t in
her arms, she cheerfully submitted to her privations; and the thought
that she was persecuted for Christ's sake, converted her prison into a
palace. Her aged father, who was a pagan, was overwhelmed with distress
because, as he conceived, she was bringing deep and lasting disgrace
upon her family by her attachment to a proscribed sect; and as she was
his favourite child, he employed every expedient which paternal
tenderness and anxiety could dictate to lead her to a recantation. When
she was conducted to the judgment-seat with the other prisoners, the old
gentleman appeared there, to try the effect of another appeal to her;
and the presiding magistrate, touched with pity, entreated her to listen
to his arguments, and to change her resolution. But, though deeply moved
by the anguish of her aged parent, all these attempts to shake her
constancy were in vain. At the place of execution she sung a psalm of
victory, and, before she expired, she exhorted her brother and another
catechumen, named Rusticus, to continue in the faith, to love each
other, and to be neither affrighted nor offended by her sufferings. Her
companion Felicitas exhibited quite as illustrious a specimen of
Christian heroism. When arrested, she was far advanced in pregnancy, and
during her imprisonment, the pains of labour came upon her. Her cries
arrested the attention of the jailer, who said to her--"If your present
sufferings are so great, what will you do when you are thrown to the
wild beasts? You did not consider this when you refused to sacrifice."
With undaunted spirit Felicitas replied--"It is _I_ that suffer _now_,
but _then_ there will be Another with me, who will suffer for me,
because I shall suffer for His sake." The prisoners were condemned to be
torn by wild beasts on the occasion of an approaching festival; and when
they had passed through this terrible ordeal, they were despatched with
the sword.

After the death of Septimius Severus, the Christians experienced some
abatement of their sufferings. Caracalla and Elagabalus permitted them
to remain almost undisturbed; and Alexander Severus has been supposed by
some to have been himself a believer. Among the images in his private
chapel was a representation of Christ, and he was obviously convinced
that Jesus possessed divine endowments; but there is no proof that he
ever accepted unreservedly the New Testament revelation. He was simply
an eclectic philosopher who held that a portion of