Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/44



28. And when the beasts were exhibited, they bound her to a fierce lioness, and Queen Tryphaena followed her. And the lioness, with Thecla sitting upon her, licked her feet; and all the multitude was astonished. And the charge on her inscription was "Sacrilegious." And the women and children cried out again and again, "O God, outrageous things take place in this city." And after the exhibition Tryphsena received her again. For her dead daughter had said to her in a dream, "Mother, receive this stranger, the forsaken Thecla in my place, that she may pray for me and I come to the place of the just."

29. And when after the exhibition, Tryphsena had received her, she was grieved on the one hand because she had to fight on the following day with the wild beasts, on the other hand she very much over her daughter Falconilla, and said: "Thecla, my second child, come, pray for my child, that she may live [in eternity]; for this I saw in my sleep." And without hesitation she lifted up her voice, and said, "My God, thou Son of the Most High, who art in heaven grant her wish that her daughter Falconilla may live in eternity." And when Thecla had thus spoken, Tryphaena grieved very much, considering that such beauty is to be thrown to the wild beasts.