Then, amidst tears and sighing, the service was proceeded with, and scarcely had the blessing left the priest’s lips when the whole congregation separated in detachments under his orders, having first pulled down the huts they had so lately erected; and taking different routes, they spread themselves once more in the forest.
Amphibalus led the little band, in which were Agatha and Anna, with some sixteen more, stout of heart and strong of limb, able to offer resistance. There were women and children amongst them, who were placed in the centre of the square, four men at the rear, and four in the van, and four on either side. In this order they marched along for three days, Amphibalus’s aim being to get into another district nearer Verulam, where he knew a church had been founded.
It was on the evening of the third day’s march that one of the outposts came running in breathless to the place, under an overhanging rock, where some thirty of the wanderers had encamped for the night.
“The Romans are upon us!” he exclaimed; “I have heard the clanging of armour, and climbing a tree, I saw nearly fifty soldiers, and heard them say they had got on the track of the fugitives.”
Scarcely had the man delivered himself of his message, falling down exhausted with the exertion he had made to reach Amphibalus, when the trampling of horses’ hoofs was heard, and the Roman officer who was in command of the fifty men called to them to halt, “for the game was scented out at last.” By the side of the Roman commander was a young man scarcely past boyhood, who had prayed to be allowed to accompany the expedition, that he might, as he said, see some service for his master, and track out the Christians to their destruction. This young man was Claudius, the son of the Briton who held a high position in Verulam.
At a word from the commander of the force, a rough, stern man, named Valens, the Christians were seized and bound with manacles, and told they were to follow on foot to Radburn. But the strong men made a desperate resistance, and a fearful struggle ensued. Amphibalus in vain exhorted them to cease to fight, for that he was ready to accompany Valens, and no coercion would be needful for him. But no one listened to his voice, and Anna, clinging to Agatha, hid her face, that she might not see the terrible conflict which dyed the green sward with blood, and made the wood resound with cries and groans. Some of the women of the company cried out that they would recant, and Agatha in vain exhorted them to be firm to their faith. Terror-stricken and distressed for their husbands and brothers, they threw themselves before Valens and entreated for mercy.
Alas! none was shown, and Amphibalus was bound tightly, and constrained to stand by and see his followers fall one by one dead upon the turf, where several of the Romans’ bodies lay, covered with blood, which flowed from ghastly wounds.
At last, when the slaughter was ended by the entire mastery of the Roman band, the word was given to march, and by the light of a pale moon the remnant of Amphibalus’s followers, fainting and exhausted, were obliged to follow their captors towards Radburn.
Before they reached Radburn the next day news was brought in that the idolaters of South Wales had fallen upon and slaughtered the rest of Amphibalus’s church; and there was a thrill of triumph through the Roman band that the martyrdom of Alban had not increased the numbers of the Christians in these parts, for nearly all those who had been won over by Amphibalus were killed. Only a few remained. Agatha and Anna, and some half-dozen more women and children, with two old men, whose aged feet could scarcely bear them along the rugged paths of the forest.
Radburn was reached the next day, and here the Christians were consigned to dismal dungeons to await the Governor’s orders.