ith tears and groans for his relief. Some days after,
she saw in spirit the same Dinocrates, well clothed, washed, and
refreshed, and the water of the reservoir in which he was, only came
up to his middle, and on the edge a cup, from which he drank, without
the water diminishing, and the skin of the cancer in his cheek well
healed, so that nothing now remained of the cancer but the scar. By
these things she understood that Dinocrates was no longer in pain.

Dinocrates was there apparently[637] to expiate some faults which he
had committed since his baptism, for Perpetua says a little before
this that only her father had remained in infidelity.

The same St. Perpetua, being in prison some days before she suffered
martyrdom[638] had a vision of the deacon Pomponius, who had suffered
martyrdom some days before, and who said to her, "Come, we are waiting
for you." He led her through a rugged and winding path into the arena
of the amphitheatre, where she had to combat with a very ugly
Egyptian, accompanied by some other men like him. Perpetua found
herself changed into a man, and began to fight naked, assisted by some
well-made youths who came to her service and assistance.

Then she beheld a man of extraordinary size, who cried aloud, "If the
Egyptian gains the victory over her, he will kill her with his sword;
but if she conquers, she shall have this branch ornamented with golden
apples for her reward." Perpetua began the combat, and having
overthrown the Egyptian, trampled his head under her feet. The people
shouted victory, and Perpetua approaching him who held the branch
above mentioned, he put it in her hands, and said to her, "Peace be
with you." Then she awoke, and understood that she would have to
combat, not against wild beasts, but against the devil.

Saturus, one of the companions of the martyrdom of St. Perpetua, had
also a vision, which he relates thus: "We had suffered martyrdom, and
were disengaged from this mortal body. Four angels carried us towards
the East without touching us. We arrived at a place shining with
intense lustre; Perpetua was at my side, and I said unto her, 'Behold
what the Lord promised us.'

"We entered a large garden full of trees and flowers; the four angels
who had borne us thither placed us in the hands of other angels, who
conducted us by a wide road to a place where we found Jocondus,
Saturninus, and Artazes, who had suffered with us, and invited us to
come and salute the Lord.