st slave one might meet. He hoped
also that Christ would let him continue to serve her. His one secret
wish was to die on a cross as the "Lamb" died. But this seemed a
happiness so great that he hardly dared to pray for it, though he knew
that in Rome even the worst criminals were crucified. He thought that
surely he would be condemned to die under the teeth of wild beasts;
and this was his one sorrow. From childhood he had lived in impassable
forests, amid continual hunts, in which, thanks to his superhuman
strength, he was famous among the Lygians even before he had grown to
manhood. This occupation had become for him so agreeable that later,
when in Rome, and forced to live without hunting, he went to vivaria and
amphitheatres just to look at beasts known and unknown to him. The sight
of these always roused in the man an irresistible desire for struggle
and killing; so now he feared in his soul that on meeting them in the
amphitheatre he would be attacked by thoughts unworthy of a Christian,
whose duty it was to die piously and patiently. But in this he committed
himself to Christ, and found other and more agreeable thoughts to
comfort him. Hearing that the "Lamb" had declared war against the powers
of hell and evil spirits with which the Christian faith connected all
pagan divinities, he thought that in this war he might serve the "Lamb"
greatly, and serve better than others, for he could not help believing
that his soul was stronger than the souls of other martyrs. Finally, he
prayed whole days, rendered service to prisoners, helped overseers, and
comforted his queen, who complained at times that in her short life she
had not been able to do so many good deeds as the renowned Tabitha of
whom Peter the Apostle had told her. Even the prison guards, who feared
the terrible strength of this giant, since neither bars nor chains could
restrain it, came to love him at last for his mildness. Amazed at his
good temper, they asked more than once what its cause was. He spoke with
such firm certainty of the life waiting after death for him, that they
listened with surprise, seeing for the first time that happiness might
penetrate a dungeon which sunlight could not reach. And when he urged
them to believe in the "Lamb," it occurred to more than one of those
people that his own service was the service of a slave, his own life the
life of an unfortunate; and he fell to thinking over his evil fate, the
only end to which was death.