The Christians again laugh heartily.
CENTURION.
(horrified) Silence, I tell you! Keep silence there. Did anyone ever hear the like of this?
LAVINIA.
Captain: there will be nobody to appreciate your jokes when we are gone.
THE CAPTAIN.
(unshaken in his official delivery) I call the attention of the female prisoner Lavinia to the fact that as the Emperor is a divine personage, her imputation of cruelty is not only treason, but sacrilege. I point out to her further that there is no foundation for the charge, as the Emperor does not desire that any prisoner should suffer; nor can any Christian be harmed save through his or her own obstinacy. All that is necessary is to sacrifice to the gods: a simple and convenient ceremony effected by dropping a pinch of incense on the altar, after which the prisoner is at once set free. Under such circumstances you have only your own perverse folly to blame if you suffer. I suggest to you that if you cannot burn a morsel of incense as a matter of conviction, you might at least do so as a matter of good taste, to avoid shocking the religious convictions of your fellow citizens. I am aware that these considerations do not weigh with Christians; but it is my duty to call your attention to them in order that you may have no ground for complaining of your treatment, or of accusing the Emperor of cruelty when he is showing you the most signal clemency. Looked at from this point of view, every Christian who has perished in the arena has really committed suicide.
LAVINIA.
Captain: your jokes are too grim. Do not think it is easy for us to die. Our faith makes life far stronger and more wonderful in us than when we walked in darkness and had nothing to live for. Death is harder for us than for you: the martyr’s agony is as bitter as his triumph is glorious.
THE CAPTAIN.
(rather troubled, addressing her personally and gravely) A martyr, Lavinia, is a fool. Your death will prove nothing.
LAVINIA.
Then why kill me?
THE CAPTAIN.
I mean that truth, if there be any truth, needs no martyrs.
LAVINIA.
No; but my faith, like your sword, needs testing. Can you test your sword except by staking your life on it?
THE CAPTAIN.
(suddenly resuming his official tone) I call the attention of the female prisoner to the fact that Christians are not allowed to draw the Emperor’s officers into arguments and put questions to them for which the military regulations provide no answer. (The Christians titter).