and
not hurt, was called upon for a second encounter. This gave him an
opportunity of speaking to Pudens, the jailer that had been converted.
The martyr encouraged him to constancy in the faith, and said to him:
"You see I have not yet been hurt by any beast, as I desired and
foretold; believe then steadfastly in Christ; I am going where you will
{539} see a leopard with one bite take away my life." It happened so,
for a leopard being let out upon him, covered him all over with blood,
whereupon the people jeering, cried out, "He is well baptized." The
martyr said to Pudens, "Go, remember my faith, and let our sufferings
rather strengthen than trouble you. Give me the ring you have on your
finger." Saturus, having dipped it in his wound, gave it him back to
keep as a pledge to animate him to a constancy in his faith, and fell
down dead soon after. Thus he went first to glory to wait for Perpetua,
according to her vision. Some with Mabillon,[5] think this Pudens is the
martyr honored in Africa, on the 29th of April.

In the mean time, Perpetua and Felicitas had been exposed to a wild cow;
Perpetua was first attacked, and the cow having tossed her up, she fell
on her back. Then putting herself in a sitting posture, and perceiving
her clothes were torn, she gathered them about her in the best manner
she could, to cover herself, thinking more of decency than her
sufferings. Getting up, not to seem disconsolate, she tied up her hair,
which was fallen loose, and perceiving Felicitas on the ground much hurt
by a toss of the cow, she helped her to rise. They stood together,
expecting another assault from the beasts, but the people crying out
that it was enough, they were led to the gate Sanevivaria, where those
that were not killed by the beasts were dispatched at the end of the
shows by the confectores. Perpetua was here received by Rusticus, a
catechumen, who attended her. This admirable woman seemed just returning
to herself out of a long ecstasy, and asked when she was to fight the
wild cow. Being told what had passed, she could not believe it till she
saw on her body and clothes the marks of what she had suffered, and knew
the catechumen. With regard to this circumstance of her acts, St. Austin
cries out, "Where was she when assaulted and torn by so furious a wild
beast, without feeling her wounds, and when, after that furious combat,
she asked when it would begin? What did she, not to see what all the
world saw? What did