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bull; and died, after having been much tossed about by the animal, having no feeling of her sufferings, through her hope and hold of those things which she believed, and her converse with Christ; even the heathen themselves confessing, that no woman ever among them bore such and so numerous tortures.
But not even thus could their madness, and cruelty to the Saints, be satisfied; for those fierce and barbarous tribes, stirred up by the Dragon, were hardly to be quieted. And they made another fierce attack on the bodies of the Martyrs, being not ashamed of their former defeat, because they had not the reasonable feeling of men; but it rather inflamed their anger, as though both Governor and people had been of some brute nature, shewing like unjust hatred toward us; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "he that is ungodly, let him be ungodly still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. [1]. For they even threw those, who were stifled in the dungeon, to the dogs; watching them carefully night and day, lest any should be buried by us. And then having exposed what beasts and fire had left, partly torn, and partly burnt to a cinder, and the heads of the rest, with the headless bodies, they kept them in like manner unburied, with military observation and guard, many days. And some grinned and gnashed their teeth at them, seeking to wreak some further vengeance on them; others mocked and jested at them, glorifying their idols, and ascribing to them the punishment of the dead. Even the better sort, and those who seemed to have some compassion, uttered many reproaches, saying, "Where is their God, and what has his service profited them, which they chose before their own lives?" Such were the various doings of our enemies; but we were in great sorrow, for that we could not commit the bodies to the earth. For neither would night enable us to do it, nor would money persuade, nor entreaties shame them; but they guarded them in every way, as if they gained much in depriving them of burial.
***
The bodies of the Martyrs, when they had been publicly insulted and exposed in every way for six days, were at last burnt to ashes by the ungodly, and swept into the river Rhone, which runs by,
- ↑ Rev. xxii. 11.
