s friends amid the darkness more swiftly than the
soldiers could pursue by the light of their torches. He followed many a
devious winding, especially contrived to frustrate capture, and
facilitate escape. Threading a very narrow passage, he drew from a niche
a wooden ladder, and placing it against the wall reached a stairway
which began high up near the roof. The whole party followed, and
Hilarus, drawing up the ladder after him, completely cut off pursuit.
They soon reached the comparatively lofty vaults of a deserted
_arenarium_, or sand pit, which communicated with the open air. As he
stood with bared brow beneath the light of the silent stars, the good
Presbyter Primitius devoutly exclaimed:--"_Anima nostra sicut passer
erepta est de lagueo venantium_--Our soul is escaped as a bird out the
snare of the fowler, the snare is broken and we are escaped."

The writer has not drawn upon his imagination in describing the
arrangements for escape made by the persecuted Christians, when taking
refuge in these dens and caves of the earth. In this very Catacomb of
Callixtus, such a secret stairway still exists, and is illustrated by
drawings in his book on this subject. The main entrance was completely
obstructed and the stairway partially destroyed, so as to prevent
ingress to the Catacomb, and a narrow stairway was constructed in the
roof which could only be reached by a moveable ladder, connecting it
with the floor. By drawing up this ladder pursuit could be easily cut
off, and escape to a neighbouring _arenarium_ secured. Stores of corn,
and oil, and wine have been found in these crypts, evidently as a
provision in time of persecution; frequent wells also occur, amply
sufficient for the supply of water; and the multitude of lamps which
have been found would dispel the darkness, while their sudden extinction
would prove the best concealment from attack by their enemies. Hence the
Christians were stigmatized as a skulking, darkness-loving race,[55] who
fled the light of day to burrow like moles in the earth. These
labyrinths were admirably adapted for eluding pursuit. Familiar with
their intricacies, and following a well-known clew, the Christian could
plunge fearlessly into the darkness, where his pursuer would soon be
inextricably lost.

Such hairbreadth escapes as we have described from the Roman soldiers,
like sleuth hounds tracking their prey, must have been no uncommon
events in those troublous times. But sometimes the