Senators, vestals, Cæsar, the Augustans, and the people
gazed with the delight of experts at his mighty limbs as 15
large as tree trunks, at his breast as large as two shields
joined together, and his arms of a Hercules. The murmur
rose every instant. For those multitudes there could be
no higher pleasure than to look at those muscles in play
in the exertion of a struggle. The murmur rose to shouts,
and eager questions were put: Where did the people live 5
who could produce such a giant?
He stood there, in the middle of the amphitheater, naked,
more like a stone colossus than a man, with a collected
expression, and at the same time the sad look of a barbarian;
and while surveying the empty arena, he gazed 10
wonderingly with his blue childlike eyes, now at the spectators,
now at Cæsar, now at the grating of the cunicula,
whence, as he thought, his executioners would come.
At that moment when he stepped into the arena his
simple heart was beating for the last time with the hope 15
that perhaps a cross was waiting for him; but when he
saw neither the cross nor the hole in which it might be put,
he thought that he was unworthy of such favor—that he
would find death in another way, and surely from wild
beasts. He was unarmed, and had determined to die as 20
became a confessor of the "Lamb," peacefully and patiently.
Meanwhile he wished to pray once more to the
Savior; so he knelt on the arena, joined his hands, and
raised his eyes toward the stars which were glittering in the
lofty opening of the amphitheater. 25
That act displeased the crowds. They had had enough
of those Christians who died like sheep. They understood
that if the giant would not defend himself the spectacle
would be a failure. Here and there hisses were heard.
Some began to cry for scourgers, whose office it was to 30
lash combatants unwilling to fight. But soon all had
grown silent, for no one knew what was waiting for the
giant, nor whether he would not be ready to struggle when
he met death eye to eye.
In fact, they had not long to wait. Suddenly the shrill
sound of brazen trumpets was heard, and at that signal a
grating opposite Cæsar's podium was opened, and into the 5
arena rushed, amid shouts of beast keepers, an enormous
German aurochs, bearing on his head the naked body of a
woman.
"Lygia! Lygia!" cried Vinicius.
Then he seized his hair near the temples, squirmed like a10
man who feels a sharp dart in his body, and began to
repeat in hoarse accents:
"I believe! I believe! O Christ, a miracle!"
And he did not even feel that Petronius covered his
head that moment with the toga. It seemed to him that 15
death or pain had closed his eyes. He did not look, he did
not see. The feeling of some awful emptiness possessed him.
In his head there remained not a thought; his lips merely
repeated, as if in madness,
"I believe! I believe! I believe!" 20