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What have not my fellow Christians already suffered during these few months? How many sentences of death have been passed, and executed in the cruellest fashion? Gaudentius, the state secretary; Artemius, the former governor of Egypt; the two tribunes, Romanus and Vincentius

You know not what you speak of. I tell you, the Goddess of Justice would have wept had those traitors escaped with their lives.

That may be, my Emperor; but I tell you that one sentence of death has been passed which the God of Justice can never forgive you. Ursulus! The man who stood your friend in times of need! Ursulus who, at the risk of his own life, supplied you with money in Gaul! Ursulus, whose sole crime was his Christian faith and his sincerity

Ah, this you have from your brother, Caesarius!

Punish me, sire; but spare my brother.

You well know that you risk nothing, Gregory! Besides, I will grant you that Nevita acted too harshly.

Ay, that barbarian, who tries in vain to hide his origin under a Greek veneer!