Читать книгу Fabiola; Or, The Church of the Catacombs онлайн

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“Enough, enough, Sebastian, we are resolved,” cried out together both the brothers.

“Claudius,” said one, “put on me again the chains you have taken off.”

“Nicostratus,” added the other, “give orders for the sentence to be carried out.”

Yet neither Claudius nor Nicostratus moved.

“Farewell, dear father; adieu, dearest mother,” they in turn said, embracing their parents.

“No,” replied the father, “we part no more. Nicostratus, go tell Chromatius that I am from this moment a Christian with my sons; I will die with them for a religion which can make heroes thus of boys.” “And I,” continued the mother, “will not be separated from my husband and children.”

The scene which followed baffles description. All were moved; all wept; the prisoners joined in the tumult of these new affections; and Sebastian saw himself surrounded by a group of men and women smitten by grace, softened by its influences, and subdued by its power; yet all was lost if one remained behind. He saw the danger, not to himself, but to the Church, if a sudden discovery were made, and to those souls fluttering upon the confines of life. Some hung upon his arms; some clasped his knees; some kissed his feet, as though he had been a spirit of peace, such as visited Peter in his dungeon at Jerusalem.