lately
dead. All who were interrogated before me confessed boldly Jesus Christ.
When it came to my turn, my father instantly appeared with my infant. He
drew me a little aside, conjuring me in the most tender manner not to be
insensible to the misery I should bring on that innocent creature to
which I had given life. The president Hilarian joined with my father and
said: 'What! will neither the gray hairs of a father you are going to
make miserable, nor the tender innocence of a child, which your death
will leave an orphan, move you? Sacrifice for the prosperity of the
emperor.' I replied, 'I will not do it.' 'Are you then a Christian?'
said Hilarian. I answered: 'Yes, I am.' As my father attempted to draw
me from the scaffold, Hilarian commanded him to be beaten off, and he
had a blow given him with a stick, which I felt as much as if I had been
struck myself, so much was I grieved to see my father thus treated in
his old age. Then the judge pronounced our sentence, by which we were
all condemned to be exposed to wild beasts. We then joyfully returned to
our prison; and as my infant had been used to the breast, I immediately
sent Pomponius, the deacon, to demand him of my father, who refused to
send him. And God so ordered it that the child no longer required to
suck, nor did my milk incommode me." Secundulus, being no more
mentioned, seems to have died in prison before this interrogatory.
Before Hilarian pronounced sentence, he had caused Saturus, Saturninus,
and Revocatus, to be scourged; and Perpetua and Felicitas to be beaten
on the face. They were reserved for the shows which were to be exhibited
for the soldiers in the camp, on the festival of Geta, who had been made
Caesar tour years before by his father Severus, when his brother
Caracalla was created Augustus.

St. Perpetua relates another vision with which she was favored, as
follows: "A few days after receiving sentence, when we were all together
in {536} prayer, I happened to name Dinocrates, at which I was
astonished, because I had not before had him in my thoughts; and I that
moment knew that I ought to pray for him. This I began to do with great
fervor and sighing before God; and the same night I had the following
vision: I saw Dinocrates coming out of a dark place, where there were
many others, exceeding hot and thirsty; his face was dirty, his
complexion pale, with the ulcer in his face of which he died at seven
years of age, and it was for him that I