stian, with Rome's usual mercy, I freely offer to thee thy
life, simply on the condition, easily fulfilled by thee, for it asks but
one little word from thy lips, that thou do, for thy own sake and for
the sake of Rome, which thou sayest thou lovest, renounce Christ and thy
faith.'

'I have answered thee once, O Prefect; dost thou think so meanly of me
as to suppose that what but now I affirmed, I will now deny, and only
for this show of iron toys and human demons set to play them? It is not
of such stuff Aurelian's men are made, much less the soldiers of the
cross. For the love I bear to Rome and Christ, and even thee, Varus, I
choose to die.'

'Be assured, Christian, I will not spare thee.'

'I ask it not, Prefect--do thy worst--and the worst is but death, which
is life.'

'Pangs that shall keep thee hours dying,' cried the Prefect--'thy body
racked and rent--torn piecemeal one part from another--this is worse
than death. Bethink thee well. Do not believe that Varus will relent.'

'That were the last thing to find faith with one who knows him as well
as Macer does,' replied the Christian.

A flush of passion passed over the face of Varus. But he proceeded in
the same even tone,

'Is thy election made, Macer?'

'It is made.'

'Slaves,' cried the Prefect, 'away with him to the rack, and ply it
well.'

'Yes,' repeated Pronto, springing with eager haste from his seat, that
he might lose nothing of what was to be seen or heard, 'away with him to
the rack, and ply it well.'

Unmoved and unresisting, his face neither pale nor his limbs trembling,
did Macer surrender himself into the hands of those horrid ministers of
a cruel and bloody faith, who then hastily approached him, and seizing
him dragged him toward their worse than hell. Accomplished in their art,
for every day is it put to use, Macer was in a moment thrown down and
lashed to the iron bars; when, each demon having completed the
preparation, he stood leaning upon his wheel for a last sign from the
Prefect. It was instantly given, and while the breath even of every
being in the vast hall was suspended, through an intense interest in the
scene, the creating of the engine, as it began to turn, sounded upon the
brain like thunder. Not a groan nor a sigh was heard from the sufferer.
The engine turned till it seemed as if any body or substance laid upon
it must have been wrenched asunder. Then it stopt. And the minutes
counted to me like hours or ages ere