The Blood of the Martyrs.
During the horrible persecutions of the primitive Christians at Rome, the blood of the martyrs was esteemed a talisman of especial power. A sponge saturated therewith was sometimes worn as a sacred relic. Prudentius describes the spectators of the martyrdom of St. Vincent as dipping their clothes in his blood, that they might keep it as a sort of palladium for successive generations—
"Crowds haste the linen vest to stain,
With gore distill'd from martyr's vein,
And thus a holy safeguard place
At home, to shield a future race."