Probus answered: “Fighting thus, I gradually approach the end, so that I may finish my good and perfect confession, and be put to death by you without mercy.”
The President said: “Take him away, bind him, put him in prison, and let none of his companions come near him, to praise him for having continued so steadfast in his wickedness. He, too, shall be cast before the wild beasts at the next show.”
Andronicus put to the rack.—Then said the President: “Let Andronicus come forth.”
Demetrius, the captain, said: “He is already here.”
The President said to Andronicus: “Have at least compassion on thy youth, if thou hast prudently advised with thyself to reverence the gods: consent and sacrifice to the gods, that thou mayest be released.”
Andronicus answered: “May God never suffer thee, O tyrant, that I do aught against the law of God. Thou shalt never shake my good confession, which I have founded upon my Lord. Here I stand ready, for thee to make manifest on me thy hardness.”
The President said: “Methinks, thou art raving, and possessed of the devil.”
Andronicus replied: “If I had the devil in me, I should obey thee; but because I confess the Lord, I do not submit to the commands of the devil. But hast not thou the devil in thee? For, being deceived by the devil, thou doest the works of the devil.”
The President said to the Executioners: “Make bundles of paper, and put fire upon his body.”
When this was done, Andronicus said: “Though I burn from head to foot, the spirit nevertheless is alive in me. Thou shalt not conquer me; for the Lord, whom I serve is with me.”