that he drank first, to his own bale.
Let him contend with me in this strife now,
and let him fight against me in his fiendly confidence,
and he shall see verily that I am the stronger.
When I am tormented, then he will torment thee,
because that himself shall suffer heavier torments,
and he shall be overpowered in my tribulation.'
Then was vexed straightway the profane Datianus,
and saith to his servants and to his tormentors thus: —
'Let alone this bishop, and bring into torments
Vincentius the rebel, who so vexes us with words.
Hang him up in the rack, and severely stretch
all his limbs, that his joints may give way.'
Then the tormentors fastened the servant of Christ
in the hard rack, and severely stretched him
as a man stretches a web, and the cruel one says to him,
'What sayest thou now, Vincentius? What dost thou think of thyself,
and of thy poor body in these evil torments?'
The holy man then saith to the cruel one thus: —
'This I desired and ever wished for.
Nothing is liefer to me that (ever) happened to me in my life,
and thou agreest very much with my own desire.
I wish not that thou shouldst cease, since I myself am ready
to suffer torments for the glorious Lord.
I wish not that thou shouldst diminish my glory before God;
and when thou tormentest me, thou art thyself tormented.'
Datianus then became fiendishly angry,
and began to strike severely with rods
his own tormentors, who tormented the holy man,
that they the more severely might afflict him.
The holy man then saith, ' Now thou wreakest on them
the torments that I suffer because of thy cruelty,
as if thou thyself wouldst avenge me on them. '
