The day was at hand when this threat was to be carried out, and the prisoners, as they lay in their gloomy cells, heard the preparations with sinking hearts. In the dark hours of the night, however, Fostedina came to their aid and arranged their escape, bidding them fly to the land of the Franks.
When the steward came in the morning to conduct the band of Christians to the arena, the prison was empty save for the girl Fostedina. She pointed to the open window and the ladder, and said, “They are safe, thank God.”
The steward thought she was mad, and begged her to go to her room, as he felt sure the people would tear her to pieces if they found out what she had done. She, however, determined to remain and face the consequences of her deed, lest the punishment should fall upon the missionary and his followers, who were still living in their midst.
She was taken before the King and his council, and when asked why she had done this thing, answered—
“Because I pitied the men and abhorred the cruelty with which they were to have been killed, and because I believe that our gods of wood and stone are no gods, and that Jesus Christ is the son of the living and true God.”
The King, turning to the Prime Minister, said—
“She is your child; what is to be done with her?”
The father answered—
“She is my only child, and the joy of my life. If you throw her to the wolves I go with her.”
Then Adgillus, the King’s son, who loved this girl, came forward to plead with his father for her forgiveness, and he would probably have succeeded but for the sarcasms and taunts of the priest.