian.
These oppressions and these swart darknesses
which thou givest him for punishment, these Christians turn
to their own glory, and not to punishment.'
Thereupon the father bade fetch out of the foul prison
the oppressed youth, and quickly clothed him
with costly raiment, and bade them fit up his bower
worthily with cloths and with curtains for the youth.
Also he soon found five maidens for him,
fair and blooming, to dwell with him;
and bade that they should turn by their foolish sport
his thoughts from Christ, and said that they themselves
should pay for it, if they did not bend his mind.
He sent him also frequently meats and delicacies,
but the youth despised the meats and drinks,
and abhorred the maidens even as one doth adders.
He lay in prayers and refused their kisses,
and besought the Saviour that He would preserve his chastity,
even as He preserved Joseph's in the land of Egypt.
He also confessed God. with all his heart, and said;
'I pray Thee, Lord, that thou will cause these adders
all to fall asleep now in my sight,
that they may not arouse with their foolish sport
