but I rather fear that thou wilt desist
from thy fierceness, and so pity me.'
Datianus then bade him to be taken from the rack,
and afterward to exalt him soon, on the hard gallows;
and then they scourged him, and beat him with rods;
and with torches singed all his bare body,
his limbs being stretched out, but nevertheless his faith to
in confession of his Lord continued ever.
They laid on his breast [lit. breasts] broad iron clouts
very (hotly) glowing, so that it sang again,
and they augmented the sharp torments with (new) tortures,
and afflicted with (new) wounds his former wounds,
and wounded him (even) into his inward parts,
so that in his body no part remained
that was not wounded by the tormenting.
Then his blood flowed over all the body,
and his inward parts also opened again,
and his joints slipped asunder in the cruel torments.
But he bore all this with blithe countenance,
and with strong spirit, in his confession of God,
calling to the Saviour on whom he believed.
'Alas! ' said Datianus, ' we are overcome
But seek now, I bid you, a dark prison
wherein no light may come, and in the great darkness
strew all over (it) tiles broken-in-pieces,
edged sharply, and thereon stretch
this rebel, that he may turn him
from torment to torment, and have (one) always ready.
Lock him then fast, that he may lie there alone,
deprived of light, on the loathsome bed.
Tell me as soon as ye perceive it,
that he is not alive.' And the tormentors did so.
They brought the holy man into the dark prison,
and surrounded him afterwards, watching.
