Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/211

 estates and  servants,  and  she  despised  them  all

even as  dung  which  lieth  under  foot.'

Then Quintianus  became  angry  and  bade  fetch  her  quickly,

and questioned  her  first  concerning  her  parentage.

Agatha thereupon  answered;    '  I  am  of  noble  race,

even as  all  my  kindred  can  bear  me  witness.'

Then said  the  judge,  '  why  destroyest  thou  thyself

by mean  usages,  as  if  thou  wert  a  bondmaid?'

Agatha answered,  'I  am  God's  handmaid,

and great  nobility  is  it  to  be  Christ's  servant.'

Quintianus said  to  the  virgin  of  Christ,

' What  then? have we  no  nobility,

merely because  we  despise  thy  Christ's  servitude?'

Agatha answered  the  impious  man,  and  said;

'Your nobility  turneth  to  such  shameful  bondage,

that ye  are  the  servants  of  sin  and  of  stones.'

Quintianus, the  murderous  tormentor,  said,

' We  may  easily  wreak

whatsoever thou  mockest  with  insane  mouth,

Say, nevertheless,  ere  thou  come  to  the  aforesaid  tortures,

why thou  despisest  the  worship  of  our  gods?'

Agatha answered  the  impious  man  thus;

' Speak  thou  not  of  gods  but  of  cruel  devils,

whose likenesses  ye  make  in  brass  and  stone,

and skilfully  gild  over  all  the  graven  images.'

Quintianus then  said  that  she  must  choose  one  of  two  things,

either she  must  die  in  her  folly  with  condemned  (felons),

or she  must  sacrifice  to  the  gods  like  a  noble  and  wise  maiden.

Agatha answered  him  resolutely,  and  said,

'Be thy  wife  such  as  was  Venus,  thy  foul  goddess,

and be  thou  such  as  Jove  was,  thy  shameful  god,

that ye  two  may  also  be  numbered  amongst  the  gods.'

Then bade  Quintianus  to  strike  her  with  the  hands

repeatedly on  the  face,  that  she  might  not  declaim.

Then again  Agatha  said  the  same  words.