“I demand the question by torture against the woman Rhoda.”
“It is granted,” said the Governor, “but so that nothing that she shall say be used against Bion and Rhoda his wife.”
Cleone, who was standing by the side of the [104] elder Rhoda, had gone on hoping against hope till the fatal words were spoken. Then she rushed forward and caught her sister in her arms. “We will suffer together,” she said.
RHODA’S EVIDENCE
[105] THE Elder felt that his position, so to speak, had been turned. His silence, however skilfully justified, was uselessnay, it was worse than useless, for it had brought this daughter of the Church, one for whom they would all gladly have suffered, into terrible peril. They had escaped for the time; but at what a cost, if Rhoda was to be tortured!
He made a last effort to save her. “My lord,” he said, “I withdraw my refusal to speak. Any questions that you or the prosecutor may put to me I will answer; and what I say for myself, I say also for all the accused.”
“What say you to this?” asked the Governor.
There was another brief consultation between the advocate and Lucilius. Then the former rose.
“My lord, our interest, our only interest, is the [106] truth. Our aim, and, I presume, the aim of all persons not being criminal or hostile to the State, is that the truth should be fully told, and amply confirmed. Therefore we must have the best evidence that can be procured, nor can we allow our private feelings to hinder its forthcoming. Is it not a maxim of the law that when slaves are at hand you do not use the testimony of freemen, it being agreed that the truth is more surely drawn forth by the more powerful compulsion?”
The Governor referred the point to his assessor, and that official decided, though with evident reluctance, that the contention was just.
Nothing now stood between the prisoner and her fate. The instrument of torture was sent for. Whilst it was being brought there was a terrible pause of expectation in the court. Tacitus rose as if to leave the room, but a whispered entreaty from the Governor made him resume his seat. In the audience the agitation was extreme. Several persons fainted; many, both men and women, burst into uncontrollable weeping. The least troubled of all was the girl herself. There was something more than calm on her countenance; there was exaltationalmost, it might be said, rapture. Even as it had been with the judges of Stephenfor so we learn from the confession of one of their numberthose who looked [107] upon her saw her face “as it had been the face of an angel.”
The instrument of torture was something like a rack. The savage humour which gives a half-comic name to these hideous implements of cruelty had invented for it the nickname of the “Little Horse.” The resemblance lay in the four beams, projecting from a timber frame, to which the limbs of the sufferer were attached.
Before this was done the Governor ordered the court to be cleared of all persons not immediately interested in the trial. A few heartless creatures were probably disappointed that their curiosity was not to be gratified; but most of the spectators, however intense their interest, felt the order to be a relief. Bion and his wife claimed to be allowed to remain. It would break their hearts to see such a sight, but their presence might comfort the sufferer; and as she was their slave, if not their daughter, their claim was, of course, allowed. The elder Rhoda’s whole thought was centred on the desire to minister to this, the child of her heart if not the child of her womb. Bion watched what was done with a set, tearless face, crushing down the wild impulse to fly to the sufferer’s rescue. Most of the spectators averted their eyes; even Lucilius was seen to bury his face in a fold of his toga.
[108] The preparations were now complete, and the executioner awaited the signal of the judge to commence his hideous task. This was given by a gesture, and the man immediately followed it up by the first turn of the dreadful instrument. No one who was present that day ever forgot the horrible creaking sound of the timbers, mingled with a groan of the sufferer, forced from her by the pain, but stifled almost as soon as uttered. There was not a heart, not even of the ruthless Lucilius, in which the blood did not curdle; not a forehead on which the cold drops of sweat did not stand.
The Governor thundered, in a voice such as had never been heard to issue from his lips before: “Hold!”
The executioner, brutalized as he was by familiarity with the horrid details of his office, was not sorry to stay his hand.
The Governor went on: “The law has so far been satisfied. The torture has been applied, and in my judgment, which in this matter is final, has been applied sufficiently. If the accused is now willing to make confession, I will hear her.”
Rhoda was unfastened from the rack. The executioner assisted her to rise; but she could not stand, and the Governor directed that a seat should be provided for her. “Now,” he said to the prosecutor, “put your questions.”
[109] “Are you one of the people that are called Christians?”
“I am.”
“Are you accustomed to assemble together?”
“We are so accustomed.”
WITNESSING A GOOD CONFESSION
“On what days, and at what time?”
“Once in seven days at the least, and at other times also. The hour of our assembling is before daybreak.”
“And what do you at these gatherings?”
“We offer up prayers, and sing praises to God.”
“To what god?”
“To God Almighty, who made the heavens and the earth, and is the Father of all men.”
“Who, then, is this Christus by whose name you are called?”
“He is God.”
“Then you worship two godsthe Father, of whom you speak, and Christus?”
“Nay, for Christus is the Son of the Father, and they two are one God. But ask me not to explain these matters, for I am unlearned in them.”
“Is there anything else that you do when you have finished these prayers and hymns?”
“These being finished we depart to our own homes. But in the evening of the same day we meet together and have our Feast of Love.”
[110] “With what preparations do you make this feast? With what dainties in meat and drink is it furnished?”
“The preparation is of the very simplest; there is nothing, indeed, beyond bread and wine.”
“Why do you take such trouble to do that which is easier done in your own homes?”
“Because it has been so commanded us by our Master, that we may remember Him and His death for us, and may also show forth the love by which we are bound one to another.”
“Do you, then, all sit down together at this feast?”
“Yes, we all sit down; nor is there any distinction made of rich and poor, bond and free.”
“And do you bind yourselves by any oath?”
“Yes, if you will have it so, for this very feast is an oath to us.”
“And to what does this oath constrain you?”
“That we should neither kill, nor steal, nor commit uncleanness, nor break a promise, nor refuse when called upon to account for moneys committed to our charge.”
[111] “Does this oath concern at all the Emperor and the State?”
“Only so far that we are bound to be loyal and obedient.”
“Obedient in all things?”
“In all things that are lawful to us as followers of the Lord Christ.”
“I pray you, my lord, to take a note of this reservation,” said the prosecutor, addressing this observation to the Governor. He then proceeded with his examination of the prisoner. “Can you tell the names of others who were accustomed to be present at these assemblies?”
The girl hesitated for a moment when this question was put to her. Then she spoke with a firm voice: “Concerning myself I will speak the truth, nor seek to conceal anything; but of others I am not free to speak.”
The Elder did not lose a moment in intervening at this point. “Permit me, my lord,” he said addressing the Governor, “to admit for myself, and for all that are here present with me that we are of the people called Christians.”
The prosecutor proceeded with his examination of Rhoda. “Can you tell us the names of others not here present?”
“Nay,” interrupted the Governor; “on behalf of the absent, whom the magistrate is always [112] especially bound to protect, I disallow that question.”
The prosecutor then turned to the Elder: “Are you a ruler among these people?”
“Yes, if you will have it so. I am, as it were, the first among the brethren; but if they obey me it is of their own free will.”