CONSTANTINE. What did you do?
GALLICANUS. I offered to pardon them on one condition.
CONSTANTINE. What condition?
GALLICANUS. I told them that those who consented to become Christians would be allowed to retain their rank, and might even receive fresh honours, but that those who refused would not be pardoned, and would be degraded.
CONSTANTINE. A fair proposition, and honourable to the leader who made it.
GALLICANUS. For my own part, purified in the waters of baptism, I have surrendered myself completely to the will of God. I am ready to renounce even your daughter, whom I love more than anything in the world. I wish to abstain from marriage that I may devote myself wholly to the service of the Virgin’s Son.
CONSTANTINE. Come near, nearer yet, and let me fold you in my arms! Now, Gallicanus, the time has come for me to tell you what up to now I have been obliged to keep secret.
GALLICANUS. What is it?
CONSTANTINE. My daughter, and your own two also, have chosen the same holy path which you yourself wish to follow.
GALLICANUS. I rejoice to hear it.