ven in custody to
the officers of the quarter:[1] when the governor's soldiers told us
that we should be condemned to the flames, we prayed to God with great
fervor to be delivered from that punishment: and he in {456} whose hands
are the hearts of men, was pleased to grant our request. The governor
altered his first intent, and ordered us into a very dark and
incommodious prison, where we found the priest, Victor, and some others:
but we were not dismayed at the filth and darkness of the place, our
faith and joy in the Holy Ghost reconciled us to our sufferings in that
place, though these were such as it is not easy for words to describe;
but the greater our trials, the greater is he who overcomes them in us.
Our brother Rhenus, in the mean time, had a vision, in which he saw
several of the prisoners going out of prison with a lighted lamp
preceding each of them, while others, that had no such lamp, stayed
behind. He discerned us in this vision, and assured us that we were of
the number of those who went forth with lamps. This gave us great joy.
for we understood that the lamp represented Christ, the true light, and
that we were to follow him by martyrdom.

The next day we were sent for by the governor, to be examined. It was a
triumph to us to be conducted as a spectacle through the market-place
and the streets, with our chains rattling. The soldiers, who knew not
where the governor would hear its, dragged us from place to place, till,
at length, he ordered us to be brought into his closet. He put several
questions to us; our answers were modest, but firm: at length we were
remanded to prison; here we prepared ourselves for new conflicts. The
sharpest trial was that which we underwent by hunger and thirst, the
governor having commanded that we should be kept without meat and drink
for several days, insomuch that water was refused us after our work: yet
Flavian, the deacon, added great voluntary austerities to these
hardships, often bestowing on others what little refreshment which was
most sparingly allowed us at the public charge.

God was pleased himself to comfort us in this our extreme misery, by a
vision which he vouchsafed to the priest Victor, who suffered martyrdom
a few days after. "I saw last night," said he to us, "an infant, whose
countenance was of a wonderful brightness, enter the prison. He took us
to all parts to make us go out, but there was no outlet; then he said to
me, 'You have still some concern