estates and servants, and she despised them all
even as dung which lieth under foot.'
Then Quintianus became angry and bade fetch her quickly,
and questioned her first concerning her parentage.
Agatha thereupon answered; ' I am of noble race,
even as all my kindred can bear me witness.'
Then said the judge, ' why destroyest thou thyself
by mean usages, as if thou wert a bondmaid?'
Agatha answered, 'I am God's handmaid,
and great nobility is it to be Christ's servant.'
Quintianus said to the virgin of Christ,
' What then? have we no nobility,
merely because we despise thy Christ's servitude?'
Agatha answered the impious man, and said;
'Your nobility turneth to such shameful bondage,
that ye are the servants of sin and of stones.'
Quintianus, the murderous tormentor, said,
' We may easily wreak
whatsoever thou mockest with insane mouth,
Say, nevertheless, ere thou come to the aforesaid tortures,
why thou despisest the worship of our gods?'
Agatha answered the impious man thus;
' Speak thou not of gods but of cruel devils,
whose likenesses ye make in brass and stone,
and skilfully gild over all the graven images.'
Quintianus then said that she must choose one of two things,
either she must die in her folly with condemned (felons),
or she must sacrifice to the gods like a noble and wise maiden.
Agatha answered him resolutely, and said,
'Be thy wife such as was Venus, thy foul goddess,
and be thou such as Jove was, thy shameful god,
that ye two may also be numbered amongst the gods.'
Then bade Quintianus to strike her with the hands
repeatedly on the face, that she might not declaim.
Then again Agatha said the same words.
